Equal Rights in Kyrgyzstan.

As I seem to be just moaning at present thought it was interesting that there has been an equal rights seminar going on all week at the Ashu and today I finally got the chance to briefly talk to the one British person at the event.  He works for an organisation called the Equal Rights Trust.  Given what is happening say in Russia at present it is interesting and hopefully promising that Kyrgyzstan is beginning to discuss what equal rights are. Equal Rights Trust for further information on their projects in Central Asia.

Got through a very long day.

Had such a bad migraine yesterday I took myself to bed at 8 which was wise as I tthougth I was teaching from 8.45 today right through to 4.30 as the teacher was off and that was what had been arranged. Sadly as I dressed this morning I realised my jumper was missing.  It was not at school either. And I finally twigged I must have lost it on the way home last night as it was very warm and I had taken it off and I was feeling so ill. This is a blow when you have very few clothes in the first place and an even bigger blow as clothes cost a lot here and my income is virtually nill and one needs lots of clothes here.

Luckily the teaching all started idyllically. As soon as the kids were in class we started reading an English Kygyz book together and one boy read both the Kyrgyz and the English which was pretty good, but then five mins in a girl turned up to teach them dance. (i.e I did not need to rush in for 8.45)  When they finished dancing the kids more or less got on with drawing when I wanted to finish the story, then when I came to teach maths, yes again they refused (some did do some maths and happily played bingo till the girls had a spat and refused to play together) and even when I tried teaching English because I had to teach them two lessons to compensate for the class they missed on Tuesday one girl just kind of said " Am I bothered!" whilst the others knuckled down briefly at the threat of being sent to the Head. She stayed drawing on the board and this confirmed something I had suspected earlier. That more of my chalk is in her possession than mine. So I reclaimed it whilst the children were at lunch (it was in a see thru side pocket that was not zipped), then she realised during second class and made sure she had to do something on the board and re-pocketed it.  I am sure people who have taught primary school children much longer than me will say that this kind of cheekiness is typical but I could do without it.  In the second lesson she and two other girls decided the lesson was over, and started packing up my books and insisted on taking them to my staff area. None of which was necessary or wanted. As a result she actually did not finish the unit that most of the others were busy working on and here they are graded at the end of term so she has brought her grade down by not co-operating.All the girls here have a tendency to want to be very helpful when I am leaving class, and sometimes that is useful as I always arrive with a mass of stuff, but I am deeply suspicious of some of their motives, but with this girl is it is either that she really cannot sit for that long or something else so I need to try and find out.All staff give feedback to the head each month, but as I am not privy to this information I have no idea if other staff have these problems.  I hope to try and pin the head down and go through a number of issues like this, but of course there is never any time and the staff training next week will not actually give us time for useful things like this it will just involve discuss schemes of work, which I have had to change because of all the extra work for the end of term event tomorrow and quality control!  Joy, Joy. Whereas I want to discuss school communication, the children and their needs and discipline.

Another tough day.

I have realised that my previous input does not make sense so when I can get rid of my horrid headache and relax I will try and sort it out.

I have actually had a really lovely time, or did till I got to work, but..

So first the lovely time. One of the Americans who visited 5 weeks ago has come back, so that is very nice, to see someone I feel I know, but her parents are visiting too, which is even nicer. It is her mum's first trip out of America, and her Dad's health is not brilliant so it has been a great achievement for them both to be here.  I have never met a family from Georgia, just nice regular people of my age, who can talk about music, art,furniture, and music again.  While I was listening to American music in Britain they were listening to British music in America and we have several cross over albums that we both enjoyed. Over my life I have had several passions for different countries. For political reasons at one I did not want to go to the states, but as a fan of the Monkees, then Carole King and Joni Mitchell, I did want to go, and as someone with an interest in Native Indians as a child and who loved Gone with the Wind as a teenager I also wanted to go, but apart from a visit to New York and a flight out of Seattle it has never happened. But meeting these people has made me yearn once more for the chance one day.


So that is the lovely, but the negative is yet again my inability to control the kids but also why I was on my own with the kids.  On Friday the students will be presenting to the parents but it has completely  thrown all the teaching schedules out and as per usual no one informs me that my class has disappeared until I turn up to teach it. On Tuesday I just gave up and went and join the kids having dance lessons because actually my dance skills as good as the person trying to teach them so I might as well chip in with something because at this rate the presentations I have had to cobble together as no one told me about the event have had to go unrehearsed.  It is also taking the teachers away from their usual activities so today when I entered my year one class the teacher was absent I figured doing something for Friday. Trying to gather a group of kids together who were just left to play in the room is quite hard even in English and I got most of them into a circle and doing the work but of course one or two just had to bugger it up for everyone so in the end Miss whisked one of them off to the head.  Asiz who is one of the men helping to build the school round us witnessed me taking the boy off in high dudgeon if that is the right spelling thought it was very funny.  Anyway that alerted the teacher that maybe I needed some help so she left her prep to help me and of course it was a nice lesson.  But some of the kids work so hard to learn English,  one little boy just sat there practising his heart out and it seems unfair that he is having to struggle against all this noise and disruption.   One other nice thing though when I went to year zero thank goodness their teacher was there, the kids were all getting together in a circle and one of the girls, very bright said, "sit down Ellie."  I have made them a little postbox to post letters: A B C D E into and this time when they did it I had more control and all of them especially the lad who pushed it so hard last time that it broke took great care to put the letters in and not damage the little box.  So when my colleagues are there it is great, I just wish a) that they did not have to disappear or that  b) that they could disappear and all the kids would be as angelic and c) that I had as much access to them when I need it as the others do.  Anyway tomorrow I am covering an absent teacher, so I think I had better end my griping and take my head ache  to bed and try and recover.

