Thanksgiving and Beyond!

Thanksgiving was, to put it mildly, absolutely incredible! While I was trudging through Naryn and Chuy to make it back to Talas, the other volunteers of the oblast banded together to put together a most impressive feast. I chipped in with a salad (re: American salad, not any 'ol thing thrown together visavi Kyrgyz salad), which was decent considering I had a whole 1-2 hours to do what I needed (like go to the bazaar and find lettuce, dressing ingredients, etc). But man oh man. This Thanksgiving, despite being celebrated on the Saturday following actual Thanksgiving, was incredible.
First, let me just say, Thanksgiving is Talas' big holiday. It's always celebrated, sort of in a full-blown manner, and we invite people from other oblasts to attend. Nobody from other oblasts came, but still. This Thanksgiving was the first time all the volunteers in the oblast got together to do anything, which is a feat in and of itself. Now, enough about that gibberty-gab. On to the feast!
Wow. Just wow. There was so much. My salad of course. But everyone made something and brought it: the best deviled eggs I've ever tasted, mashed potatoes, corn with some sort of magical sauce mixed in, real stuffing, gravy, biscuits, cornbread, mac n' cheese. One volunteer made a batch of potato salad and a batch of carrots; he got too carried away with the vinegar, so those were ruined... he also made some weird carrot ball thing, wasn't a fan of that either. But, the most wonderful things of all had to be the following:
Turkey. Not just one turkey, but two turkies. One volunteer bought a couple and fed them for a couple weeks (we all chipped in to buy 'em), and the day before T-day the turkies were slaughtered and stuffed. We spent a good deal of time baking the turkies, praying for the electricity to still be working -- which it did! Also, we had 5 pumpkin pies. Five pumpkin pies! These were quite possibly the best pumpkin pies I've ever eaten. Now here I must say - everything was made from scratch. There's no such thing as a quick-mix or pre-made something-or-other here in Kyrgyzstan, so everything was handmade. This made everything mean quite a lot, and I think even despite not having much in the way of American food for quite a while, it was simply an exquisitely scrumptious and delicious meal, even by non-KY food standards! This Thanksgiving was the first time in-country that my stomach hurt, and hurt real bad, from something other than being sick. I don't think I've ever, ever been that full in my life. My friends sleeping at the apartment with me lamented this -- I was apparantly snoring, which doesn't happen all that often any more (I think...).
After coming back from Thanksgiving, thoroughly broke from my trip to Naryn et al, I started work once again. The epidemic has cleared! Well, I must say that it felt good getting back into the thick of things. In particular, I think things with my one counterpart who said she didn't want to work with me are turning out to be alright. We've determined that we should divide our classes so that one teacher will observe and assist while the other runs classes - it works out decently because we teach each form (i.e. 11th A, 11th B, 10th A, 10th B etc) two times each every week. So far so good - we're just back to the normal problem of students not doing work and not caring about class. Fun!
I started up my club this week. I think I chose a bad time to start - there was some sort of "ball" going on where the 11th formers were dancing and singing and... oh who knows. I scheduled things so that on my one true free day, Friday, I'll give two sessions of club in the morning to the 7th formers, and two sessions in the afternoon - one to the 10th formers, one to the 11th formers. So I show up at 9, the time I scheduled for my first group of 7th formers. The classroom I was told I could use (re: it's free!) wasn't free -- some 8th formers have class in there. That, and none of my students show up. So at 9:20 I go back home - no point in sticking around. At 9:50 there are some students calling throughout the house for my host eje - not that they couldn't call for me, so they just yell out her name for a full minute straight. How come you're not at school, they inquire. How about because you all probably came at 9:30 or 9:40 for my club that was supposed to start at 9. That's Kyrgyz, to the dot.
I scheduled things to have an hour interval between club sessions - give myself some time to breathe, particularly since all my classes throughout the week are nonstop. But no. Nobody wants to come in at 9. We want to come in at 11. No, that's when I'm giving my second morning session. Fine fine, 10 it is. Ugh. And this is supposed to be my free day, too. I go in, things start up around 10:20 for my first session, and everything goes fine. Second session as well, though the classroom situation is highly aggrivating (hey, uh, students, do you know of any free classrooms around here?). I show up for my first afternoon session at 1 -- two problems. First, the 11th formers are in the classroom I'm using for afternoon sessions doing some intense dance tryout thing for their ball. Second, no students show up. Splendid! At least I got the 7th formers in, albeit with a very crummy first session time-change. I'm going to work on making advertisements or something...
