25 October 2008
Yikes! Pt. 3
22:00 24 October 2008
I now have more evidence that I am not a farmer. My family received two huge logs for our firewood for the winter and a friend who owns a big saw came over to assist us in making them smaller for our stove. Our friend was doing the big work, cutting up the 2 foot diameter logs into sections with the saw and I was cutting the discs into smaller pieces with an ax and a hammer and wedge. I was really surprised actually how easy this wood split- a huge disc could be twined with a mighty blow from the ax. These halves were subsequently broken into smaller and smaller pieces with the axe until they were about half the width of my forearm-each disc had about 50-60 pieces in it. I actually really like chopping firewood; I find it kind of cathartic and relaxing to make big things into little things.
I digress, in the process of chopping one of the smaller pieces, my hand holding it upright slipped and the (admittedly relatively light) blow of the axe reined all its force across my thumb. I initially was confused why the log didn’t break and then realized that I had instead cleaved my thumb. As I said, the blow was relatively light, but even a light blow from an axe can do relatively serious damage to our digits. I believe I was relatively lucky- while I split my thumbnail cleanly in two with a pretty serious and deep cut- I didn’t damage my nerves so I think that the long-term damage will be relatively minimal. Immediately after realizing the damage I did (I was in shock so it didn’t really hurt) I thought it was worse and convinced myself momentarily that my thumb was held on by a mere flap of skin- luckily this was not the case. Then I immediately washed the cut and called the Emergency Peace Corps Medical Officer line. They gave excellent advice of what I needed to do and had me photograph the wound- later it was emailed to them from the city and they assessed that I didn’t need to make a trip to the PC medical staff and that I could care for it myself. If you are really curious the grizzly extent of my injury- email me and I will show you the pictures- the better part of valor has prevented me from posting here.
I now have more evidence that I am not a farmer. My family received two huge logs for our firewood for the winter and a friend who owns a big saw came over to assist us in making them smaller for our stove. Our friend was doing the big work, cutting up the 2 foot diameter logs into sections with the saw and I was cutting the discs into smaller pieces with an ax and a hammer and wedge. I was really surprised actually how easy this wood split- a huge disc could be twined with a mighty blow from the ax. These halves were subsequently broken into smaller and smaller pieces with the axe until they were about half the width of my forearm-each disc had about 50-60 pieces in it. I actually really like chopping firewood; I find it kind of cathartic and relaxing to make big things into little things.
I digress, in the process of chopping one of the smaller pieces, my hand holding it upright slipped and the (admittedly relatively light) blow of the axe reined all its force across my thumb. I initially was confused why the log didn’t break and then realized that I had instead cleaved my thumb. As I said, the blow was relatively light, but even a light blow from an axe can do relatively serious damage to our digits. I believe I was relatively lucky- while I split my thumbnail cleanly in two with a pretty serious and deep cut- I didn’t damage my nerves so I think that the long-term damage will be relatively minimal. Immediately after realizing the damage I did (I was in shock so it didn’t really hurt) I thought it was worse and convinced myself momentarily that my thumb was held on by a mere flap of skin- luckily this was not the case. Then I immediately washed the cut and called the Emergency Peace Corps Medical Officer line. They gave excellent advice of what I needed to do and had me photograph the wound- later it was emailed to them from the city and they assessed that I didn’t need to make a trip to the PC medical staff and that I could care for it myself. If you are really curious the grizzly extent of my injury- email me and I will show you the pictures- the better part of valor has prevented me from posting here.
Testing My Patience...
22:30 22 October 2008
Today I conceived, wrote, and administered my first test as an English teacher. On the whole it was a frustrating and taxing experience. I gave the test to my fifth formers- it was the first instance of actually graded work and overall, I was really disappointed in the way the whole process went. I expected a lot of the problems I encountered, but it didn’t make it any easier for me to deal with and I have to admit that I think as a proctor of this test, at least from an American standpoint, I was a failure.
I actually enjoyed designing the test in the first place- it was certainly difficult to make- I had to think like a 5th grader and come up with creative ways to test their knowledge- but I enjoyed the actual authoring process of the exam. The test was designed to discover the students’ knowledge of possessive pronouns, location prepositions, and some new vocabulary about clothing we had learned recently (which was in an awesome lesson that involved me bringing in a lot of clothing and having races with the students). For the clothing, I drew a picture of a boy and a girl on the board with colored chalk and obvious articles of clothing, gave them a word bank, and then asked them to complete the sentences “He wears…” and “She wears…”. For the possessive pronouns, I took a more traditional fill in the blank approach with “I have a dog. It is ___ dog”. Lastly, I drew a basic map on the board with four buildings and a road in a row and asked them questions like “The ______ is next to the school.” and “The road is between the _____ and the _____”. Overall, I am still convinced that, had the majority of the students put more effort into studying what I was perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that the students did this for several reasons.