Previously

• using the Russian term for it instead of the English. However, I held firm and it did calm down in the end. So actually the refuseniks were more of an issue than those that were very excited. Most of the classes are now going relatively well, but I find a couple of the after school classes challenging, but much of the time I feel good, like a proper teacher and think maybe I could do this and fantasize about staying on next year. The year one children are really impressing me with enthusiasm and their ability to recite some English lines, but how to do it without me prompting that is the question. I have also been practicing a song with year zero and really enjoyed dancing the birdie song in French of all things with them and I have managed to sort of turn the Hungry Caterpillar into something that the year two students can present to their parents, but I do not think that they understand what it is for, Nestan for instance keeps wanting to be the butterfly, but each person was chosen to speak a specific part, including her, except the butterfly. I had forgotten to allocate him a part, but suddenly realised because he is a very funny kid that he could add a nice comic touch, by going yum, yum yum across the stage and then going to sleep before turning into a butterfly. If everyone is there that day it should work well, if they can remember their lines, but it does need everyone to be there for the numbers to work as there is one apple, two pears etc.
  So in theory everything is working, except the internet so I am writing this on my computer instead and hope to upload it as soon as possible. It was supposed to have been sorted by Friday, but Friday came and went and it is still not working. So I have spent my time reading (I have finally finished the Tolstoy biography and a very good easy read novel the Marriage Plot) and doing some painting in preparation for some teaching next term. Another slight problem is that for the last few weeks I have been trying to gather anything and everything that I think can be used to makes some puppets for next term. In the UK there is a bit of a ban against using the cardboard inside of toilet rolls but I have the suspicion that this problem does not exist here so I have been gathering as many as possible plus some old building materials and had them just in my room. When I came home on Wednesday I thought oh how lovely they have cleaned my room, which was necessary, but then I realised to my horror that they had taken away all my “rubbish” that I had been storing on my bed under the misapprehension that it really was rubbish. For some less clear reason they have also removed the flower seeds I had only just bagged up ready for trying to sprout in Spring to show the kids and to make matters worse as I sat doing my Thursday after school class I suddenly realised I could see all the kids from the earlier class taking the last of the flowers the seeds came from and dumping them by the outside toilet. Which is why I was to be found scouting round the loos as soon as I could but almost all the seed heads had been destroyed in the process.
  
  
  
  
  
  
     
  And my tights are not working either. I was very brave and went to the shops in the village again, I sort of avoid them as 1 I am so visible and 2 I only have big notes because of the way I am paid so really need to buy several items but on Wednesday buoyed up by several smooth classes, I went in pointed to my tights asked for chon tights, ie big ones, got what looked like a really good pair and several other useful things. I also bumped into one of the felt making women so that was nice and made me feel much more comfortable in the shop, but when I got home my big tights only came half way up my legs, so both they and the the internet are down. And because the internet was down I could not apply for a job at my nephew's school. I was finding it hard to know whether to apply for it or not and at first could not find the details, however, eventually I got everything emailed through to me, and I was going to just trawl through what information I had to cobble the application together (e.g. dates of working in different places was going to have to be gleaned from any old applications I could find in emails as my notes on things like that are back in the UK) and see what happened, but fate took over and so rather than dealing with rural life and the cold in Durham I will continue to deal with rural life and the cold here instead.    

The Ashu has been full of interesting people again this week so that really does help and there has been a lovely wood fire lit each day in the dinning room. One of the people who came down has been before. I did not speak with her that time but I did say hello to her son, his charming behaviour impressed me, but he also reminded me of a ten year old Nathan. I have seen a couple of African Americans in Bishkek and sometimes get excited that someone black has come to the school only to realise that it is the light and it is another very weathered Kyrgyz, but this young man is the only child African American in the country as far as I can see. He is a delight, which is nice, but this really does mean that he has the burden of representation on him. He and his mum were here with another single mum, another very interesting woman, with twins and working full time for the EU here. It took me back to the days when almost all my friends were single mums with young children. I must say that they were both very inspirational and they also both made me kick myself as I waited for Nathan to grow up before heading off, but they have managed to make travelling work for them and their children, so that is both very sensible and very adventurous. I had some very interesting chats with the EU woman about some of the way that their funding works and hope to find out more,she knows it is the Kyrgys people who really need this information but getting it out to them is quite a challenge, however, at least if I know the basics I can try and share it where possible.

The other interesting visitors were the owners relatively new wife and new baby. They all occupied the house I live in. I find it intriguing that they do not have a house of their own, but use this space, which can operates like a family home, but also houses guests. So for example the grandad lives in the little lean too outside and comes in to have his wash and showers, which is fine, and means that there is always someone around, but today for example earlier today his great grandson was being fed iand pampered in the lounge area that I am now sitting in, which was very sweet but meant I felt I had to stay in my room till this intimate moment was over. .So it really changes the dynamics of the place when people are here even nice people, which is why I am pleased to have the place to myself again for the moment. Apparently they are planning to spend more time down here so I had better get used to sort of being in the midst of a family, but not being part of a family.

Anyway, I think that it is time to take my headache to bed and hope that the snow is manageable tomorrow when I get up.

Monday 28th.

The internet is working at school yippee but did not use it because I stupidly assumed it would be working at the Ashu, WRONG. The printers are working at the school, yippee, but I did not use them because everyone else was demanding the computer guys time now he is finally back.

Despite getting to work for 10 (getting up was a real struggle) I found that I had scarcely enough time to prepare today's four lessons, but I am pleased to say that the year zero kids did their work very well, all managed to copy out the word face, and draw themselves, they also really enjoyed the story that they have written now that they understand it a bit more and they liked the voices I put on for it. However, year 2 were terrible today re their Autumn play. I am not sure if we have been scheduled to perform on Friday and with so much snow Autumn seems a bit of a misnomer, but I still want to try and get them to do something.

Most days I have to turn food down at breakfast including something called Kasha or something like that it is a buckwheat or rice type porridge and most mornings I am too full, but today what with all the snow I could have done with some but as there are no guests I had to make my own breakfast. I also note that everyone had on more clothes for the cold weather than me, so heaven knows how much they will wear when it gets really cold. At least today because of the sun it was warm when walking but I am pleased to have got home before sun went down.  

printing continues to be problematic.

I could cry: the computer teacher is back, we have internet at the school, even the printers are working but only sort off.   All my work  is on publisher, but the new printer is not able to print publisher. Can Muxsat save the day.  I hope so as I have only been trying to print this stuff for weeks!.

