Christmas!

So I'm in a bit of a predicament. On the eve of Christmas (not quite, it's the 23rd at the moment) I've learned that not only do I have to go be part of a commission for the local scholastic olympic competition, but I also have to cover classes for my counterpart tomorrow. The issue: I was planning on doing all sorts of stuff for Christmas. First things first though, in terms of what's going on. Last week and the week prior I was told about the olymiads, and when I went in the day it was supposed to be (the 20th) I was told the date was magically moved. Not only was it moved, it was MOVED. To the 25th, to be precise. That ruined my holly jolly spirit quite a bit because now instead of spending time with my host family on Christmas I'll be running this nonsense competition. Don't get me wrong -- I want to be involved with the competition, particularly since its an opportunity for Kyrgyz students to advance a bit further than the norm. But, in talking with other volunteers, I've learned the following: the legitimacy of this competition is... questionable... volunteers have to do a ton of work by themselves, I was told no other volunteer could come and help me because I'm the only volunteer in my rayon (and they seem to want to flaunt that to no end), and, lets face it, it's freakin Christmas day!! That, and it's supposed to go on for a ridiculous amount of time, from 8 am to 7-8 pm.

The second issue is that I was planning to do stuff prior to this aggrivating olympic thing. I went to Talas and bought 2 kilos of apples, 2 kilos of flour, a bunch of sugar and butter, and was planning on making a pie and some cookies at least. If I had time I would try my hand at chicken (perhaps fried since I have a ton of flour), potatoes, and corn -- not the typical Christmas fare, but my request for the traditional family holiday food wasn't granted. Not that that matters much at this point in any case because I'm now left with all the classes my counterpart said I would have off in order to cover them, by myself. Wonderful! So I have next to no time for any sort of food preparation, all day at this event so no time for gifts, and one rather large (and growing) headache.

Things aren't all terrible though. Today I held club (instead of the standard Friday - considering moving club to Tuesday permanantly from now on 'cause it might be easier) and got to show off all sorts of Christmas stuff to my students. My santa hat, stocking, mini Christmas tree, jingling bells, cards (which are rare here, I believe) with vivid pictures on them. I showed off the new vocabulary and explained how Christmas in America works. Then I wrote out some lyrics to Jingle Bells, played it on my computer, then sang it to the class (uh, yeah... I think I made some kids sick from that, but I only have the orchestra versions of most Xmas songs, so no words). Afterwards I got to tell them that Santa came to me early, cause he knows there's an American living in Kyrgyzstan here in my village, and give them some wonderful presents from the US and KY. Felt pretty good, first time I've had a decent smile on my face for a good part of the day. After club with my 7th formers, some of the girls came up to me and gave me a card (very impressed, even if it's in Russian) and a kalpak (very dignified and honorable gift in Kyrgyzstan - can't believe I have 3 already). I thanked them, and proceeded to fight back the tears as I choked up a bit. Had to get ready for the next club and all.

Yesterday I helped put up the Christmas tree. Reactions afterword tell me most people here get something small and plasticy for personal trees, maybe about 2-3 feet high. However, my family has (had?) a tree in the side-yard type section of our home, so my 15 yr old brother and I went out to determine how best to tackle getting said giant into said house. I just kind of figured cut it in half and it'll be good -- the tree had to have been about 10 feet tall. So we grab the 'ladder' (really just a bunch of metal... uh... spokes? stuck inbetween two pieces of wood) and saw, and he climbs up to saw the thing in half. Now there's half a tree sitting in the yard, it's upper half gone. Yikes! But at least the part cut off looks good. Of course we had to clean it of all the leaves and snow and gunk, but afterwards it worked out ok... up until the point when we got it inside, and figured that this family has nothing in the way of a stand. So we prop 'ol toppy up with a chair and go about the house looking for things that will work -- after quite a bit of time, we end up finding an old metal grate/crate type thing that one could imagine being an old-style milk carrier (when people got milk delivered to their door every day) but had empty vodka bottles in it, and an old can to prop the trunk in and act as a water holder (what?!? you water the tree?? -- my family in response to me). Add some string to the tree and grate/crate, and viola -- Christmas tree! The decorations for it are rather... interesting. There are about 10 ornaments for this 5 foot tree, one string of lights, and tons of what I would consider Mardi Gras boas, something my (US) brother might have worn ages ago (or still might?). Only the front side is decorated, the tree being stuffed in a corner purposefully. But hey, it works! And we have a tree.

I'm sitting here now, flabergasted and indecisive. What to do, what to do. I have all the things necessary to celebrate Christmas -- everything but the time. Urg @ celebrating New Years and New Years alone...

