Putting my point across!!!

I realise why my throat is so sore.  It takes me back to when I used to teach in the UK, as soon as nine students are quiet the other two start or they are in a world of their own and you need everyone to listen and respond. Today I just wanted the kids to point at something, in theory pointing is something that they covered two years ago, but not one of them understands the concept.  I have read somewhere that pointing is rude in this culture so whether that is why or of course my predecessor could tell them and Russian so some of them might have understood more than hearing it in English, but after five minutes I finally got the group pointing at the window, pointing at the floor then pointing at what needed pointing at, except of course the two at the end!!   I am exhausted already and it is only 11.30.

However, to be fair yesterday we had a lovely afternoon. One of the teachers was off sick, so my poor colleague was teaching both groups together and in the afternoon she sensibly kept the kids out playing games together. It was really lovely joining in with them.

Unexpected hazards.

When I first looked into working in Kyrgyzstan everything I read was positive: beautiful scenery, nice people.  Then I accepted the job and then it seemed that everything I read negative: earthquakes, rabies, freezing cold weather.As a woman with M.E I have to a certain extent lost my career.  I had to go part time at the college with all that meant in terms of status and pay.  But I was also determined as my health improved that it would not stop me fulfilling my aim of working abroad. Full time employment in Senegal was 8 to 1 everyday except Friday when we finished at 1. I also had to do a couple of afternoons.  Provided I pop home and sleep or go an have a leisurely lunch, not do much over the weekend, except my prep, I was just about okay - my periods of sickness mainly coincided the holidays and because there was a lot of staff all I had to do was text in and say I cannot manage it today and I knew someone would cover me. I was never made to feel bad about taking time off sick and usually struggled in even after a terrible stomach bug that had me sick in the shower, the day that the inspectors were coming in.

Since then I have had a patchwork of work. At the ROH I sometimes had double shifts and would pay for them later on in the week and recently I have often had to do 6/7 days work a week, but often short days with a break then more work and bit by bit I have been doing over 30 hours a week most of the time which is why I felt that provide that the days were not too long at Bilimkana I should be able to sort of return to a career job.   I was upfront about the condition, or thought I was and that I felt I could try a proper job provided the length of days were not too long. I now have my after class schedule, starting from tomorrow I will not finish till 4.40.  I start (admittedly later than the others) usually at 9.  So it is the long day I have been fearing ever since I got here.  M.E is not something I have a choice about, push myself too hard, and my health keels over, but I do not want it to stop me either. So I am going to give it a go.  It will be more longer continuous hours and days than I have done in a long while, but I will try.

Meanwhile the teacher who does all the printing and promised me that he would show me how to print everything last Friday (but then did not)  has gone to Biskek and no one knows how long for/. At the weekend I discovered that some of the rubbish being dumped locally is asbestos.  I tell you that made me want to just get on the nearest plane and fly home. But I am always more fragile when ill.   And I have a horrible feeling I just saw raw meat being cut on the same board that might be used for other foods.  So lots of things that I had not expected even with the things that I thought I had expected. Meanwhile by tomorrow one of the rooms in the still being built school will be ready for my first kruzhki class - or after school class.  HELP!!!

Tolstoy

I have just realised that the entry I made this morning says Saturday, but it was written on Sunday so that is a bit confusing, probably because I still have this computer on UK time. I also have one phone on UK time, one on Kyrgys time.  Anyway I am feeling a bit more human, but have only slept, read and pottered so wanted to share this extract from the book on Tolstoy that I am reading:

"Armed with Arnold's letter (Thomas Arnold), Tolstoy set off for the schools.  It shows how much he valued his days with the London children that he kept mementoes for the rest of his life."  (Wilson 88, p162) So what we are attempting having visitors to Bilimkana and hoping that will inspire some of the children is old hat.  Tolstoy also later went onto write apparently a very good ABC for the children in his family and school.

Apparently in his early days Tolstoy had not worried too much about the serfs, but according to his biographer at that time the level of slavery in Russia was greater than that in the US. Having recently read The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, which is about slavery, that is quite a sobering thought as conditions in America were so horrendous.Whilst reading about the laws at the time in the states where merely helping a slave try and escape a family could be fined huge sums of money I was however, reminded of our own immigration laws where even innocent drivers can be fined if a migrant stows away on their lorries.  

Thank you BBC

Last night I am pleased to say the internet was working so I lay in my sick bed listening to plays and woman's hour: it definitely got me through the night.  It is again gloriously sunny here it is hard to imagine how it will be when we cannot just sit in the sun, but right now I am going to put my washing out and then go back to bed.

Ambling memories.

This morning it was cloudy when I woke but during breakfast the clouds began to lift and the sun on the mountains brought out the golds and greens.  There is no smell of woodsmoke, which I used to love, but in other ways it reminds me of when I used to visit Ambleside in the Lake District, where my friend Jane used to run an Oxenden Venture hostel for Vietnamese refugees. For me it was idyllic, a mixture of visiting a friend, getting to know the Vietnamese and a beautiful location. I remember the first time I visited, walking in a seeing a man with a machete chopping up meat, to put in a pot over a gas cylinder cooker.  Once the Queen was passing near by and all of us lined the road to greet her. I swear she did a double take when she saw her latest residents and the Christmas I had there was one of the best ever.  There were about 19 of us. Jane and I, the Vietnamese and our Bhutanese friends and one of their friends, who was from Venezuela. I cooked the turkey, about the first and only time I have cooked Christmas dinner on mass, which was passable,  and the rest of the food was delicious Vietnamese food.  When it snowed, everyone rushed out to enjoy it, making me realise that if it is a cold winter here it could still be nice.

Anyway as you can see the washing has been done, it is a beautiful day here so even though I feel rather rough ( very sore throat - too much vodka or talking) so I am going out to collect somethings for an Autumn collage.

A few cultural bits.

I am sat in the dinning room listening to You and Yours so know that the weather is quite good in the UK. Today started beautifully but it is now raining here.  In my new accommodation I cannot listen to the radio which is why I have come over here to catch up with the news - I guess not having heard the news for a week makes me feel more just here, rather than being an English person abroad.  But here I am re-connecting to the UK.

It has been a quiet day today.  Just working on schemes of work, so thought I would take this opportunity to say something about my brief observations of the culture here.

1) People do seem to be very kind.  The staff here have been working all hours, every day, but are never anything but kind, supportive and courteous.   So far everyone I have met has been very kind.
2) The rooms we stay in are only lockable from the  inside. So when I go to work, my room is left open and that was even the case in Biskek.
3) People often do not like to sit on the ground, rather they will hunker down; sometimes someone on their own, just sat hanging there so to speak.   I guess it is like us standing around. The loos at school are mix of sit down and hunker down but loos on the farm lands are hunker down.
4) Shaking hands is very important to people locally especially between men.
5) We use beds in the hotel but because we are full the local guide had to sleep in the house were I am now staying and he just used the old form of bedding, a sort of futon really, on the floor. But they are nice and colourful.
6) Islam does not seem to have a huge impact on alcohol consumption.
7) Alcohol consumption is part of the reason for the high road accident rate and the large difference between male and female average age of longevity.

