Monday: It was a pretty normal day. My counterpart and I made a Jeopardy game (some things don’t change) for a study day before the tests. We gave it to both of my 11th grade classes and the 8th grade class. It was so great for the 11th grade classes because they were really into trying to answer correctly and they were really showing how much they learned. It was awesome. Then 8th grade came. I think this class is the bane of my existence. I want to help them and teach them, but they just want to mock us and do anything but sit quietly. Most classes will have one or two boys that are disruptive and many times they don’t show up to class. Well, every boy in this class is tentek (naughty) and that is about 10 boys that are disruptive and obnoxious and make teaching that class not fun. If the boys were not in the class it would be a lot of fun and they would learn so much more. But as it is now most of class is focused on trying to get the boys to stop hitting and throwing things.
Tuesday: We gave the test to the 8th grade class and they cheated on the whole thing. Cheating in the country is not something they look down upon nor do they think that it’s cheating. I went outside the classroom to give the oral part of the test and my counterpart stayed in the classroom to watch the students and make sure they didn’t cheat. Well every time I walked in the room to get another student the students were climbing over the desks and looking at each other’s papers. Well, there goes trying to prevent that. She told me which ones were cheating and we are going to make them take it over, but I wanted her to stop it when it started. At least I know that I’m needed here and there are things that I can work on. Then… I was supposed to have two different 9th grade classes after we gave that test. My counterpart then told me that the students were setting up for a first aid seminar for the next day and we couldn’t teach them.
Wednesday: First Aid seminar. No classes today so that means no test given to 11th grade and no study session to either of the 10 grade classes. I was given the job of taking pictures of the day as the students acted out various situations where first aid is needed and then recited text about first aid. They wanted to take my camera and take pictures with it and then give it back to me but I kindly offered to take them (because I already have horrible luck with cameras and I want to be the one to break it if it breaks).
Thursday: Second day of First Aid seminar. No classes again. My counterpart told me that we were going to have a party for Nooruz (a holiday on the 21st of March) and that I needed to make some food. Well, took that as it would be at 3pm that day. So I went home and made cookies and then showed up to school with them. No… the party is on Saturday. So, what did I do? Ate the cookies and I’m going to make something else for Saturday. This night that is what I had for dinner.
Friday: One student is in one of my 10th grade classes. One out of 16 students is there. That means no test review day. As for the other 10th grade class all of the students are there. We played Jeopardy and they did awesome. This is my favorite classes because all of the students are interested and fun to teach. I am able to teach most of the class in all English and they understand most of it. We have started doing a video club and they love watching all my American girlie movies that have subtitles. Next year I get to choose which classes I will teach and they are one of the few classes that I will keep. They make me happy! After this class we went to the teacher’s room to wait for the next class to start. Well, the teachers started talking about the teacher’s party that will be on Saturday and kept talking 15 minutes into the next class. This class (11th grade) we were going to give them their test but we couldn’t because there wasn’t enough time. I went to the class and there were only 6 of the 14 students so it would have been pointless anyway. I watched them play a card game and I never understood what they were doing.
Then, I went home because a man from Peace Corps HQ came to KG last week and is interviewing volunteers and staff about everything. They picked 19 volunteers at random and are interviewing them about their service, staff support, training… ect. The best part about that was he brought me Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and mini Kitkat bars. Awesome. Then I went to the post office and got a surprise package. There was cheez-it’s in it. And gum, and cookies, and soap, and bobbypins, and letters. It is a great package! Thanks Lauren. I’m still waiting for one more to come from my sister and I’m excited for that one too because it has some great food in it. And patches for my pants because all of my jeans have busted out on the inner thigh. See there is a reason why I have so many pants in America. It’s so my pants don’t bust out! (To all my students who read this and remember the time I ripped my jeans in class playing volleyball, that was an isolated incident).
I then met with an English teacher in my village. She teaches at a different school and is trying to get a volunteer for next year. We went to the café and ate lunch/dinner. And we had a lot of fun. I’m starting to get some local friends and meet with them more regularly. I’m helping her with her English and she is helping me with my Kyrgyz. It was a really great way to end my hectic and frustrating week.
My conclusion to this week is that if I get frustrated with it all I’m going to be frustrated all the time. After the first day of not teaching I told my counterpart that we were just going to give the tests after break and hopefully they will remember at least some of the information. My patients and tolerance has gotten a lot better over the past year. In 11 days I will have lived in Kyrgyzstan for one full year. Amazing. I’m so amazed with how much has become normal. Just under a year ago so many things were a struggle and now are just how I function every day. When I go home people are going to think I’m strange.
I’ve included some pictures of the first aid day.
An example of some students showing what to do in a first aid emergency.
This is my zowvich (assistant principal) with some students showing off a gas mask.
This is some students showing what to do in case of radiation exposure because there are a lot of radiation sites in Kyrgyzstan.
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