Today, which coincidently is a holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan, marks my one-month anniversery of working at Ujar School #2. A few days ago the milestone of being in Ujar, which would also mark the approximate four-month mark of me being in Azerbaijan. Along with this, there are a few things that are noteworthy:
- Living with a host family is very difficult for me. It was very kind of them to invite a stranger (a foreigner no less) into their home, but adjusting to living with a family, particularly a cross cultural one, has been tough. I, in the good ol’ American spirit, am and independent person. Giving that up is frustrating.
- This are coming along well at school. My classes have hit a workable rythym, but I’d like to step it up a bit and get my classes to be a bit more creative. This will include doing more lesson plans, and using less of the insane textbook that these kids have to use.
- While I am a teacher, I’m also a development worker, which is going to include doing things outside the classroom. Eventually I want this to be more of the focus for me than the teaching, but the hardest part is that it’s all up to me. Getting it all started is going to be scary. I’ll start it off with a focus group to see what the community feels would be a worthy venture.
Aside from all that, I had a great, four day weekend. A friend came in from another town and we hung out for a few days. It’s nice to bounce things off another PCV to make sure you’re not the only one thats crazy.
