Observed muddled, and delighted.

It has been such a busy week that I cannot catch up with myself, but luckily tomorrow is a holiday so while I never get up early tomorrow I will laze even more, have a leisurely breakfast looking out over the countryside, go for a long walk and then get on with all the work I have to do.

I have been working with the 10 year old Kruski students who used to be the bane of my life on a short version of the Last of the Mohicans. The audio version is the first thing I have found that keeps them quiet as they try and follow the text, but we will not have time to read it all as only two more lessons with me  and I want them to try and understand it a bit me so I am going to have a go at adapting it as a little play for them to do.

I am trying to take saw dust up to the school some to put in the apple ditches as part of the Hugulkultur thing that I am trying to complete before the end of term.  I want at least one of the rows of trees to have some wood, leaves and compost in before I leave in the hope that it will help with water retention. Then today I realised that the cook had thrown out some uncooked food waste, where they burned it before, so I have used the masses of stones to build a little wall round the space in the hope that it will encourage them to compost the material instead. I need to add to the wall,

I also want to use the stones to do something more creative, the rocks here are just beautiful and of course I want to create more resources so that when I leave if I do not come back who ever comes next has lots of materials to use.  But I am not nearly as busy as everyone else as they have to put in showers, build a kitchen and sort out the garden all before the summer schools.

On Monday night when I stayed behind to make some Satpin bingo cards, I fully expected all the staff to be there making things, ready for Tuesday but to my surprise they were not. Come Tuesday though there was plenty of evidence that at some point they had made them.  Tuesday was observation day and rather timidly I had been asked a) if I wanted to attend and b) if I would mind if I was observed. This had come up at the meeting a couple of weeks ago, that for some reason were not to be invited or included in such things.  Both me and my colleague absolutely shouted down this idea as it is in our contracts that we will be observed by our colleages and will observe in turn.  What was nice here rather than the ghastly experience of being observed in the UK is that it is not just the "quality control" person who observes, but colleagues too, so you get feedback from a group of people. And the feedback was done very gently. I think my lesson was the worse, but I still got positive feedback so that was a relief, it was a revision class, so had less variety in it than had it been a straight forward session, but the kids were nice and lively yet well behaved at the same time, so not intimidated by the presence of the observers which was good.

I have seen a couple of my colleagues teach, as I did a little team teaching with them at the beginning so I opted out of seeing the year 1 teacher but I was at school for 9 which was a great achievement for me to see the year 0 teacher and then observed the year 2A and B teachers.  It was a revelation for me to see the year 0 teachers class. I have never seen the children so deathly silent.  It was a good class, lots of variety, the kids better behaved than any children I have ever seen before - it was unnatural almost but when I asked at the end if that was how they always were she said yes. Maybe this is partly why they go mad sometimes with me, I told the quality control guy that when I teach them if each child does not have a resource and one they want they riot and when they get a resource they hit each so much so that I di d not recognise these children.  The downside of her efficiency was that her class finished too soon, but she had some lovely materials and some nice ideas, which just needed developing. However, the best class was the 2A maths class it was stunning. Variety, from group work, to a group game, to board work, to individual questions showing differentiation. It anything it had too much in it, and one child did not get included quite as much, but who knew maths could be so exciting, a level 1 class definitely.  One of the reasons for employing overseas teachers like myself is to bring western methods to enhance or replace Soviet methods,  but I have always thought that my colleagues methods were very good, seeing the two senior teachers in action was proof of this.  Although I did not enjoy the literacy class as much, again there was variety of methods, good pace, in the middle a quick soviet style minute of exercise to freshen the mind and then some writing and spelling and pronunciation work all of which was very interesting.  I took away something from each teachers lesson.

I totally messed up the day in the process by teaching 2A when I was supposed to teach 2B so showing everyone it is not just them that muddles things at times.  I also did a terrible class with year 1 so thank goodness I was not observed doing that.  I keep thinking that there must be a better way than this, shouting over a bunch of kids no wonder they cannot work out what the lesson is, but how to introduce language to them otherwise. as it is I do use lots of other methods, but this is one I wish I could do better. But then today because they listen and I made more or less the same process more interactive they were much better and even year 0 were much better today, in fact all round it has been good today.

We have not had a party for a while, but when I was told that year 2B's daughter in law had given birth - she is the Kyrgyz teache at the school, and mother of two of my Kruski students - I figured that something would take place, but today as I had Kruski was not ideal. I gave my students something to do for five minutes, rushed in and had a cup of tea while the first congratulatory speech was given, then returned to class After class I was given some plov that was left over, and sat and relaxed with the cook and my head for a while, but as a result have tried not to eat too much just now in the rather full Ashu restaurant.

A cow of a day.

If I have understood it correctly more depressing news about my flat in the UK. Apparently it was illegally separated and building regs did not cover anything like gas or electrics when they came in (both of which were faulty, one of which was illegal) they just ensured that the sound proofing between flats met the requirements. So what I thought was a letter signing of the property by building regs was not a letter to say that the gas or electrics were okay, it was a letter to say that the sound proofing was okay!!!! Sound proofing with WH Brown had incorrectly told me was above standard. It also sort of implies that the Borough knew that the letting there was illegal but did nothing about it, they also took over a year to tell me how to report the gas as being illegal and they did not think that 5 people in a one bed flat was overcrowded.  There seems to be very little protection re housing in the UK.  I know that when I bought the place, I kept saying to myself if seems too good to be true it probably is ...but I cannot see where the flaw is as all the paperwork seems to support, not that I am getting a bargain, but that the deal I think I am getting I am getting. Well if it seems too good to be true I now know it is because none of the paper work is what you think it is or is a lie.