Anway: the rain has stopped, the clouds are lifting revealing the mountains again and the staff are getting the room ready for dinner. So I will leave things there for today.

A fairy tale training session.

When I was in Senegal one of the best weeks was the Stage, a whole week of teacher training with lots of other teachers. It was how I met fellow English teachers and saw some inspirational examples of teaching. It was all in French of course so I lost a lot, but it is amazing how when you have the context some information goes in. And today even though I have had a translator the two hours training I have just had have been excellent for example how to get young children to engage with material, ask questions (which they do not like to do) and see material from a different angle.   We were encouraged for example to take apart Aladdin, which I could read in the Cyrillic, from the point of view of the sound, heart and eyes of the piece. Seeing my colleagues acting out their part was lovely.  The training was done by our I think Director of Studies (he was properly introduced so sorry that I am not sure) who has been here all week to try and find ways to support the school and ensure that what we offer is good. As part of his work he interviewed all the second year students.  When I was at HRC Ofsted would do something similar, but it was very interesting to see his gentle approach and how the children responded.  They were talking in Russian which is the children's second language (English will be their third) and offered a chance to assess their progress as well as how satisfied they are with their education.

I attach a picture of my students in front of some of the work that they did today. Two classes each did half the work representing material from the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Then when I got home the neighbouring children were out playing with their lovely hand made kites. I now know a use for old video tape.

On the coat tail of tourists.

I will not talk about how the teaching went today, a minor riot just about avoided  - I get on very well with the kids, but today the little ones realised that the class teacher was out of the room and suddenly lost focus and could I get it back, yes but it took 5 minutes and by then class was over and the kids had lost the chance for a game with the balloon that had caused the problem in the first place.  But , almost as per usual it has been an unusual day today. There is a group of mature (i.e. maybe some 20 years older than me) Canadians and Americans staying at the Ashu and as part of their trip I knew that they were coming to the school but my colleagues were down too and the Director, so suddenly the school was packed with people. I had asked that tourists please talk with the kids, and they were great, one did some magic for them and I asked the children to talk with the visitors to practice, "where are you from?" and "what's your name?" The kids were stars and were brave enough to ask and two of them even sang beautifully so it was a very positive occasion.

        

American and Canadian visitors 

In the afternoon the tourists local guide had arranged for them to see a   tradition Kyrgyz horse competition as two teams put a beheaded ram in   a goal.  Actually it was amazingly tough, apparently it was a local derby   and they really fought and because it took place after school time we       were able to drop in and watch the end of the match and have a little horse ride before my colleagues headed back to Biskek.

A new colleague and more vodka.

The Foundation for whom I am working has four schools and each school will eventually have an English teacher.  I am  based in Shabdan, but today the colleague who recruited me and the other new teacher came down. I knew it would be a little crazy combined with the fact that the Director of Studies is also here,  I also was pretty sure vodka would be involved, but did not know that we would all be laughing so much at dinner the tourists had to shut the door to keep our noise out. (We were dinning on the balcony)  However, as we were toasting the future of the school, the new staff and all involved with this venture it was a nice occasion.

Crossing my legs.

I wish I had known there was no water and the toilets were locked before I had my second cup of tea.

Upstaged and shipped out.

I do not know why but I was feeling quite fragile yesterday by the evening.   I had returned from Biskek knowing I might not have somewhere to stay, after having just been somewhere else I guess and while I suppose the whole point of this is to experience things I have been spoilt by the quality of life at ASHU guest house.  So although the good news was my room was free last night the not so good news is that it is not free tonight or tomorrow or etc.  Luckily the manager had warned me it would happen, but I had not realised that is was today. So when I got back from work a complete stranger, though wearing exactly the same spectacle frame as me and who turned out to be the guide for the newcomers, told me to finish my coffee and follow the staff to another room just as nice.

Of course how can it be as nice.  I am not good at shared loos and things at the best of time, now I am going to have to share a tumble down house with two other people I have never met before.   Before I got to Kyrgyzstan  I thought I was sharing a house with other teachers, and although I knew that would be a new experience for me and one it might take me a while to get used to I thought bite the bullet it will be good to have company, but that of course was before I discovered that most of the time I am in a guest house with people from all over the world popping in. Apart from the musty smells and the holes in the ceiling I guess this place is not awful and if it had a kitchen actually it would be really nice, but no such luck. However, at some point it means my new colleague will appear and my absolute boss, but quite when I do not know.

Today actually I felt very superfluous.  I do not know why I was feeling quite nervous before I started school today. I had not been able to get hold of Nathan before his second trip of the year to Portugal before heading for bed but he kindly woke my an hour later and I do not know why,  I guess wondering where I will eventually fetch up,  could not sleep most of the night.   So I was very laggardly heading off for work, but I got everything ready and apart from the fact that the girls were wearing very flouncy dresses, nothing seemed untoward, but as I checked the sound on the CD, the kids did not seem to be getting ready for the class and in fact they started heading out and their teacher told me it was something Kygyzstan day.  Funnily enough I had decided in the night that the year two students ought to be taught Where do you come from? I'm from Kyrgyzstan so that they can quiz visitors to the class and begin to build up their geographic knowledge so that it should come up on some kind of national day seemed great, but it did not look like I would actually have any classes as we all watched some kind of presentation indoors then headed out into the sun and to hear speeches, from the children and dances.  I was very privileged because the little girl who has been wondering around the school the last couple of days (maybe about 2, grand-daughter to cleaner/end of class bell ringer) came and sat on my lap for some of the time.   I especially liked the dancing and singing, but what floored me is that I have seen no practice what so ever for this and sadly as I had forgotten my camera I have no pictures of the kids either.  Strangely there were no parents, but perhaps the idea is to build their confidence and support for each other. I was really impressed with my colleagues dedication. I asked one of them later via google translate who had taught the dance and how, and he said after I leave school, but I try not to leave much before the others these days and while there are always kids about and in fact members of the public seem to wander in (teenagers usually) to ask for the help of the multi talented computer come music teacher to help them with IT, I did not see any obvious groups practicing so I do not know when they did it, some Saturdays apparently so I felt that really I am not working as fully and as part of the team as I had thought or ought to be.  It was slightly similar in Senegal, I would work hard, work my hours, see everyone off the premises, but the next day as if little elves had been in, I would notice loads of useful changes that had happened overnight.