Despite the club, however, I've been feeling pretty good this week. I think having snacks and food from America help out so much -- being able to supplement my potato and oil diet makes me feel better physically, and having foods I just simply enjoy is doing wonders for me emotionally. My counterparts are turning out to be pretty good -- actually had a meaningful talk with one (not the one who didn't like me two weeks ago) about her family and all sorts of stuff. Was good, in the sense that we got to talk in such a manner - most of the topics weren't so good in and of themselves though. One thing I'm concerned about, however, is my work load -- toward the end of the week I've been feeling a bit nauseous and light-headed, particularly when in class. It's most difficult on days where I have classes straight through the day with no real breaks. I also feel tired quite often. I do feel good emotionally, though. I'll give things another week to see how they go -- I'm working about 7 hours more than I should, and it will be more when I add a full 6 more hours with club.
Tomorrow I'm heading into Talas to see my friend in Talas. He's an older volunteer, in his 50's, and he's teaching at the university. I feel bad because the typical romp of the volunteer majority doesn't suit him - he's not alone in that regard, though. He had a good point during Thanksgiving - if we were anything but volunteers, none of us would really associate with him. Still, he's a good person, has valuable experience, and I enjoy spending time with him. He's also pretty damn funny, and one of the few people (re: Americans) I think I've connected with here. He may be a New Yorker, but we're alike in many regards. Oh geez... is Kyrgyzstan breaking down my prejudice against New York?!?
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Ow. My head hasn't felt this bad in a long time. I'm retracting my statement of working 7 hours more than I should and replacing it with 14 -- previously I was only regarding actual physical time spent in the classroom, not time spent in the school overall. That, plus schedule changes, and... Yeah, teaching 32 hours in a week is not something I should be doing, but it pretty much is. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. For example, today both of my counterparts came to school, and at the 4th morning lesson they told me they were going shopping/preparing for some German language thing. Basically, I was ditched and left to teach nonstop classes for the rest of the day, which went on until 6:15 pm (they left me at 10:30 am). I'm feeling so exhausted, and days like this don't help - particularly since I don't even get a break to eat during the day. It leaves me with no time to pursue learning Kyrgyz further (I still don't have a tutor, thank you very much schedule...), look for secondary project opportunities, or even simply recouperate. I need to have a good talk. No classroom to call my own (which is turning into a big problem, particularly as my club is starting to kick off), teaching so many classes on my own, teaching so many hours I shouldn't be, teaching classes I shouldn't be (the young 'uns), teaching on days I shouldn't be (Saturdays)... It's a good thing they don't pay me -- for them, not for me.
The other day I was in a fairly amusing position. After going guesting for one of the Muslim holiday celibrations, I was approached by what I would describe as a fairly inebriated fellow. He kept beckoning, wanting me to go with him to a "garage" to "drink tea." Realizing the comedy of such a statement, as well as the circumstances, I just said no, I'm going home. He didn't understand, apparently, and proceeded to lock his arm into mine (ala father-daughter wedding style) in an attempt to take me with him. I sort of know the guy, and know nothing bad would really happen, so I just took a step then stopped with him. Afterward some of the local kids came up to us -- they provided translation services. I gave them Kyrgyz, and they gave this guy... Kyrgyz. The guy "Harashaw'ed" (ok'ed) it, then went on his merry way.
Recently I went through most of The Office, from season 1-4. Great show. I just have to say, in episode 4 of season 4, at about 14:20 or so minutes into it, there's a decent idea of what I go through here here. However, I must say, that particular "item" is quite a bit higher quality than what I'm used to.