Anyway it was a nice day at work today, sort of, though the fact that my head has been out recruiting potential students to go to the Foundation university has unsettled me a bit. This is in fact another very good idea, that they pay for people to go to uni and that they then work for the Foundation, however, I would have quite like to have been involved with promoting this and I hate to agree with Gove, but I also think that the Foundation has missed a trick as I think really they need to see if the students they are selecting have the language or aptitude to go to uni so have suggested that they ought to work in the school first get some experience as a classroom assistant that way when they get to uni they will have earned some money, proved their worth and they know what they want to get out of University. I have said this several times and thought that the idea had sort of got a nod, to say that there may be something in it, so I was a bit suprised that before the policy working group discussing all these issues could even get together this decision seems to have been taken out of its hands. However, it does show how dynamic my head is, there are showers being built for summer school, more bits of the basketball being sorted out, a kitchen being built and yet she still manages to do even more so perhaps instead of niggling I should be thinking good on her. for at least starting the process so I am glad I have talked myself round.

Discussions are still taking place re next years contracts and again they seem to be ignoring some of the policy and some of the other suggestions that have already been put forward but the nice thing is that they do seem willing to negotiate and it is flattering that I have been asked up to head office, but because none of them seemed to know about my health despite that being the reason my insurance was so mega costly, (I kept ringing up with every little thing just in case as travel insurance companies are notorious for saying but you did not inform us of that twinge you had last autumn etc.) and despite me having that bit absolutely confirmed by email before accepting the post last year - so they should have known what my position was, what I have been offered so far is more than I I feel I could manage especially as I would have to commute, cook and shop for myself.  So not sure at present, all taken a bit of a surprise course as I thought they just wanted me back here and under the same contract all this time, not more hours in a totally different location with different housing etc.

Anyway it is very wet here and when I left work,  very late for me at 6.30 as I finally got access to the colour printer, the cows were on their way home. There was a whole bunch of them and they were so funny because it seemed without instruction from the guys who look after them all day, they all just took off when it came to their turning, some going to the left for example, others staying on the main road for longer, one just ran down the hill leaving me in hysterics at the sight of her and I thought another had accidentally followed me further till it too turned in at the last house in the road. It bellowed in delight as it walked through its door.  Animals are so wonderful.

The last of the herd

Saving the earth, saving my computer, but not saving my eyes.

It is such a beautiful day I have just sat out on the balcony to have breakfast.

But yesterday when I headed off to Bishkek it was cold and miserable so I am really glad that it better for me and the tourists today. On Friday night my computer completely died so that and continuing problems with my new glasses meant definitely a trip to Bishkek and time to meet up with my old colleague to try and really fix our friendship in the process. I needed him a) to explain the problem with the glasses, they are great for distance viewing but not for on the computer and b) to suggest how I might fix the power problems with the computer.  Luckily the English speaking Turk who runs the opticians was there and he explained I need to give the glasses 10 days to settle. So I have in priniple agreed to try and do that, but immediately returned to my old glasses to use the computer as the new ones are just so out of focus, and I got my old glasses reframed. So all that was sort of settled but in the end not resolved. Then off to Zum which are lots of little shops within one big sort of department store. My former colleague had quite rightly said that a good shop could test my power source to work out the problem and very quickly he found somewhere that did the business found me a new battery and hey presto weeks of struggling on with a cable that works sometimes stops sometimes all sorted within minutes and for a very good price. So after that we had to go to Beta Stores and have a nice Turkish meal.   I am definitely enjoying being here again.

After which we parted and visited the latest art exhibition of work from Talas and Shabdan. I find it absolutely fascinating watching how these pictures are progressing several artists sometimes capturing each other in the shot interrpreting all angles of the landscape around them at different times of the year. Some seem too bucolic some look like they were painted 200 years ago, some are just absolutely the Shabdan I know and sometimes love.

Friday was Subodnik at school - more tidying up so with this in mind I rescued as much wood as I could and put it in the ditches where the apples have been planted and I gave the head strict instructions to ensure that all the children gave any wood they found to me.  What I had not anticipated when I turned up nice and early - 9.15 - was that half a dozen of them would be in a truck and the other half a dozen kids would be passing up to them the remaining leaves with all the precious top soil to dump somewhere, while the staff were spreading the new earth that they had paid good money for ready for the spring planting.  NOOOOOO I shouted as I saw another bag head for the trunk, NOOOOO I shouted as a wheelbarrow full headed in the same direction, so I grabbed it and to the horror of all, who had already looked horrified as I had arrived Lynch like with a wodge of sticks in my arms,  I headed across the field to dump this best earth and leaves over my wood. Several kids joined me, and when we returned I insisted that they leave the wheelbarrow where it was ready for me to continue when after my lesson. Another teacher insisted that they bring it to her who I knew was going to fill it and dump its contents, NNOOOO I shouted, but I had to teach so she won and several loads of precious earth were put in truck whilst I taught. So when I came out I hoicked myself up into the trunk and chucked out the little dead pine trees and started filling bags with earth and leaves to take out of the truck.  I then jumped down and wrestled another wheelbarrow load heading in the direction of the truck, from my colleague who in defeat wheeled it over to my sticks of wood. Fantastic covering for them.  During lunch we had some visitors from the Ashu so that was a very nice distraction. Several Vietnamese taking lots of pictures. Vietnam is now a very developed country as far as I can see from the people who I know have visited which at one point I could not imagine after the destruction and economic policy post the war.   Who knows in years to come our children will be tourists taking pictures of the children they find around the developing world.

After their departure I ran back to my desk found the stuff I had printed out about carrying for apple trees and read out the relevant bits to my head and after that the children were only allowed to pick up the stones. I have realised with all this digging  that not one worm was to be found in any of the earth, not in the ditches or in the soil the children had removed. So that is my next mission to find some worms. Who knew teaching English could be so physical, to think I gave up my garden as I did not think I could manage it any more! Luckily no sooner than all the work for the day was finished than the wind whipped up and the rains came to green this valley.