GGRRRRRRRR

Very tired and pissed off. As per usual I found myself contesting things and as per usual I find it exhausting, but that I cannot sleep Having booked my holidays I now find that there are two lots of training going on over the holidays. The training I expected which is in Bishkek  mid week and the training that I had not expected which is in Shabdan where I live which is nice but it is for when I am on holiday. So I am now under great pressure to come to change my holiday again and come to that. However, I think we need to have some training that bridges the Russian and Kirgyz and English aspects of the school in order to avoid problems like the following:

Having arrived at school at 10 to prepare for my 11.15 lesson I find that the teacher in 2A still has not been told that my timetable has changed so I am not teaching her class at 10.30   This time I
manage to convince her, but as I go to the teach 2B at 11.15 the head asks if I am going on the expedition. Which expedition I ask pointedly?  In turns out all the children are going out today so my lesson has been rescheduled. I decide to go with them because at least that way they can get some English words or could have.  Because I have just gone to their classroom to see why they are not ready only to find that they have gone already!!. Which is why I have time to write this.

The only good thing is that I used the discussion to establish if there is an event for Autumn and yes it turns out last day of term that the parents are all coming to see their children and all the other teachers have prepared something except me because I did not get informed about it.  I just hope I can get the kids to understand the material today and that way we might have something to present.


Update: just went to dinner and the kids who I thought were at the river were there but now they have gone to the river, but I have to teach year one so I cannot go. However, whilst downing my delicious soup tried to be more sanguine and remind myself that these things happen if you do not speak the language and it was my choice to put myself in this position. Yes I have to remind my head that I am not the average teacher, I need a lot more hand holding and I feel that I have tried to do this, but as anyone who say takes a volunteer on, these things take much more energy and need a lot more understanding than most people think and someone recruited to save time and effort actually often take more time and effort.

Update on update, I have just gone to the teach year one and they are on the expedition too, so I am buggering off home.

Update on update on update: half way home remembered I was supposed to teach the year twos but could not remember when so headed back just as year one arrived so taught them and then taught one of 2 year group and then my after school classes so now I really am buggering off and need to remember to tell the hotel not to feed me as I am so full I cannot cope.

The solution to everything.

I am writing today's entry in a slight vodka haze, so it may not be as coherent as usual. (assuming it is every coherent)

I have been asked why here, why move.

Well having moved two years ago to a flat that was supposed to be rent-able immediately so that I could live off the income instead of struggling to do 9 jobs for an income so low that I am still entitled to working tax credit, I found myself working even harder than ever  to try and sort the flat out so that it could be lived in by myself let alone make it available to anyone else. Also I was only able to afford to go away for a couple of days a year  and given that I like holidays that was depressing. I suddenly realised that my son's coming home could liberate me and I could get away still if I could find a job I could do. Most TEFL teaching jobs require 24 hours teaching a week and I feel that is more than I can cope with at present because of the amount of preparation and the sheer energy teaching takes. Also I am more interested in working in a real school environment so when this job came up it seemed perfect, manageable hours, a built in existing curriculum, and a really worthwhile concept as the school has a mission to ensure that rural kids are able to compete in the future as they have two languages and IT skills.   But like all things work is a double edged sword.   For example the holidays  here keep shifting, my timetable has had to be shifted, printing stuff is a challeng and at the moment I am trying to get clear information about what training I am expected to do during the vacation and whether I have to re-schedule my rescheduled holiday or not.

Health wise it is better to work than not to work but work can very stressful too.  This is not just a problem in Kyrgyzstan clearly. The Royal Opera House for example reneging on their deal and their bad work practices, working in Haringey too where the computers almost never worked etc, etc. working in Hertford where I had to bring a bullying complaint. I am sure most people can list hundreds of examples of difficult work environments.  Many far worse than anything that I have experienced. What I find as I get older however, is that I cannot be asked.  I do not want to spend my remaining years faffing about. In turn I should be much better and much more efficient too. So I will continue to try and be more efficient. So drinking vodka is probably not a good idea!

However, that can be difficult when the women who work at the Ashu call one over and insist on a nip of vodka.  They are lovely. It is the first time that this has happened and these women work very hard and for the most part very efficiently and without supervision on the whole so I felt honoured to down a glass or two with them.

Previously I have said that I am surprised that people who come to the Ashu and have a glass or two just finish and go to bed and do not continue partying. But last night the people sharing my part of the hotel really did party, at one point someone came into my room, and this morning I found the paper plate I had painted with a lovely face for work had been purloined and used to eat off and there were vodka glasses and the window was open to let out the smoke.  I am told by people who work in the hotel trade that sometimes hotel residents behaviour is completely disgusting and clearly this was not like that, just people enjoying their holiday, but that is the first time I have seen and heard rowdy behaviour since coming here.   Tonight I might be tempted to join them!.

Action:chat. then back in the saddle.

Last night me and the Swedish girls and their guide had had a long supper as they are good to chat to. All have good English. I was about to come back to my room to rest and do some work, when we were asked to stay and chat some more so that they could film it. Luckily they are good to chat to, but to suddenly have to sit for as long as it takes to make 2 felt carpets was very tough on my botttom as the sits are wood like mine as home at the table, great for 20 minutes but not much more. It has been decided that the crew will come with us on our horse ride today too, but I am not sure how much my bottom can cope with.

Interestingly for me.  A couple of years ago, hopeful that one day I might actually use some of my media skills, I asked for a decent video camera for my Christmas and birthday present. When it arrived from Amazon to my surprise it was like a small stills camera and I was disappointed. However, checking the specs showed that it was a good video camera too,just not what I thought one looked like. In the end though because it did not work, I spent that year in protracted discussions with Amazon instead of using it and eventually got the cost of it back from them to buy other things with them. I could have had a replacement camera but it had been so complicated working out what was wrong with the camera that I  did not feel confident about buying such an item again from them, so everyone that year got presents from Amazon.  However, had a I seen how such a camera could be used in a professional setting maybe I would have made more effort to get a replacement as the camera crew are using much larger versions of what I got but it is essentially an SLR style camera mounted for steadiness on a sort of neck break.   It will be interesting to see the outcome of their work, when it goes onto U tube, however, they will have a heck of an editing job based on how much material they have filmed so far.

Anyway I had better get ready to get back in the saddle pics to be added later.