--

I decided to not show up to classes on Wednesday. First, my counterpart told me I could and should do so, primarily because she would be giving the (fairly pointless) quarterly test to the students. However, that fell through as mentioned earlier. But I realized from my contract that I can not (as in, it's possible for me to not do so... why didn't I write this out better in the first place... ugh and I'm an English teacher... I speek the good) hold a class if my counterpart isn't present, which helps me out a ton since I don't have the books, inclination to drone out a dictation/copy the text test, or a clue as to how the lesson plans should be followed. So yeah, in short, I skipped the stuff that would have been dumped on me if I just let things slide like I've been doing for a long time now.

Instead, I spent Wednesday preparing and baking. I of course went to my club, that's natural, and presented my Christmas lesson to everyone. I also met up with my good counterpart and distributed gifts to my second graders -- it was a surprise for everyone, particularly since after not going to classes my spirits were lifted to a point where I refused to not wear my newly acquired Santa hat everywhere for the next two days. Around noon I prepared a pie crust from scratch -- had to wait to do much else because of no electricity and time, so after club I came back to do some serious business. The crust had plenty of time to cool, so I got to work peeling, coring, and slicing about 3, 3 1/2 pounds of apples. Once that was done, I got to work with my flour and sugar and butter and cinammon, and an hour or so later, voila! My first pie ever, and it was all made from scratch (take that ready made crust!). The only thing is it was an apple pie, but I didn't make a second round of dough to put on top, so it was an open faced pie. Still delicious though! And very American. I also made some chocolate chip cookies -- those are easy as cake (hmm... now there's an idea... maybe after I have pie down pat) to me now. Christmas must be, doggonnit!

Wednesday night, after a dinner of monte (dumplings, meat n potatoes n onions steamed inside pasta -- a more-than-ordinary dish for the occassion), I decided to step out into the living room and watch the tree for a while -- something I would do back home from time to time because it gives me a sense of peace and happiness. I took some paper and scissors out with me as well. After about 20 minutes or so, the kids of the fam came in and they had the stockings that my eje made, so we hung those up. I then showed them (sorta) how to cut out 'ornaments' for the tree using the paper -- soon I was bringing out the ribbon/string stuff from one of my packages to use as hanging material, markers, pencils, etc. It was pretty darn fun! Most everyone made at least something, and the decorating brought some more life to the scene. Ho ha it's Christmas time! After a while, everyone settled down a little bit, and at 12 the power turned off (per usual). However, it took the kids a rather long time to go to sleep, so I spent 12-1 preparing the gifts etc. with names and all that good stuff. At 1 I ventured out and became Santa for the first time -- it was certainly not easy, especially since the kids are in the next room with the door open. But I managed, got all the gifts out, had to dump the contents of the goody bags into stockings 'cause they wouldn't fit (sorry, the goody bags were excellent, but the stocking trumps it here), put the oranges I bought in the stockings as well, evaded my eje coming in at about 1:40, put out the note from Santa, ate the cookies left out, and in general just left a nice spread of gifts around the tree and in the stockings. Not easy, very tiring, but as I would come to learn oh so worth it!

On Christmas morning we all woke up and got to see the gifts. I sensed something of a subtle shock -- unfortunately we all woke up around 7 or so, and we had to leave for this olympic competition at 8, so I told the family we should open the presents at night (as, you know, we should open presents together on Christmas!). Christmas is just another day in Kyrgyzstan, so everyone went to school/work. My two older host sisters and myself were going to the olympiad, so it would be a long long day. After arriving at school, and trying to figure out what the heck is going on because A)nothing was explained to me, at all and B)no counterpart, we get in a marshrutka to head to the rayon center. When I say we, I mean *WE*. There had to have been 30 people stuffed into this marshrutka -- people sitting on laps, standing on one another, crooning necks to fit -- the thing was a human sardine can, and we had to travel for at least 20 or 30 minutes.

When we got off at the school the olympiads was taking place at, there was one thought that crossed my mind -- I feel like Mr. Stallone in Rocky IV after he gets off the plane in Russia. The sky was a cold grey, things were quite snowy, and the school seemed a bit large and daunting. I knew then and there that this would be no picnic and I was in for a long, rough day. After figuring out where to go, I convene with a bunch of other teachers. Keep in mind, I have my Santa hat on throughout this whole thing, so people are calling out "Santa Claus" to me all day -- not a bad thing, per se, just a note. After the convening breaks the English teachers get together to go over what we'll be doing for the day. In the middle of it all I get a call from home -- ugh, bad timing, I wanted to break away from this work to talk but needed to stay on my toes and on top of things, lest I be completely excluded and the typical Kyrgyz schenanigans win the day. So the template is set - grammar, reading, listening, and interview portions of everything for the students. Also note, the other teachers are speaking in Kyrgyz 99% of the time, and this is an English competition.

