Tilling

victory

Giving Gifts to Orphans

ALL-STAR CLASSIC

Explanation

So the post entitled "V-day rewind" is a letter written by one special young woman who wanted to remain anonymous so she made it appear like a group of students wrote it. But actually only many students signed it. But I'm sure they share these sentiments. The letter was read at the valentine day party and it took second place.
The "love letter" post is just a straight up love letter that made me blush the first time I read it. The author also read her letter at the valentine day party and we gave it first place. It was a fun party!
My friend D- wanted me to post these so ya got 'em.

love letter

V-Day Rewind

orphanage

In boy scouts they say do a good turn daily and I really did a good turn yesterday tuesday with the help of my friends. We collected toys at our valentine's day party on the 13th. Then yesterday we went to an orphanage to give the toys and candy away. This was a collaborative action between IREX program alumni and regular american corner goers. We had about 16-17 american corner goers and 4 or 5 IREX alumi. We went to the orphanage in the afternoon and cleaned up their grounds. Boys tilled the earth. Girls sweeped and cleaned up grabage. 3 or 4 others and myself had the task of digging a tree stump out. I was wearing my shirt and tie so I wasn't really ready to weild an axe and pick-axe but I helped. The tree trunk was about 5 in. in diameter so it wasn't a huge tree but the roots were conected with other trees so it was hard.
Anyway we finally got the stump out after an hour. Then we went in the orphanage and gave 2 and 3 presents to all the orphans and handfulls of candy. There were 13 orphans age 5-7 I think. The kids loved the toys and we loved giving the gifts away. Then we met with another group about 10 two year olds and gave them candy and presents too. The staff wouldn't let me take pictures inside which is too bad because they would have been really poweful photos. Some of the kids appeared happy and normal but some couldn't get out of bed, others just had their chins buried in their chests and never looked up at all no matter what we did. It was really powerful stuff and everyone teenagers and toddlers alike came away happy. We'll do it again. All in a days work. But that is what I call full service getting a stump out and a lot of smiles.

hiking 2

Went hiking for the second time with the "hiking club" today. I had 10 boys/young men excluding me. Almost too many. Then 6 boys who were too late to join us came up later on their own and we met them coming down. It was cold and windy and the boys thought it was hard but they loved it. We did a more difficult Mtn. this week. Hiking club is getting too popular and I think I will have to make a sign-up sheet soon so they have to register to go with me. This is only the second week and its already too popular. Boys were better prepared this week no bowls of pasta and buckwheat. It took us about 1 hour to get to the summit we spent about 45 min. huddled behind some boulders on top to stay out of the wind and then an hour to come down. We left the library at 8 am and I was back in my apt. at 11:50 am. Not too bad. But I'm still concerned about safety and the large group. It is rough terrain with a lot of loose rocks.

Reality Bites

On Thursday the semi-finalists were announced for the Global U-Grad competition. This competition allows 2nd and 3rd year university students to study in the U.S. for one year. Last year I think about 11 students went from Tajikistan. It is a very competitive program administered by IREX in conjunction with the U.S. embassy. As soon as I came here I had people asking me for help with this competition and I didn't even know when the deadline was for applications. But on Thursday three great young people I know were selected as semi-finalists (2 women and 1 man). They attend my TOEFL class three days a week and all go to my university. The problem is many great young people were not selected. I talked to one young woman, on a bench in a park, for more than an hour because she was so distraught about not being selected. She had planned and worked her whole life so that she could study in the U.S. it was her dream and this year she is a third year university student so she can't apply next year. For high school students there is a program that allows students to study in the U.S. called FLEX. This young woman made it to the final round of FLEX but was denied. Last year as a second year univ. student she didn't make it so she felt like this was her last chance. So last night she was utterly crushed crying and feeling like her life was over. She worried about her future. She doesn't want to get married. She is only 20 but she knows and worries that she has too. I tried to console her and get her to look on the bright side but it was very sad to be around someone so young and talented who thinks she has no future and no hope. For the young people of Tajikistan the U-Grad program is a life changer literally after they come back they are never the same. Most want to return to the U.S. and study and many do so. They are disenchanted by the poor education here, the corruption, the low salaries, the poor living conditions and the lack of freedom. Studying in the U.S. opens their minds to a whole new world and it becomes hard to return to this one. This woman I talked to knew this and wanted this but it wasn't meant to be this time even though she is an extremely bright, hardworking and talented. There are a lot of stories like this one though. A few young people make new lives for themselves but many have to follow a path laid out for them by society.

