Chill Out

Well my cat ran away. I had him for no more than a week and now he’s gone. Frankly, I’m relieved since it saves me the trouble of abandoning the little bastard somewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed his company and everything, and I thought he was awful cute, but I was seriously considering ditching him on the other side of town. He meowed constantly and has scratched the hell out of my already run down looking furniture. He would not learn that I would rather not have him jump into my lap every time I sat down to eat. And the liter box thing. He didn’t get it. He preferred to crap underneath my tub. Last night was the last straw. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I opened the door he scared the hell out of me. He had evidently climbed my jacket to reach the top of my coat rack and I guess I startled him when I opened the door. He leapt from his perch and would have landed on me had I not yelped and jumped out of his way. This morning I took him and left him on my enclosed porch while I went to school. I guess sometime during the day he climbed up on the ledge and managed to squeeze himself through a small window. I came home and was happy to see that he had skipped. Please don’t think of me as uncaring. This is nothing compared to the reported puppies-thrown-off-second-story-balconies that is going on in Narin (You guys should be ashamed…major U-yat)

So, what else is new? I’m on break, like the last entry says. I made it through my first few weeks pretty well considering that I only planed a few of my lessons and kind of winged most of the others. My kids are pretty good. Though I do get a lot of blank stares. My 10th graders I don’t believe have heard English spoken in their lives. We played “Hangman” one day and had one guess left with the word: TEAP_T. “Teapet?” one student ventured. “NO!!! NO IT’S NOT TEAPET!!!” I wanted to scream. They didn’t know teapot! And this in a culture where you can’t get through a day without drinking at least 18 cups of tea. I was honestly shocked at this display of ignorance. It reminds me of the immortal line of the old Bolivian prospector in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: “Morons. I‘ve got morons on my team.”

My site mate Ailey has also experienced a stunning lack of English knowledge. Actually it sounds like her students are even more behind mine. She hates the blank stares as much as I do. We sometimes equate teaching here to the Will Farrell “Jeopardy” sketches on SNL. When, in Final Jeopardy, he asks “Draw a letter. ANY Letter. It could be A, C, S. ANYTHING….Ok, lets look at your answers…You’ve written ’threeve’…Stunning.” It’s not that different to teaching English in Kstan.

This whole last week I didn’t teach anything. The kids were already in a vacation mindset and so I brought in my computer and showed them my pictures or played American music for them. Mixed results on both. One afternoon I took twenty students and we went to play Frisbee in the snow. My plans for teaching ultimate were dashed when I realized that the field was nothing more than a bog of ice and mud. We played catch instead. And yesterday we had our new years party. They don’t have Christmas so much but they do have a strange Santa Claus rip off who is the crux of their New Year celebration. His name is Father Frost (Ai-yaz-Ata, in Kyrgyz) and he looks just like Santa but walks with a cane. His wife is the Snow Princess and there is no mention of living with any elves. Anyway, I was tapped to be FF in the school New Years party. Good times. I wore a hideous Santa mask, red robe and handed out candy and toys. The kids seemed to like it.

Highlight of my week, however, was some kids that decided to yell at Ailey and I on the street a few days ago. This is a popular past time for local kids, but usually it is just “Hello!” or “Whatisyourname?” which they always lump into a single word. These kids though have obviously seen a few American films. One kid, a little brown Kyrgyz kid, proudly yelled “Kiss my black ass!” Ailey and I couldn’t believe what we had heard. We were crying we were laughing so hard.

So now I have a few weeks for break and hopefully I can get some pictures downloaded (check right). And I plan on getting lots of lesson planning done. It’s nice to actually have something to do. Quite a few SEOD volunteers say they do nothing at their NGO’s. One has called Peace Corps “the toughest job you’ll never have”. I’ll keep you up to date with my progress. Have a Happy New Year!

Sean

Venting

Hey everyone. it’s a few days before New Years and I’m officially on break. I have two and a half weeks to plan lessons and recover from a pretty stressful first three weeks in site. My class schedule has been in no way demanding (18-20 hours a week) but I’ve discovered teaching in in this country is damn tough.

