March 31, 2012

Although I took the cough syrup that Ryan prescribed, it did nothing to help sleep soundly. If it was intended to keep me coughing up the crud in my lungs, it succeeded as I got little sleep throughout the night. Instead of just staying in bed tossing and turning, I got up early and made sure I had packed all my materials for the last teacher training session at Qurgonteppa and met the driver at 7:50. Corrie arrived a few minutes later carrying a baking pan with the brownies she had agreed to bake for the teachers. The day was hazy and beginning to cloud as rain is forecast for Sunday, but even then we could see signs of spring everywhere such tiny buds at the end of branches, the palest of green shoots coming up the ground and more and more cherry trees beginning to blossom.

We were surprised to find that the American Corner had electricity this time and that the embassy supervisor had requested better lighting in the place thus forcing Toj to buy super bright CFL bulbs. It was my turn to go first and I was bit apprehensive about introducing dictogloss, or grammar dictation, to those teachers knowing full well that they were very weak. On the other hand, I wanted to experiment with the subject matter and see what they had to say about it. As expected, they concluded that the activity was very difficult as they had never done any type of dictation, but I encouraged them to find suitable materials within their own textbooks to implement the dictation and to get their students used to it.

A couple of the university students had invited us to their house for lunch, and I thought the entire class was to come along. Instead, only Corrie, Latofat, Amin, with whom I had to plead to come, and I were whisked in the homeowner’s vehicle to a house just about a block away. It was the most sumptuous house I have seen so far in Tajikistan. There was a carport for the vehicle, an extensive kitchen garden followed by rooms dedicated to the kitchen and the bathroom separate from the house itself. When Amin provided this information, I just told him how much I’d dread having to leave my room in the middle of the night to walk outside and use the toilet. He said people prefer here prefer to have those two rooms away from the main house.

We were taken to an ample room painted in a relaxing shade of blue with an elaborate window treatment and fanciful cushions. Even the teapot and cups were a shade of gold as was the biggest tea cozy I’ve ever seen. Everything was lavish to an excess and Corrie asked the owner what he did for a living, and he said he happens to own several gas stations in town. He has four children and the oldest one is getting ready to travel to the States to study engineering at a university in Chicago. The wife and two daughters made themselves scarce and only came in when we were about to leave. The oldest daughter is already married, why bother with educating her, and has a baby while the youngest is only 12.  I had skipped breakfast in anticipation of this meal and ate a little bit of everything: fresh almonds, green raisins, salami slices, tomatoes and cucumber slices, meatball soup(one I had never had before), a Russian salad with globs and globs of mayonnaise, flat bread, plenty of tea and juice, and of course, the piece de resistance, plov.

It was back to the American Corner where Corrie cut the brownies into small slices and enticed everyone to have a piece. She then did her presentation on speech acts and asking for advice in particular. It went really well and I asked her to let me borrow the materials to use them for the teacher training center on Monday. All attendees wanted to have their photos taken with us and Toj played Tajik music from his computer, so we cut the rug for a few minutes even though only some of the male students felt free enough to take part in the fun.

Toj and Amin accompanied us to the only sight in Qurgonteppa, “The Hill” as it’s known, and took tons of photos while we toured the small museum inside which chronicled the region’s past when it used to be part of the Persian Empire. We went up the stairs where a 360 degree view of the city could be had, but it was too cloudy by then to do so. The driver was courteous enough to stop on the way out so we could get cold water as the food had been somewhat salty and our throats were parched. He signed the receipts I had printed for both Corrie and I and offered his services in case we ever needed to go back to Qurgonteppa. For me, that’s unlikely and the city is slated to get their own ELF next year, so I don’t see Corrie having a need to go back either.

Corrie is moving out of her flat and in with a roommate. She extended an invitation to go see her new place, but I was too tired already. I had a small bowl of lentil soup and read for a while.