I really felt that.

4. Once rolled, dampen and stamp on it rythmatically

Last night when I got home two very nice Swedish students and their guide were at the Ashu, we talked briefly and then I checked about my horse ride for today.  But the manager who arranges these things said that I might want to leave it till tomorrow as some people were coming down on Saturday to make a film and they might want to talk with some of the tourists. So us tourists looked at each other in surprise and me being a vain luvvie made sure that I was waiting in the restaurant area this morning for when the film crew arrived.    To my surprise they made no effort to say hello and went off filming and I went off for a bike ride instead.  After lunch me and one of the Swedes were leaving the restaurant when we realised the the crew were filming some women in the garden and the following pictures show what they were filming.
1

First put the raw (albeit dyed) wool down in the required pattern

2. Cover

5. Then open up and the wool fibres have messed together, unlike my pics which refuse to go where I want them to. 

3. Roll up

Apparently the women in the pictures work for a local collective and supply the Ashu with things like my lovely felt slippers. One of the women, the one on the right was wearing two medals on her coat, apparently from the Soviet days and showing that she has had 5 children.

Things I would like to say.

One of the reasons why I did not bother to do too much over the last holiday was because I knew we had a week coming up at the end of October.It and all the other holiday dates have been in my diary since my head gave them to me weeks ago, which is why I booked to go away next weekend.  However, knowing how things are here I sensibly wrote an email to my boss and the a couple of others telling them that I have booked my break, but to let me know by today if that is not correct.  Today my year zero colleague was checking something out for teaching the week we have off, mmm, I thought.  And just now my head has given me the new dates for the holiday, so I will have to cancel my trip!.  I just hope that the hotel will not be full as I really want a break and I really want to have a look around.

Right now I am itching to take pics, but I cannot.  The Prime Minister of the country has just been introduced to me, typical I am writing my blog when he arrives, he was due an hour ago when the year 1 were doing some beautiful English and I prayed he would walk in, but no, he and his entourage, (quite low key, one photographer and one man in a big hat and a uniform) wait till I am blogging to get here.   He is with the regional leader I met before and he asked how it was going and I wanted to say, do you know how much more rubbish there is on the road as I walk here and do you know that these children are fantastic they are learning three languages but they are exposed to dangerous asbestos every day of their life, but for now I just said it is fine.  All fine, but hopefully one day I will find a way to bring up these important issues with some of the important people who could solve the problem.


Today's events have made me realise how few Prime Ministers I have met in my life, or even seen.    I covered Maggie's patch when I was a journalist, but tended to send the other staff out to cover stories with her, I preferred to take the opportunity to have a story about Tony Benn, I have seen all the royals, a couple of people I know have been M.P's, and working for charities one met all the local MP's, but Prime Ministers have not loomed large in my life before.  I do not think that this will one will loom large either, because although two of the girls seemed surprised by the officials at school today, I could not actually decide if they knew who he was. In fact checking the pictures online I am now not sure if that was who it was either, I will try and double check with my boss on Monday, but she said before he arrived that it was the PM.

Instead of the PM, pics of what I thought was the day's news until my head gave me the VIP news: the sugar beet harvest, two boys on horseback and our local traffic jam.

They did celebrate.

I had a class today, one of the after school classes and they speak a little more English and they are doing the past tense so I asked them about Tuesday. It turns out, they do not know the term Eid Mubarak, so no wonder no one responded when I said that to them, but they did all go to Mosque that day and yes baa, baa, baa, dead too.  Try and imagine the mime to put across that idea. So at least I know, so whilst I missed it everyone did celebrate.

The wonders of skype; I have just spent about an hour on skype with Nathan sorting out my correspondence, can you imagine trying to do that by phone and without visuals. Thank you skype and thank you Nathan.

Steps to learn the kids names.

One of the classes has 20 children in it.  The list on the wall which was not there when I first got there has I think 18 names in cyrillic, but it does at least mean I have some of the easier names, but fixing a name to a child needs a bit more work.  So I asked for pictures with their names in English to help me  learn them.  Weeks ago in the end I took pictures of all of them, but as you know getting my colleague to help me print things is not that easy or getting access to the computer when there is power.  I had put together a couple of pages on my computer last week, but when I emailed it to myself the format was completely messed up and useless so back to the drawing board.   Yesterday I managed to transfer some of the pictures to my new USB, but it then refused to let me save more.  I  then went onto my computer colleagues computer and downloaded the emailed pictures I had sent myself, but trying to work out which button to push (I have never learned Control + B for example) when the instructions are all in Russian is not that easy. So onto google translate.  I finally got all the pictures downloaded, saved, and then re-followed the instructions for printing, got the printer to work and Yes the ink had run out!!!!.  But at least the pale blue version that emerged was just about enough for me to collar their teacher and ask her just to confirm whether I had their names correct, so no excuses, I must learn them.

Proof I am here, anyway sort of.

What a lovely photo so a big thank you to my colleague who is now based at Talas school She took this picture when we had visitors from the States.

The children in the picture are the year 2 children and for the most part they are chatty, but otherwise well behaved. Year zero though happily sang two songs, I started reading the book with them that they helped make, which I thought would appeal to them as they could see oh that's the bit I did, and half of them stayed with it, but yes the other half went awol again and they really hammer each other. This time I did not even try and stop them, I just tried to carry on reading and then do the next activity to see if it brought them back, as it is not fair on those trying to work. I know getting them to behave is THE most important thing as children need to know that they are safe in class, but getting me organised enough and authoritative enough is proving a huge challenge. I have asked their regular teacher to try and teach me a bit of Russian, it is their second language but may help a bit if I can say things like move back etc.  Everything is fine if she stays in the room, but ... Interestingly even though the kids fingers were in the piano they did not get crushed though so I need to investigate the design to see if it is safer than I thought.  One boy did sit on the piano to stop the others though, so these kids are pretty smart. Anyway of course once settled they loved making the elephants as you can see by their finished products.

