In the morning, we were late for school, and I had 5th grade math first, I ran in just after the bell. During class, my cell phone rang several times. Near the end of the break between 1st and 2nd periods, the Russian vice principal asked to see Valerie and me, and she held us for many minutes, asking us questions that are answered on our resumes. I explained through a translator that I had class! So I was late to 2nd period--5th grade math again. Those 5th graders must think I'm crazy! They seem to like me, though, and are amazingly well behaved.
The v.p. was asking us questions because there was to be a parent meeting that night, I think, and she wanted to talk about us. But it was ridiculous because the first question was, what is your profession? Well, Valerie and I were a bit flabbergasted at that--we teach at your school! But I think the translation may have been wrong; she really was asking what our degrees were in.
Then she asked for where we went to college, and seemed stunned when I said Tulane University. She had never heard of it, she said. Was it a town? I explained that it was in New Orleans. Even with two translators, she could not understand, but finally wrote down the Cyrillic translations of Tulane and New Orleans. It's OK that she's never heard of Tulane or New Orleans, but she seemed rather displeased that I could not give her an answer that she understood.
Friday is my difficult day--6 classes--and I was planning on teaching math during 8th period (Etud or "Study Period") so we could catch up. Right before 7th period started, as I was frantically getting things together (I was behind all day) the vice principal Mr. M came in and said the bus was waiting to take me to the hospital. What?!? My first thought was that we were taking Sophia, either due to her rash or her hurt hand. Mr. M seemed genuinely surprised that I did not know this, but said I had to hurry out to go to the hospital. Christie had mentioned something about foreigners needing a medical check-up, and I had read that we'd have to have one. However, I was stunned--I had a stack of papers on my desk I wanted to check and not take home with me, and my kids are behind in English and math. My Kazakh teacher seemed stunned when I told her I had to go, and I guessed that meant she would be in charge of the kids. I tried my best to gather what I needed--I figured I'd have time to grade--and left with a heavy bookbag and tote.
On the way out I ran into Sophia. I had no idea if I'd be back before her teachers left, so I went into her classroom to tell Christie to keep an eye on her for me; however then I learned that Christie was also going to the hospital. All the foreign teachers were going. No one to leave Sophia with (Sophia's not comfortable with the non-English-speaking teachers). I had no idea what time we'd be back, and I didn't want to just leave her. Finally I had decided to take her when we ran into her new friend, who had invited her to her house after school. I didn't want to ruin Sophia's first chance at a play date! Yet I was terrified of just leaving her wandering the school. Finally I left her with the other girl, and met the other teachers and got on the bus.
So we got to the hospital, where Christie told us how they would X-ray our chests, naked, with no gowns. What a joy. Rumors were that we would have an AIDS test too. The Philippino teachers took out their medical forms that they'd had to have before coming to Kazakhstan. That didn't get them out of whatever it was we now had to do.
In the end, we just had to be naked from the waist up, not a big deal really. We returned to school in plenty of time for Valerie to teach her 4:10 class. She was not happy that all she missed was her break! At 5:00 we had a meeting for the English-language teachers, and as I was heading up to the meeting, leaving Sophia with her friend (who was still waiting for her dad to pick her up), her friend's dad called saying he was there. So I ran out to meet him and make sure it was OK for Sophia to go home with her and that she would have a ride back to my apartment. I was grateful that earlier I had written down my address, so I handed it to the girl's dad, who handed it to his driver, who nodded his head, he knew the place.
The meeting last forever and I was glad that Sophia was not hanging out at the school, bored. Then I was able to walk home with Valerie and talk with a grown-up, no interruptions! And I went over to her place and sat for a while before the driver called, saying that in half an hour he would have Sophia home.
So, from
(1) no heat, broken washing machine, no light in the bathroom, no food for Sophia, no friends for Sophia, rash on Sophia
to (2) no heat, broken washing machine, no light in the bathroom, yes! food for Sophia, yes! a Russian-speaking friend for Sophia, still a rash
to (3) yes! heat, no water, broken washing machine, no light in the bathroom, yes! food for Sophia, yes! a Russian-speaking friend for Sophia, still a rash plus icky medicine
to (4) yes! heat, yes! water, broken washing machine, no light in the bathroom, yes! food for Sophia, yes! a Russian-speaking friend for Sophia, still a rash plus icky medicine, no hamster, hurt fingers
to (5) yes! heat, yes! water, broken washing machine, no light in the bathroom, yes! food for Sophia, yes! a Russian-speaking friend for Sophia, a slightly better rash plus icky medicine, yes! hamster, fingers getting better, and yes! finally! an English-speaking friend for Sophia.
Whew. What a week!
No comments:
Post a Comment