I was delegated to throughout the day. First I was set with the task of reading a poorly copied text, half the words missing, coming up with 5 "easy" questions for it, then writing it all out on the blackboard. Of course when I start writing, the Kyrgyz teachers chide me and say I need to write bigger, with quite a tone of mock, amusement, and superiority. So whatever, I write bigger. Then it's time for the questions. Now, students in Kyrgyzstan always always always memorize to the letter certain things, so if you throw them something other than what's on track with that they're like fish out of water. My questions befuddled so many of them, and I gave multiple choice to the questions that weren't yes/no. And there were only five questions. After that I had to conduct the listening section. I read a text, they listen, try to understand, and answer five questions about the text (all of which comes from a book). I read this text very slowly three times, and most students didn't even answer the question. My thought is that they don't understand me - they understand the incorrect and garbled English of their teachers, and English coming from anyone else is nonsense to them (even a different Kyrgyz teacher). So that's done, and then I move on to the interview portion. Or at least, that's what I should have been doing. Instead these five ladies who are speaking more Kyrgyz than English throw me all the tests to correct. Whatever, I though -- I know English and can grade them faster than they can. By the time I'm done with grading, most of the interviews are done -- I only got to ask questions to one girl, so I only got to test actual knowledge instead of what was memorized with one student from the 9th form.

After our lunch of only-god-knows-what (looked like prison gruel), we get back into the mix with the interviews etc. First I have to reinterview some 9th formers because there's a "split decision" -- I do that and pick the best, wasn't easy but I made the right decision. Then I'm charged with interviewing the 10th formers, the 'superiors' get to interview the 11th formers. Most students knew their memorized lines, but nothing deviating from that. One or two kids knew were a bit more advanced, and I gave them better scores. The most irritating thing, though, is that one of the 'elite 5' was sitting in with me, and she would literally laugh and jest when kids didn't know anything, sometimes righ in their face -- one kid had some nasty words for us when the interview was over. I wanted to punch her in the face; she was so unprofessional and demeaning, I have no idea how she got onto this commission. But, I finish with the 10th formers and pick the best. Afterwards I go back to the other 'elites' and get to sit in and ask questions about 1/4 way through an interview. This kid knows his stuff, I think, as we're talking about more advanced topics like ecological and youth problems (albeit these were set topics so the kids had prepared texts to memorize). But I got to ask him some questions, what he wanted to be after school (a judge), how he could help with problems as a judge, etc. He could speak and speak well, and just seemed overall intelligent. Most of the other students didn't meet the 'elite' criteria so they were banished, although I found ways to rephrase the questions in order to get at least some response instead of instantly dismissing those who hadn't pored over something premade. We then got to a girl who knew English fairly well -- she was slower in answering questions and I had to rephrase a couple times, but she knew her stuff. It essentially came down to this girl and the boy from earlier -- the 'elite' let me pick. It wasn't easy, but in my opinion the boy performed better, so I chose him #1.

After all the interviews were done, the 'elite' gathered together and quarrelled for about an hour or an hour and a half about who did what, who was good, who was bad, etc. This is where all the tomfoolery went on. They all had a scoring system, but they didn't take that into regard. "Oh, the student who got the highest score isn't good... we should pick someone else," or "This is my student, he/she knows English very well, they should be first." I noticed that they decided to throw out my listening scored and do some nonsense scores of their own -- as we all know, Kyrgyz people speak English better than, say, the American who comes here to teach English. Now, I was supposed to have the last word on who would win in the competition (and I did for the 11th form), but for the 10th and 9th form they decided to do their own thing. So, for the 10th form they picked some girl who couldn't answer any of my questions (and even struggled with the "Kyrgyz interpretation") instead of a girl who could speak quite well, didn't have to go off of memorized texts, etc. all because the girl who got 1st was one of the 'elite's' students. That's why I needed to be on my toes, but as I started to bring it up they were already signing things and writing in the books. Ugh!! KYRGYZSTAN!!! Why must things be so damn corrupt here.

So we're finished at about 5:30, and start handing out the awards etc. First the 9th formers, then the 10th formers. The 11th formers are called out, and given their prizes. The girl who got 2nd place literally broke down into tears, no joke. After everyone left, the 'elite' told me, "You have to stay here, so sit and listen to the mother of the girl who got 2nd place," and then they all booked it. Thanks fellow commissioners, you only screwed me the entire day so why should I expect different here?? So I have this angry mom trying to chew me out, saying it's not right her girl got 2nd place. I tell her she knows English very well, but the boy knew it better. No no, that cannot be, you have to retest them, you have to come back here tomorrow and do it. At this point I begin thinking in my Santa hat-bedecked head, "It's Christmas day, I've been dealing with these 5 bats, countless kids who don't know English, corruption, work deferment, I started at 8 am and it's 6 pm right now, I f'n put off a call from home to do this crap, I have a feast waiting at home, presents to have the family open, and it's f'n Christmas Day!!!!" So I got a bit heated and told her no, I'm not retesting, not tomorrow, not Monday, not ever. It doesn't matter if your kid got good scores from other volunteers, the other kid knew better. Bam, I leave. My school's marshrutka is waiting outside, cram-packed with teachers and students again. I wait in it for about 20 minutes, then one of my host family's family members (who happens to be a director or something-or-other in the rayon) comes by and offers a ride in his car to two other teachers and myself. Bliss!