We were informed during our technical training sessions of the plethora of problems that we would find with our classes and in particular our testing. These were completely evident during this test. There are a completely different set of acceptable practices and norms during testing. The concept of a quiet testing environment seems foreign here and my counterpart seemed to find it perfectly okay when students opened their books for reference (in retrospect I mind this a lot less than some of the other practices I saw) or talked to each other- admittedly in hushed tones. However, while watching the students cheating verbally asking each other questions without outright copying I kept quiet and reminded myself of the effect of collectivist culture. Here individual achievement is not terribly encouraged and it’s more important to help each other achieve mediocrity than it is to personally achieve excellence. I generalize, of course, but the impact of the culture in the classroom is exceedingly evident always whether a testing or classroom situation. The only time it broke my limit was when I noticed a girl frantically copying down another students’ answers as the time limit appeared without any attempt to conceal her actions. In response to this I snatched up her notebook.
A bigger frustration for me was the actions of my counterpart during the test. I asked her to explain the exercises to the students which she did by translating the entire test (because we would pay for it out of pocket- the test is written on the black board and copied into each student’s copy book and then taken). I minded this because the majority of the test was vocabulary and reading comprehension- obviously this becomes much easier when everything is translated. Similarly throughout the test any time a student asked a question, she would give him/her the answer. This was extremely frustrating to me as I felt my test was being undermined. I think she may have looked at it differently- the performance of students reflects the performance of teachers and if our students perform poorly then it makes us look bad. Regardless, I would rather look like a bad teacher and know what we need to do differently to be a better one than live on in blissful ignorance while students fail to learn. I wanted to talk to my counterpart but face is such a large part of the culture here that I did not want to embarrass her in front of children. Probably I will talk to her later and I hope things change but this was obviously a frustrating first testing experience for me. Let’s hope things improve.
Today I conceived, wrote, and administered my first test as an English teacher. On the whole it was a frustrating and taxing experience. I gave the test to my fifth formers- it was the first instance of actually graded work and overall, I was really disappointed in the way the whole process went. I expected a lot of the problems I encountered, but it didn’t make it any easier for me to deal with and I have to admit that I think as a proctor of this test, at least from an American standpoint, I was a failure.
I actually enjoyed designing the test in the first place- it was certainly difficult to make- I had to think like a 5th grader and come up with creative ways to test their knowledge- but I enjoyed the actual authoring process of the exam. The test was designed to discover the students’ knowledge of possessive pronouns, location prepositions, and some new vocabulary about clothing we had learned recently (which was in an awesome lesson that involved me bringing in a lot of clothing and having races with the students). For the clothing, I drew a picture of a boy and a girl on the board with colored chalk and obvious articles of clothing, gave them a word bank, and then asked them to complete the sentences “He wears…” and “She wears…”. For the possessive pronouns, I took a more traditional fill in the blank approach with “I have a dog. It is ___ dog”. Lastly, I drew a basic map on the board with four buildings and a road in a row and asked them questions like “The ______ is next to the school.” and “The road is between the _____ and the _____”. Overall, I am still convinced that, had the majority of the students put more effort into studying what I was perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that the students did this for several reasons.
We were informed during our technical training sessions of the plethora of problems that we would find with our classes and in particular our testing. These were completely evident during this test. There are a completely different set of acceptable practices and norms during testing. The concept of a quiet testing environment seems foreign here and my counterpart seemed to find it perfectly okay when students opened their books for reference (in retrospect I mind this a lot less than some of the other practices I saw) or talked to each other- admittedly in hushed tones. However, while watching the students cheating verbally asking each other questions without outright copying I kept quiet and reminded myself of the effect of collectivist culture. Here individual achievement is not terribly encouraged and it’s more important to help each other achieve mediocrity than it is to personally achieve excellence. I generalize, of course, but the impact of the culture in the classroom is exceedingly evident always whether a testing or classroom situation. The only time it broke my limit was when I noticed a girl frantically copying down another students’ answers as the time limit appeared without any attempt to conceal her actions. In response to this I snatched up her notebook.
