March 9, 2012

Clear skies, soft breezes, and magnificent views of the mountains. What more could one ask for? I got to the PedInst at 9:15, and found the dean teaching in my classroom and using the whiteboard as he apparently has access to markers. When he left, he didn’t bother to erase what he had written on it. I had the teachers’ group and finished doing the category game before giving them one of those role play games where one is the doctor and the other the patient. Vocabulary was an issue, isn’t always here? But once they got started, five pair came to the front and played their roles quite confidently. Erach remarked that this was the first class where the students had ever been free to talk to each other and the class as a whole.

Since I go the approval of the embassy and my RELO to print a mini-booklet of conversation topics for the teachers’ class, I headed to the copiers where, with lots of help from Nigina, I was able to order twenty booklets and a copy for myself. I walked back to the soup place and had my usual bowl before heading back to my classroom to set up the tables and chairs to my liking. One of my former students, Oigul, came by to remind me that she’s expecting me for lunch/dinner on Sunday. I promised to bring dessert. Nigora came by and informed me that she has been married for three years and was desperately trying to get pregnant as her in-laws and friends keep pestering her about her inability to conceive. She’s undergoing fertility treatment and hopes that by next year she’ll be a mother, too.

                                                     Proud grandfather out for a stroll

Several teachers from the Tuesday session didn’t show up this time and new ones did. We went through some similes matching and answered the question “What was your best experience during your college years?”. I wrote up a summary on the board about the various responses and then the dean asked me to include my own there. Apparently, he wants to receive a certificate too and although he came in late and left early, he promised to attend the next session in its entirety. When I gave them an assignment for homework and told them to back up their opinions by listing their reasons as “X, Y,Z”, they all looked at me as if I were speaking in Chinese. Pariso didn’t show up for the class again. No chance in hell she’s getting a certificate from me when all she seems to care about is making money and not really improving her teaching skills.

Elbek came by for his lesson. I forgot to mention that he had brought me a trio of daffodil flowers and some jewelry yesterday as a tribute on International Women’s Day. When I asked Tohir what women did on this day, he said nothing. Marydean opined that only under a misogynistic society did women need to have a day to celebrate them since they never enjoy equality and have little hope of ever achieving that dream.

I still have no access to Facebook. Marydean was in fact surprised that the government has shown enough technical know-how to pull it off. I asked Elbek if he knew of any proxy I could use to get around the blockage, but he didn’t know any.

The landlady’s husband showed up and indicated the problem with the fuses was resolved and I could turn the electric heater and wall unit back on. I had him signed a receipt acknowledging payment of March’s rent and then he left. I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to receive an eviction notice at some point, but I’m not going to worry about that now.