Amazing, frustrating and scary

Amazing.

My head is amazing, so are my colleagues. On Saturday we had a day's work. All week she has supervised and at times helped with the planting.  Tomorrow the children have another subodnik and will be doing some planting and I hope to bury more wood. The sports colleague is physically making the nets and putting together backboards for basketball. Then the owner of the Ashu comes up and discusses how to build the kitchen and the volleyball courts and lots of rubble arrives to be laid. In the meantime she is still teaching, we are planning for the end of term conference and still she wants to do a fundraiser before it and yet you would have thought that she would be full to the brim with things to do, but the music teacher has mentioned and suggested to her bringing the radio station to our school.  And she is not like help stop I cannot cope there is too much to do, she is like bring it on.

Now one of the things I was hoping to do when I came here was work on this radio station a bit, but I thought it was over half an hour a way so gave up on the idea especially as the teacher who I knew worked on the station speaks no English. Instead it is just down the road. Frustrating and embarrassing because all these people are working their socks off, then working them off again, yet the one thing I might have been able to do, I gave up on as I thought it was half an hour away.  And when  I try and nip in and spend half an hour printing stuff so that I can get on without their help I get stuck and still have to have one of them help me. I am also under my hours yet feel completely full up with what I have to do before the end of the year so how they do it I do not know. It is also why my recent offer of work here is scary cos they want me to do more work and more hours for no extra pay as far as I can see.  I have been so proud of myself to be back at work in a school teaching ,and thought good I am getting skills back but realise now I should have been building up my strength even more because I really do not think i will be able to manage so many hours.

Some of my students asked me today if I was leaving and said that they did not want me to go, which is very nice of them, they are great kids, but they were also said when I came and replaced their previous teacher.

Anyway I have come back to an evening with food provided and no one to care for my head was up at 6.30 and will work till late tonight providing for her family, while the others will be digging over their land to plant crops. They make them supercharged here.

Magic moments.

I know sometimes I get a bit "****** off" when the kids hover round me, but these two always manage to make me smile. The boy cos he reminds me of my nephew and because he is always so passionate about things he enjoys, the girl because she intuits meaning so well. They are both very smart, for example they were colouring the umbrella then she smudged it and I therefore gestured the idea that it was because of the rain and we both just laughed at the joke. Lovely moment.  

Year 0 were bearable today so that was a relief. Both year 0 and 1 have finished their books so now it is trying to consolidate their knowledge and prepare tbem for next year.

Hugelkulur

Yippee it is raining.  Why yippee. Well today I gave up trying to organise teaching for a bit of physical therapy putting bits of wood into the ditches created by the tractor ready for planting the trees. Why I hear some of you cry was I doing this. Well I recently heard about Hugelkultur and whilst what I was doing was very very small scale apparently using buried wood as part of the agricultural system can improve the water retention properties of the soil as the wood can absorb and hold more water as well as providing all sorts of nice nutrients as it breaks down. So although I only did one row, what of course the wood needed to be more effective was rain, so thank you God.  I called for water and it came.


I also had a useful conversation with my head about teaching year 0. Apparently even she had problems getting them to work, I did not press her too much to find out if in her case that meant 2 minutes compared with my whole lesson, but it was a relief to hear she had had some problems. I still need to feel much happier with my performance with regard to the kids before I will consider staying here and today hearing that yet another nice person will be leaving and I know how much support I need to survive here I am still concerned that another year might just be more than I can cope with but I have just put together a sort of 10 year Apple Science/literature programme for the school and it would nice to see some of that come to fruition.

We have lots of plans for the next few weeks and hope to finish the year with a bit of a fundraiser party which will be a novelty at the school too.

Thanks for the helpful messages of support, I have been feeling quite down here partly cos of the teaching so I really appreciate the moral and practical support.

Happy Easter

Having felt rough all week my original thinking was roll on the weekend so I can collapse, but .. my boss had called us to a meeting on Saturday, so then I started thinking perhaps it will cheer me up to go to Bishkek and even made plans to join in with a sunrise Easter Sunday service. In the end, just getting through has been an achievement. I went to bed as early as possible on Friday, planned to travel to the meeting with the owner of the Ashu on Saturday morning, then realised that my cold and the baby were not a good idea, so headed off to the bus instead, thinking at least I can travel up with the Head of the School. However, planting 242 trees and moving 24 beds had for some strange reason had an effect on her and despite getting up to milk the cow at 6.30 she was late and missed the bus, and so she went with the owner of the Ashu and all three of us were there on time and then had to wait over an hour for the meeting to formally start. However, nice munchies were laid on whilst we waited and the meeting was worth waiting for, because although it brought out some major tensions in the organisation, it really went through all the issues that the organisation needs to think about to consolidate and move forward. I shivered and sneezed through the day,felt rough and was incoherent by the time it finished shortly after 6 yet ended up the day suddenly heading a policy working group - help I do not think I have ended headed anything before, but it is just what I wanted a chance to be more involved, however, it has come just before in theory coming home.   I stayed the night at my bosses, I was happy to get to his place at 7 and just go to sleep, and sleep, and sleep. Then was about to tip toe out in the morning thinking all was silent, when my boss emerged and suggested breakfast.  It was a lovely spring morning and I really enjoyed sitting out in the sun learning a bit more about him as he normally lives in New York where his wife is currently studying at film school. He commutes back here to work so is always rushing around when I meet him! (I wish I knew where Kyrgyz people get their staggering energy from)  I then invested Bishkek train station to see if the train to Issky Kul is running yet  as I am going on holiday there shortly and then got my glasses which seemed okay, which was good because while I was waiting to try them on the lens fell out of the old frame which turned out to be broken, (I had only purchased it from them a few months go) so I will have to go back and get those lenses re-framed a second time since being here and sadly because using the new glasses with the computer is not working may even have to see if the new glasses can be altered. When I came out I wondered about trying to ring and see if anyone was around to have a coffee but realised that I felt faint. Whether it was the heat, the cold, or the new glasses, heaven knows, but several times I figured I am about to collapse so just decided to return to the Ashu and rest which I have done and I have just had some lovely skype conversations with the UK and Canada so it seems to be the perfect end to the Easter weekend.