A bigger frustration for me was the actions of my counterpart during the test. I asked her to explain the exercises to the students which she did by translating the entire test (because we would pay for it out of pocket- the test is written on the black board and copied into each student’s copy book and then taken). I minded this because the majority of the test was vocabulary and reading comprehension- obviously this becomes much easier when everything is translated. Similarly throughout the test any time a student asked a question, she would give him/her the answer. This was extremely frustrating to me as I felt my test was being undermined. I think she may have looked at it differently- the performance of students reflects the performance of teachers and if our students perform poorly then it makes us look bad. Regardless, I would rather look like a bad teacher and know what we need to do differently to be a better one than live on in blissful ignorance while students fail to learn. I wanted to talk to my counterpart but face is such a large part of the culture here that I did not want to embarrass her in front of children. Probably I will talk to her later and I hope things change but this was obviously a frustrating first testing experience for me. Let’s hope things improve.
Welcome Weekend Update
17:45 22 October 2008
This past weekend was a lot of fun. We had an Issyk-Kul Oblast welcome weekend where we got to meet the rest of the volunteers on the lake we hadn’t, have some administrative meetings, talk about our sites and our preparation of winter, and just see our fellow countrymen. We had a potluck dinner and it was wonderful to have some home-cooked meals that were pretty good approximations of food you could get in the States. The lasagna (with Tivol- a cottage cheese like yogurtish substance- instead of ricotta) was particularly good, and the cheesy bread, salad with lettuce, and humus also were wonderful reminders of the culinary diversity I am currently missing out on.
Regardless, it was a fun weekend but I will have to live frugally the next two weeks as a result of it- I blew nearly $25 over the three days! I guess that doesn’t sound like that much but when you consider my monthly living allowance, it is a significant portion. Living in a village, we are expected to incur less expenses so we get less- after paying my rent each month I get less than the equivalent of four dollars a day- most of which goes towards food. Granted, while this by no means allows me to live extravagantly (our pay is determined by some complex formula giving us enough to live like locals), I have a coal-heated house, eat a square three a day, and have enough left over for a little travel and R&R. This is a lot more many of natives here get- so I don’t consider myself terribly unfortunate. It does take a lot of explaining when people ask about salaries in America though, and I have to explain why $5,000/year, which would allow one to live like a king here, would be unlivable in America.
Anyhow, tonight I am making deviled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches for my host mother so I best get to the kitchen.
This past weekend was a lot of fun. We had an Issyk-Kul Oblast welcome weekend where we got to meet the rest of the volunteers on the lake we hadn’t, have some administrative meetings, talk about our sites and our preparation of winter, and just see our fellow countrymen. We had a potluck dinner and it was wonderful to have some home-cooked meals that were pretty good approximations of food you could get in the States. The lasagna (with Tivol- a cottage cheese like yogurtish substance- instead of ricotta) was particularly good, and the cheesy bread, salad with lettuce, and humus also were wonderful reminders of the culinary diversity I am currently missing out on.
Regardless, it was a fun weekend but I will have to live frugally the next two weeks as a result of it- I blew nearly $25 over the three days! I guess that doesn’t sound like that much but when you consider my monthly living allowance, it is a significant portion. Living in a village, we are expected to incur less expenses so we get less- after paying my rent each month I get less than the equivalent of four dollars a day- most of which goes towards food. Granted, while this by no means allows me to live extravagantly (our pay is determined by some complex formula giving us enough to live like locals), I have a coal-heated house, eat a square three a day, and have enough left over for a little travel and R&R. This is a lot more many of natives here get- so I don’t consider myself terribly unfortunate. It does take a lot of explaining when people ask about salaries in America though, and I have to explain why $5,000/year, which would allow one to live like a king here, would be unlivable in America.
Anyhow, tonight I am making deviled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches for my host mother so I best get to the kitchen.
18 October 2008
Yikes! Pt. 2
12:21 18 October 2008
Two days ago I had a somewhat scary experience. It didn’t involve me except as a witness, but nevertheless it was disconcerting. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are supposed to be very neutral observers towards the cultural and private lives of the Host Country Nationals- we are here for very specific purposes of education and they don’t include intrusion onto their cultural or interpersonal norms. In many ways this is difficult especially with the practice of Bride Kidnapping (which is often done against the bride’s will constituting what is internationally recognized as a human rights violation). Staying impartial and externally non-judgmental when you hear about these types of occurrences is very difficult for me.
So the other day I heard quite a commotion on the street. Initially I thought it was some kind of celebration and went onto the street to investigate. Unfortunately it was nothing of the sort and instead was a very obvious case of domestic violence. As I walked out onto the street I saw them going behind the door of the compound as the children and grandmother hurried out onto the street. Following this I heard a large argument followed by audible hitting. I retreated back inside knowing that I could not and should not do anything about it but it was still a jarring event. Obviously domestic violence occurs around the world, it just saddens me that it is a fairly acceptable form of “keeping ones wife in line”.
