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.