One of the problems I face here, I only realised today, whilst trying to reconstruct my day is that whilst I can happily make lots of resources, for some reason, all the printing seems to have to go through the computer whiz,  The  nice thing as a result is that I have to talk with him and we have so far always worked out a way to explain what I need but like today, I was waiting and waiting to try and get him to print something but by 4 he suddenly gets music students, which makes sense, but all I needed was to print. So even when I am trying to be useful I am not.  And I do not know if it was the complete change of day and the fact that I did not know whether I was teaching or not but I was not very happy with what I did today.  The ideas were good, and the kids loved Wedgie the friend I have bought over with me, but I did not feel very in control and as per usual when I tried playing a game it went array as the kids to be honest were a bit too excitable today.

Anyway am I going to be brave and try and crash out on the new bed.  The third in three days.Very tired and lots of new people to try and have some energy for come dinner time.


(I have just discovered that the owner and his son sometimes have to sleep in their cars, when it is very full, so I probably have no right to have any niggles.)

Biskek and all that.

So I am back from my trip to Biskek and it all went very well. I met the American friend in the very nice American/New Zealand Cafe, called Sierra for my ham and eggs and waffles, which was great.  I had to get them to explain what drip coffee was when I went in yesterday just to check it out and have a tuna sandwich. (Fish yippee) and this morning though I was one of the first people in soon in filled up with American locals, local locals, Indian locals etc and it has a very nice vibe. After that I was shown me a very nice felt shop and we wondered into a totally Western style mall, with huge supermarket and more felt shops, so that will be useful next time I come and then we just found this street festival. A relatively new phenomenon in Biskek, it turned out that it was in aid of road safety, which is vital in Kyrgyzstan, as even with traffic lights crossing the road is a challenge, but  you could not really tell that as there were lots of nice face painting stalls and even someone blasting out a good rendition of Adele.

 Biskek is very green, in parts it almost looks like the greenery is taking over as the city cannot afford to maintain some of the buildings, whereas in other parts it looks like the small homes are being knocked down for more flats, but at both ends of the town there is a sort of green thorough fare, with nice trees, ice creams, playgrounds etc.  There are irrigation channels running round the whole of town, which I guess fill up with ice melt at times.  So parts of it are very pleasant.  So, having said farewell to my friend, I walked through one of these areas and towards the university where to my surprise they were also having a special event, there were loads of cars and blokes, being blokish about them, and girls in high heels. It reminded me a bit of the scenes on Formula One, but instead of big cars they were racing go karts and although the track was cordoned off just as I arrived one car went straight into the audience, which was rather ironic given the message of the other street event. Luckily just the kart got damaged, but it could have been serious.  I then realised it was getting a bit late as although I was only guessing that there would be a one o clock bus back I wanted to get to the bus station for then. So I hoped on one of the trams and to my delight it got me to the bus garage and there was a 309 waiting.  I realised that the bus driver was a bit surprised by this "tourist" getting on and a beautiful young woman was sent to enquire as to whether I really wanted the bus so imagine how superior I felt being able to say actually I live in Shabdan.  She it turned out was accompanied by another Westerner and I heard her explaining that there was a very good school in Shabdan, so I fessed up to being the English teaching there and she surprised me by saying my school is getting very famous!   I suspect that is a bit of an exaggeration especially as the local big wig did not even really know of it before his visit, but it did make me feel very special, but what was even nicer, was the 70 year old woman who sat next to me turned out to have quite good English so we had a nice chat on the way back.(It takes just over two hours).

Two interesting things re Biskek, I noticed official street cleaners, which made me realise it is cleaner than our little village.  I also noticed unofficial street cleaners (no yellow vest) and I am guessing they were looking for stuff with resale value, but also just as there is all over Shabdan, there was also evidence that people just try and burn their rubbish on the streets. Near my village there are fairly deep mining pits, so whether they would be suitable for land fill I do not know. And while I know landfill is not brilliant it has to be better than heaps of half burnt out plastic dotted across the countryside.

The other thing. To my amazement there was a very well written local magazine in the hostel last night, all in English and one of the stories was about the stray dogs.  Stray dogs are definitely an issue here, they are everywhere.  Most friendly and walk on by, but definitely an issue (they have rabies here) so I wondered if Kyrgyzstan had a strategy like they do in Bhutan of trying to spay or neuter dogs, but no Kyrgystan has a Shooting Service instead and apparently over 12000 dogs were shot last year in Bishkek alone.  And each shooter receives 300 some about £3.80 for each dog killed.   Apparently here dogs fleeces are popular with street traders as they are very warm, but some people are very opposed to the policy. Whereas in Britain of course, when we have a problem with animals we are much more humane, we oh yes, we shoot them too.

Very Holman Hunt and Biskek.

If I had written this yesterday as planned I would have sounded very enthusiastic because yesterday was a good day, but in truth today has been good too, just a bit too tired now to express it.

I know I have already made some entries for yesterday but it was an interesting day. I set off a bit late for work yesterday as I had been chatting to two guests from Australia.  Like before they were in their 70's.  So pretty impressive. Then walking along the road I realised the music teacher was ahead of me. I had only just caught up with him when the bus stopped by us and I hopped on with him.  No charge.   It just dropped us half way, but maybe this is an option for winter time.  Anyway we wondered up to the school singing yesterday and arrived in fine spirits.  So the gloomy face of our head stopped our smiles.  But I know her well enough now to know that if she is like that something is going on. So it was not a surprise when the man who set up our school turned up for the second time this week with some dignitaries  Just like in the UK one always has to demonstrate success, organisation and planning and miracles   The dignitary was introduced as a governor and I thought that they meant school governor, so was surprised when told it was unusual for a governor to attend the school However, in the end it turned out he was the Governor or something similar for our area and this was his first visit to the school and the good news he was impressed, and his support is important, which explained the tension earlier.  Once he left her good spirits returned and we were able to relax with a tea.  However, I actually just wanted to continue sorting out my scheme of work.

About 4 I realised that the art teacher was working on his design so I popped out and joined him for a bit, and on the way home was struck by the Holman Hunt like quality of the scene and got side tracked to take some photos.

 For reasons I do not fully understand although I like where I live, I have not been blown away by it.  However, I have to say going and getting these pictures felt good and I do like seeing how the light shifts over the mountains.  By the time I got home I was desperate to crash out, but the manager of the guest house, stopped me en route to my room to say, a) that there was a group having a meeting in the lounge area next to my room so I would not be able to go through and b) the guest house was full up on Saturday so I would not be able to stay.  Ugh.  Well I was able to give him the news I would be away Saturday night so could move everything out of my room and rather than crash out I went and finished the sow in the dinning area.  Every now and then I tried the internet: nothing.   I could have got a lift to Biskek Friday night but I had stupidly booked to do some online work at 9.30.so relaxing was difficult.  By the time I had cleared up my room it looked most dejected.  But at dinner was really impressed with the slap up meal that the ASHU had prepared for the group of economists who have been working away all week in the place. I had hoped that I could speak with them about developing the apple market or doing something economically sensible with the rubbish that dots the landscape, but although they were always friendly, saying hello, I did not get the chance and now they were able to have speeches, and celebrations so the opportunity had gone.  But looking at their meal was like seeing a Christmas scene, three roast chickens (unusual here)salad, bread, drinks etc.  It looked brilliant.  Me and the other guests gradually departed and left them to it. But sadly still no internet, which is why I did not write this yesterday. But with 10 minutes to spare I suddenly got the connection so was able to work.