Apples and circuses

I arrived at work prompt for my 9.30 class, which given that getting here for 10 is the norm was a great achievement for someone that is suffering from a cold, but even though I had seen one of the students 15 minutes earlier no one turned up.  So a bit sad because I wanted to involve them in the Apple Day, but this meant I could go and try and do the Apple Day for a bit.

Some time ago the owner of Bilikana said he was going to get some trees to plant, so I said can you get some apple trees as well so that we can feed the children.  Well I meant 3 or 4, instead we have got a whole field full of them. The tractor started by digging 10 rows and then a group of family members came and dug a bit deeper every 10 feet or so. Lots of rocks in the ground making it hard work: I did a couple of holes in the day and that was me finished, but this group apart from a short break for lunch dug enough holes to plant a 160 trees today.

Anyway having not had to teach my first class, I went back in and my head asked if I could cover her English class as she was on apple duty. The idea of her English class is to consolidate what I have taught, to help explain what I have taught and to check what I have taught so me covering her lesson is not really on, and I have already covered three lessons so far for her this week, but I felt the tree planting was a great opportunity to get the kids involved so luckily all year two were together so we went through some key words e.g. plant, dig, water and then the kids were all encouraged to come out and help dig. They are used to helping on the farm, but I want them to do a little scientific project round the trees, by noting how much they grow in their time at the school.  Some of the kids really got stuck in, others were like - no.

I then had a nice extra lesson with year one, this is a sort of optional lesson and I usually just see one or two for catch up work, but today I had all sorts of bits to make a circus and rather than forcing any of them to do work, which I feel  I have to do when teaching formally just did a nice informal session. The children are so creative it is easy to set them off and them sort of sort things.

The last class starts at 2.20, most of the kids get there early so have to hang around a lot, which some of them do by sort of following me, which when I am trying to sort things ready I find sometimes nice, but most of the time a bit annoying as it takes twice as long to do anything.  We are listening to a short version o Last of the Mohicans, amongst other things and have a lot to do if we are to finish it before the end of term, so when 10 minutes into class, my head asked to borrow the boys for 10 minutes, which then turned into 50 minutes, to move beds, the whole class got scuppered.  The beds are in readiness for the summer school.  Sadly I will not be involved with this because the school gave us no information on the timings, pay, responsibilities so I just felt it they cannot give me information, I am just going to go home, and I had already booked marking work, but this is typical of the conundrum that is working here. People can do brilliant things like organise planting a field of apple trees, they can even garner the people to move beds suddenly, but they have paid a lot of money for me to be here to teach English, then mess around with lessons and provide such poor information at times, that one cannot organise anything.

Anyway the nice thing about today is it was warm so it was lovely to be able to be outside, join the parents ( I even got an offer I think from one of the men!) and just do something different.

Nurooz memories

Still struggling with ill health so stayed in bed as long as possible, then dragged myself in so as to print material ready for class but as both the computer teacher and my head were away I could not access the facilities. Luckily there is always something low tech that needs sorting out so had to do that instead. On my way home, I met the computer teacher and he explained he had been on Subodnik or something like that which is this clear up the village idea. This is clearly a great community effort, but why take someone out of work for it, or could not we all do it I think he did try warning me but of course we do not have the language for such things. However, the other day I finally got hold of some of his pictures so to cheer myself up from a very cold Kyrgyzstan memories of a boiling hot day in March.

I felt a bit sorry for the guests last weekend, not only was it freezing, even snowing, but music was blaring out all evening. It turned out it was the 50th birthday party of the husband of my head and his family. Tonight he and my head have been invited to dinner. I could not decide whether it was better to be with the guests of the hotel - a couple or have a meal with the family and my head, but feel that politically and I like her so it is probably the right thing to do.

******

Having had a very nice meal and several vodkas I must say the cold though not rescinded seems much less burdensome. It has been at least 3 weeks since having a party and I was beginning to miss it, so having not wanted to participate I am glad I did and apparently tomorrow the school apple trees are coming and hopefully some of the parents to help plant them.

Is this the sign that it is time to give up.

Another hideous days teaching. I knew today would be challenging cos I am ill and cos I was asked to cover someone at 9. I did not agree to that but did get to work early where it turned out I had to cover another lesson and then had to more or less force my colleague who is in charge of printing to do the work I needed for today's lessons. He wanted to go and tidy up outside instead as it is the tidy up season, so I had to play the heavy with him. I then had to play the heavy with year 0 their teacher is away so they have had a day more or less playing to themselves so I knew coming in and teaching would be a challenge, but when people make rude faces at you for doing your job and turn their backs on you even if they are only 6 I come to the conclusion that if that is how they feel after knowing me thus far then clearly I am not a good enough teacher.  I know the odds are stacked against me, but... The kids even went and got the aforementioned colleague to get him to put the TV back on he was about to lay into the kids for taking it out and found me in class instead as the culprit. He was then about to lay into the kids for their behaviour but I said know forget it for by then I was working with the one child who wanted to study and she did a lovely job and bit by bit the others (most but not all) joined in some of it (the bit he had done the printing for)... but I just feel what is the point in other people's wonderful visions - visions which I would love to see come to fruition, and them wanting me to stay if I cannot even deliver the fundamentals.   Then went on and taught Krushki and sadly they could remember virtually nothing.  So not a great recommendation of my teaching today. Yet the last few days have seemed nice because some of my children can actually converse with me now.  And even me the grown ups using a mix of basic Russian, Kyrgyz and English can have small conversations now.