This also relates to my service and the prevalence of corporal punishment here. As a teacher, I often have difficulty keeping my students well behaved. We were told that visits with their parents is often an effective method of getting them to behave better. The problem is that sometimes after a visit with the parents the children will come the next day to school with bruises, obviously there is a balance we have to find between discipline in the classroom and personal health and safety of our students. I don’t want to be responsible for the harm that comes to any of my students.
Two days ago I had a somewhat scary experience. It didn’t involve me except as a witness, but nevertheless it was disconcerting. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are supposed to be very neutral observers towards the cultural and private lives of the Host Country Nationals- we are here for very specific purposes of education and they don’t include intrusion onto their cultural or interpersonal norms. In many ways this is difficult especially with the practice of Bride Kidnapping (which is often done against the bride’s will constituting what is internationally recognized as a human rights violation). Staying impartial and externally non-judgmental when you hear about these types of occurrences is very difficult for me.
So the other day I heard quite a commotion on the street. Initially I thought it was some kind of celebration and went onto the street to investigate. Unfortunately it was nothing of the sort and instead was a very obvious case of domestic violence. As I walked out onto the street I saw them going behind the door of the compound as the children and grandmother hurried out onto the street. Following this I heard a large argument followed by audible hitting. I retreated back inside knowing that I could not and should not do anything about it but it was still a jarring event. Obviously domestic violence occurs around the world, it just saddens me that it is a fairly acceptable form of “keeping ones wife in line”.
This also relates to my service and the prevalence of corporal punishment here. As a teacher, I often have difficulty keeping my students well behaved. We were told that visits with their parents is often an effective method of getting them to behave better. The problem is that sometimes after a visit with the parents the children will come the next day to school with bruises, obviously there is a balance we have to find between discipline in the classroom and personal health and safety of our students. I don’t want to be responsible for the harm that comes to any of my students.
Ce-le-brate Teacher's Day Uh huh!
22:00 16 October 2008
This past Monday we had our Teacher’s Day Holiday party. While the actual date of the holiday had been a week and a half earlier, we were on break at the time so it got rescheduled to Monday. I am happy to report that I was significantly more successful in limiting my consumption of alcohol this time, I got by with only a few sips of homemade wine- though at times I had to literally cover my cup to prevent the addition of vodka. Regardless, the food was really good with an array of cold salads and then the typical plov. I’ve realized since abandoning my vegetarianism that I do enjoy the tastes of some kinds of meat, however, the more I eat it the more I realize that mutton is not one of them. Unfortunately, it is the preferred meat here and when it is in something everything else tastes like it. Oh well, while I doubt I will ever like it, I have become good at choking it down when I have to.
The following day I headed to Cholpon-Ata, a four hour plus travel, to get a flu shot. I had never gotten one before, but I figured since Peace Corps was providing it and I may be at a higher risk to just go ahead and get it. It was also a nice opportunity to see a bunch of other volunteers on the lake as well- it was a mini reunion and it was great to hang out with people that I had missed. Unfortunately, as all good things do, it came to an end and I had to head back (after I spent one night there). Anyhow, I feel that my prose is probably really boring right now- I’m tired. I’m going to Karakol tomorrow after classes for a Peace Corps Issyk-Kul welcome weekend. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully I will have some interesting stories from it.
This past Monday we had our Teacher’s Day Holiday party. While the actual date of the holiday had been a week and a half earlier, we were on break at the time so it got rescheduled to Monday. I am happy to report that I was significantly more successful in limiting my consumption of alcohol this time, I got by with only a few sips of homemade wine- though at times I had to literally cover my cup to prevent the addition of vodka. Regardless, the food was really good with an array of cold salads and then the typical plov. I’ve realized since abandoning my vegetarianism that I do enjoy the tastes of some kinds of meat, however, the more I eat it the more I realize that mutton is not one of them. Unfortunately, it is the preferred meat here and when it is in something everything else tastes like it. Oh well, while I doubt I will ever like it, I have become good at choking it down when I have to.
The following day I headed to Cholpon-Ata, a four hour plus travel, to get a flu shot. I had never gotten one before, but I figured since Peace Corps was providing it and I may be at a higher risk to just go ahead and get it. It was also a nice opportunity to see a bunch of other volunteers on the lake as well- it was a mini reunion and it was great to hang out with people that I had missed. Unfortunately, as all good things do, it came to an end and I had to head back (after I spent one night there). Anyhow, I feel that my prose is probably really boring right now- I’m tired. I’m going to Karakol tomorrow after classes for a Peace Corps Issyk-Kul welcome weekend. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully I will have some interesting stories from it.
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