This morning I was up at 6.30 to finished tidying out my room and to catch the bus to Biskek and yippee it worked, no problem. By 10 I was here.  However, working out which way up the town was and how to get to my hostel heaven knows.   Having consulted the map at the bus station, I set off and was about to turn left, when I realised that the sign said Almaty to left which I knew must be wrong way.  Over the next couple of hours, I asked several people but no one could quite tell me how to get here ( I am sat in the kitchen writing this) but each person I asked the nearer I was.

To my surprise Biskek looked very downbeat, just huge restaurants and little hairdressers and car shops, I was sure I was going in the wrong direction and nowhere had name labels.  When I came on a bigger road and realised it was Chuy and on my makeshift map. A quick bus trip brought me to another road on my map and to my delight there was - no not the youth hostel, but the opticians I was advised might be able to help me with my glasses.  I am pleased to say, they were not phased by my need for English or for a solution to the broken specs and by 11.30 I had arranged for a new frame to be fitted onto my old lenses. After that I walked and walked and though sometimes I would see something that I thought looked like something on my map, everything was further than I had expected  However, it was all a lot posher than before..  Suddenly the sight of a very nice looking coffee shop was too much and before I knew what was happening I had gone in ordered coffee and cheese cake!  what can I say, a million miles from England but my old habits back immediately I am in an urban environment.    Half an hour later, I was finally at the location given for the hostel, but I still could not see it.  So I had to phone the people connected to it. Moments later a young woman, with two lovely kids, welcomed me, took me down the road, through a gate and up 5 flights of stairs to this flat.  It is not very nice, and the bathroom is shared, but it will suffice for tonight.  But boy does it make me realise how lovely having en suite is at the ASHU.  It is so different here to Chong Kemin. Smelly on the outskirts with petrol fumes, but nicer in the centre. Lots of little shops but also some more modern and western shops.  I actually enjoyed window shopping and was able to find some things for school and spotted the cafe where I am meeting one of the Americans I met last week,  so all in all very successful.  Some of the women are stunning and incredibly tiny, it seems a young city.    I will be hard pressed to find shoes big enough for me here. People are quite fashionable too.  After I had picked up my new frames I finally found all the tourist spots that I had somehow missed on the way before.  In the sun it all seemed very gentle.  See if you can spot the super large hats on the guards, I was not sure if they were real people at first, and thought I better be discrete taking their photos, but some aspects of power are hilarious. (perhaps Busbies seem just as daft).  Anyway I have now come back to the flat and I am writing this. My legs are killing me, but tomorrow I look forward to American Breakfast and a good chat before catching the bus back to the quiet of the countryside. 

Playground art

The play area for the children was created by a group of artists. The children love to rush out, run around, play for five minutes and then come into class. Last night just as I was finishing dinner the art teacher came in. He explained that he had been building a map of the area with stones in the play area and was desperate to have something to eat and a warm shower after his labours.  The picture shows one of the children standing on the map, which is a nice physical representation of the area, the different coloured stones showing the road, the river and the various villages that we cover and in the background is the swing he and his colleagues created over summer. I was a bit puzzled by their having a subject specific art teacher at primary school but that is common here. He also teaches computer skills so I think that these students will be set up to work in multi media when they are older.

Or don't call me Jamie Oliver

It was so funny,  I have just come from the kitchen where the meals are served and while I would not call it a complete disaster, disaster nevertheless. I only served the apples, now cold, to the older students. Just in a shared plate, like they have their salads, not intentionally to see what would happen, but I could not think what else to do, as there was not the resources to serve it separately.  So when the kids came in, they were not sure what it was, so sniffed it, some picked it up and tried it , making a face. Even the baby, whose mother is somewhere else in the building, painting, was happily swiging tea and eating buckwheat stew, but spat out the apples.  In the end the teachers put more sugar on it and ate it with bread and some of the boys stirred some in their tea. Only a few of the girls gave it a shot, so I have to find a way to add it to things like cakes and pies, so that they can try it other ways, so back to the drawing board for the moment.

Just call me Jamie Oliver

I took about 70 apples into work today and after lunch set about peeling them and stewing them. I realised by then end that was not nearly enough for the whole school to eat tomorrow but the head tried them and thinks that they kids will like them and she even suggested ways to store them for winter.  So maybe now that the horse has eaten most of the apples a use for the rest of them has been found. However, it does mean I am scrumping on a major scale as it was the guest house that I thought would take up the ideas as this is where the apples are grown.  I just hope that keeping it in the family is okay as the school and guest house are connected.  It is however, these kinds of things that make one want to have a long term goal here rather than just a year to see if some ideas get embedded.  For instance both the Head and I hope that there will be a garden at the school with apple trees. However the head is keen that I make lots of notes so that if I am not here next year she has a sort of scheme of work and resources to hand.  At the moment I am photographing the children according to initial  letter to help me get to know their names and to use in alphabet work e.g. Dastan does not like dogs.. I am also photographing things around the village that can be use for the same purpose.

It is interesting, today for the second time I tried getting the children to stand in a row near the board to do an activity then go to the back of the row.  The idea was that the student at the back, write a number on the back of their person in front etc, until the message reaches the board.  The total confusion of 2B made me realise that I have to teach, front, back, row and go to the back, before attemtping such activities.  However, their blatant cheating by whispering the numbers slightly defeated the idea anyway.  I am pleased to say doing it with 3 students in a row and not in a competitive situation improved comprehension when I tried it with 2A, but whilst some of the children had a clear ability to write a number on someone's back, others could only stroke the back of the person in front who had no chance of getting it right.   These children are learning such a large number of skills all at once and they are also having to get to grips with Russian too. They tend to be much more comfortable using books even if they do not really know what they are doing there either. Yet they actually do quite a lot of work at the board in their normal lessons, but not in this way. Peeking through the window today they were drawing the most wonderful helmets during their art class on the board yet they were also painting typically Russian style decorative pictures too at their desks, so I was not quite sure what the topic was.

Strange happenings.

Something strange happened today.  I was in the Maths class just observing my collegue when one of the boys went out. When he came back in he was holding his arm as if it was badly hurt, but I could see nothing.   Then anothr boy and I think in the end a third. I could only see a bit of a lump but they went off presumably to show the head and one of the name of one of the girls was mentioned. I wondered if somehow she was being singled out as the source, but no, two elderly woman appeared and talked to the group for a bit. They were district nurses of some sort and they had come to inject her to protect against whatever had bitten the boys, much to her distress. Her father works at the school and she managed to give him a bloody nose trying to resist his attempts to get the injection done.  Heaven knows what it was for and it was only her as she was the one who in the Shabdan district had not had it.