I am due to go to a meeting in Bishkek on Saturday but the idea of catching the 7 am bus when I am not well and it turns out the flat I usually stay in is not available any more so I cannot rush some where and crash out after so I am not sure I can do any of it any more.

However, as per usual the reality is that my day is not as bad as the many gay people in Africa threatened with death for their sexuality.   And sadly the British Government not always as helpful as it could be when people seek asylum. If you can help sign the following:  https://www.allout.org/en/actions/aderonke-taf

Blown away

Blown away, not by the zero degrees temperature, but by the vision of these two men for The Ashu and Bilimkana Foundation.  The Ashu is to have two conference rooms and two dining areas because of increased demand - this village really is changing - more work for local people, and at the Bilimkana - well those ideas are still being teased out, but if half these ideas come to fruition then the kind of things I have always hoped for and dreamed about may come true educationally, culturally and ecologically.  Now all I need to do is to learn a lot more English grammar so that I can keep my job, a lot more Kyrgyz and/ or Russian to expand my position and to get  Om to come and visit and other friends and family that way it might be feasible and worthwhile to stay on.

When we got back from the school we were going to sit and have a coffee while I tried to absorb some of the ideas but there was a new seminar group there who my boss new and before I knew it we were back at the school with half the seminar which was really good cos it was a policy making group for communications in its widest sense but unaware of the work of the Bilimkana Foundation. One visitor Kyrgyz said that if he knew such schools existed then he would think of being a teacher in the regions. Things like that have to be a good thing.

Spoke for an hour after with my son, even before speaking with him  knew that if I were to carry on with the Foundation it would be an ego thing a last chance to make my mark in the world. The interesting thing is after speaking with him, I felt I did not have to satisfy my ego.

An international spot in the rural wilds.

It was very cold again yesterday, making The Ashu  not the best place for tourists but despite being in the relative wilds and definitely in a rural area we had a couple from South London staying, a I guess French family, who live nevertheless in Bangkok and Bishkek and a Thai,  British (maybe) family who also live partly in Bishkek and Bangkok part of the growing trend of multicultural families who live a multi centred life.

Once they had departed it was back to the usual quiet rural life, so a drunken horseman, the sheep round up, a little bit of evidence of life at the Mosque (I notice some of the people extending The Ashu seem to regularly pray,  and a chat with local children.

More thoughts.

I think it has hit me why I am finding it hard to decide what to do next. I think part of me just still wishes I was in the position to retire at 60 and do what I am supposed to do in life. There are two flaws though in this position. I have always been trying to work out what I am supposed to be doing in life, and I still have not worked it out. The other flaw is that it is years since we were warned that the age of retirement was going up and in truth there is a lot to be said for working, but ...yet I do not know what else to do, may be if my marriage had worked but given that it did not I am back on my Jack Jones.  Here there is a lot of community spirit which is nice for someone on my own, home there is my family and I love being with Nathan even now he is OOOMMMMMM and miss him lots.

Anyway enough of that.  Another extract from today.

One of the reasons my colleague and I were brought from England to teach English here was to "help" modernise teaching here.  There are a number of flaws or issues with this. Help modernise is often seen as end Soviet ways.  Yet everyone in Kyrgyzstan says education has gone down since Soviet days

I am not sure if my colleague uses soviet methods or not, but today's event certainly had rather negative overtones for me, I found the children singing and saluting like that (see previous video) a bit of a shock as I have never seen that before and the whole idea of an Olympiad just because the children have learned their alphabet that too seemed a bit crazy, but .... but..... although I did not like the overtones, what is great about such a system - the Americans use it too of course, is that people really do want to make an effort for something bigger than themselves at times and one of the best ways of improving education is to bring the family in and these special days do that very well. This one because it was just one class we were really able to focus and interact with the family, so although a lot was the usual performance stuff (my colleagues really do put a lot of work into these things and I am useless really in terms of assisting with the management of these things which is why I am asked to do and happy to do an official video but the consequence is that no English element is included which on this occasion I am very sad about) there was also a chance both in English and Maths to show the parents, grandparents etc, how we work with their kids. I like the year 1 teacher. in fact I like them all and I like a lot about their methods, here you can see how interactive she is. In fact for me it is too active, I cannot cope with the kids running up like this so in my class discourage it and I worry it excludes kids, but my method of having them all sit and congratulating those who know the answers is probably no more inclusive though I do insist everyone answers at least once for each element of the class.  I am very sad though today that I do not have a video of what we did to demonstrate the English element because the children helped spell out Friday 11th April on the board and then I like and demonstrated whether they liked a food or not by coming to the front and saying I like whatever was on their flashcard and those who did not like the food on their flashcard stayed seated.  However the best bit was after when the families were invited to join their child with a little book that they had each been given which also had I like and a food, I could hear people all around softly reading with me including some of the children who do not always participate in class. I know at the present my suggestion to parents that they come and have an English to help their child class is unlikely to get a response, (some do have some English to build on), but just having the chance to do something like this with everyone was brilliant.  I just wish I could share it with you.  Everyone seemed sing the anthem again at the end, and I will put yet another video together as soon as I can showing the whole event, but now I think everyone knows the kind of all singing all dancing all shouting extravaganzas that we do.  So I guess our events are a bit of a mishmash really I suppose old Soviet style show, that has a supportive liberal element to it too. Most important really is how much the children enjoy it, and how much their families value their education. So well done to all.

Can East Meet West educationally?

For the moment I will just put up an extract from this afternoon's celebration on the occasion of year 1 students completing their alphabet.  Then I will try and see if I can tease information out of it perhaps to understand my own thoughts.

