Since it’s been almost three months since I last detailed the adventures of my life, I figured a good recap of my goings-on might be in order.
So, here’s a list of a few of the more notable events in my recent past:
On May 2, Athe new US Ambassador to Azerbaijan went on a ‘road trip’ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. The purpose of this trip, for the newly-instated Mr. Matthew Bryza, was to get to know Azerbaijan a ittle bit, and toget to see the kind of work that Peace Corps has going on. My Site mate Colin was really interested in haveing Ambassador Bryza come to Oguz, and so thanks to his persuasiveness, we made it onto the list! For one stress-filled evening (that was really only about 3 hours, though it felt like we were preparing for a three-weeek visit), the Ambassador met with our town leader, came and watched a mildly staged version of one of my conversation clubs, and had cake and tea with our host famiilies at Drew’s house It was stressful, but fun—my kids did great, and it was a good oppurtunity for us volunteers to meet and show our work to some of the higher-ups in the town–including our ExComm (kindof like a mayor…only maybe more important), and people from the ministry of Ed.
I finished out my last few weeks of school, which ended on May 31 with the ‘son zeng’ or ‘last bell’ ceremony—the graduation program for 11th form students leaving the school. In AZ, kids are in the same building for all 11 years, with the same teachers and same classmates. It was cool to see how intimate the program was, with only 14 kids graduating from my school. Much less formal and more celebratory than an American graduation ceremony. The last few weeks of school were…disorganized, to say the least. I think that both students and teachers check out pretty early, which I took full advantage of to teach fun games and interesting lessons without being held down by the textbooks. In my 9th form classes, we read and acted out a super-simplified version of King Lear that I rewrote, and the kids LOVED it—hoping to do some drama-type work this summer, too.
I started seriously running again and am now training for my first marathon—in Istanbul in October. I’m really excited, and am continuing to feel great about running. I am planning a 16 or 17-mile run for tomorrow morning (depending on how I feel), which will begin in the dark at 5:30 to beat the heat—I run around the stadium until it’s light enough to run on the streets, then take off up the mountain. My longest run while in the US was 10 miles, so I feel great about my progress. In addition, I feel healthier and more fit than I have since I left the U.S.
I turned 23, and probably had the best birthday I’ve ever had. I made up for a lifetime of no birthday parties (yes, really) by having a whole bunch this year! First, I headed up to Zaqatala where my friend Jane and I jointly celebrated our birthdays (although she was silly and kept ignoring hers)—I had a great time that included Georgian wine and a cake stand. On the day of my actual birthday, I was in Sheki helping with a summer camp, and my hostess and fellow PCV Jenni made me chocolate cupcakes : ). Finally, when I got back to Oguz, my neighbors had a party for me, made me cake and plov, and we danced in the street outside my apartment.
Now, I am knee-deep in conversation clubs—I teach 5 groups of 8-10 kids, which meet for an hour two days a week. It’s been really fun, actually, and I work with some great kids. I have an especially eager group of 5th formers that I can’t wait to see get older—they’re better than a lot of my 8th and 9th formers, haha. In addition to these clubs, I am teaching English to a couple teachers at my school, and have a raw beginner group of rowdy 10-year-old boys that meets once a week. This group, which I thought I wouldn’t like, is turning out to be one of my most fun, as I actually really like teaching the very basics. So, my “summer vacation” has largely been more busy than my school year, though I don’t mind—I’m having a good time, staying busy, and feeling good about my work. Next week I’m starting on a two-week drama unit, which will hopefully culminate in a few little play-type performances to close out my summer clubs.
So…that pretty much catches me up. Today’s been a downer day, simply because I discovered that my broken refrigerator is pretty permanently broken, and needs to be replaced…which will cost more than I make in a month. Ahh, unreliable landladies…but that’s another story for another day.
