February 8, 2012

Received an email from Tahmina at the embassy indicating she had spoken to the dean at the PedInst and he had told her I had agreed to teach the new group of students and thus there was no need for a meeting and that I was to report for classes tomorrow. I countered by asking if she had paid attention to my list of concerns, but she ignored my reply. When I got the embassy to talk to her, she’d just left to take Ruth apartment hunting. I spoke to Sandy instead and she hadn’t paid attention either to the fact that I was being asked to teach interpreters and not teachers. She promised to look into it and get back to me. I cashed a check to take money to Nepal and drop off two pieces of mail. No new magazines in the library, but found two books worth stealing.

Met with the Caritas group and the driver took us to the Chinese restaurant inside the Tajikistan Hotel. We found a separate room, but not far enough to avoid the fast tempo music being played in the lobby area. The room had a flat screen TV on and I begged to have it turned off. Takhmina ordered from an extensive menu with a large photo of every dish to entice the diners. Suffice it to say that while the meal was tasty compared to Tajik cooking, none of the dishes bore the slightest resemblance to the dishes I have eaten all over the United States down to the fried rice without green onions or scrambled eggs, or any soy sauce for that matter. We were offered flat bread with our meal, something that seemed just incongruous. I was glad to see that the driver was invited to dine with us.

They dropped me off at the post office and I was able to finalize the business card I want to have printed before departing for Nepal. They had printed the name of institute in lower caps and my email to have it corrected had had no effect. They should be ready tomorrow at ten. I then proceeded to the Indian embassy and retrieved my passport.

I called Ruth and found out she had been moved, temporarily, to a guest house that was cheaper than the hotel and had visited a couple of apartments, none to her liking. She was waiting for Corrie, who had a couple of leads on other flats, and hoped to be out by the weekend. We agreed to meet for lunch on Saturday after the American Corner presentation. Ruth stated she had been told not to come to her school as classes had been cancelled due to the heavy snow. I then remembered to call Nigora to see if the situation was the same at the PedInst and was told tomorrow, the 9^th, was the first day of classes for the fourth year students and she was expecting me to show up. I agreed to do so, but was firm in telling her I’d just come in to observe as I don’t have any idea where the students are at this point. Nigora has offered to accompany me to get the whiteboard/space heater afterwards.

My living room felt icy and no amount of clothing provided any warmth. I retreated to the bedroom and finished reading “The $64.00 Tomato” laughing all the way. Time to get started on the book on civility that Marydean has loaned me.