March 29, 2012

I got a text message from Nigina informing me I had left my JumpDrive and hand-held fan at the copy center, so I made my way there first under cloudy skies and then a few sprinkles. The interpreter students played a game trying to match occupations and their respective descriptions. I brought in some chocolates and gave everybody a piece while they worked on a worksheet about summarizing the best of everything that had happened to them. Unfortunately, these are students who have not held a job, traveled outside the country, owned a car, or even lived in other places. As a result, their answers were very similar and thus the activity was a bit monotonous.

As I was walking to the soup place, a new student approached me with the sentence I’ve begun to dread: “Can you help me?” She wanted to know if I could conduct conversation classes with her and I said no, that I had too many commitments already. She countered by saying that Beth, the previous ELF, had held a weekly conversation club for all students. I told her the dean had never suggested that I employ my time in that manner and it was too late now to try and start it.

After my soup, I went to Caritas and we had the same activities as the morning class. Takhmina and Khurshed were going somewhere in the city and offered to drop me off at my place.

Elbek came for his class and in the middle of it, Nilufar came with a sambusas and some bread to inform me that she had found a job as a cook at the Atlas Hotel and had been practicing her English in earnest. On top of that, many of the tourists at the hotel are from Spain and she’s been picking up a few words of Spanish. I was really proud to see Elbek serve as an interpreter between us as I can see how much his fluency has improved. Nilufar promised to show me how to make the apple cake I have eaten at her house next week.

Ryan came by to check on my constant cough and diagnosed me with a run-of-the-mill allergy case. He’s going to prescribe a bottle of Guaifenesin to be prepared by the pharmacist at his apartment complex so the phlegm can be broken up and discharged.