I am wiring this at school as the internet was down again most of yesterday at guest house.  I am also probably just going to rest tonight as along with some others have a sore throat and snuffles. However, I now know that I will get abreak at the end of October, another just after Christmas and into the New Year A week at the end of March and then the fourth term ends at the end of May. I hope I can do a bit of travelling in the breaks but flights are crazy prices here and if I want to go to Kazakhstan I have to get a visa.

Anyway I have also spoken with the opticians in the UK via Skype and they will see if they have the frame that is broken in stock.

I forgot to mention that I read the Hungry Caterpillar today with the year 0 children 5 -6 and although their teacher explained one or two things, really the story alone captured them and they all turned into lovely butterflies at the end.

Time to go home I think or at least to the Ashu.

Writing this with nose pressed to the screen.

Internet would not work at all last night, but I did manage to book the youth hostel for Bishkek this Saturday and so even if I have to spend the day trying to find an optician that is a start and the heating is on which is good as I have definitely got the sniffles after the weekend rain.


Having seen the horse munch its way through the orchard and field I now know why it is called having a field day! Virtually no apples left, but I asked my colleague who speaks some English yesterday and she said that they are not used to the idea of cooking apples at all.

Agh

Just before I left England I realised I should take a spare pair of glasses with me, but for some reason could not find any of them.  I had moved all my stuff from my room before my student came as Nathan was moving to my room during my absence.  And try as I might could I think where I had put them for safe keeping. NO  So here I am in Kyrgyzstan with only a very old falling apart pair of glasses. Last night mid working on the internet, it died, nothing. I spent the next hour trying to restore it.  This morning I woke at 6 so thought let me sit in bed and try again, when !  Yes you have guessed it, I managed to break my glasses.  Agh no internet to report the problem to Nathan or my optician in the UK or the insurers who I am pretty sure did not ask about my eyesight so probably will not pay up etc.   Luckily the computer teacher at work has restored the net for the moment so I hope that I can book to go to Bishkek and start getting a new pair.

A good day teaching wise, but more and new information about my obligations.

So I have been here just over 2 weeks, the longest I have been away for five years and I do feel fairly settled at the school, but today I have been given a bit more information about the community classes that the school runs.

When I had my interview and follow up chat, we spent most of our time talking about the regular children and I must confess I thought that they would be the bulk of my teaching so I have been both a little surprised but also pleased with regard to the small amount of teaching I have been doing - two or three classes per day, except Friday. Although there is a general curriculum and we are following a book too, as a result there has been time to organise resources and in truth the teaching though nice has been tiring so I have been thinking perfect, this is doable.  However, now I might have to work 2-4 on community classes each day including Saturday, so that is a lot more work and of course there is no curriculum or book.  I knew I would have to contribute to these classes, but I did not realise how much and I actually did not want too much teaching where I would have to prepare lots of material or work out the sow, as that is what is so exhausting with teaching.  For instance today I taught for three classes, prepared materials for the rest of the time, finished at 3.30 and will have to write up some information re how it went too later today.   So the job may be more challenging than anticipated especially if I have to have early mornings.    My head does not seem to have been told that owing to my health long days may be an issue, and the thought of working 6 days a week again definitely does not grab me. My contract specifies Monday to Friday and says nothing about the weekends and if I do have to work then my hopes of getting away to Biskek occasionally will not come to fruition. However, I think that I will be able to cope and the best strategy is to take it a step at a time and if it does become problematic let everyone know then as I think everyone is trying to be accommodating.

Teaching wise it was an interesting day.  The focus of the lessons is of course to get the children speaking, but it is also important that they develop some written skills too. They also like books and so far each has been given a general notebook and a classwork book that follows the syllabus. So I was surprised last week to be given yet another book for the children. Both the classwork book and the workbook have material that consolidates what the children are doing.  BUT given that they cannot read English yet how to tackle this aspect of the course.  They had a little dialogue, one that they are familiar with by rote and they had to fill in the gaps. So I put the example correct dialogue on the board, but got a few of the children to come to the board and write the answers. So in theory all the children had the written example in front of them.  Once they completed that they had to link a phrase from picture 1, 2,3, 4 with another phrase from picture 1,2,3,4 and although most of them managed it, it was a real struggle getting them to understand the concepts and to avoid them copying incorrect answers.  However, it is early days so I am sure bit by bit some of the written forms will make more sense.

The other nice thing is that I was preparing some material later in the computer room based round the one English book I have with me, and a few of the children came up and enjoyed looking through it (Walking through the Jungle - a favourite from Senegal times) and so I started singing it to them and about 3 of the girls and the 4 of the boys joined in and really sang it beautifully.  I think that their reaction confirms the importance of books for them.  So we really need to get some more.   I also began teaching the little ones SATPIN (phonics) by getting them to take things out of my bag that start with those letters and for some strange reason I was able to ensure that each of them got an apple for a!

Then when I got home my room had been enhanced with a Kyrgyz box for my clothes which is lovely, there was a horse munching all the apples I have failed to pick up in the orchard, which is also lovely,  and it was sufficiently hot for me to sit out and start reading Tolstoy's biography, which was even better after the miserable weather this weekend.

Wet and cold, but still positive.

It is very wet so my new umbrella has been exposed to the elements.  Most of the day I have been happy to just potter at home, trying to tidy up my room and I will do some preparatory work later. I finished The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier last night and I am trying to resist the desire to plough straight into one of the books I have been left and get some work done.  However, the weekend has been made most enjoyable by two visiting Americans who live in Bishkek, giving me lots of useful information for when I finally get back there.

One of the Americans works in a Kyrgyz orphanage, apparently there are quite a lot of orphans here, much to my surprise (people are often so family orientated and the population tiny) and it has been a real calling for her to come over and work here.  Hopefully I might find out more the longer I live here.

The potato harvest is brought in just before the skies open.

Hopefully you can just about see that we are in the clouds and that the snow has covered the tops of the mountains behind my room.

New furniture.

My colleague was very solicitous when he came to stay, making sure that I had everything I needed.  He thought for instance that I would want a desk and a wardrobe in my room, but in fact there is a lovely long low table in the room in which I am writing this (which is in the communal room next to mine) and I would much rather have a box like the Kyrgyz use for my clothes.   So I thought that was what he had asked for.  However, two of the staff have just brought a table for me.  So it looks like my furniture needs have got a bit confused despite his excellent Russian.

A little bit of shopping.