Eid Mubarak

It is Eid, but no one was around tonight, and I do not know why but I just did not fancy what had been left for me to eat.  I know that the head is considered a delicacy and an honour and I suspect it had been left for grandad from the family, who is also here tonight, so hopefully he had some, but I just could not manage any of it.  So I cooked apples again instead and as this lot were cooked with sugar rather than salt think that they will taste a whole lot better, which might be useful as I might have to live on them over winter as there was nothing else really that I could whisk up.

I also happened to go past the Mosque earlier today just as the Muezzin had finished the call to prayer, but no one was there apart from him as far as I could see so not exactly how it was in Senegal where people would be rushing hither and thither getting their hair done until midnight last night, then going out and buying a sheep, killing it this morning,  then cooking it and distributing it all around and eating it for every meal all day.  Here at least at the Ashu it has been very low key.

For more information look at :http://ianbek.kg/?p=737

A quick trip to Bishkek.

I was up this morning, got a lift to Kemin, then took the bus to Bishkek where I met my colleague for coffee. We went shopping for supplies and then met a friend of his and it turned out that this friend is the person whose blog I partly read before coming out here.  Now I am home (back at the Ashu) I have revisited his blog and now know a lot more about the person I had coffee with. http://ianbek.kg/?page_id=6378 He has copious knowledge about Kyrgystan and pictures of Chon Kemin so definitely worth a look.

I do not know why, because although I like Bishkek, it is a perfectly okay place, I notice that the twice I have been there I suddenly have a wave of homesickness, much more so than when I am in the country.  Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of the Eid holiday, I do not know if there will be any evidence of the festivities but I am pleased to have another day just to catch up with myself and maybe try and work out some ideas for improving my teaching.

Morning walk.

When I got up this morning it was so beautiful I had to head up the mountain. I knew by the time I got back I would pretty much be finished as this week has really taken it out of me. So as I want to go to Bishkek tomorrow I do not plan to write much today.  But one of the nice things about living here is just being so close to nature.  When I got to one of the water pumps, there was a chicken drinking.  I reached for my camera and realised I had left the memory card here in my computer, so instead just stood there drawing it as it drew water.  I then wandered up the hill till I got to a point in the river that I could not cross and just sat there and it was so quiet and calm. Just a young cow herd passing by with two cows.  Then a phone call from my colleague!  Work!.  Then wondering back down through the fields, there were all these turkeys, such beautiful colours, their red bits (snood says one site), picked out again the browns of the field and their feathers.    It was lovely.   Now all I want to do is rest.

Mad with myself.

I am feeling so mad with myself. Seven weeks in and I still cannot control the little ones if their teacher goes out.  Today it was always going to be a bit odd, having to go in today, Saturday, so that we can have Monday and Tuesday off as a holiday. So my Russian speaking English colleague, who had popped down from Biskek to do some printing, had arranged with the IT specialist for him to have downloaded some English language TV for me to show the children.  I had a horrid feeling that it might not happen but that was the arrangement.  I meanwhile had prepared lots of materials for the children to colour in as I am getting them to make a book with me. But as predicted the download was not there, nothing was there, not even the computer.  Then just as I was trying to use my notebook instead the electricity and internet died. So I turned to my art material to give the children and they just snatched it away and ran riot again.   Ugh.   As soon as their teacher came back they were fine and they loved the activity and thank goodness because it was Saturday no after school classes, and thank goodness because of the power cut we all got to come home early, but I am still very mad with myself.


So more suggestions as to how to manage the situation wanted.

My home in Kyrgyzstan.

I made a mini video this morning planning to upload it but for some reason I can upload from a phone, or a webcam or U tube but a file on my own computer.  No any ideas anyone?  Think I might have to load the video to U tube which is silly and then onto here.  Back in about half an hour. I am supposed to be doing school work but have got distracted. It has been a long week, I am back in tomorrow Saturday as it is a holiday?  But I will give it half an hour and see if I can work it out.

So the video is loaded onto U tube so let's see, if I can get it on Blogger.   Yes looks like it.  I know it is short, but it will give you a flavour and I will add some more videos as time goes by.

Plumbing problems.

So hectic yesterday I did not even get the chance to open the computer, then at 5pm the head said come on come on and she rushed me out to what I thought would be the bus, only to realise that her husband was waiting for us impatiently.  It was only when I got back to the totally empty Ashu that I realised that I had left the computer behind which was more than unfortunate as I got an urgent message from Nathan to skype him about the toilet!.  It gets dark here now about 6.45 and I thought about walking back to the school except that even if the school was open,Nathan was not going to be available later so we have agreed to skype today to discuss the matter.

Anyone who has read or heard the saga of the flat that was supposed to allow me to give up work when I bought it (or at least reduce my hours) will know that it has just caused me grief.  It is one of the reasons I wanted to get away.  So now poor Nathan has to deal with it.   Over summer our toilet blocked up, which was horrid for my guest student and the poor person who kept having to unblock. In the end I had to make a temporary mend and urged Nathan to get it fixed before the new tenant moved in.  Sadly contact with the plumber proved fruitless, Nathan went away and my poor tenant has had no toilet for two weeks.  Nathan very efficiently got another plumber out, but he cannot fix it, because surprise surprise the flat that did not need a survey (according to WH Brown because it had been signed off by building regulations) does not have proper separate plumbing in it.  Thank you W H Brown yet again for the disservice you have done us.  Anyway I am not sure what happens next as the guy who owns downstairs is very unhelpful (contrary to what W H Brown told me) and at this distance I am not even sure how to get hold of him.

Anyway luckily being miles away and unable to do anything I suddenly realised that I had an empty kitchen to play with so tried despite finding no bowls suitable for the oven, no weighing equipment, and a very uncertain temperature gauge to make apple crumble.   The result was not something I would want to share with someone else, but it was passable for dinner last night and breakfast.

When I got back to the block where my room is all the lights were on, including my room, but there was no sign of anyone, just plumbers tools everywhere.  If my flat is a major headache, maintaining a guest house is even worse.  For the central heating has been fixed a couple of times already.  I was about to head off and have a shower and an early night, when the plumber and his mate returned and I ha to just sort of hover till I could get to my room and go to bed.

Today it is markedly colder, it is still sunny, but there is an autumn nip in the air, which maybe why a woman selling winter socks from the back of her car has just showed up at the school and made a number of sales to all the staff including me.

