One Down, Thirty Three To Go
The first week of school is officially under my belt. Overall, things are fine. My partner teacher (the other English teacher) told me for weeks just how poor the quality of the students are but I have been pleasantly surprised by their quality. Most - especially the younger kids - seem very eager to learn and work hard. I teach 18 lessons a week, between five and three in a day, which isn’t too bad. It’s do-able, at least. Plus, if I start to complain I need only think of my partner-teacher, who teaches 28 lessons a week, or else my host mom, who teaches an equally large number.
One thing that I really like about my school - and that really speaks volumes about my director - is that they are using my presence to greatly expand their English program; let me explain. Before I arrived my partner teacher taught thirty one hours a week, a huge amount. But upon my arrival she’s not suddenly teaching only thirteen hours - instead, the school is using me to expand its program. Usually students start learning English in the second grade, but because of limited chances they weren’t starting until the third grade, and even then they were meeting only once a week until fifth grade, when they met twice a week.
But now we have a full English program, one that actually exceeds most standards because I work with my students three hours a week while normally, they meet for only two hours. Lucky us.
Notes
- I actually spent last weekend in Chisinau, spending the night on Saturday. I went on Saturday morning with the intention of 1) Working on the internet a little, 2) Seeing the doctor, 3)Shopping for school supplies, and 4)Meeting with a girl I met a few weeks ago so she could practice her English. Well, I arrived in Chisinau at 8:15 with the knowledge that the latest I could stay would be 3:00, because then I needed to leave on a bus for my regional center - the last bus from the regional center to the village leaves at 4:30.
Well, by the time I was done on the internet and with the doctor it was 11:30, and I had plans to meet the girl at 12:30 - adding a twenty minute walk to our meeting site and I had no time to shop. But before I left the doctor she told me that if I wanted I could stay in something called TDY (more in a second) in case I had an allergic reaction to the anti-biotic I received for the tick bite. I figured that I wouldn’t react but realized it was a chance to have a free, authorized night spent in Chisinau. So I took her up on the offer while she called my host family to tell them of my situation. I met the girl, hung out with her for about four hours, took a bus back to Peace Corps office (and saw the US Embassy on the way - now I know exactly where it is), and just sat around for a while.
TDY is an acronym for something - I’m not exactly sure what. But it’s an apartment that the Peace Corps owns about forty meters from the PC office, and it’s a place where people can stay when they are sick and need observation. It’s a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a large living room - like the Hilton for someone like me who lives with a well for water and a pitcher for a shower. With me there were two girls who have been in Moldova two years and are leaving soon, and although I was exhausted (having woken up at 5:00 to catch the bus into the city) and my plan was to go to bed about 9:30, I started talking to these girls at 9:15 and three hours later, I went to bed. It was a great conversation though, one that allowed me to ask a lot of questions to two PC veterans.
And the next day I finished shopping and got on a bus, arriving home at 3:30
- We all - volunteers - have nightmare stories of trying to buy things in a shop or in the market and having the attendant not able to understand us and, rather that try, just move on to the next customer. On Sunday I had the totally opposite experience. I was at one of the two major stores in Chisinau buying supplies for my classroom, and the woman could not have been more helpful. I thought she would be when she greeted me and asked me a question in Romanian and when I said "Excuse me?" in Russian she switched (you’d be shocked at how often that doesn’t happen). I was struggling in navigating through a lot of tricky terms (I can ask for paper, but asking for a ‘ream of paper’ is a different story - same with tape as opposed to ‘clear packing tape’ and ‘masking tape’) but she was very understanding, even telling me at one point "What do you need? I want to help you." She did herself a favor too because every time in the next two years that I need supplies - which should be fairly often - I’m making a beeline for her stand.
- Newsweek magazine supplies volunteers with free - current - magazines to use in our classrooms, and whenever I go to Chisinau I get mine and read it on the bus for the ride home. My favorite part of the trip is when someone sits next to me and realizes I’m reading something in English - they usually spend the whole trip trying to subtly stare at me and the magazine, wondering who exactly they sat next to. And I usually listen to music to add to the intrigue, but last week I was without the Ipod and the guy next to me, after fifteen minutes, couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked me where I was from. His reaction when I told him was interesting . . . .
