School Number Two

I write this post after a short afternoon of teaching English at Ujar’s school number two.  I haven’t written about the school, its intricacies, or what exactly I’m doing there, so I thought it would be a good time to update on what I’ll be doing for the next two years.

First of all, Peace Corps assigned me to the school.  The national education minister explains what Peace Corps does, and gives applications to all the regional education directors, who give them to all the schools that are interested.  My school applied, and Peace Corps deemed us a match.  Their application process takes about a year.

Tomorrow (most students attend school on Saturdays) will be the end of the second week, but mine is done today.  Peace Corps had recommended to us to simply obsderve classes for the first two weeks, rather than just jumping in and starting from day one.  It was good advice, but I couldnt’ make it two weeks without teaching, even though I really set out with that in mind.  First of all, some of the teachers couldn’t seem to wrap their minds around that fact that I just wanted to just sit in the back and take nots on their students, them, and their material.

I was observing to choose counterparts, the teachers with whom I will be working with for the school year.  There are supposedly ten English teachers at my school, but I think there are really only nine.  Either way, I observed six of them, and chose to work with two.  Between Rasmiyya and Ulduz, I will be teaching about 18 hours a week.  Peace Corps requires that we teach at least 15 hours a week, a number that seems low, but when put into the context that we are also supposed to be community development workers as well, it leaves plenty of time to work on community projects.

Overall, school has been very enjoyable, but there are a few frustrating things about it, first of which is the schedule.  It changes.  The students stay in their classes and the teachers move around, but no one knows where to go or when to go there.  It’s incredibely frustrating.  I was trying to observe classes and I would find a teacher and ask her if she had lessons today, to which she would reply “I don’t know.”  It was crazy.  I guess I’ll just say that business culture here is different.

Another thing that is difficult to work with here is the education culture.  A typical interaction in an English classroom might look something like this: Teacher asks a question in English, Students don’t know.  Teacher asks question in Azerbaijani, students reply in Azerbaijani.  Teacher tells students answer in English, students repeat.  And in that little process I just described, no one learns a damn thing.  There is a lot of translation that happens, but very little comprehension.  I’ll do my best, but I have my work cut out for me, that’s for sure.

I had to break some hearts and tell some of the English teachers that I wouldn’t be working with them.  I have heard from other PCV’s that two is a good number of counterparts to have, and I really like mine.  They are probably the two youngest English teachers at my school.  Their youth brings a few qualities that will hopefully make it easier for me to work with over the next year, such as flexability and enthusiasm. 

That’s about it.  The kids seem to like me.  I get bombarded with “hello!” everywhere I go, but particularly in the school.  It’s cute for the most part, but can get tired pretty quick.  The students in the classrooms know me better than the ones who have just seen me out on the street.  They are the ones who say “Hello Mr. Jeffrey,” instead of the sloppier “hEllo.”  I ended my last class today with a standing ovation, so I got that goin for me.

I’m off to my site mate’s house (Nick and Dana, a married couple from Bellingham) to hang out on this friday afternoon.  Now that I’m done with school for a few days, I need to figure out what to do with myself.

The grass really is greener

     After nice weekend of seeing some sites or Azerbaijan, I am back in Ujar, and have returned to the work that I haven’t written about on this blog before.  Most recently, I returned to Ujar Sunday night from a night in Ismayilli, and a night in Baku.  The trip to Ismayilli was to visit some friends who are volunteering there, as well as getting to see some part of the country that had previously been unknown.  My verdict is this: Most of the towns in Azerbaijan are the same. 

     There are a few leaning-toward-city-statuts places, but they are simply larger versions of the same thing.  You’ve got your schools, your stores, your tea houses, and you mosques.  The differences are negligable.  That being said, I really valued the differences offered in a place like Imayilli, where my friends Matt, Rachel, and Colleen all live.  There are trees.  In ujar, there are shrubs, and possibly trees in people’s yards, but really nothing that seems more that 20 years old.  Ismayilli’s streets are lined with giant decidious trees that shade the streets.  And speaking of shade, the side of the mountain in which the town is located provides a nice cool temperature compared the the dry, hot weather in the plains of Ujar.

     Still, one town in Ujar might be a bit more scenic, but it’s still comparing the faster slug against the slower slug.  It’s all slugs.  How fast could they possibly go?  I say not much, but the experts might disagree.

     Over the weekend in Baku I met Mark Elliot, the author of the guide book titled Azerbaijan, which is the best guide book out there (I would link to it if the internet connection wasn’t so slow).  He was a jolly guy, and it was nice to meet the man behind the myth.  There was a group of us fascinated with the closest thing to celebrity we might come across, and he asked us all where we were posted. 

     “Ismayilli, how nice!” He said to Matt.  “Oh Zagatala, thats a lovely town,” he told Steve.  “Ujar, huh.  You seem to have gotten the short end of the stick.” was his message to me.  It was funny, and all the other volunteers made fun of me because the experts agree I got shafted.  It wasn’t as much of a ‘poor me’ situation as it was just a funny one.

     I have to go back to the school that I was going to write about, so that post must wait for another day.  Leave some comments if you read this.  I seriously live for that stuff.

The Blog is back

And by back, I mean that there is news to report on, finally.

Actually, quite a bit has happened over the past few days.  Last Wednesday, we had our swearing-in ceremony, in which I officially changed ranks from a Peace Corps Trainee, to a Peace Corps volunteer.  The ceremony didn’t make me feel like a lot had changed from that day to the next, but now it seems like it’s time to start working.  The day after we swore in, we left to our respective sites to begin our two years.  Facing 24 more months, I feel as though I slammed into a wall when I arrived to Ujar.

In a little over 24 hours I went from a trainee who was fairly busy with language classes, learning activities, and social time spent with other volunteers, to a more isolated, directionless environment where what I want to do is absolutely up to me.  I spent the next day in my new city dealing with a mean case of diarrhia and figuring out exactly what it was in my room that I was allergic to.  This was accompanied by watching almost the entire 3rd season of Entrouge on my laptop.  Even still, I layed in my bed (i.e. the floor) and thought about some good things I had accomplished that day, despite an overall feeling of sluggishness and stagnation.  Regardless of how little I feel I do, I’m still making strides in understanding and in integrating.  Little victories are my base, and even the smallest ones will pay off after two years.

Today was the opening ceremony of my school.  There were speeches given by the school director and other teachers.  They called me up and I introduced myself in English, which brought silence, and then translated in Azeri, which followed with a round of applause. 

I’ll start teaching monday, which will be really chaotic.  I can’t read the teacher’s schedule, and no one knows what room they will be in, or when they are supposed to be there.  I’m kind of hoping someone will just grab me by the arm and say gal, or come.  The first few weeks I will simply observe, so I can get used to how the Azeri classroom works.  After that I’ll look to teach around 15 hours a week, mostly assisting other English teachers, but also preparing my own lessons and stepping in when I can.  These first few months will be quite the learning process.

And as this post indicates, I have found an internet place in Ujar, even though I was worried I wouldn’t.  I imagine I’ll come quite often, so more posts to come.

p.s. I also found out about Greg Oden today.  I don’t feel so bad about missing this season now.