Burning with indignation

Practices that decrease soil organic matter

Any form of human intervention influences the activity of soil organisms (Curry and Good, 1992) and thus the equilibrium of the system. Management practices that alter the living and nutrient conditions of soil organisms, such as repetitive tillage or burning of vegetation, result in a degradation of their microenvironments. In turn, this results in a reduction of soil biota, both in biomass and diversity. Where there are no longer organisms to decompose soil organic matter and bind soil particles, the soil structure is damaged easily by rain, wind and sun. This can lead to rainwater runoff and soil erosion (Plate 3), removing the potential food for organisms, i.e. the organic matter of the topsoil. Therefore, soil biota are the most important property of the soil, and “when devoid of its biota, the uppermost layer of earth ceases to be soil” (Lal, 1991).

I had explained this last week to my head, in basic terms, and as we want a garden to grow vegetables thought she had heard and understood. Today in class with my older after class students I asked them about organic farming as the term is in the book we had read together and in the process said that in addition to horse manure, which they do put on the land, they should keep leaves and put them on the land too.  So when I immediately came out of class afterwards and found four members of staff, busy in the playground,  not sorting out safety isssues (I need to double check this tomorrow) but burning the leaves, I just left in despair.  And if you are wondering whether as an English teacher this is beyond my remit, well I think no, because we were brought in to bring ideas in from the wider world, and any topic using English is on the agenda including gardening and schools are supposed to be places where education happens, especially in theory in a Bilimkana School. My head's explanation when I asked why, she said no space, We have a dirty great big empty field. 

I am still trying to calm down and recall all the stupid ecological things I have done, like sell my house with its lovely eco patch to people who tore down my trees, but I am still mad because here the soil needs replenishment. 

On a lighter note on the way to school I did approve of some burning as there were a whole bunch of kids out burning the rubbish in the valley, this probably included burning toxic plastic and other dangerous substances, but for once the valley looks a little better. 

And to try and help calm myself down further two lovely pictures. 

Party of teenagers cleaning up the rubbish in the valley. 

Standing guard. 

Two colleagues having a well earned break. 

Downhill

The day started well with a lift from the dancing man from Narooz, on his lap, one child and another at the back so although we could not say much he could introduce his children, so that was fun. But after that well having stopped en route to year 1 for a minute to talk with the music teacher, who I thought explained via google translate that he was looking for the piano music for an English tune,  I was amazed to get to the class only to find that he was with them instead in another room.  It took another 15 minutes to extricate them, so it was like oh know the bad old days again, though I was able to use that time to set up the class. I knew only to well why the classroom teacher wanted them to have the extra music class, because the kids have to perform on Friday,  but apart from it being my class that is also why I wanted them, because I am doing a class with them on Friday too. so needed to pre-teach some material. So I was pretty brusque with her and the  poor kids suffered from a very brusque me too, but that way we got through the material but it was not relaxed or the right thing because they need to enjoy the class more than that.

I could not change my class time, though I could have if I had been primed as I needed to teach year 0.  I had popped into their class earlier to set up the materials I needed ready for it, as I spotted the door was open. I found the kids all happily playing quietly, no teacher. because we have no cover provision.  I figured that they were pretty safe in fact safer there than outside where I had found them earlier as the playground which has some nice bits e.g. the swing, which seems to have got broken today and the seesaw, which also seems to have got broken yesterday, so the kids were wondering in bits that are the ruins of the previous building.  The kids here are very robust, like little London kids playing in the ruins of the blitz, but I am very uncomfortable with this, when I try and caution them they are more determined to do it.  Safety and discipline were two areas that did not get covered at the meeting held over the holidays but I really do not know how to manage a situation like this but kids regularly play both at school and at home unsupervised. So I am afraid I left them to it as I could not bear to watch them. They were outside again when I went into the class to teach. I found a bell and luckily most of them came but I figured the rest of them over the playing field could exhaust me and use up my lesson so left them to it.  Another thing we did not manage to discuss break supervision. I have always hated the spectre at primary schools of kids at the end of breaks being marched into class, but now I understand how helpful it is. Anyway so I worked with the reduced class which was I must admit quite relaxing and then taught Krushki. At one point I realised that the other class were not with the head, who I must admit I had not seen all day, so when they asked me to come out I tried to motion 5 minutes, thinking she would appear and after that just got so engaged with my class I forgot about till I came out. I figured if her class was still around and not with her I would teach them, but they were not there, just the music teacher who explained it was indian music that I wanted.  He loves Bollywood he could sing the tune from one film all the way through in hindi, but he wanted the notes,  not an English tune therefore so not something I could really help him with so I headed home only to realise that my back was killing me. I think it might be carrying around the owners baby, he is lovely but just maybe too heavy for me to pick up as often as I do, so minding him for five minutes this evening so his mum could cook for me, I was trying to be very careful. Just as worrying is that it has taken an hour to get the computer to work. I cannot work out where the problem is with the cable but the connection often does not work so there is no power, I have tried some other cables, no joy, then suddenly it worked so I have written this and will try not to touch anything in the hope that it stays working at least for this evening, but there is no guarantee.

Moral Maze

When I was younger I regularly left jobs when I felt that politically or morally they were not all that. For example I left the paper as I had promised my students I would when a story was pulled.(and regretted it long after.)   I also left a nursing home as I felt the owners spent more money and attention on their dogs than on their clients, but as a result it meant I left people with whom I was definitely making a bond, despite my crap cooking - I grilled smoked salmon for example, (how was I supposed to know),  and the retrograde effect that this had on their health. (. Clearly in retrospect I should have reported them but withdrew my labour instead - but I was only 15 at the time and the only one on duty and giving out drugs, which was illegal at the time so did not really know how to handle the situation)

