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.
