january

19 jan

Back to school. After not quite a month off of school, I'm back in the classroom. The freezing cold classroom. December had been pretty cold, but near the end and the beginning of January the weather was actually pretty nice; the snow was nearly gone from my village. Now it has turned cold again. This weekend poured down feet of snow and accompanying cold air.

The last week of December brought Christmas, my birthday, and New Years. Christmas decorations went up in shop windows and everywhere, but despite the English stating "Xmas Merry," people insist they are New Year's decorations. Even the tree is a New Year's tree. Even with my Christmas lesson, I don't think my students believed that Christmas and New Year's are not the same thing. I spent the holiday in Jalalabad then proceeded down to Osh for New Years. The actual event wasn't spectacular, but the entire weekend was full of costume parties, pictures, and inside jokes taking place mostly in the location dubbed the Man Cave.

Last week our K17 group met up on Issyk Kul Lake for our final big group training on projects, grants, etc. It was nice to see everyone again, but it's the last time I'll see many of them until our Close of Service conference over a year from now. Also we southern volunteers get the added bonus of doing double time on the traveling. After all that car/bus/plane time I'm ready to stay down south for as long as possible.

Back to work. Most of my first lessons will probably be repeats of previous lessons. At least most of the students can still say hello. I'd ask for mail, but I've not received anything in months. Either it's backed up or there are some happy postal workers somewhere on the line.

31 january

I have had a hard time getting a solid connection to post updates. Things that were once strange when arriving in this country have become pretty normal to me now, and life is pretty regular and routine. The postal mail is still working, though a bit slow. Send me a postcard or an email if there are any specifics questions about my doings here. February update coming pending internet connectivity.

fairy tale of jalalabad

I taught my first Christmas lesson today. I think I did it just to remind myself that Christmas is actually coming up soon. It's hard to imagine an American being able to forget that anytime after Thanksgiving (or is it Halloween?). In the local stores of Jalalabad city there are no carols to be heard; the radio is not inundated with jolly melodies; the halls have not been decked. The irony is that growing up in a desert I'm actually surrounded by snow this time for the holidays.

I discovered that I have virtually no Christmas music or films with me. I never appreciated not being able to escape its presence when turning on the TV or buying a Big Gulp, but the complete lack of the holiday is nearly as shocking. I think there must be a happy medium somewhere.

In my lesson I showed a couple scenes from Fred Claus. Kevin Spacey's character shut down the toy factory and told the elves to "go back to Elfastan or wherever" they came from. I think I enjoyed that line better than the writers could have imagined.

Winter break is coming soon as well. This means an entire semester will be complete. I think I'll celebrate by keeping my heater on whenever the power is on.

nov update

Earlier this month was our inservice training. All our K-17 group went to Bishkek for a week. It was right when the weather turned bitter cold. I didn't even leave the hotel for the first three days. I finally ventured out for some fast-food hamburgers. It started to warm up a little by the end of the week, but I was already sick. I came back south to where it was still cooler than I left it, but a good 20 degrees warmer than Bishkek. It has since snowed in my village though.

After several days of Thanksgiving lessons making me hungry, I had two Thanksgivings this weekend. The first was on Thursday. I joined in with the Jalalabad City crew for our day-of celebration. We had two turkeys, and the whole meal was just like America. After three plates of dinner, I had pie.

Friday night we had a sudden brown out situation with the power. It was still too early for bed, but our main concern was cooking the next day. Friday was a holiday in Kyrgyzstan so it was doubtful that anyone would be coming to fix it anytime soon. After consulting with the neighbor we discovered that the transformer down the street had blown. Three Americans joined the neighborhood down at the transformer with out flashlights. One of the four main connectors was visibly damaged. Only a few strands of wire were reaching out each direction from their bunches. This would be the end in America, but we're in Kyrgyzstan. The neighborhood decided that we all wanted power now, so we'd fix it. We joined in the discussion and added our flashlights. The grid was disconnected, and someone jumped up on top with some pliers. Not a power company employee, just one representative of the neighborhood. After some twisting and bending, the switch was cranked back over to on. Full power had been reestablished. Imagine that in America next time the power goes out.

With the power still running the next day, all of our Jalalabad volunteers joined together for fried chicken, and of course, more pie.

I came back to the snow in my village. It snowed last week here, but the city must be a bit lower elevation because there was none there. I cleaned, played my guitar I just bought a week ago, and watched a movie. Now time to read for little bit before the power goes out. Back to the work routine tomorrow as December approaches.