- Two things at my school are very different from most schools in America. The first is our bell schedule. In theory, school starts at 8:30, every class is forty-five minutes long, there is a ten minute break in-between classes, and the final bell rings at 2:00. In reality, school starts about 8:35, classes are between forty and fifty minutes long, and the break is between eight and twenty minutes. It can be maddening, actually - there is nothing worse than thinking there is five minutes left in class and having the bell ring before you have a chance to wrap up, and equally frustrating is finishing up a class right on time - forty five minutes - and then you are forced to scramble to fill time until the bell rings.
Also, in America I could count on every teacher, at least three days a week, to stay for a while after school to, to chat or help students or simply prepare lessons for the next day. Here, the bell rings at 1:50 and by 2:00, everyone is gone. I try to hang around until 2:15, and I’m almost always one of the last three teachers left in school. Also, a teacher doesn’t need to be at school until they teach - if I don’t teach first or second hour, I don’t need to arrive until 10:00, and as soon as my last lesson for the day is over I can go home.
- Another aspect of schools here that is really different from schools in America - the class schedule. There is no set schedule at the start of the year; instead, everyday around 12:00 the class schedule for the next day is posted in a hallway- neither students nor teachers know what they will learn or teach until they see the schedule. It’s not too bad, with one exception. Everything is written in Russian. And I don’t mean Russian in the printed script - I can read that without problems. The schedule is posted in a cursive script that looks something like Sanscrit. If I don’t know the context I can read maybe twenty percent - with context that number goes up tSo seventy or so percent. Also, they usually post the schedule and for English classes just write "Engl" in the cursive - not too bad.
So on Monday I looked at the schedule and saw only two classes with the aforementioned four letters scribbled down. I thought it was odd but scanned multiple times and came to the same conclusion - I even talked with my partner teacher and she told me that I would only be teaching twice the next day. On Tuesday I taught 10th grade first and thought I had a period off before the 11th grade, but after they all left students started to file in who looked far to small to be in 11th grade. And at the same time two teachers came in and asked me if I wanted to go eat something. I told them that I wanted to but that I had students in my room and did not know why, so they directed me to the schedule where, under the 8th grade, the word "English" had been written out totally. I couldn’t believe it - I told the teachers that I couldn’t go with them because I had to prepare a lesson.
And then I have times like the one on Thursday where I was supposed to teach the fourth graders for the last lesson of the day. However, I stood outside my classroom and watched as about half of them walked past me without entering - I assumed that they were going to the bathroom or something. But when the bell rang and ten minutes later our my room was empty, I asked my partner teacher and she told me that probably the students weren’t told and assumed that they had nothing. So they went home.
- Still no update on the tutor front for Russian. I asked the partner teacher if she knew anyone who spoke a little English who could teach me, and said there was no-one. I have only two rules in finding a tutor - I don’t want it to be someone I, 1)Work with, or 2)Live with. However, it looks like that leaves me with no options in the village. I may end up going with a teacher of Russian at the school, but even that won’t be for a while because everyone has a lot of work to do around the house and this is the busiest time of year for that.
- On Friday after dinner (we eat dinner at 9:00 or so) a man showed up at our house out of the blue - turns out he’s some friend of the family. My host mom asked if he wanted something to eat and he said, "No, maybe something to drink." After a little bit of wine he told me about a trip he is taking this weekend, from Moldova to Bucharest to Budapest to Vienna and back, and he was quick to invite me along, telling me we would be back by Monday after lunch. It actually took me a while to figure out what he was talking about - I thought he was inviting me but I wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t until he asked me if I needed a visa or not until I totally understood him.
- My classroom in school is right next to the first graders, and a few times last week I was the classic moment where a mother will knock on the door holding the hand of a five-year old, the mother will talk with the teacher for a moment and then turn to leave, upon which the little one will burst into tears and cling to any sort of mom’s clothing that they can get.
- Finally, two aspects of life here that I really love:
1) If I want to eat an apple, I walk into the yard, and (after searching for worms) pick one off the tree, clean it, and eat it.
2) One night last week I couldn’t find my flashlight and I had to navigate through a proverbial maze to get to the outhouse at night. I used my cell phone for a while but soon realized I didn’t need it. The reason? A full moon. It shone bright enough that no additional light was needed.