Second long day, but my boss gave me my new schedule today and it is looking a lot better. Yes the lessons will be bunched up, but the day will be shorter.

I think that there was a slight break through today with the year two students.  They genuinely seem to be understanding a little more and one or two did beautiful sentences such as Its Ellie's green pencil.  I was so happy.    I even used the word for homework in Russian with them which they seemed to have understood, so it will be interesting to see if when I next see their workbooks whether they have managed anything.

Then I taught year one.   It is looking very beautiful here in the valley.  The shimmering leaves are still shimmying, but many are also falling.  I have realised in the last few years that I absolutely love the shape of trees and leaves, just the patterns that they make, and so now that I am a primary school teacher I just want the children to make collages with them. (Old adult students will remember a similar desire of mine when I taught them - interestingly one of them said that she remembered the word acorn because of this activity) Anyway I have been wondering up and down the highways and byways collecting wonderful seed heads and leaves.  I have also found potatoes, literally dropped off the back of lorries,  in the streets   which which to make potato prints.
Working out the right way to cut autumn gold was not as easy as I had hoped and I knew that the whole process would be difficult to orchestrate, but I could not resist trying it with year one this week. Year zero was hectic but just about feasible so I figured teaching the words and getting each year one student to stick a seed head or left to a bigger picture and for each of them to draw and colour in an apple or leaf should just about work.    I had of course not realised when I walked into the room and started though that the colleague with whom I usually teach this class was away - so it was do I back out or do I just try it.  Worse though was when I realised that while all the year zero children have glue (clay or something like that as it is called here) and all the year two students have glue,  only 2 of the 21 children in year one had so while a good few got the activity, fully engaged in it and fought so vehemently over the potatoes that I gave up printing after they had written Autumn (GOLD will have to wait for another time) the rest were spinning round the room mindlessly rather than merrily sticking things.  A definite fail had I been OFSTED'ed which was probably fair enough. But I was just glad to have survived and got something passable as an end product from them.

I was teaching in the after school class today who are about 15-19 years old and it was very interesting only talking to them about their family; only 1 had a living grandfather, who was 62, but 6 had living grandmothers. They were not sure why.

I had assumed I would be on my own tonight, but the Swedes have been replaced by Japanese and I have just had to google translate sorry but I do not drink beer.

Anyway time to retreat to my room and listen to Radio 4.

Monday comes around. week 6.

I am shattered, three morning sessions, two afternoon, but my head has said that she will look at the schedule so that some days will be a bit shorter if possible. Of course on Saturday night they finished drinking about 4 in the morning and two hours later were up to milk the cow and cut sugar beet all day and got to work at 8.30 so you can see why they might be puzzled by the fact that I just cannot do that.  Could not cut sugar beet full stop.  I am relieved to say my non ability to party does not seem to have caused a rift.  We all chatted today about the trip, they apologised to me for keeping me up and I apologised to them for not being able to party as much as they can.  So hopefully it will all be okay.

The good news is I am beginning to get my head round the materials that we have, pre existing material and now I understand a bit more how it works can see that it saves time. For the last 6 or so years I have originated everything.  But I will still have a bit of prep, but hopefully will not have to bring any work home.

Some of the girls practising the Komuz

Anyway I am back in my old room so everything is scattered around. This room seems tiny compared with the temporary housing, but I am sure that it will be fine. I think that I am here till the end of the month and then the situation can be reviewed depending on the weather.  The last big group is here, from Sweden, their guide speaks some Russian, German, English and of course Swedish, his degree is in physics an he is also a business and IT specialist.   Some people are just astonishing. All the Swedes speak English so it has been very nice having them here.

Putting up something that is not a yurt.

I had a short walk to the local cemetery, which was frighteningly deathly quiet, and slept a lot today, then this evening what we call a yurt, but the Kyrgyz call something else was put up for the visiting Swedish tourists.  No energy for the other things I wanted to do today, but let's hope things get resolved re my hours or even better that I find I actually have more energy and better health than I think and that I can cope more than I realise.

It may be that the internet has been repaired which is nice. One of Nathan's uncle's in Kenya was buried this week, so that was sad, and I was unable to get through the day he was brought to the family home. I was most surprised when I took Nathan to visit his family there many years ago to find that I was invited in to be part of the family too. Given that I had been a very short lived girlfriend I had not expected this. At the time Shem's brother Hesbon, who had to take over as head of the family told me that as senior wife so to speak I had a responsibility for the family.  Given that my family and the Government are always supporting me I did not think much about this statement, but when I got through to Kenya the other day I was reminded of this fact.  Apparently the uncle leaves four children and a wife, and Hesbon is doing a whip round to try and build them a house, and eventually set up a fund to send them to university - which is amazingly kind of him - he is always having to bail someone out in the family, but as to whether I should be similarly kind well that is another matter.  At present I get my expenses to live here, so the idea of having to help a woman I have never met before does not grab me, but I can see that it is not fair on Hesbon either that he is the one having to do everything as a result both of Shem sort of refusing to do this when he was alive and then being unable to do this as he too is dead.  What I am not quite sure about is why I am "senior wife" but with no husband is supposed to support "non senior wife without a husband"  I can see that the British benefit system whilst at fault does help avoid a lot of these types of obligations.  Anyway I hope that someone can help the widow as her situation must be pretty ghastly at present.

A night at the opera

Yesterday was the first day I missed making a diary entry.  I had assumed a couple of things, 1) that the day would be unlike most trips to the opera, but that 2) that it would be a long day but with a sleep on the way home and today to recover and 3) that we would be home about 10.30 leaving time for the blog and other things that had to be done yesterday.

So well I was right about one thing.  It was unlike most trips to the opera. In the first place we were due to leave at about 10, but Biskek is only 2 hours away, so the plan was to have a meal en route and then I thought get to Biskek in time for some urgent shopping like my cough medicine and a formal chat with my boss and the recruiter about how to manage my hours.  Knowing I was to have this conversation left me feeling a bit tense about the day and to my surprise despite having had most of Friday off I actually felt really tired so slept till we got to Tokmek at 12.  This was where we were due to have lunch,but instead we sat in the boiling heat.  Half an hour in my boss explained that we were waiting for our computer colleague to arrive from Biskek.  People here are much more tolerant them me.  Biskek is only an hour or less from Tokmek so I think he must have set off about the time we arrived to wait for him. Anyway as a result we did not get to the restaurant till about 1.

