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