One thing that I really like about my school - and that really speaks volumes about my director - is that they are using my presence to greatly expand their English program; let me explain. Before I arrived my partner teacher taught thirty one hours a week, a huge amount. But upon my arrival she’s not suddenly teaching only thirteen hours - instead, the school is using me to expand its program. Usually students start learning English in the second grade, but because of limited chances they weren’t starting until the third grade, and even then they were meeting only once a week until fifth grade, when they met twice a week.
But now we have a full English program, one that actually exceeds most standards because I work with my students three hours a week while normally, they meet for only two hours. Lucky us.
Notes
- I actually spent last weekend in Chisinau, spending the night on Saturday. I went on Saturday morning with the intention of 1) Working on the internet a little, 2) Seeing the doctor, 3)Shopping for school supplies, and 4)Meeting with a girl I met a few weeks ago so she could practice her English. Well, I arrived in Chisinau at 8:15 with the knowledge that the latest I could stay would be 3:00, because then I needed to leave on a bus for my regional center - the last bus from the regional center to the village leaves at 4:30.
Well, by the time I was done on the internet and with the doctor it was 11:30, and I had plans to meet the girl at 12:30 - adding a twenty minute walk to our meeting site and I had no time to shop. But before I left the doctor she told me that if I wanted I could stay in something called TDY (more in a second) in case I had an allergic reaction to the anti-biotic I received for the tick bite. I figured that I wouldn’t react but realized it was a chance to have a free, authorized night spent in Chisinau. So I took her up on the offer while she called my host family to tell them of my situation. I met the girl, hung out with her for about four hours, took a bus back to Peace Corps office (and saw the US Embassy on the way - now I know exactly where it is), and just sat around for a while.
TDY is an acronym for something - I’m not exactly sure what. But it’s an apartment that the Peace Corps owns about forty meters from the PC office, and it’s a place where people can stay when they are sick and need observation. It’s a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a large living room - like the Hilton for someone like me who lives with a well for water and a pitcher for a shower. With me there were two girls who have been in Moldova two years and are leaving soon, and although I was exhausted (having woken up at 5:00 to catch the bus into the city) and my plan was to go to bed about 9:30, I started talking to these girls at 9:15 and three hours later, I went to bed. It was a great conversation though, one that allowed me to ask a lot of questions to two PC veterans.
And the next day I finished shopping and got on a bus, arriving home at 3:30
- We all - volunteers - have nightmare stories of trying to buy things in a shop or in the market and having the attendant not able to understand us and, rather that try, just move on to the next customer. On Sunday I had the totally opposite experience. I was at one of the two major stores in Chisinau buying supplies for my classroom, and the woman could not have been more helpful. I thought she would be when she greeted me and asked me a question in Romanian and when I said "Excuse me?" in Russian she switched (you’d be shocked at how often that doesn’t happen). I was struggling in navigating through a lot of tricky terms (I can ask for paper, but asking for a ‘ream of paper’ is a different story - same with tape as opposed to ‘clear packing tape’ and ‘masking tape’) but she was very understanding, even telling me at one point "What do you need? I want to help you." She did herself a favor too because every time in the next two years that I need supplies - which should be fairly often - I’m making a beeline for her stand.
- Newsweek magazine supplies volunteers with free - current - magazines to use in our classrooms, and whenever I go to Chisinau I get mine and read it on the bus for the ride home. My favorite part of the trip is when someone sits next to me and realizes I’m reading something in English - they usually spend the whole trip trying to subtly stare at me and the magazine, wondering who exactly they sat next to. And I usually listen to music to add to the intrigue, but last week I was without the Ipod and the guy next to me, after fifteen minutes, couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked me where I was from. His reaction when I told him was interesting . . . .
- Two things at my school are very different from most schools in America. The first is our bell schedule. In theory, school starts at 8:30, every class is forty-five minutes long, there is a ten minute break in-between classes, and the final bell rings at 2:00. In reality, school starts about 8:35, classes are between forty and fifty minutes long, and the break is between eight and twenty minutes. It can be maddening, actually - there is nothing worse than thinking there is five minutes left in class and having the bell ring before you have a chance to wrap up, and equally frustrating is finishing up a class right on time - forty five minutes - and then you are forced to scramble to fill time until the bell rings.
