Melissa Teacher

Since life has finally starting to settle into a routine, I thought I would try to provide a snapshot of my everyday life. Also, my conscience was beginning to get the better of me. It isn’t exactly fair of me to ask for things, if I don’t offer up explanations of their use and importance.

The school day runs from 8:15 AM – 2:00 PM, Monday through Friday. This sounds like the usual American school day. But I am quite lucky with this schedule because a lot of schools in Azerbaijan have to run on Saturdays and/or with a second shift into the evenings because they are oversubscribed.

I have to be at school for first lesson three days a week. It’s a good thing that I am a morning person (usually). But it is still difficult to get out of bed in the mornings when it is dark outside and I can see my breath in the air. Fortunately, two days a week, my reward for waking up with the larks is that I am finished at school for the day before 10AM. Monday and Thursday aren’t so kind to me: I am at school from start to finish. I like Fridays best; I have no lessons until after morning break. Nothing says mini-break like a lie-in and a cup of coffee.

Peace Corps requires that I teach 15 hours of English classes a week. I have spilt my hours between the four English teachers at the school. I teach students in the 5th–9th forms. I see my 5th form class four times a week. (Therefore, I’ve managed to learn all their names.) The other forms meet less frequently because the older students have more subjects, so I see them once or twice a week depending on the form. My teaching schedule is further complicated by the fact that the school timetable often has two English teachers teaching simultaneously, and I can’t be in two places at once. I think we’ve managed to work out a schedule that pleases everyone. Although one 7th form class is currently upset with me because school closings keep falling on a Wednesday. But I can’t control the calendar.

After a month of full-time teaching, there are still teachers who pass me in the halls with quizzical looks. Therefore, I try to spend some time in the teachers’ lounge during the school day when I don’t have lessons in an attempt to become a familiar face. But I also have 3 hours of Azerbaijani tutoring every week and lesson planning meetings with my counterparts. I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion I didn’t have the stamina to be a teacher. There may be some truth in that.

When I am not teaching I can usually be found at home; gender roles dictate that that is where I should be. Having said that the village is so small that there isn’t really anywhere else for me to go. Although I try to catch the postman at the post office at least once a week, if you get a letter from me that has 4 different dates and lots of sticky notes – it means that I meant to post something on a Monday and couldn’t find the postman until Friday.

I spend most of my time at home reading, writing letters and doing crossword puzzles. I probably spend an hour or two writing up lesson plans for the next day as well. On the days I have fewer classes I do more lesson-planning and less reading. There is also lots of napping involved. (See note about stamina). But those are good for my health. In the evenings, I have become addicted to my host family’s favorite soap operas, even though I only understand about 30%. (Ironically, my two favorites are Spanish-speaking imports – so I would probably understand about as much if I were watching them in the original.)

On the afternoons that I am not sleeping or watching a movie, I have informal tutoring sessions set up with the girl next door – I teach her English vocabulary and she teaches me the Azerbaijani words for the things I teach her. It only becomes awkward when my Azerbaijani tutor wonders why a student is giggling about what she just asked me say. (It is usually because the student taught me whatever she just asked the day before.)

On the weekends I usually head into a nearby town to have a cup of coffee and a chat with the other volunteers in the region. I don’t usually spend the night, just a few hours – long enough to provide the reader’s digest version of my week and get in some Internet time. When I first arrived in the village I told myself that I would try to limit town visits to once a fortnight. But January has had a tendency to feel a little endless, so I have found myself out of the village at least once a week. Oops.

However, I was told this week that February is when the bad weather arrives, so if you don’t hear from me for a few weeks after this, don’t panic. It just means I am snowed in.

Please continue to send your emails, letters, packages and positive vibes even if you don’t get a reply in a timely manner. Messages from home mean a lot on the days when activities don’t go as planned or on afternoons when there’s no electricity (like now).

I’m off to buy a month’s supply of toilet paper and chocolate. Is it a bad thing that my favorite shopkeeper comments on my mood depending on the amount of chocolate I buy? Probably. But there are Hazelnut Snickers and KitKat Chunkys.

Send Me Stuff :)

THE GOLDEN TRIO:
- JIF creamy peanut butter (red lid): There is no such thing as too much. And for everything else there’s peanut butter cookies. (Note: the 16oz jars travel/keep the best)
- Cadbury’s Bournville (500g): On the 7th day Mr. Cadbury created Chocolate.
- Coffee: Enstein’s Brother’s Vanilla/Hazelnut; Seattle’s Best French Roast; Dunkin Donuts anything. (NO STARBUCKS, Thanks!)

OTHER FOOD STUFFS I WOULD ENJOY OCASSIONALLY: if you need to top up the box:
UK: Bourbon Creams, Chocolate HobNobs; Haribo
US: Teddy Grams (chocolate/cinnamon); original cheddar goldfish; yellow-box cheerios (obviously the big box is hard to ship: raid the next breakfast buffet you attend); jolly ranchers; tootsie roll pops; granola bars (fruit, nuts, chocolate)

THE STUFF I CAN’T EAT:
books: if you read it and enjoyed it; if you like to wander around used book stores, but can’t justify another purchase for yourself. (I will read and pass them on to others)
crossword puzzles: newspapers, those books you can find in the airport/dollar store
magazines: intellectual and not so intelligent. These also make good teaching aids (See Postcard Project post)
recipes: so I can contribute something other than bake goods to the potluck dinners.
Hand/body lotion: it’s really hard to find here for some reason. Any brand or fragrance (although I’m not really a berries person)
Ziploc bags: the sandwich/snack size
Stationery: Send me computer paper in interesting colours or designs or just the plain white stuff. (100 sheets from Walmart). I write a lot of letters. You could send me proper stationery, but I am kinda verbose – the bigger stuff works better.