I get home and plov, one of my favorite Kyrgyz foods, is prepared. A table is set up near the Christmas tree, the presents are still all unopened, all sorts of goodies are set up. First I bring out my computer and start playing some Christmas music on it -- thank you Pat n Nat for that! Then I bring out my pie and cookies -- the table is being set, I cut a slice of pie for everyone, everyone has their bowl of plov, coca-cola is served. But first, it's time to take pictures! Oh, and we have to get sparklers out to commemorate the holiday! So everyone first lights their sparkler (over the table, no less), I start snapping pics, then I get to do my own sparkler, then we get cheers pics with the coke, and it's time to dig in! The taste of sheep never really bothered me, and I couldn't but help thinking that as I bit into the gigantic piece they gave me with my plov. After the deliciousness of plov, we got to dig into the pie. Man. Oh. Man. Pie makes me so incrediblely happy. Now I know I can make it, and make it all by scratch. I think the fam sort of enjoyed it, but they aren't too big on cinammon here -- and of course I made a cinammon apple pie. But wow. About 3 pounds of apples in this thing -- it was heaven!

After dinner, it was time to open up presents. I think this night was the best night I've had here, if not from all my time in Kyrgyzstan, then here in Talas, at least. Plenty of pictures taken, lots of bright smiling faces, the wows, the happiness. It made me feel at home. I got smiles in pictures, for cripes sake! I think everyone liked their presents. It was spectacular, as they were all crying out "Rakmat (thank you) Santa Claus!" and trying everything out. Truly a sight to behold, and an event of joy. I thanked them afterwards for celebrating with me our (Americadan Kishi - American people) big holiday. Afterward, as I was walking out to the bathroom, I got a call from home. Splendid! How fortunate that I needed to use the restroom because my cell phone doesn't work all that well inside. A little bittersweet because I miss everyone back home, but I don't think I've laughed this much since leaving the states. Unfortunately we reached the 30 minute mark and the call cut out. Then a small call later from the pops -- a quick Merry Christmas and get back inside before you freeze to death. I went back inside, opened my presents quietly, marveled at how many gloves I now have (4 pair, 4 pair), choked up a bit at a little ornament that was sent, and fell asleep with the phone by my side just in case (and secretly hoping) I'd get a call.

Oh what a Christmas. The bad and the good, it was all here.

--

The morning after Christmas. I'm soundly resting in that state of not fully sleeping yet not awake either when the ring of my cell brings me to reality - the word 'home' is lighted up. Finally, after almost half a year here in Kyrgyzstan, I get a call from home. It was good being able to talk again, especially since the unfortunate olympiad instance intruded upon what should have been my first true call. But things are what they are, and it was highly enjoyable being able to talk again -- I had the full family spectrum between last night and this morning. Glee!

I'm tired, but this tiredness is quite different from the exhaustion of the past few weeks. It's the tiredness of good work. My spirits are high! Whether it's the wonderful gifts that were sent, the effort of one person trying to show a school and family (if not a village/rayon) the Christmas Holiday, or just the magic of the season, I feel great! I've been laughing and smiling more this past week than I have in a long long time. I feel like I can accomplish anything now! Ha ha.

Today I got two visits from my 7th formers. The different sections (7th A, 7th B, 7th V etc.) apparently decided to get me presents from the class. I got another kalpak (collection is at 4 now!), some more cards signed by individual students, President For Men cologne, and this pouch-type thing that has stiched into it "Криске Умуттон" (something like 'from hope to Chris' if translated literally -- and it's pronounced Chriskey uhmuhttuen, roughly). I <3 my students, and not in the creepy teacher/professor who picks on certain students in class sort of way.

Tomorrow the volunteers are getting together in Talas to do a bit of Christmas celebrating. Predicament again: my school is holding it's New Years celebration/dance-a-thon/singing event/whatever you can call it, tomorrow as well. I really want to go to both. Perhaps I'll go to half or most of the school event then head into Talas a bit later. Guess you'll all find out sooner than I will have, 'cause you're all just reading this! Ha. Ok, time for me to stop.