Two friends at the V-Day party

Plastic Factory Workers

Valentine's Day Party

Spring

Spring has sprung here 2/16/09. That means no more electricity problems. They clear up as soon as the weather does. Soon it will be way too hot I think.

Hiking

I had my first hiking club today and it went well. I had 6 young men show up. We hiked up a small mtn. near Khujand. they had never been hiking before so they weren't really prepared but they made it. One boy had a thick wool tablecloth and he actually carried this all the the way to the summit. Another boy had a bowl of buckwheat and pasta, another boy had about 5 one liter bottles of lemonade held together by the plastic packaging wrap they were bought in. By the time we got to the base of the Mtn. the boys were all already overheated and stripping off their warm sweaters and coats. So we left their coats and what not at the base of the Mtn. Shoes also were a problem some boys had holes in their shoes and with no trail and rough sharp rocks this makes for a tough go. Three boys and me made it right up the mtn. without too much of a problem. The other three boys fell behind but eventually made the summit about 20 min. after us. I thought about being like the mountaineers and telling them what to bring and not to bring on the hike but I just let them learn from their mistakes. I only told them to bring water and they all brought cola and what not. Besides they might not have understood me if I told them what to bring. The bowl with food was left on the mtn. But all the boys had a great time they took a ton of pictures and they can't wait to go again next week. It is good physical exercise for them and a great bonding opportunity for us. when they looked at the mtn. they thought they could never climb up it but they did and discovered it wasn't as bad as they thought. A metaphor for life. I think there will be some sore legs though. No girls have come yet.

Valentine's Day

We had a very successful Valentine's Day party at the American Corner Friday February 13th. When we started the party we had exactly 28 students. I know this because I gave the girls a half of a red paper heart and the boys half of a pink heart and then told them to find the other half of their paper heart. This was to be their partner throughout the party. Paring women and men up here and having them play games together is slightly revolutionary but I figured it was valentine's day so why not. It worked any way. But we had more girls than boys. So girls were with girls. But after the initial 28 students about 20 more came so it was just a crush of people. It was just crazy people couldn't even get in the door of the American Corner at one point. But we played a lot of games. We had a three legged race outside again slightly revolutionary and they loved it. We had a dance competition that featured a ballet, Georgian dancing, arabian dancing, and a waltz. Yes Georgian dancing from the country of Georgia is popular here go figure. This dance competition was all conceived by a Tajik girl. In total we had 9 different games and activities. It was two hours of non-stop fun and excitment.
Three weeks ago the director of the A.C. put a box outside the A.C. and told students to write their "love confessions" and put them in the box. Then before the party we decided who wrote the best love letter and then read the letters at the party. Well there were 5 letters in the box when we opened it this morning. One of the 5 was written by me. Three were love letters to me and one was a love letter to parents that was plagerized. Sometime I will put the text of these love letters on this blog. The love letters to me where quite overwhelming.
We also collected toys and candy at the party for orphans and the kids really came through and brought a lot of toys. Now we will go and personally deliver these gifts to the orphans in the name of the American Corner.
I will put pictures online as well as soon as I get them. If you ever have any questions e-mail me because I never know what to put on this blog.