4 nov 09

Halloween was an adventure. This week is fall break, and next week I'll be in training with all my k17s in Bishkek. Small random group of photos have finally been uploaded. enjoy

Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/luckygarnett/Kyrgyz?feat=directlink

25 oct 09

Almost two months completed of school and teaching. The school system is expectedly a bit different to those used to the American system. The level of school is called form as opposed to grades in the US. Students go to school from form 1-11 with 11 being senior year. I teach to forms 6-11. The classes of students remains the same day after day, year after year. The same students in form 6 class G will continue to form 7 class G the following year, and each group goes with the same peers from math to English to Russian throughout the day. Scheduling is in more a block form with each class having each subject about three times a week, Monday through Saturday. I teach Monday through Thursday so I see each of my groups about twice a week. My school goes from 8:30-1:30, and I teach clubs several times a week to about 3:00. Then I go home to my house about five to ten minutes away depending on if I stop by the store on the way home.

My club has been focusing on songs lately. I’m trying to differentiate it from regular classroom lessons. So far we’ve rocked out to Weezer, The Clash, and The Hippos. We’ve also seen clips of Futurama, The Simpsons, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly (they recognized which uniform was Union and which was Confederate). I think it’s working because they begged to have club on Thursday after it was going to be cancelled.

At home I read, watch tv and movies, make food, and play Peggle. I just beat all 75 challenges. I got the “find a new hobby” medal for my effort. I usually make some type of rice and bean dish with various vegetables. Currently the must-have ingredient is tomatoes. That will be my dinner tonight, but I foresee an oven in my future so that opens new possibilities.

Halloween is coming up. I’m doing Halloween lessons in school including Simpsons Tree House of Horror. We had a party at the American Corner in Jalalabad with local English students, and on the holiday itself we’ll have a gathering of dressed up volunteers spreading their American holiday traditions once more.

It’s definitely fall here with changing leaves and cooler weather. My heater is already opened up and my nice and toasty sleeping bag is being used. A “Lenin in Fall” photograph with the statue in front of my school is planned and coming soon.

This last week has brought me to the middle of The Grapes of Wrath. Other volunteers are reading twilight. I prefer to avoid that and stick with the classics, or things I have interest in. My counterpart is reading my Hemingway short stories, and I’m told the former volunteer’s counterpart has a Hemingway in Kyrgyz. I’ll have to see if I can read any of that.

25 Sept 09

School is up and running. I'm teaching classes now. It's official. 

I have a few students who have real potential as well as those who have no desire to be in class, which is no different than American public schools. I'm teaching four days a week with clubs on three of the days. We're still doing vocabulary before we move on to simple grammar. If anything, my style is shock to them because it's radically different than what they're used to. I'm trying to promote conversation as my main emphasis.

I also moved. I'm no longer with a host family, and I'm glad to have my American space/independence. I live about 5-10 walk from school in (mostly) my own house. It's really nice with a kitchen, my two connected bedrooms, and water actually coming into the compound -which saves me from a trip down the road to stream. I also have beehives which a neighbor tends for honey.

Pictures coming. So far there's one of me at my new house posted on mobileme.

silent donkey

31 August 2009

It’s back to school time in Kyrgyzstan. Today is independence day for the Kyrgyz Republic so school starts on the first of September. The timing is right. I’ve finished all the TV shows I currently have on my hard drive. Goodbye summer, hello school. Only this time I'm teaching it.

A couple weeks ago I went to Osh for a journalism conference with students from the university and other interested peoples. They comprise the staff of their own English language newspaper. My session got pushed back to the last, and I missed it for a solar water project in Bishkek, but I helped out by supporting other sessions and being a resident photographer. It was like yearbook day camp all over again.

In Bishkek I built a solar water heater with an NGO on a UN project. They’re somewhat simply designed to more efficiently use the sun to heat water within a tank. We completed the barrels, and mine will be delivered sometime this month for me to test it out.

I haven’t completed any books in the last couple weeks, which is somewhat unusual these days, but I am in the middle of two presently and half-heartedly in a third. Inspired to read up on American history, I’ve been listening to The Teaching Company lectures on the subject, and supplementing it with Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth Davis. I’m ending the Revolutionary War in both and keeping up on my other project A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I’m halfway through it right now and suggest it to be read by anyone who has lived in New Orleans or been annoyed by a fat guy.

The days of wearing shorts and flips are at an end, as a more respectable dress is expected at work, while the age of ramen may be ushered in shortly in the fact that I have found a new residence down the street from the school. My required time to live with a host family is ending, and though they are nice people, I’m eager to express my American independence in the form of my own living arrangements.

In other news-- internet is now available in the city at a per hour rate as opposed to the standard per megabyte rate. Crowds go wild. Pictures may soon become a reality.

Donkeys make terrible nosies. There’s nothing else really bad about them, but I think the world would be better off with silent donkeys. It’s not like they’re guard donkeys attacking and frightening away intruders during home invasions. They carry things, they eat things, and they pull things, but that sound. It burns.

Also, I can’t believe I have to set an alarm for tomorrow and go to work.