Some negatives ...
Amanda, one of the volunteers who lives here in Koktobe Eki, was taking a fifteen-minute taxi ride back home from the Peace Corps hub site. A couple of drunk guys got into her taxi and started harassing her, finally getting out and trying to follow her home. All the way they were trying to embrace her, slapping her butt, and presumably saying ungentlemanly things. Instead of going to her own home, she wisely went to Tim's, and called for help. Tim's host father and five other guys came running out and roughed the two drunks up a little bit. The drunks ran away, but the host family gave chase, finally found them in a bar in Turgen, and dragged them to the police station in Koktobe Eki. They're released now, pending trial.
Amanda's fine. The guys weren't local, they were Uzbeks, but it was the middle of the day, and we routinely take taxis home from Esik. It's good that we were reminded that stuff like that can happen here and that we have to be careful (especially the girls) and assert ourselves if a situation makes us uncomfortable. It also turns out that Tim's host family gave chase not out of eagerness for justice for Amanda, but because the Uzbeks called them some bad names. Swear words do mean more here.
Our computer project may be cancelled. The teacher who was helping us - mostly by just letting us into the computer lab - went on vacation last Friday. All along, the agreement was that the school director would let us into the computer lab while the computer teacher was gone. But for some reason, when we went in to get the key for our class on Friday, he refused to give it to us. His various reasons were that the linoleum needed to be cleaned, that we might break the computers, that he wanted the Peace Corps to buy him new drapes for the teacher lounge (and the Peace Corps agreed). In the end, though, he basically said that he wasn't going to give us the key because he didn't care. So unless we can find some new computers with powepoint that the kids can use, the classes will be cancelled. Immediately after talking to the director, we went to the town cafe to have lunch, and the computer teacher was there, in a three-piece suit, and stammering drunk.
But don't think this week has been all bad. It sounds like I might get a position teaching math and physics in english as party of an immersion program somewhere, which would agree with me a lot more than just teaching english. My fourth and final immersion teaching lesson went great - I had been trying to make my classes interesting with lots of critical thinking activities, but I was aiming way over the speaking level of the students. For the last lesson, I taught simple comparative statements like "the fish is tastier than the broom", and it went great. Last night there was a big party at my house because one of the family members bought a new car (a 1985 Lada without a starter - to get it running, you push it and pop the clutch), and both grandpas came over and got drunk, which always guarantees a good time. The morning after one of the grandpas was sitting at the table with me finishing off the bottle of vodka from the night before. Did I want any? No, thank you, I had class. And this morning the Koktobe Eki volunteers made chili.
I'm working on making the website better, so please bear with me. It turns out that the php "reference" that I downloaded so hasitly and without reading before I left is actually a php reference reference, that is, a four-page tutorial on using pointers in php. So after I can get some real documentation, I'll start making this a little nicer.
Amanda's fine. The guys weren't local, they were Uzbeks, but it was the middle of the day, and we routinely take taxis home from Esik. It's good that we were reminded that stuff like that can happen here and that we have to be careful (especially the girls) and assert ourselves if a situation makes us uncomfortable. It also turns out that Tim's host family gave chase not out of eagerness for justice for Amanda, but because the Uzbeks called them some bad names. Swear words do mean more here.
Our computer project may be cancelled. The teacher who was helping us - mostly by just letting us into the computer lab - went on vacation last Friday. All along, the agreement was that the school director would let us into the computer lab while the computer teacher was gone. But for some reason, when we went in to get the key for our class on Friday, he refused to give it to us. His various reasons were that the linoleum needed to be cleaned, that we might break the computers, that he wanted the Peace Corps to buy him new drapes for the teacher lounge (and the Peace Corps agreed). In the end, though, he basically said that he wasn't going to give us the key because he didn't care. So unless we can find some new computers with powepoint that the kids can use, the classes will be cancelled. Immediately after talking to the director, we went to the town cafe to have lunch, and the computer teacher was there, in a three-piece suit, and stammering drunk.
But don't think this week has been all bad. It sounds like I might get a position teaching math and physics in english as party of an immersion program somewhere, which would agree with me a lot more than just teaching english. My fourth and final immersion teaching lesson went great - I had been trying to make my classes interesting with lots of critical thinking activities, but I was aiming way over the speaking level of the students. For the last lesson, I taught simple comparative statements like "the fish is tastier than the broom", and it went great. Last night there was a big party at my house because one of the family members bought a new car (a 1985 Lada without a starter - to get it running, you push it and pop the clutch), and both grandpas came over and got drunk, which always guarantees a good time. The morning after one of the grandpas was sitting at the table with me finishing off the bottle of vodka from the night before. Did I want any? No, thank you, I had class. And this morning the Koktobe Eki volunteers made chili.
I'm working on making the website better, so please bear with me. It turns out that the php "reference" that I downloaded so hasitly and without reading before I left is actually a php reference reference, that is, a four-page tutorial on using pointers in php. So after I can get some real documentation, I'll start making this a little nicer.
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