The pictures do not do it justice.  It was like a mini Disney land, all fake palm trees and pretend animals mixed with the real.  My A level media students often do essays on hyper reality, well this is it.  A huge lake with real swans and fish, with a restaurant jutting out into the water and dotted all over the lake little pontoons which in summer are mini restaurants.  It was boiling hot and the squat toilets had put me off trying to take off my tights so I was pleased to have the water breeze next to me, from where I could look out over the pontoon just for a pianist, but the best bit was the fact that about every half an hour a wedding party would arrive. There was one moment to the left of us a photographer up to his knees in water, photographing one happy couple under a fake palm tree, whilst to the right I could see a man with a large video camera directing the groom to run Bollywood style  up to his bride. (How did they manage squat toilets in a bridal outfit?) Meanwhile Titanic style the first couple were now circling the lake by boat.   I was too discrete to take pictures but would have loved to a lot of Kyrgyz girls are stunning, but teetering in too big shoes with too high heals, face plastered in make up does not make anyone look their best as far as I can see and the men, when dressed up call to mind shots from The Godfather.   Only one couple seemed to actually be in love rather than on a movie set.  So altogether a fascinating experience. On the way out, we found some real, but caged animals including peacocks who would have been brilliant unleashed in this setting.  There were two beautiful foxes, in better condition than any seen in Hoddesdon, being tempted by an equally beautiful red squirrel that had got out of its cage, being regarded loftily by the caged birds of prey.  And then two man carrying something like a gold coloured mace, walked along the road, followed by an old black Volvo with bride, followed by a cavalcade of hooting white cars, announced the latest bride and groom to arrive and it was time at last for us to go.

However, the best bit was the food. Having expected to sort of have to just tolerate something I did not fancy till I could get to Biskek and have something different to the nice but now all to familiar Kyrgyz food, here we got the best of local food.  Brilliant salads, sesame seed breads and I had a really delicious salmon with rice.  I also managed to refuse the vodka, knowing that too much and I would not be awake for the performance. Assuming that is that we got there as by now our charabanc was running very late for the opera at 5.  Stopping for half an hour to buy drinks of fizz did not seem to help and by the time we had got lost in Biskek (where there also seemed to be loads of weddings taking place) the meeting with my colleague turned into him saying as I got out of the van, "Have you sorted things out?" Me shaking my head to say no, him putting a bag of books into my hand, that I probably will not have time to read now, and then that was it,  In a style that would have horrified the ROH we were ushered into the already started Traviata.

The stage was familiar, the empty seats and ongoing noise of conversation, the inappropriate applause, not.  ROH regulars would have had a seizure.  But actually the opera soared above it all.  True the cast looked like they had borrowed outfits that did not fit and the heroines little black number looked a bit like something out Ann Summers for mature swingers, but actually I liked her voice and that of all the leads and genuinely had a couple of tingle moments as she collapsed in a heap at the end.  

The best thing was my colleagues reactions, my boss it turned out was sharing her first visit to the Opera with the first visit to the opera of her 10 year old son, who loved running around the space in the interval with other even younger visitors, and as we left their enthusiasm for the whole day, made more visits to Biskek on cultural outings seem a possibility.   She asked if I was tired and I said I expected everyone was and that we would all probably sleep except the driver. But to my surprise she said that the others wanted to go to another concert.  At first I was not sure if I had heard her correctly, but rather than heading out of town, we stopped and two colleagues ran out and it was explained that I could either stay in the van go to a cafe or join them at a concert for a local pop star.  I was ready like the diva to collapse in a heap, but was stuck. Only later did a I realise that I should have tried ringing my colleague to see if he was now free, so I opted for the concert thinking that at least it would be of cultural interest.  But actually several hours of very loud music when all you want to do is sleep is just really really boring. I ended up playing games on my phone to cope.  It was only when the mics suddenly died in the middle and all the sound men, ran up and down in a panic, but the star carried on suddenly getting his accordion like instrument and getting the audience to join in that the evening lifted and again at the end when he did a really beautiful acoustic set.  If the whole event had been like that I would have really enjoyed it despite my low energy levels and interestingly it was only during this bit that I think the rest of the audience, very young, and much older then me, seemed to really enjoy it too.

At last I thought, as I feel asleep on route, home,we should be back by 1.  But then my sleep was interrupted by my colleagues albeit beautiful voice repeating all the best bits of the concert. The van was stopped, vodka was bought, (it is a one horse town, but it has a shop open at 12 selling vodka.) the doggy bag from earlier brought out and my colleagues proceeded to have a picnic. They tried rousing me to join in,but for some strange reason I was by now quite taciturn.  We finally set off again and I must have dozed as the next time I awoke we had stopped again and another picnic had started. I thought we were almost home as the wall we were parked near was a bit like the bridge near Shabdan, I tried looking out into dark to assess the situation. My colleagues realising I was awake tried to ply me with coke and vodka and chocolate all of which I refused in a very rude way.  By now I was beginning to panic that I would never get home and was trying to work out if I was in walking distance.  But no we had just entered Chong Kemin valley.  There was one more stop. The tiny kiosk at Shadan bus stop, the shop keeper revealed in outline on the lighted window.  My colleague hoped back on and handed I think what must have been the third vodka bottle to his colleague. I had been the first pick up, but to my relief we headed across the bridge and to the Ashu, I was to be dropped off so that the party could continue without my by now very sour and pinched face.  I almost ran off the bus and home.  Very shaky and now very unhappy, because I understand and even admire my colleagues ability to party, some of them are quite a bit older than me,  I just cannot do it.  And the day that was supposed to help resolve my worries has just compounded them.

A smug smile and a lost opportunity.