Peace

insight

I don't think until you have been here you can really understand what it is like. But I was reading something by Rick Steeves this morning about Iran and Tajikistan is similar to Iran in that it lacks basic freedoms like freedom of speech and here in Northern Tajikistan traditional muslim values pervade like in Iran. But Tajikistan also has this Russian aspect to it. The education system is all based on the old Soviet one. Plus Russian media, in the broadest sense, has a big influence here. Khujand, Tajikistan is just a strange mix of old Soviet fear and respect for authority combined with social norms that conform to Islam. Rick Steeves said something like Iran was screaming out for non-conformity and this place is too but don't count on it anytime soon. The dominant culture is supported by corrupt authorities and tradition. Both of which are very hard to break free from despite that fact change in my opinion is needed in many different areas.

Fellows from Oman and Syria

Conference Participants

Cario is close

Ancient Egypt

Tajiki Graffiti on my Apt. Bld.

Foreign Lang. Faculty of Khujand State U.

Khujand's Bazzar

1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dramatic Performance for MLK Day

Khujand Man Selling Squash

End of January

So last week I was in Cairo, Egypt for the 14th Skills Conference at the American University in Cario. It was a great chance to get away and do some professinal development and see Cairo. The conference itself was a bit of a disappointment because so many of the scheduled presenters didn't show up. That left it up to the Fellows all 28 of us to kind of carry the three day conference. All the Fellows showed up and gave great workshops about quality English teaching practices. Personally my workshop was insane the classroom they put me in was designed for about 30 people but I must have had twice that many in the room. People were sitting all over the floor crushing eachother to get through the door. There were so many people trying to attend my workshop that I couldn't even walk to the blackbord. But my workshop went well, my 40 handouts were soon swallowed up and I felt like I should have made twice that many.

I also had the chance to go out and see the pyramids at Giza with Jean Lewis a Fellow from Kazakstan. See the below photo. It was very impressive and interesting seeing the pyramids. I also had the chance to visit the National Museum in Cario. So I got to see King Tut's mask and coffin and throne etc. The museum was huge and wonderful. I wandered around for 4 hours with Jean and we had guided tour too and we still didn't get to see it all. There were also a lot of ancient mumies in there. I had never seen a mummy before so it was a little spooky but also interesting. I was sick with a cold most of the time I was in Cario but I tried to make the most of it. The people were nice the food was great and in general it was a good trip.

When I got back to Khujand, Tajikistan examinations were in full swing. Right before I left for Cario I had given a test on grammar and 20 out of 29 students failed it. But for me less than 70% is failing. At my university they say that less than 50% is failing. Additionally students can re-take a test up to three times. So I arrived to Khujand about 6 pm Sunday night and on Monday morning I was trying to figure out how to give the make up test for the 20 students who failed the first time. Then after this on Monday I still had about 7 failing students so I had to give the test again on Wednesday and finally after the third time I only had two failing students and they really did deserve to fail. But remember some students passed with like 51%. I attribute the high failure rate to students not attending classes, not having the book and not studying. A lot of my students are married women and they just don't come to class regularly because they have babies or other domestic responsibilities. Most don't come about 1/3 of the time. The single women did much better on the test because they regularly came to classes.

In my other class (English Practice 211) I gave the standard university exam the grammar test I had devised myself. So for the 211 exam we gave students a short reading that they hadn't seen before and told them to read and remember it in 40 min. The readings were difficult but relatively short. Then they had to come to the teacher's desk and re-tell the story. Most did as good as could be expected. Then for the second part of the exam they were given a situation to speak about pertaining to the themes we studied from their book. For example maybe they had to talk about the interesting places for tourists to visit in Khujand because we studied interesting places in London you can visit. They had to speak on this given situation in front of us teachers while the other students were in their seats listening watching and preparing themselves. Then another teacher and I gave them their grades on the spot, informed the students of their marks and wrote it down on the official piece of paper. The students also have little test books that I had to sign with their grade. The whole exam process took about 3 hours in a cold classroom.

Travels

Ok I know I haven't updated this blog in awhile. But my excuse is I've been sick and moving a mile a minute for a long time. But now I have a ton of pictures from Tajikistan and Egypt so I will be adding a lot to this blog in the coming days.