I have just had my first trip on one of the buses ( Marshrutkas) that criss cross Kyrgyzstan. They are really minibuses.  A similar system operated in Turkey when I taught there briefly.  They run to a timetable (sort of) and are numbered and labelled more efficiently than the C3 bus at Tescos, but I was still a bit unsure about using them as I only know the words for big and thank you! So I was lucky that the cook from the school wanted to go to Kemin, our nearest local town, which is where I wanted to get to to try and buy an umbrella, kettle and some material to make a story sack.  I arranged to meet her at the bus stop which meant leaving the guest house at 7.30.  For the first time it was grey and overcast and cold.  A lot of people wear socks here with summer shoes so I did not look too out of place with my long socks and dress and I was happy to warm up by walking as quickly as possible, but one of the men who works at the school drove past, pulled up and insisted that I have a lift.  So I was nice and early and cold sat there looking at the view.

  A man with a car was hovering and trying to convince me to use his car to get to Kemin, there is an unoffiicial car service here a bit like in Senegal where you can just pay for the journey once the car is full, but there are also taxis, however, how could I explain that I was actually waiting for someone and that I wanted to go by bus.  To my surprise the next person at the bus stop was the year zero teacher, en route to Biskek, so she, me, the cook and the cook's daughter all piled on together.  The bus was packed.

I had seen bits of Kemin when I was driven through en route to Shabdan, but in my head I thought there must be more to our local town.  But it just seems to be a main drag, with residential streets behind.  There were one or two big shops, and a small market, but most of the shops seemed to offer little more than the local shops.  However, I did get my kettle and material straight away. I also tried the local cafe and asked in my best Kyrgyz for nan (bread) and chai, but landed up with sort of meat samosa instead.  I had been told that the bus back was at 12, but having drunk copious amounts of tea decided to sit at the bus stop on the off chance something would come at 10 instead. Shortly before 11 I and the taxi driver, whose price had come down and down, gave up as I wondered back to the shops, which is when I found my umbrella, and to my delight Jazgul. We wandered back to the bus stop thinking we had a long wait, when we both realised the Marshutkas for Shadan had just pulled up.  She elbowed me and her daughter on board and as another 7 people piled in standing I was glad of her help.   Her daughter's face is swollen as a result of a tooth ache. She is the second child I have seen suffering in this way and I wonder if the fizzy drinks and sugared tea the children receive are a contributing factor.  Some of the children of my Polish students - all intelligent woman - have lost all their first teeth as a result of giving their children fruit drinks, so it is possible. And although England is famous for sweet foods and bad teeth, Kyrgyz people (and I) do love eating sweet jams.

I cannot say Kemin holds many delights but at least I have got out and hope as a result that I will have the ability to try and see a bit more of the country.

Everyone was rushing around when I got to the restaurant at the guest house, so I laid out the cutlery as neatly as I knew, ready for the coach load of French visitors.  But I then realised that the staff were being told off for the way that they had been laid by the manager so had to confess much to the amusement of the other guests already tucking in to their meal.

One of the guests is wearing a more Islamic headscarf than the scarfs usually worn. I also noticed a girl at the secondary school with one.  There are less common here than in London, but given the drive to boost Islam here it will be interesting to see, and maybe a little sad or worrying, if this relaxed but religious country becomes more rigid.

Inside the state school.

In a few hours the lovely visitors will head back to Bishkek, but today I took advantage of their presence to visit the local state school.  As you can see it looks very pleasant if very Soviet era, but everything is actually Kyrgys.  Education in the country has changed in rather complicated ways since the end of the Soviet era.  The country wants understandably to reinforce its identity and language, but quality education especially at University level still tends to be in Russian.  So Kygys speakers can find themselves at a disadvantage if they do not know Russian.  Apparently the area where I live used to fairly recently have a Russian name and a fairly large Russian population but now most of these families have left and the area is predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz.  The picture shows my colleague and his friend going over the Kyrgyz alphabet. The state school has about 350 children from primary to secondary school age.  Each room is used for a specific topic and has pictures of inspirational people from the field, I for example recognised James Cook and Marco Polo in the Geography room. But there was very little work up by the children and in the primary school the flooring was very rickety and the playground very basic. The children at our school pay because they want their children to have English and Russia and IT skills, but finding the fees can be quite a challenge for some. Apparently most rural schools in the country struggle to find teachers.

Wow, full on excitement.

The hotel has been full, with Swedish visitors, Snow Leopard experts and the colleague who recruited me has been on a whirlwind visit with his Masters Professor and brother. So whilst I have not had the chance to find out much more from the Snow Leopard people, I have learned a lot more about the Foundation that I am working for, I have had a chance to have lots of girly chats, but also lots of lovely discussions about how to approach education at the school and how to extend our resources.    However, the day has also been pretty full on so just a short entry today.

Optimism and pessimism.

I started the day very excited, but have retreated to the kitchen for bread and jam tonight and even come home in the school bus I felt so disenchanted.

Last night when I came in for dinner the table was set out in a U shape. It was also covered with nibbles to eat as if it was Christmas, there were even plates of apples for everyone. My plate was set outside, with a couple of other guests, so the big group could dine alone.  A Westerner and some others speaking Russian came in, so I didn't know if they were actual Russian or just Kyrgys people who speak Russian. Bit by bit they gathered including a man with a big felt hat.  The only intimation as to who they might be was the t shirt of one of the men, International Snow Leopard team, but maybe that was just his t shirt.  I thought that there might be speeches to give me a clue as there had been with the group who drank lots of vodka and were staying in Alsu for a  futures brain storming session, but instead the man in the felt hat intoned a prayer, so powerful, that the other dinners lifted their hands.  And then having finished my meal I did not feel I could hang around any further to work out who they were.  But this morning, just the woman and the man, who I had originally thought was Russian were in the room, and once we had exchanged morning greeting it turned out that they really are Snow Leopard specialists.     I am such an idiot that my mind turned to a programme on the TV about what I thought were Snow Leopard, which was set in Russia, but in fact they were Snow Tigers, but apparently here in Kyrgyzstan on the mountains to the North almost into Kazahstan this beautiful animal lives. The group are here for a couple of days so I hope to learn more: http://www.snowleopard.org/kyrgyzstan-major-win-for-snow-leopards but they did say that they like to work with the local people on trying to preserve this beautiful animal and that amazingly all the countries in which the creature lives are working to protect it.

It has occurred to me if just one in ten of some of the well educated and potentially very inspiring visitors who stay at ALSU come and talk to the children then it would be an incredible resource and I was delighted when my Head responded to the idea and the owner of the Guest House.  Whether it will turn into something that is another matter but I am hopeful. However, it is always a bit hard to tell how things work here.  (Though I suspect it is the same with a lot of English primary schools)

Today I moved the table in the room I work in around so I could actually sit it andso that it lay flush to the wall. I did it very discretely, but was pretty sure that if I moved it, other things would occur. And so it was when I returned to the room an hour later all the spare desks that had been stacked up in the room had disappeared and my desk (or the desk I have occupied) was resplendent in the middle of the room instead but facing away from any light.