Most jobs present these dilemmas I find, even at the college where I worked for 12 years, my longest anywhere, towards the end there were things that I felt were corrupt, and I know a number of people had become seriously ill probably with the stress of the work as a contributing factor (including our union rep whose masters was on stress at work and was said that work had been a contributing factor in her cancer)  but luckily I found a job and my way out and did what I had wanted to do for yearsworked abroad.   So here what should I do?  Should I let the things that concern me about the Foundation e.g. e.g my high cost and the impact on other things that the school can do or not do as a result and the Foundations slightly dodgy entry procedures at other schools where children come in en mass to unnotified  and therefore unprepared teachers, sway me or should I say, hang on a mo, the Foundation is providing English at an early age the kids and parents aren't complaining and luckily the teachers are brilliant and although it is not ideal they find a solution and it is no worse than elsewhere in the country (though our parents are paying for the privilege) AND  you and your colleagues are trying to bring these concerns to the Foundation to help improve these things,  So this morning I must admit the former position was making me feel uneasy about staying, but by this afternoon as per usual a nice day with the kids and and an even lovelier evening at the Ashu with the owners baby (only 7 months and already saying mama sounds) make me think oh it is nice here and although my boss does not understand what compost is at the moment and she has a million other things to think about she is very tolerant of this pest and very supportive of my crazy ideas such as Robert Robot.  So all in all better than a lot of places.  So basically I still do not know what to do.

This is a picture of Robot Robert, not very elegant I know, but I am pleased we made him or should that be Roberta.

A change in the weather.

It was like a wet Wednesday in Windermere most of the weekend so when I woke to the sun yesterday I headed off to work without my coat.

 Sitting down and finally getting access to the computer to do some prep though I noticed how windy it was outside and before I could even work out what that might signal the electricity went off.  After that it was very wild and windy all day. The electricity came on and went off, so that was one challenge to the day.   I have never known it so wild.

 I also had had a terrible night sleep on Sunday night so knew the day could be challenging on that score too.  But actually in the end it was lovely day workwise, I did a quiz with the year two to revise their year so far, and while there are some children really behind, overall more words are definitely embedded and one more student was showing signs of reading which really helps them in this instance as they can read the answer from the flashcard.  Then I taught year 0.  I have wanted for some time to make a robot with them, it is one of the words in the book (it comes from the word for  work in Russian) as I thought it could be a fun physical activity, but how to do it?  So I had primed my colleague their teacher and for once she fully participated and in fact made the success of the lesson possible. All the children were ready when I came in, I just had a box of resources (saved boxes, loo rolls, etc)  and after a little bit of taught work, she landed up helping a group paint and make the head while I focused on the body and legs.  The group of children I was working with were incredibly creative, we made legs out of loo papers so yes that may not have been possible in the UK ,and fingers out of the individualised containers for my vitamins.  Two children did not participate as much but I had decided not to worry if that happened just to make it a positive experience for all. Which is was.  I was too busy to get pictures while we were working, so this picture is from the end.

Luckily it was only snowing lightly when I went home though it was cold.  I crashed asleep and rather worryingly still feel very tired at the moment despite having only woken to eat something and chat on skype. Anyway it is sunny again this morning so let's hope it stays that way.

The Road to Jugoslavia and the Road to Touba, fact and fiction.

For some time I have been aware that during the Bosnian war, perhaps because my focus was more on Rwanda, that I did not fully follow the events or understand them. In fact it is scary how one can live through so many historical events and be scarcely able to recall them. So it has been very useful to have some background information on the whole situation in the book I am still reading - Eastern Approaches - by Fitzroy Maclean. My own ignorance as I vaguely knew that parts of the WW2 had been fought in the region, but I had had no idea that prior to Tito uniting the country there had  a) been virtually continuously fighting to try and regain autonomy and independence from various colonial rulers and b) that in effect during the war the Partisans were with the Allies (once they had cottoned on that these guerrilla fighters were an asset) and the Cetniks - their fellow countrymen - were helping the Germans by in effect being at war with the Partisans.  No wonder when it all kicked off again it was so bloody, that part of the world has had a much longer and more troubled history than I had realised.

When I came out to Kyrgyzstan I brought a little project with me.  My draft novel The Road to Touba.  Using my experiences in Senegal as a starting point I had written it just before moving home as part of the Nanowrimo.  I cannot remember who introduced me to Nanowrimo, but I know that my nephew has had a go at it, so one day hope to see him in print, and because I find the discipline of writing so difficult thought it a good idea to try as the idea is you spend November just writing and those who succeed in writing 50000 words get a tee shirt and the pleasure of knowing that they have delivered. I can't remember why but I did not get the tee shirt, I think one had to be in the states, but I did do the word count.  So since getting here whenever I have had time at the weekends I have got the book out and tried to revise it.  About a month ago I figured that I was done and tried working out how to upload it to Lulu.com where I published my other books some time ago. But the system seems more complex, but today I have finally and it has taken me all day published it. No sooner done than I noticed two typos! Also for some reason there does not seem to be a nice cheap download version, I guess ebooks have taken over so I will need to spend another day trying to work out how to do this, but that is something that I need to sort out another weekend. I hope that people will buy it and like it.  As my blog shows I like to write but managing the process is not always easy.  Anyway it is my first novel I just realised today so exciting really. click here to find your copy - hopefully

Interesting developments.

It is raining and a bit miserable still maybe this is how spring is here, life in the clouds, when they lift, nice sunshine, when they lower, rain. But otherwise things are developing well, if a bit spasmodically.


I am supposed to teach one year 1 today, but somehow their class disappeared into dance and music, and time outside, but one young lad, someone who I wanted some one to one time with appeared, with a hurt tummy so I got him to help me cut things out for a circus tent activity I want to do. In fact I am glad only he came back as cutting out was such a challenge for him, I realised that the activity I had planned for the whole group would not have worked. I am not supposed to teach year 2, but one young lad kept saying Angleski, and in the end as they were the group I had not taught yesterday I figured why not, and apparently that was what was required but it had been left to the students to tell me so that worked.