Also, in America I could count on every teacher, at least three days a week, to stay for a while after school to, to chat or help students or simply prepare lessons for the next day. Here, the bell rings at 1:50 and by 2:00, everyone is gone. I try to hang around until 2:15, and I’m almost always one of the last three teachers left in school. Also, a teacher doesn’t need to be at school until they teach - if I don’t teach first or second hour, I don’t need to arrive until 10:00, and as soon as my last lesson for the day is over I can go home.
- Another aspect of schools here that is really different from schools in America - the class schedule. There is no set schedule at the start of the year; instead, everyday around 12:00 the class schedule for the next day is posted in a hallway- neither students nor teachers know what they will learn or teach until they see the schedule. It’s not too bad, with one exception. Everything is written in Russian. And I don’t mean Russian in the printed script - I can read that without problems. The schedule is posted in a cursive script that looks something like Sanscrit. If I don’t know the context I can read maybe twenty percent - with context that number goes up tSo seventy or so percent. Also, they usually post the schedule and for English classes just write "Engl" in the cursive - not too bad.
So on Monday I looked at the schedule and saw only two classes with the aforementioned four letters scribbled down. I thought it was odd but scanned multiple times and came to the same conclusion - I even talked with my partner teacher and she told me that I would only be teaching twice the next day. On Tuesday I taught 10th grade first and thought I had a period off before the 11th grade, but after they all left students started to file in who looked far to small to be in 11th grade. And at the same time two teachers came in and asked me if I wanted to go eat something. I told them that I wanted to but that I had students in my room and did not know why, so they directed me to the schedule where, under the 8th grade, the word "English" had been written out totally. I couldn’t believe it - I told the teachers that I couldn’t go with them because I had to prepare a lesson.
And then I have times like the one on Thursday where I was supposed to teach the fourth graders for the last lesson of the day. However, I stood outside my classroom and watched as about half of them walked past me without entering - I assumed that they were going to the bathroom or something. But when the bell rang and ten minutes later our my room was empty, I asked my partner teacher and she told me that probably the students weren’t told and assumed that they had nothing. So they went home.
- Still no update on the tutor front for Russian. I asked the partner teacher if she knew anyone who spoke a little English who could teach me, and said there was no-one. I have only two rules in finding a tutor - I don’t want it to be someone I, 1)Work with, or 2)Live with. However, it looks like that leaves me with no options in the village. I may end up going with a teacher of Russian at the school, but even that won’t be for a while because everyone has a lot of work to do around the house and this is the busiest time of year for that.
- On Friday after dinner (we eat dinner at 9:00 or so) a man showed up at our house out of the blue - turns out he’s some friend of the family. My host mom asked if he wanted something to eat and he said, "No, maybe something to drink." After a little bit of wine he told me about a trip he is taking this weekend, from Moldova to Bucharest to Budapest to Vienna and back, and he was quick to invite me along, telling me we would be back by Monday after lunch. It actually took me a while to figure out what he was talking about - I thought he was inviting me but I wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t until he asked me if I needed a visa or not until I totally understood him.
- My classroom in school is right next to the first graders, and a few times last week I was the classic moment where a mother will knock on the door holding the hand of a five-year old, the mother will talk with the teacher for a moment and then turn to leave, upon which the little one will burst into tears and cling to any sort of mom’s clothing that they can get.
- Finally, two aspects of life here that I really love:
1) If I want to eat an apple, I walk into the yard, and (after searching for worms) pick one off the tree, clean it, and eat it.
2) One night last week I couldn’t find my flashlight and I had to navigate through a proverbial maze to get to the outhouse at night. I used my cell phone for a while but soon realized I didn’t need it. The reason? A full moon. It shone bright enough that no additional light was needed.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 5:33 AM
2 Comments:
Andy, I can't get my email to go through to you about getting a Russian visa. Please send me your email - my address is on my blog. PS - TDY stands for "temporary duty." Good luck at site!
Andy,
Years ago I watched a similar Cat & Mouse show and at the time it struck me as cruel. But now I see it differently, I think that after it is caught the mouse realizes his role in the cosmic game.
Dad
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