But all of this should have been very positive.  However,  having checked that I was going to team teach in the morning with the Year One teacher, and that the Year 0 teacher knew not to expect me to the afternoon. She came looking for me.   And having agreed with all the staff that the children were benefitting from access to the video in the afternoon, I was happily sitting with the Year Zero children, most of whom were happily watching Ratatouille in Russian, and the others were not making a nuisance of themselves, when it became clear that there was a slight difference of opinion going on and the children were whisked back into their class on the basis that they did not understand what they were watching. I do not know why but it really pissed me off, because every time I thing something is settled and actually the children are settled they get shifted.  For instance having agreed that I will just get to know the youngest kids first before launching into formal teaching, I was asked how they were getting on with the scheme of work that I have been provided with.  None of this probably matters, and there are probably good reasons for all of it, but when I realised that the cook was in her kitchen with a nice cup of tea, buns and jam, I went and joined her and having initially refused the lift home in the school bus, I decided yes it was much nicer to muck in with them and get home early than have a hot and tiring walk.

However, the team teaching was great. I worked as TA whilst one of the teachers taught Maths in I guess Russian, then she helped me with my class, which was brilliant as I had some noisy games for them.  And then I worked with the Year 0 children most of the afternoon. Last night I sat up till 11 cutting out things for the children to stick, but they got through the work so quickly though that I spent their class time adding more things for them to do. . It is an idea I have pinched from the school in Senegal where I was able to do the activity with younger children so I knew our children could manage, what I had not realised is how quick they would be. However, it means that in a couple of weeks, in time for the start of formal teaching, they will have made an English alphabet.

Feeling a bit shattered and a tad homesick.

I think the whole move and everything has caught up with me a bit today.  Funnily enough it was trying to walk along the river on Sunday that made me homesick for the first time, suddenly  I really missed the tidy river with its lovely boats, greenery and views up to Essex.  I have must have walked that walk thousands of times in the 17 years that I have lived in Hertfordshire and I never tired of it, so perhaps it is not surprising that the tatty scrub of land next to the torrent somehow did not seem to be as pleasing. The only thing that they both share is the amount of rubbish people happily hurl about after their day in the country.

However, I had a useful chat with my head, today's classes were a lot of hard work for the students: trying to master one two buckle my shoe,  and I was very grateful for the year one teacher as she stayed in class with me today. She has 21 children in her class and I still have not mastered their names for not only are they written in Cyrillic, which I can just about to translate, but they are written in cursive cyrillic which I cannot understand, and then even assuming I can understand what the letters say I cannot always fathom how to say it.  I have the same problem learning Kyrgis because although I have been given a book, all I have is the English and the Cyrillic and whenever I try and ask people a word that I have carefully translated what they say seems to bear no relationship to what I have worked out.At least I know how the students feel as they try and fathom out what I am saying and writing.

It turns out that some of the children start the journey for school by bus very early, those that come from the outlying villages, and then at the end of the day they do not get away till about 3.30. Most of my colleagues therefore are at work by 8 for when the first bus arrives, but I have demurred from doing that but I am now trying to stay a bit longer at the end of each day.  It means that for the first time in quite a while I am working from 9.- 3.30 each day, and then obviously doing a bit more prep or other work in the evening, rather than mixing and matching having a break, then doing a couple of hours and working 13 hours or so over each weekend.    I have enjoyed my patchwork working at times, there is a lot to recommend it, but I also wanted to see if I could have something more like a career post again. I know that compared with my colleagues who teach for 6 hours each day my effort is tiddly pom, but for various reasons at it seems quite an achievement that I am doing so much but I am shattered so I will leave this today and go and get something to eat.

No one was at the guest house last night or this morning so I fended for myself, which was quite nice, apart from the still blazing fires, but tonight we seem to have a full house.  The guests are always a bit perplexed by this lone female in the corner, but it also can be nice if it ends in a conversation.

Communicating can be a real issue wherever one is.

So having carefully planned my two hours of teaching with year twos, the year zero teacher came in to ask why I wasn't teaching. Well I wasn't teaching because the head took it off the system whilst the kids got used to me, which seemed a good idea provided I did team teaching on Wednesday with the year zero teacher instead. So now here she was asking me to teach an unprepared lesson on a Monday, the head and I looked at each other, and I said okay if you will stay and so we finally got to do last weeks lesson and it went perfectly (except for the absence of Sooty of course who did not know he was required). I then did my year two lesson, which was interesting, as whilst they knew their numbers, recognising them in English was more of an issue (which is fair enough) so needs work. And then having double checked my new timetable I prepared to have lunch, but was instead  asked by a nice young person to come and teach Angleski.  So I did.  And again it was fine, but boy did I need lunch and a sit down afterwards and was happy just to spend the rest of the day laminating and cutting out numbers for bingo and pondering what timetable changes would happen next. So when the head came in and started to chat, I was totally unprepared for her next suggestion -that I move out of the Guest House and over to the village nearer the school when winter comes.   I love my little en-suite and wifi, but in truth how will I walk to the school when the snow comes.  There is the school bus but I have now been informed that goes at 7.20 rather than 8 which is what I was originally told.  I know that living in the other village may mean staying with a family which in some ways would be more authentic. But it would also make other things much much more difficult. Hmm.   I will try not to think about it and just see what happens.  Though I wonder how the staff who live in the village get there. Hmm.

 I have found trying to go with the flow is the best strategy when living abroad especially when I do not understand the language., Though I realised by the end of last week that I was much more tense than I had noticed up till then. .  However, my son, manages to send me through the roof on a regular basis, even at this distance or maybe especially at this distance and I really do not know how to manage the situation or improve the quality of communication between us to enable this year to go ahead with little inconvenience or stress to either of us. It is true that I am a major control freak so that is a contributing factor, but I was only able to go away because of his promise to deal with everything back home from letting in the new tenant, paying the bills etc.  It is very kind of him to do it, provided it works.  But my hope that I would see him on Skype several times last week came to naught. so we arranged to meet online yesterday which should have been fine as he was due to be home to greet his new flatmate.  So I popped online on a regular basis, but nothing I texted to ask when we would going to discuss the now several urgent things I wanted dealing..Nothing. By 10pm I was beginning to wonder what was going on but phone calls home did not help.  I even realised I could try ringing on Skype. Nothing. In the end I rang the tenant only to be told by him that my son had rescheduled his tenancy.  I am sure from my son's point of view all my stressing over this is both annoying and unnecessary.  But I really do not know how to be abroad and feel so out of control.   He finally texted me at 5 am this morning. So all suggestions as to how to make us work more effectively together much appreciated.

This house reminds me of a Russian fairy story. 

One nice thing happened today I was actually offered my old teaching post back in the UK.    Just two hours, but nice to have the offer, but I have been juggling teaching, examining, TESCO, teaching online, nursery work etc etc for the last two years and have only been able to go away for a couple of days at at a time so the chance to be abroad and have a contract makes much more sense for the moment.  

