January 3, 2011

Still a bit wobbly, I made my way to the Teachers’ Training Center and noticed that the weather wasn’t that cold while watching a parade of women dressed in ankle-length coats with fake fur at the neck and cuffs, wearing heavy boots and knitted hats. I find it surprising that most of these women never wear gloves. Caroline ambled in and we went inside the cavernous, completely dark building to find all the teachers milling around in the hallway as no one had been able to produce a key for the classroom. Caroline initiated some small talk with the teachers about how they had celebrated the new year, what kind of presents they had given to their relatives and what they had served for dinner, but most responses were extremely terse and lacking in any interesting details. I chose not to participate in the exchange having nothing to add anyway.

When no key could be produced for the classroom, we were ushered into the cramped library/cum office space where a round table could accommodate perhaps ten people. Teachers continue to stream in as they found out the session had been moved to another place and Caroline seemed to be put off by the improvisation necessary to carry out the tasks we had planned. We played the song, went over the distinction between gerunds and infinitives and gave them a drill to do before proceeding with a quiz. The teachers with very low levels of English, including the fashionable young woman who spent almost the entire time texting from her phone, could not complete any of the tasks. The two men continued to rely on the older women next to them finish theirs. I was willing to spend more time going over the fine points between the two categories, but Caroline was out of patience and felt it would be time simply wasted on that audience.

We stopped at the nearby bistro for lunch, the usual soup and bread that has become our staple since nothing else appealed to me anyway. We then walked toward the Poytakt Hotel to inspect its facilities and make sure things were in place before the conference tomorrow. We went passed the swanky newly opened Serena Hotel and Caroline suggested we stop there and use their bathroom since both of us were in desperate need of one. I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea since one could see the lobby crawling with employees with nothing to do, but she didn’t care. We had to go through a metal detector, something I had never seen in a hotel. The lobby is one of most gorgeous ones I’ve seen with plenty of tastefully-furnished areas brighten by the use of cushions covered in some of the beautiful, bright textiles produced locally. Their bathroom garnered the first place in my classification of bathrooms in Dushanbe followed by the ones at the Ismoili Center.

We didn’t see any guests come in or leave the place while we lounge in one of the soft chairs and used Caroline Notebook to check on the materials needed the following day. I could see the staff eyeing us and Caroline got up and got menus for us to check the prices on snacks and drinks. Snacks ranged from $12-25.00 and the drinks followed a similar range. This is the same hotel that offers a Sunday’s buffet for 99.00 somoni or $40.00. I have not felt comfortable spending that kind of money on a meal here.

We went to the Poytakht Hotel, a dismal, dark, and narrow collection of hallways where Manzura was proceeding to set up the furniture and advise the hotel on the technology required. I suggested braking up the long arrangement of chairs into three round tables closer to the screen as the group consists of only 13 teachers. A long table was set alone one wall for refreshments. We were assured an LCD projector would be available along with a flip chart.

It was on to the embassy now where Caroline had to provide the required paperwork to get her passport renewed prior to the trip to Kathmandu to attend the NELTA conference. I had prepared my expense report and couldn’t believe it took five stamps to get it to Georgetown and four for Caroline’s. Sandy grumbled that the postal service was complaining about the language fellows getting mail through the diplomatic pouch, but I chose to ignore her comment. I have only received one package in three months of being here and that doesn’t seem excessive to me.

Went up to the second floor and saw Vali so I could cash another check. We chitchatted about his attendance at the Hyatt’s New Year’s Eve celebration and having danced until 4:00am. Tahmina confirmed we need to obtain transit visas to India and Almity on our own and should do so two weeks’ prior to our departure.

I was glad to get back home and relax while going over the many new books I was able to loot from the embassy’s library including Alain de Botton “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work”.