I interrupt this Kyrgyzstan blog to refer back to some of the issues raised earlier in relation to my move. For today I am pleased to say £400 has been put into my bank account.  It is not as much as I asked for but the Solicitors have repaid me some of my costs.  Of course this probably means that had I taken into to court that I would have got a lot more, but the reality is that I was very worried about having to deal with the stress of something like that. Anyway at the moment yippee.  I have to say that it was because of the intervention of the Legal Ombudsman,whose approach is more comprehensible and sensible than that of the Property Ombudsman.  That does not mean she was on my side, but at least one could talk with them and know exactly what one was dealing with.  With was a great relief and having a result even better.

Hopes and dreams.

I have bitten the bullet and mentioned to the colleague who recruited me my concerns about the hours.  I had hoped to talk with the head, but she is in Biskek.

Despite waking up several times coughing in the night I am feeling a bit more human today and luckily I do not teach till this afternoon so am catching up with myself a bit. But if you had told me before today there was such a thing as a grandmother dream I would not have believed you, but last night I definitely had a grandmother dream.

Spurned for a headless ram.

Unfortunately I am not as sanguine as the vegetarian tourist staying at the guest house, who on hearing that as the ASHU had not been warned ahead of her dietary requirements there was meat in her soup, just responded "Don't worry I will just pick out the meat." Which she did to the delight of the waiting stray beneath.  No sadly I get very irritable. Not something I am proud of and something that the ME has definitely made worse so today, despite going to bed about 9.30 and trying to be positive and energized, when the children decided to move all their desks about rather than start class, I just sat and glowered at them, till they were ready.  Ironically the detailed listening book work we did today, which is to support their pronunciation and reading skills, and which they desperately need, seemed like a punishment too.  Perhaps this is why no one rushed to take my stuff out of the room today whereas there is usually a posse.


I was sort of both encouraged and rejected last night too.  My walk home is a nice way to relax after the day, but given the length of the day, something I could almost have done without yesterday and as this blog shows I was clearly stressed yesterday.  Anyway I was almost home   me  when a man (and his horse) cantered up to me.  He spoke to me for some time, me shrugging my shoulders, not understanding a word, till Dom (house) and the gesture for sleeping.  Given that he repeated it several times I had a feeling he was trying to propose something, which I naturally laughed off, but I was grateful for the diversion he caused me.  Later than evening on route to evening meal, I came out of the yard to the house and there were two horses, with riders, locked in battle over a headless ram. Seen on the field recently it had been interesting, two feet from me, it looked grizzly. Cheering the men on was my "suitor" so I almost stepped back into the yard not to be seen, when I realised that I was definitely less interesting than a dead ram and that he had not even noticed me.

When I got to the dinning room there was no room for me, so I sat in the kitchen at the ASHU being feed and tendered as kindly as ever despite the roomful of paying guests next door.  Now if I could discover the secret to their patience I would be very pleased as their hard work and commitment in the face of quite tough work conditions always amazes me.

I think that there may be a problem, but I do not know how to resolve it.  Having taken on this contract on the understanding that I can do the teaching hours but not long days. I have long days.  I teach at 9.35 for instance most days, except Fridays. when I am free so might catch up with myself, but the rest of the time I have what to me is an early start, now that I have to work till 4.50 in the afternoon.

When I started at Tesco I used to come home on Saturday crash out until the morning and then go back to work. It used to take me forty minutes to walk to work and then I had to catch the bus back.  By the end, I walked there and back, had to as the bus had stopped running,  in less than 30 minutes each way,  but today having worked for two long days in a row, I feel like XXXX  so not a happy bunny. When I broke my glasses, I contacted the insurance company to see whether they would meet the costs, I am still awaiting their reply, I have contacted them three or four times, so I just tried ringing them on skype, but it is an 0844 number and from Skype's point of view that is an emergency number.  So I cannot even speak with them easily.  I am really not sure what to do.  I feel I fully informed my employers before taking on the job, but that does not seem to have been communicated on the ground.  God willing it will get easier a lot easier.  But this was not what I wanted.

I know everyone else at the school works longer and harder, though, so it is tricky. Anyway I suppose I will have to cope. I am not having to shop, or cook, or clean and in truth that should help and perhaps if I can sleep unlike last night I will begin to adjust.   In the end if I can manage 8 hour days without collapsing it will be a good thing.  But right now like I said, not a happy bunny.

Teachers' Day

I am not sure if I can do justice to today's story, but I will try.

Today my English classes started, I had times and a schedule and I know how this feels. Each year teaching adult education there is a schedule, potential students, but lots of unknowns.  And so it was today, me hovering, students hovering, all of us wondering where we were actually going to get together as the new bits of school were definitely not usable. However, in the end we took advantage of the absence of the computer teacher to use his facilities and I am pleased to say the 10 - 17 year olds who turned up were lovely and had clearly learned a lot last year.  They headed off and I suddenly realised that the kid who comes every day and plays on the computer was using the computer teachers teacher - none of us had been able to get onto despite in theory having the password, so although the year zero teacher was trying for reasons I could not fathom to drag me off to the kitchen I insisted that he show us how to get onto the computer.  I have seen him be turfed off this machine, but today thank goodness for him, as yippee he revealed the correct password to get on.  Tomorrow I will see if I can work out the Russian for printing as there is no print type image usually.

Anyway I thought I was due to see another group of students, but obediently followed the year zero teacher and to my puzzlement all the staff were sat to tea.  Lumps of meat, fat, sweets were all put on my plate.  The initial explanation that it was my the daughter of my colleague's birthday did not seem to make sense (it turned out that partly explained the chocolate) and bit by bit I realised that everyone had cognac and it was 3.15 in the afternoon. I managed to successfully refuse this but then the vodka shot was delivered instead, the younger teachers were spared but us older staff were obliged to give toasts, and give speeches.  For why?  Well of course it is teachers day here.  Apparently all professions have a day and today was our day, so blow the kids waiting, blow professionalism (and despite the mess with the computer my colleagues are both hard working and professional)  we had to drink to our "family" and to the honour of our work. Actually it was really nice and apart from one moment when me and the head got slightly tipsy giggles with the class of students who had patiently waited, we managed to do a really nice last session of teaching with some really nice kids (including the head's son) all of whom could read English and speak it amazingly well.   So all a bit crazy but I have survived my first day community teaching.

The guest house is full again so I have no idea who I will have to share my "dom" with but hopefully it will be okay.