Stage one of the apple project.
I am trying drying apple rings in the air (Thanks to Anna's brilliant suggestion).
Others I just put out in the eating area and I was pleased to see the people who are having a conference pick them up and take them with them.
A whole bunch more I have stewed but I am not sure whether the kitchen staff will serve them up, it might not fit in with what they are cooking or they may not have understood.  And the best bit was I found the juicer which produced beautiful juice very quickly. Which is good because peeling them took for ever, so not really financially viable unless the other staff can fit it in or I continue doing it as my thanks,  and most of the apple rings broke, so juicing is the future, until I can find some cardboard boxes to try storing some of the other apples to try and get through winter.

I am worried but no one else is.

There has been a fire sending smoke up into the sky all day further up the valley, which is just about visible in this picture. Now as dusk is settling the red flames are distinctly visible.  I keep pointing it out to everyone, but they just say it is normal. Last year in Portugal there were flames on all the hills as we drove along, which I also found rather frightening, but there was also a lake to escape to and very clear evidence of planes trying to dowse it.  Here there is no sign of any one taking the slightest bit of notice. Given that all the buildings have a lot of wood in them, and that the valley is long and winding and the fire is at the exit I am not sure how they are remaining so calm, but of course they are used to this.  So I just hope that it is as safe as they think it is. All these unexpected hazards.   I think I will post pony crash out on the basis that at least I will have had some sleep should we suddenly have to escape!

Wagner's blood letting stops the show!

I have to interrupt this blog to both laugh in shock and horror and to commiserate with a friend. There I am feeling a little intrepid, riding up the mountain side, John Wayne, styley, trying not to feel nervous as we got near the edge, when really it was whilst I was working at the ROH that I was in the most danger.

A friend of mine, (and a million other people) was sitting doing his duty, whilst the opera was operating, when thwack a shard of Simon Callow's anvil, flew off and straight into his leg. Luckily the blood pouring from him, matched his blood red ushers uniform and his cries of pain only enhanced Wagner. True stalwart he wanted to stay to the end, but was rushed to A and E and patched up. He should have been at the last night of the Proms tonight, one of his favourites, but will have to watch it from home recuperating instead.   So lots of love to the HERO of the ROH.

The old grey mare ain't what she used to be, but she just about got up the mountains and back.

Little known facts about apples (assuming that they are true)

I do not have to teach on Fridays so decided to turn up to school a bit later and do some preparatory work at home instead, which I did and on the way back I planned to search for some little gifts to encourage the children and the Mosque.  So it was a relatively easy day.  One interesting thing is that I am beginning to hear smatterings of English already. One of the little girls who has totally charmed me for instance said bread and she was also doing all the moves to Bob the Builder Big Fish little fish today. So my hope that just hearing English would make a difference seems to be working, unfortunately my head was not around to hear it.

I left about 3 and headed off towards where I had spotted the Mosque.  Given it is Friday I thought to see signs of life, it looked quite dilapidated, especially at the back,  and most unusually there did not even seem to be water around in which to wash, but I did not go in as I was not sure if it would be appropriate.  I mentioned the Mosque at dinner tonight and was told that there was a move financed from the Middle East to build Mosques in every village.  We do hear the muezzin call floating across the valley (unlike Senegal where it blasted away tinnily, distorted electronics) which sounds very evocative, but faith here seems personal and relaxed, rather than political. Next door to the Mosque was a bigger shop than I have seen before and here I managed to buy balloons and erasers that I might try and use to congratulate good behaviour. I also bought a drink that I was told was not alcoholic but tasted very like fizzy brandy so yuck.

When I got back I decided to pick up some of the apples in the orchard that have just fallen to the ground. Fruit is really plentiful and apart from scrumping boys no one seems fussed to pick them, so I wanted to see what they were like. It tasted nice but had a texture unlike any I have seen before.  So looked up Kyrgyzstan apples online only to find out that this quintessential English fruit actually originates from this region.(I seem to remember that Alma Ata, now Almaty, means something to do with apples, so there may be something in this)   I have spoken with the manager here tonight and asked his permission to see if some of the apples can be stored over winter or used in purees as it would be nice to have a little project and if it works show my thanks to the family for all their kindness. He tells me one of the types of apples that they grow it should work with, so we will see. The American websites I have been checking tell me I need something called parchment paper on which to freeze apples.  Now I wonder if my little store sells that!

English books wanted please, especially with CD's.

I forgot to say, if anyone would like to send the school some old but still usable English books with nice clear simple stories that would be great.  Even better if they come with a CD. If you are interested please add a comment.   Maybe some puzzles too. I cannot refund the costs but you would know that it would be really appreciated here. No heavy books but something light that you can post for little would be brilliant.

Just when I thought I was on Kyrgyz time I just could not sleep last night.  It is one of the joys of teaching that it fires the imagination, the only problem is the time of day or should I say night when that happens.

I ate last night with the art teacher at the school, he will come once or twice a week to teach, at first the conversation was rather hesitant, but as he talked about his art and what he hopes to do with the school inspired me. I want to do some art work around Postman Pat or Bob the Builder for example. In Senegal we used to do whole class pictures around a literary text which was great fun.    Perhaps when he has bought the art materials that he wants for the school that will happen.

I cannot help feeling that I could be part of something really interesting if I stay here. The artist and his colleagues had work shops in the summer at the school and created the school playground with its natural wood swings and tyres. The children only get five minutes between classes but they love to play with these objects.  I cannot imagine what it was like last year maybe just a bit of concrete and wild grass.  At the moment we only have classes 0 - 2 but more bits of school are being built so that there will be a biology room, a maths room etc.  and dare I hope an English room.

When I first tried getting into teaching it was with the idea of being a primary school teacher,  I even had acquired the last place on a course at NLP as it was then called.  I had been lucky to get the place because my degree was not a dedicated degree, which was a requirement then for primary teaching.  Then suddenly my place vanished. Understandably people with community languages were more important than monolinquists like myself;   my last place was given to someone else.   And so I came to train as an FE teacher in Media instead.  Which was a wonderful thing to do, and gave me a lovely career, but was not the original plan.  So when I reduced my teaching hours I did some supply work in local Hertfordshire primary schools knowing that one day I would try and work abroad and that supply work would come in handy on my return.  That bit of supply work, plus my experience as a childminder and under fives community worker, helped me get the job in Senegal.  I loved working with little ones.  They are so funny.  I still miss the children I taught there and wonder how they are now. But when I got back to the UK Hertfordshire had changed its policy and I was no longer eligible to work in primary schools with them, which is partly why getting work was so hard, typical I had much more experience but could not capitalise on it.  But now I get the chance for such an experience all over again.  I sat in the kitchen canteen with the five years olds yesterday.  Opposite a poppet, like a cartoon girl, with her big bunches and huge ribbons.  We cannot talk with each other, but we can make faces and that is what happened, I winked she blinked, she opened her eyes wide, I did too, etc, etc, and we just laughed. You cannot buy such moments.  Let's hope that natural easy communication can transfer to the classroom.