December 3, 2008
Cheap is as Cheap Does
Okay,
so I try to be a smart shopper because I'm on a limited budget. Valuable lessons are being learned in the process. Lesson
#1. Don't buy cheap in a developing country (at least not this
one). My father has always said to buy quality shoes. And while
I took his advice in the States, I seem to have forgotten it over
here. My $12 winter shoes have already sprung a leak where the
leather meets the sole (well, it looks like leather) and we've yet see any
winter weather to speak of. When I told a couple of students what
happened and what they cost, I was advised, after they quit laughing, that I
need to spend at least 2000 soms if I want a good pair of
shoes. That's $50. That's also a hefty chunk of my
monthly living allowance. Still, if I don't want to lose a few digits
to frostbite this winter, I'd better pony up the dough and buy some shoes that
don't split at the seams after 2 months. Lesson #2. Don't
buy Chinese anything. I was with a student at the bazaar the other
day when I was looking for a much needed extension cord. The one
made in China was 100 soms. The one made in Russia was
280. Of course, I bought the Chinese one, against the advice of my
student. I told her not everything made in China is
crap. She just smiled. I got home, plugged the cord in the
wall and turned on my computer. The next day I'm back at the bazaar
buying the Russian cord. The only time it's good to buy cheap is if
you're planning on losing whatever it was you bought. But, who does
that, right? I should have with my gloves. You may recall
I shelled out $5 for my winter gloves. Today, I left them laying somewhere at
school and they're gone. In a city where everybody wears the “$1.50
made in China” kind, it's no surprise mine quickly found a new owner.
Don't
Worry, I Survived the Earthquake
This
morning during a break in class, my counterpart asked me if I felt the
earthquake during the preceding student
presentation. Earthquake? Maybe one of her desk legs is
shorter than the others. Then my cell rings. It's a
volunteer who asked if I was okay after the earthquake we just
had. Man, that presentation must've been really
engrossing. This makes two earthquakes I've experienced (the other
was in Carbondale back in 1995) and I barely felt the first and completely
missed the second. I guess that's not a bad thing.
File
This One Under....
“Did
you read your job description?”
Students
are busy writing essays and completing the application form for a chance to
study in America for a year. The deadline is December
10. I am personally helping four of them with their
grammar. Each student needs two letters of recommendation; preferably
one from a teacher with whom he/she has a fairly long history. The
other should be someone who knows them fairly well. I am writing two
letters, but, in reality, should only be writing one. One of them is
for my friend, Aijamal. I feel comfortable writing hers because I
know her well enough outside the classroom. The other student has
her outside letter, a volunteer from Australia who helps her with her English
and has known her two years. So, I was quite surprised when she
asked me for one, too, because she had told me her other letter was coming from
the teacher that knew her best. Turns out, this teacher (one of my
detractors) said she was too busy to write it. This task takes 20
minutes, tops.
Maybe
this teacher is too busy still looking for offensive words in my blog, I don't
know, but isn't a teachers job to help their students in any way they
can? And what's bigger for a 20 year-old Central Asian student than
a chance to live and study in America for a year?! Not much, let me
tell ya. This is not a Kyrgyz thing. This is a teacher
thing. I have a theory as to why she didn't want to write
it. The student already speaks English as good as or better than the
teacher (Not much thanks to the teacher. The student lives with a
native English speaker and attends two of my extra classes every week.), so
there might be some jealousy involved. Of course, I wrote her
letter, but I hope having two outside recs, and me having known her for only 2
½ months, doesn't hurt her chances of going. She is totally
qualified.
As result of changing from a blog to a mass
email form of communication, you’ll notice a new formatting. The blog was more
suited to a single topic structure; emails allow me to address multiple ideas
in a single missive. Not sure yet how to format them in the book. Should each
topic be a separate entry or should the topics be grouped under a single email
entry?
I caught some misinformation from a previous
post by reading this one. It wasn’t intentional; I simply didn’t recall from
memory the exact details of what happened. This may happen again due to a
decision I made before undertaking this project. I read and write about one
communication at a time. I don’t read ahead. Not sure why I decided to do it
this way, but I like it. Maybe it was to test my memory. I’m not going to have
perfect recollection of events from eight years ago, but at the same time, I’ve
amazed myself on more than a few occasions for remembering the smallest fact or
correlating incident. That illustrates the lasting effect the PC has had on me.
Also in the book: additional tremors I've felt since 2010; my theory on why the taecher didn't write the letter of rec; missionaries in Kyrgyzstan--they're illegal and how they get in.
