January 28, 2012

Despite my best intentions, I didn’t get to the American Corner until 9:50am. Bakhtyor was coming down the steps and helped me with my bag while I went across the street to buy juices and more plastic cups for the coffee/tea we’d offer during the break. There were already at least fifteen attendees at several tables and more kept streaming in as I struggled to get everything set up having no room to maneuver in the tight space. Neither Caroline nor Corrie was still at hand, but I managed to set up the groups according to the suit of cards I had given them and asked them to discuss the warm up question: “What is teaching similar to?”

                                  Presenting grammar games at the American Corner.

I was surprised to see the dean come and sit at the edge of the room. He had mentioned the day before that he’d try to make it, but since none of the teachers at the PedInst seems to have any interest in professional development, I had dismissed his comment as just being polite. The session on grammar games was a resounding success as we had 69 people sign in, a lot of fun was had with the games and they kept thanking me as the file out requesting a copy of my PowerPoint presentation and additional copies of the handouts, of which I had only printed 30. I wasn’t able to play all the games I had planned, but felt exhilarated by the response.

                                        It was a full house at the American Corner.

All three of us went to lunch to the Eurasia restaurant we had been meaning to try and which, of course, was completely devoid of customers during the peak hour. That should have been our signal to just walk out, but given the few choices we had, we had a seat and ordered. Caroline just a Greek salad, Corrie Caesar’s salad, misspelled in the menu, and tomato soup and I, forever the optimist, pork with vegetables and cheese. None of our dishes resembled what the menu read and my pork was full of gristle and fat, tough and tasteless while the potatoes weren’t fully cooked. I couldn’t eat it and Corrie offered to finish it. When we got the bill, we discovered the restaurant had charged us extra for the sugar and the lemon to add to the tea.

Corrie had been asked by embassy to help out with the arrival of a new Fulbright English teacher who’d been assigned to the Language Institute until June as both Sandy and Tahmina were on vacation. She arranged for us to meet with Ruth after lunch and I suggested going to the new Koko Café at the Vefa center as it was quiet, smoke-free and convenient. Ruth is 70 years old, I believe Jewish, from New York and a wonderful raconteur. She had us mesmerized for a good two hours telling us about her previous experiences in such places as Uzbekistan, Argentina and New York. I ordered a piece of cake and macchiato coffee, as I was still hungry, and was given a miniature coffee cup with perhaps two sips of coffee in it.  I’m definitely not ordering that again.

Ruth, who had only been in the country for two days, already had an invitation to attend a function at the Opera Ballet Theater at 2:00pm on Sunday and asked us to come along. I told her I’d consider it as the weather is supposed to be gorgeous and there’s another Fulbright teacher, who has been assigned to the Khujand region, who’d be present, too. As we were leaving the Vefa Center, we ran into Ryan who was putting in a few hours of work at the UN office. He was going to the Green Bazaar for a quick shopping trip and asked me to go with him. Instead of taking the mini-van, he decided to walk there and I had a hard time keeping up with him. It was surprising to see vendors offering grapes, pears, apples, oranges and other fruit in the middle of the winter.

As I was relaxing at home later on, I heard someone trying to open my door with a key. Alarmed at this prospect, I asked who was there and found it that Caroline, who’s definitely being evicted from her apartment, was coming in to leave some of her personal belongings here and had found my keys still attached to the door. Such oversight spoke to the tiredness I must have felt upon arriving home. It had been one long, hectic day. Caroline has decided to leave the program at the end of February and asked to be allowed to stay here when we return from the conference in Nepal. She will be in Dubai on vacation for about 12 days prior to that. I couldn’t possibly say no as I really enjoy her company and the living room could serve as her side of the apartment for those few days.