10 October 2009

When things get kind of frustrating here, without fail, something will happen that makes me feel not quite so far away. Sometimes several things will happen all in one day that make me realize that no matter where in the world you go, people are the same. Teachers still confiscate and laugh at ninth graders’ love letters, kids still put off doing their chores until the last possible minute, mothers still make their kids put on too many clothes when it is cold, and people still show off when they have something that others don’t. Although, in the last case, the something that they have that others don’t… just happens to be… me. Haha

So, a little bit of a geography lesson… Kyrgyzstan has seven oblasts (the equivalent of a state). The Peace Corps has volunteers in six of them. Each oblast is divided into rayons (the equivalent of a county, I guess). In my rayon, there are two volunteers: me, and Mike, a health volunteer. So, that makes me the only TEFL volunteer in my rayon. Last weekend was the teacher’s holiday. I went guesting with all my teachers and had a great time. Today, in honour of the teacher’s holiday, every school in the rayon sends five or six teachers to the rayon center for a bit of a celebration. Guess who is one of the five or six from my school? You’re right! Me. Apa told me, jokingly, this morning that they wanted me to go so they could essentially show me off as their volunteer. Woo-hoo. I’m not 100% sure what we’re going to be doing. Apparently we’re going to the rayon education office to meet with all the other teachers and watch a concert, and possibly going to a café with the teachers from my school. My counterpart is going too, and told me that we shouldn’t be gone long, but Apa told me I’d probably be back late, so I haven’t the foggiest idea what exactly I’ll be doing.

I’m meeting the teachers at 8:30, which, at one time would’ve seemed really early to me for a Saturday, but I’d have been up that early anyway. The students here go to school on Saturdays, so my family is all up and ready and going to school anyway, but as part of my PC contract I only teach Monday through Friday. I’m normally up on Saturdays anyway because a family of seven can’t get ready without making a considerable amount of noise, that plus, my internal alarm clock has been set for 6:30 for so long that I’m usually up.

Well, I’ve got to go to school to meet with the teachers, so I’ll wrap it up for now, but maybe I’ll write about today when I get back.