Tough is probably the wrong word. Frustrating is closer to the truth. The system of education is so drastically different from the American system that it’s appalling. Grades for example: In America, students take tests and grades are given based upon the results of these tests. Students are expected to do their own work, and cheating is considered a grave violation. Not so in Kyrgyzstan. Cheating is rampant, tests aren’t really given, and the grading system is a joke. The grading scale ranges from a 1 to a 5, five being the best. One could compare this five point scale to the American A-F scale, but this would be a mistake since in reality 1’s and 2’s are not to be given. If a student is behaves poorly in class, doesn’t participate or do work he is usually given a 3; a passing grade. Why? Because if a student fails a course he has to repeat it. This means more work for the current teacher, who already works 40+ hours a week and most likely has a family to take care of (this also is not comparable to America, since day to day living here is so much more taxing; try walking a quarter mile to fetch water a few times a day and you’ll see what I mean.) So the teacher passes students who don’t do the work and the student eventually graduates and is no longer the school’s problem. This is not an isolated phenomenon. In fact, it is unspoken policy from the Ministry of Education. As long as things look good, there is no problem. A particularly Soviet way of thinking.

Another post Soviet aspect is the idea of total control. Quarterly lesson plans must be approved by the state board of education. Sometime during the quarter an official comes to check all the teachers lesson plans. A few days into teaching my school was checked. Most of the teachers there were busy writing their lesson plans a day before. They said they don’t follow the plans anyway but have to turn them in or they will be fired. I asked why have this system if no one really follows it. Everyone shrugged and said that’s just the way it is. The government has this insane English curriculum which they expect every school to follow. Within the first year of instruction (usually 5th grade) students are supposed to learn 700 English words and master a dozen different verb tenses and modes. I have kids that have studied English for three or more years and can’t answer questions like “What is your sister’s name?” . The state curriculum is impossible, especially since students only have English class at most 5 hours a day and have no current materials or qualified teachers (It’s not uncommon for the local English teachers not to speak English, though this isn’t true at my school.) In short, expecting any class to be even remotely proficient in the English language would be impossible.

So where does that leave me, the local TEFL volunteer? Frustrated. My romantic idea of moving to a foreign country and teaching entire classes to speak English and better their lives has been crushed. The majority of my students don’t speak English and don’t want to. They are waiting till graduation and are going to work as laborers, farmers or drivers. There are a few students that I can think of (less than ten) that actually care about learning and hope to go to university and use their English. I had a student approach me the other day and ask if I would soon be teaching after school English clubs. I said I would start clubs in the new year. He said he wanted to practice his English because he wanted to live in the capital and be an English interpreter. After a whole day of blank stares to what should be easy questions, this student was a godsend. I’ve let go of my idea of teaching entire classes to speak English, and have decided that I am happy settling for teaching a handful of students who really have the motivation to learn and will use their skills to actually improve their lives.

Sean

Merry Christmas!

Hey. I'm in the city and wanted to get a quick post out.

Today is Christmas eve and I'm going to a party with the other volunteers in the South. Should be alot of fun, though I'm sure we'll all be missing our family and friends at home.

Classes are going well. My students are pretty smart, but I need more time with them. I'm going ask for more hours in the new year. Break starts Wednesday and I am going to be Santa at the school Xmas party. Should be fun. I have a two week break and I'll be planning lessons the whole time.

In other news I got a cat. He's a kitten actually and I've named him Manas after the mythical Kyrgyz hero who united the 40 Kyrgyz tribes to defeat someone or other. I was leaning towards the name Lenin, but decided he gets enough advertising here anyway.

Ok, hope everyone enjoys their vacations. Talk to you all later...

Sean

Remember Me?

Ok, I know that it's been over two months since I posted anything and tons has happened since then. I'm going to try to start posting regularly and I hope to get some pictures up soon as well.

I'm now in Jalalabat, a large city in the South of Kstan. It's cold and rainy today and I'm in town hanging out with some other volunteers after my first week of teaching. I taught 9-11 grade students for about five hours a day. Not too demanding a schedual but things were tough without electricity. No electricity no lights or heat. It was fun though and my students are pretty motivated to learn.
My village is Bazar Korgon. Village is a slight understatement since 30,000 people live and work their. I'm posted there with two other volunteers and by all acounts things are going pretty well. I am living in an apartment by myself, which is good as far as personal space and privacy is concerned, but bad as far as language goes. My Kyrgyz is passable, but it won't get much better if I don't have a host family to talk to. I'm making myself go to the bazar ever day and talk to people there. Later I plan on finding a tutor. Hopefully my language won't suffer too much. Also a chalenge in the apartment is cooking. I can cook decently, but it's so much more work here. I don't have hot water. In fact I only have water 3 hours a day, which means I have to fill buckets to last the day. I have two heating pads (one of which has electrocuted me three times) and a mix of usable and unusable pots and pans. I'm bound to get better soon.
Ok, Greg is telling me we have to leave. We're off to hagle at the bazar then catch a cab home. Talk to you all later.

Sean