THE ENVELOPE (OR EMAIL) ONLY PEOPLE:
Include an interesting article, news from the outside world, crossword puzzle, tasty recipe or a movie/book suggestion when you send me a letter (or email).

Or just send me a good old fashioned letter (or witty card) or lengthy email. So I know that you are thinking of me. And then I will have have your address and I will write back.

This entirely frivolous blog post was compliments of Swine Flu. (I had to come into town to get vaccinated.)

The Postcard Project

Hi Everyone!

The English textbooks here don’t have the best visual aids, and my artistic abilities leave a lot to be desired. Especially when it comes to drawing national landmarks…or anything more complicated than a stick figure, to be honest.

So I had a rather intelligent idea. Postcards. Or pictures. Or pages from magazines. Sent from America (or the UK).

If it’s not too much trouble, what I propose is this….
If you happen to have access to postcards (or photographic evidence) of anything on this (preliminary) list, please send it to me. (or my parents and they will send it in my next care package.) If it’s a postcard please put it in an envelope, so that it doesn’t get damaged.

Any national landmarks such as:
- the White House or The Capitol Building
- any of the really tall buildings in NY or Central Park or Grand Central Station or yellow cabs
- the Golden Gate Bridge or Chinatown
- The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s; Hyde Park, double decker buses or black cabs, Waterloo station, the Eurostar, Brighton, Bournemouth
- Any of those famous international landmarks: Paris, Rome, India, Australia
-Famous paintings (or anything) I can pretend are in a museum – pictures of the British Museum, the Tate or the Met in NY would also be really cool.
- And just so that Texas gets some love: NASA or spaceships.

Or famous people (postcards or magazines)
- The Queen
- President Obama or President Bush (or Washington or Jefferson)
- Football players: Beckham, Christiano Rinaldo or anyone else that teenage boys the world over would recognize
- international superstars: Britney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Michael Jackson and anyone else easily recognized.
- People who invented or created stuff: Einstein, Da Vinci (and the rest of the turtles)
-People that clearly have a particular profession: teacher, doctor, police man

Or Food:
- fruits and vegetables
- take away menus: the thin brochure kind
- the food pyramid: preferably the old one – as it has come to my attention that there is now some sort of personalized rainbow stripe variety out there now.

Or the world at large:
- Any pictures of the seasonal persuasion: winter, spring, summer, autumn/fall
- Any landscapes: a field, a jungle, the savannah, the beach, the polar ice cap
- Animals: anything that you learned the name of in school language classes
- Rooms: kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, restaurants, stores
- Hobbies: pictures that suggest video games, books, movies, football, dolls (anything else you like to do in your free time that escapes me at the moment)
- Things: computers, school supplies, clothes: the ‘buy this’ pages from magazines

Or simply…
- Anything with people in it going about their daily lives - the more it looks like a United Colors of Benneton Ad the better.
- Anything that makes you think of a particular place.
- Anything that makes you think: Melissa would be able to say a lot about this picture.

Also…
If you opt to send postcards (instead of pictures or magazines) it would be awesome if you could write a short, simple message on the back. The sort of thing you might send a penpal or a friend. (5 sentences maximum. See first comment for sample.) That way I can use them for a letter writing activity too.

Lastly…
If you are sending something rather obvious, and someone else might feel inclined to send it please leave a comment, as a general note that it is already enroute. (I know I have a Peter Pan complex, but I don’t need 6 postcards of Big Ben.)

The Kerimbeyli schoolchildren and I appreciate your time, energy and postage stamps. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me.

:)

New Year's

No, I haven't run out of toilet paper yet. But I live in one room with two kids under the age of two. I needed a break. I also needed shower shoes and school supplies. So I decided to put up a blog about New Years too. Yes, I am spoiling you. Consider it my holiday gift.

The PC lounge was full of people getting ready to ring in the new year. It was a little chaotic. But it was very nice to see other volunteers and check in about our experiences at permanent site. Plus, †there was wireless internet and all sorts of books for me to choose from. Most importantly, there was lunch at a restaurant in Baku. I had a chicken tandoori sandwich (because I am Brit enough to crave 'Indian'), French fries (with ketchup!) and a REAL salad. Yes, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I covet green leafy vegetables.

Then I escaped 'home' to Khirdalan to celebrate the New Year with Ata and Ana. They welcomed me with open arms. I felt just like the wayward college student who comes home for the holidays.†Ana insisted I wash my hair immediately. (Showers are another precious commodity in Peace Corps life.) Then I taught Ata to use his new microwave. (Yes, really!). But he didn't believe me when I said that my family didn't have one in America. Then we ate.†They had prepared all my favorite foods and set aside a carton of peach juice just for me. It was delicious. :)

At some point during the evening the doorbell rang. Frosty Grandpa (Santa Claus) had come for a visit! So there was a round of pictures with all the neighbourhood children on his knee. If you are feeling a little confused by this fact, don't be.†In Azerbaijan, all the Christmas traditions we have have been transposed and transferred to the New Year's celebration. So I had a Christmas Tree and a visit from Santa. It was just a week later than usual.

Then Ata, Ana and I (in pjs) curled up on the couch,†and watched this New Years movie from Russia that is on TV every year at this time. The Soviet equivalent of Miracle on 34th Street, perhaps? (I am not being politically incorrect. St. Petersburg was referred to as Leningrad.) I was only able to follow about half of it. But it finished at exactly †five minutes to midnight, so we had just enough time to switch the channel to the fireworks in Baku and pour the champagne before ringing in the new year.

A good time was had by all.
I wish everyone a healthy, happy and successful 2010.

No USB Port

I had two detailed, interesting posts all typed up. Only to discover that there isn't a USB port availabe at teh internet cafe. Sorry!

Until next time.