Then over lunch,   to my surprise my head said that they are thinking of having a fundraiser, over lines I have suggested to them, but which lots of people have told me just will not work in Kyrgyzstan. Anyway apparently another member of staff went to something similar in Bishkek, so they have already discussed it and are going to see if it is possible,  and everyone was very excited today thinking what we might do. My head is very ambitious and open to ideas, she has suggested me singing in Kyrgys and the rest of the staff learning the Scottish country dance I taught the children the second term!  Help, it could be a very busy last term. They are going to sound out the parents and see what they think, but if so it would mean while I have been totally unsuccessful re leaf mulch and apples, I might have introduced the notion of pta's and fundraisers to the school.  We need the money, I spent the whole day making resources, when I was not teaching today, and much of the time was spent trying to add a bit of colour as our colour printer is out of action. Anyway so that was surprising,  then I was told that as year 1 have finished learning their Alphabet (Russian)  they will have a little holiday next Friday, their parents will be invited to see them give little displays in five topics and English is to be one topic. However, given that each time I have tried running an English class for the parents, it has been curtailed I immediately, said we would not do a display in English or song, we would invite all the parents to join in a class with their children.  Now I just have to plan something that will work and be fun.

More surprising is a development back in the UK apparently my old college is part of a consortium helping to develop vocational education in Saudi Arabia.  I have been telling my employer and his brother here that that is what they should try and introduce here so it is very interesting and even amazing that my old college, which was nice and gentle when I started there, but more cut throat, by the end should be headed in that direction. I genuinely think it is an exciting development.

A proud day.

A long day a tiring day but I think a day to be proud.  I got to school early and in theory we were leaving at 10 to get to the competition, but instead started rehearsing not one but two English songs.  My kids the first time ever in this district competition were going to sing two songs in English. Regardless of whether I stay or go, to find myself on a spring morning at a local school and see my children stand up in front of these judges and acquit themselves so well. I was immensely proud of them.  We do not know the results yet, but this afternoon the judges came round to find out about this school where the children play so well and sing so well and I am pleased to say they liked what they saw.

The other nice thing again so many of the students I teach after school were performing, there are times I really feel like a community member here as I was cheering on so many of them.

And most of them turned up today for their lessons despite having had such a nerve wracking morning.

This term's timetable put back already?

I have been given a list of the days we are on holiday this term. There are holidays when we are at school but doing the shows and holidays when we really are not at school so I wanted to double check before finalising my plans for this term. I am really keen that the kids have progressed as far as possible by the end of my stay regardless of whether it is me that teaches them next year or someone else.

I am also lucky that we have a bit of flexibility so this morning rather than heading in I worked at home finalising the timetables I also decided to send them to my head with my outline plans for the end of term shows so that what I am planning should fit in with other plans.  One of the things I hope to start tomorrow is a book with the students, that I want them to write, just basic stuff but to help them revise some phrases and to benefit from their good drawing skills and then they can present the finished book to their parents. However, it turns out tomorrow our year two children are in competition. They have to take some songs and dances and compete with some other children, and when I heard them practicing in English I realised that one of the songs that they are taking with them is the one I have taught them.  So instead of starting on the book (we may still be back in time, but no one knows)  I have an invite to the competition.

It is an unusually miserable day today we are in the clouds so it is raining, but I gave up and helped clear some stuff to put on the bonfires, which was actually nice and warming under the circumstances. And to my surprise when I headed out to find out if there was any food discovered two nice Germans who normally live in Bishkek but have a short holiday and who are really hoping that the weather will improve tomorrow, so I have had a nice evening chatting with them.   This morning it was so lovely so rural so I hope too that things will be better tomorrow and that our children do well in the competition.

By the way does anyone know why wild dogs do not demolish dead birds immediately I have seen several dead birds recently maybe revealed under the snow but also saw a few in the snow. but they were there for several days despite the presence of wild dogs.

Norooz: what stars the Bilimkana children and staff are.

Definitely my favourite school festival so far, I think it shows how clever and talented and lovely the children are. Some of the staff are pretty amazing too. I hope that I can upload it as it is also the biggest video so far.

Skype hellos and reflections on good and sad news.

I received an email apology from my colleague but have felt sad and drained all day, so to cheer myself up I have just spoken with my Dad on Skype.  It will be his 88th Birthday soon so is off up the Rhine to sort of celebrate.   I still have not received the birthday card he sent in February, it will be interesting to see if the parcel I sent him and his wife will arrive before they go away. It was lovely to speak with the both but made me feel even more sad to be so far away.  Now we are five hours apart though I might try and ring a few more people from school as no internet at The Ashu.

It is nice and warm outside, but ironically because the heating has been turned off it is as cold in the school as it was in winter.  But outside the birds are so pleased it is spring. The crows were stripping bits of bark off the trees for their nests. They ran away when I tried to capture it but this short video will give you a flavour of spring here.

This evening there are even more fires. Everyone is tidying up their plot and even painting the trees. Trees across the whole country are painted like this (reminds me of France) showing how industrious people can be here, yet the industry cannot be applied to the removal of rubbish. When my new colleague came yesterday I discovered that the owners mum and I are in accord on this he interpreted that she had tidied up much of the countryside with the family of their own accord but now it is worse than ever. We laughed together a bit over my apple project and how it ran aground as everything was thrown away, but she also has said that is exactly the kind of thing needed in the valley, like me she is aware that the Ashu and the school could be clients to receive apple products but she just does not know where they can get the equipment etc. It also turns out that there is paper and bottle recycling in Bishkek could that offer a way forward for the locals in terms of income generation. Anyway it was nice to find her to be an ally now I just need to try and encourage her and the school gardener to try and compost some of their waste. It might be an uphill struggle but I think it did us both good to talk yesterday.  She also gave me a present a guest had left for me some delicious organic Kyrgyz apricots, the only thing is that I cannot work out who they are from, so whoever you are thank you.