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16/12/08
Last week was rough. Very rough. I haven't felt this exhausted since pulling my college all-nighters (for work, not play), my 4 a.m. trip to New York for my PC interview, after running Save Darfur Week, etc. The deal is, I teach thirty-two hours in a week when I should only be teaching eighteen. It certainly doesn't help when both my counterparts come up to me on our busiest day and tell me they're going out shopping then to some party/presentation (it's all the same here pretty much) well before even half the lessons of the day are over -- 7 classes to teach on my own, just what I needed. During that time I had to deal with the crazy kung-fu 2nd graders again (spent well over half the class time trying to pick kids up off from one another -- they were smacking the bejesus out of each other...) and my 7th graders weren't much better. Some kids in my 7th "v" form decided to start throwing pens at me -- they picked the wrong day, as I proceeded to kick them out of class then call the zavuch (vice-principal) on them. Stuff like this just makes me not want to get up in the morning.
Whoever designed spoons is evil. This is for two reasons: 1) Kyrgyz people utilize the spoon as their primary eating utensil, which makes it ridiculous sometimes to eat (ala long pasta -- and sometimes I feel like a damn artist when we eat with forks, esp. with knives, as they all blunder through it) and 2) It makes peanut butter go sooooo fast. I swore I would only eat, maybe, a few spoonfuls, but "just one more..." later and the entire jar is gone. Granted, it was after my terrible terrible day, but man. The peanut butter, ambrosia mix, peanut butter crackers, pineapple bars... all gone. My stock is down to a couple Nature Valley bars, some grape jelly, and half a bag of dried pineapple. Deliciousness cannot be contained in Kyrgyzstan. What's also amazing is this: I've seen them before, I know about them, but damn if I don't feel like neanderthal man discovering fire for the first time every time I open one of the drink packets and pour it into my distilled water. It's such a relief after chai (tea) 24/7, with the only other real relief being coffee or vodka. I'll sometimes get juice but it's typically expensive, and while it tastes good most of the time it's not real juice. Most people here simply use it as chaser.
Thank you one and all who sent me food. It's truly something that lifts my spirits, keeps me healthy of mind and body, and just simply tastes good!
Last week my not-so-nice counterpart decided to tell me that she had signed me up, or something involving a whole lot of not me, for the rayon olympiad competitions. Now, it's not that I don't want to do it (I do), it's just that I'd like to, you know, be involved in maybe a discussion or two with the people involved instead of being dictated to that I'll be doing something (and most likely 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand at that). It aggrivates me because I'm just told "Yup, you're going to be 'insert title here' and will go in on Saturday and you get to help our students," which is basically telling me I'm doing something about which I have no idea. I was told yesterday that I get to come in today at 10 and help our students with English. Forget the fact that I have no idea with what, it just looks like I can help with English ('cause, you know, that's not an extremely broad topic or anything). Arg! I can't stand having no say in what the heck I'm doing, and being told I'll do something yet there are absolutely no parameters within which to work. I think this counterpart is doing this a lot with me -- she told me not to show up at teachers' meetings because 'I wouldn't understand and would get bored,' takes things I should hand in to the director, freaks out at very innocuous and nonchalant comments (like, 'Can my friend come see the olympiad competition?' as her eyes pop out of her head and she goes on about me being the only volunteer in the rayon...), and just, I dunno, very skittery and suspect.
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I just got back from school, where I was supposed to meet with the students about their olympiad experience. I was told to meet them at 10:00. I get to the teacher's lounge at 9:55. At 10:35, still no sign of the students, and I'm wondering what kind of crock my counterpart put me up to because all the students are in class. So I leave, go to the store, and buy some cell phone units. Now I'm back home, on a day I would have gone to the nearby town (bigger than a village I would say) to get some work done (they have a fax machine, and a bazaar) but didn't because I was told about this ridiculous olympiad thing. Fun!
I'm starting to disect my schedule in order to make it more manageable. I think I'm simply going to cut all my Saturday classes -- finally give myself the day off for good. I might also cut my Wednesday classes out - that will give me free mornings, with club in the afternoon. If I can find a language tutor I might be able to work it in during Tuesday/Wednesday. My schedule would look like this: Monday morning and afternoon classes, Tuesday free, Wednesday afternoon club, Thursday morning and afternoon classes, Friday morning and afternoon club. Seeing it like that, it makes me think I'm cutting quite a bit out. But the schedule here is really strange -- every class is packed in with as little breathing room as possible, so it would be rather full days. Hmm. I'll look things over again.