March 28, 2012

I couldn’t ask for better weather: cool, sunny and breezy. I ran into Zoir in the hallway of the PedInst, and being unable to avoid me, he said hello and practically fled upstairs where he now has his “office”. The poor sap probably thinks I’m going to confront him at some point about his failed promise to take me to this village for the Navruz holiday. I tried to get the interpreter group to get into pairs by identifying cards with the names of famous characters from literature, TV and film, but only my star student from Turkmenistan was able to identify “Adam and Eve” as a famous pair. For the rest of them, the game was a bust. I brought one an ad from the “What’s on in Dushanbe” newsletter about a job opening for an interpreter/translator and asked them to respond to it by writing a cover letter addressing the requirements for the position. I could have asked them to write a thesis on Einstein’s theory of relativity for all the enthusiasm they showed for the task. One student flat out refused to do it confirming they have never had to do any writing in English in any other classes and were simply ill prepared to do so now.

When I was finished, I walked to the copy place asking young women along the way if I could take their pictures in their glittering dresses and most of them complied. Nigina came down to help me explain to the cute guy making the copies that I wanted the PowerPoint presentation printed four slides to a page. It didn’t turn out exactly as I had pictured it, but I can live with it. When done, I walked to the little place next door to have plov for lunch and found all six tables full of men only who looked at me as if saying: “What in the heck are you doing here, woman?” I waited for the young owner to come out of the kitchen and asked him if there were tables anywhere else. He motioned for me to follow him and I was taken to a patio where one table stood behind a car wash business. The plov was being cooked over a wood fire and the old guy serving it gave me a huge portion of it along with the salad and flat bread. I also ordered lemon tea to linger at the table and enjoy the sunshine. It was hard to believe that last week Tuesday I had stayed home as my pipes were frozen and the ground covered with tons of snow.

                                                       Dining al fresco

I repeated the “Famous Pairs” activity with the teachers and had just about the same result. They didn’t even know who Cleopatra was. I mentioned to them that these characters frequently appear as points of reference in all kinds of texts and their students should be somewhat familiar with who they are and why they became famous. We then moved on to a game of Taboo where many of them broke the rules by mentioning the words they were not supposed to say while describing a particular occupation. Playing “Odd one Out” was extremely complex as most of them could not identify all the words in each category and as a result, couldn’t determine if there was a difference among them. The topic on the conversation booklet was shopping and they affirmed they went to the same place, Khurbon Market, as that’s where the best prices and variety could be found. They all avoid the chic shops and boutiques on Rudaki Avenue as their prices are beyond their means. I noticed that no one had bothered to complete the matching exercises or the question and answer section. I’ll make it a point next week to show them how it’s done.

I went home to change into more comfortable clothes as I was meeting Ruth at the Aqua Bar as she wanted to introduce Corrie and I to a teacher from Florida who’s been working here for a while. I got there first and practically recoiled from the door as the place reeked of cigarette smoke. The young waitress approached me and I told her I was waiting for a group of people, none of whom were there just yet. Corrie arrived, famished as she hadn’t eaten all day, she said, and then Ruth. I wanted to change our venue, but Ruth was hungry and wanted to eat at a familiar place. When Michelle, the one from Florida, arrived, she vouched for the place and asked me to please try sitting near the door so the smoke wouldn’t bother me as much. I wasn’t even hungry, having had such a heavy lunch a few hours earlier, but another teacher, who joined us a few minute later, recommended the pumpkin and apple soup for just ten somoni and I took her advice. The soup in question was merely baby food: boiled pumpkin that had been placed in a blender and then transferred to a bowl. No apple, no salt, no bouillon, no flavor. The woman was aghast that I was not enjoying the soup, and I asked her to please taste it to see if I was right or not. She did and concurred it wasn’t the same thing she had had in the past.

I learned that Michelle was an ELF in Khujand back in 2006-2007 and she’d like to reapply to see if she could get the new post in Khorog. She wanted to hear about our experiences, but I didn’t want to talk about mine in public. I gave her my business card and asked to call me for coffee sometime. Both of them work for the international school where the children of diplomats and NGO workers send their kids. I left early as I was simply pooped and still needed to edit a document for Takhmina.

Ryan called to invite me to dinner at his house, but I had just eaten the leftover macaroni and cheese. Apparently, he had received fresh fish from his landlord again, but instead of just giving away the surplus, we needed to join him at his table. I told him my cough hadn’t gone away yet and I was beginning to be concerned. He promised to stop by tomorrow after work to take a look.