Sophia is Sick - Week of 26 - 30 October 2009

This week really flew by. On Monday morning, Sophia complained of not feeling well. However, it was Monday morning and no one feels well waking up early after a nice weekend. When we got outside, she was happy to be in the snow, and I took a few pictures.

The Kazakh teacher I work with had gone home--a 12-hour bus ride to eastern Kazakhstan--and had not yet returned. So I had to teach first thing, which I wasn't completely prepared for. But it's always nice to have the kids first thing, they're better behaved. My assistant was feeling really sick, and was just waiting for the other teacher to show up so she could go home.

Sophia came into my classroom complaining that she was not feeling well. It was easy to see that she wasn't--she was very pale and listless, highly unusual for Sophia. She also had the chills. Pretty much the same symptoms as the assistant!

I let her sit in my class while I finished my lessons--a period each of English and math, and two periods of science. I had 5th grade math next but that would be it for the day, and so I went to see the principal to ask if I could skip 5th grade math and take Sophia home. He said I had to ask Mr. M, the vice principal. Both the principal and Mr. M are very kind, and very concerned about Sophia, and so Mr. M said of course I could take her home. I had a test for the students in grade 5, so I quickly gave it to their assistant to give to them. So I wasn't missing much teaching.

It was funny trying to find Mr. M. The school is 3 stories high, and there is no intercom system or walkie-talkies, like in my old school. So the secretary tried to call him on his mobile phone. Luckily, he appeared just as his phone started ringing.

I went to tell my assistant that Mr. M had said that the other teacher would not be showing up today, and that I would be going home. She looked miserable, and I wished I could send her home with Sophia! Other than a slightly-hoarse throat, I felt fine and could have continued teaching.

We took the bus home and slept the afternoon away. It was a great opportunity for me to catch up on sleep. However, I missed the school's free lunch and we had little food in our apartment.

That night, Mr. M called me to ask about Sophia. He suggested that he could find a sitter for so that I could go in and teach on Tuesday. I only have 3 classes on Tuesdays, so I would be able to teach them in a row and then come home early. I was a bit wary--Sophia's uncomfortable with non-native-English speakers.

I had no money left on my cell phone to call; and while local calls to land lines are free from a land-line phone (I have one in my apartment) calls to mobile phones from land lines cost money. I only knew Mr. M's phone number. So the next morning, I decided I would go into work and leave Sophia with a sitter, and I waited until close to 8 to call the principal to ask him to call the vice principal for me. Luckily, Mr. M called me before then, and said that he had thought it over, and that Sophia would probably want her mother with her while she's sick, and I could stay home.

Really, it was nice.

I went back to sleep and when Sophia finally woke up, she had a bad fever and felt miserable. I wondered if I should have taken her to see the school nurse yesterday, and decided if she still felt miserable in the afternoon, I would call the school and ask about taking her to a doctor. I'd need a translator and a ride, of course!

Luckily by the afternoon Sophia was better and wanted to go outside and play in the snow. I said no, of course.

Wednesdays I don't have any classes until 4th period, so I let her sleep in a bit. Once she learned that she would be missing drawing class (her first two periods) , she was excited to go to school right away.

I still let her sleep in a bit, and we took our time and made it just as 1st period ended. I talked to the principal and vice principal; both were surprised that I was back so soon. And that I hadn't given Sophia any medicine, save a little bit of Children's Tylenol. The principal told me that if I ever had questions on medicines, I should call apartment and speak to his wife. She, like me, is wary about giving kids medicine she doesn't understand, and she has a lot of medicine she brought with her from Turkey. She can help me figure out the best medicine for Sophia. Really nice, much better than just force-feeding Sophia whatever medicine a non-English-speaking doctor gives her.

She still was up the next couple nights with a stuffed nose or coughing--but she wasn't really up! In the mornings she had no recollection of being up. However, I did.

I'm glad she's better. The rash is still there, but not too bad. Children around the school are still dropping like flies, so let's keep our fingers crossed that we'll stay healthy!

Foreign Kids - October 2009

Notice how during the school day the foreign kids are frequently left out and lonely and sad. This is supposed to be an international, English-language school, and the foreign kids--the ones who make it international, the ones who came here for the English, not Russian or Kazakh--are getting screwed. Kazakh parents have complained about the little English in the school. Most classes are taught in Russian, and the Russian and Kazakh teachers and assistants expect the children to understand them in Russian, speaking to the foreign kids in Russian. Sure, the foreign kids take 8 hours of Beginner's Russian every week, plus 5 or 8 hours of regular Russian, but, really, how much Russian do they know? Why not do everything in English? Sophia sure has no clue what her teachers are trying to tell her.

My Saudi Arabian boy won't come to school if his nanny isn't with him. My little Korean girl, who probably only is willing to come because there's a Korean boy in the class too, cries almost every day. Sophia is lucky that she speaks English. She's got Christie she can talk to and me next door if something goes wrong. Still, she gets upset sometimes and doesn't like going to Beginner's Russian class.

Notes go home in Russian, the homework "diary" is written in Russian--how do the foreign parents figure out what is going on?

In my 5th grade math class, my Saudi Arabian boy's older sister seems to be doing fine. Those children speak English better, and I heard one girl explaining a math problem to her in English. Yay! However, there's a Turkish girl who is completely lost. I think her math is extremely weak, too, but perhaps she's just very uncomfortable in a foreign language. What to do about her? Not much, just hope this year being bewildered in a foreign school doesn't hurt her too much. The children seem nice and try to help her, at least.

Being foreign is hard on a kid. Even in an international, English-language school. (OK, maybe in a real international English-language school it wouldn't be so hard.)

A Day in the Life Of... - October 2009

Here's a quick run-down of a typical day as an English-language school teacher and single mom here in Astana...

6:00 am Cell phone alarm goes off. I've yet to get a clock! I still have the principal's watch, which he lent me when I first arrived and had no way to tell the time (my cell phone time is not always accurate). I may press snooze once or twice, then I go into the kitchen to put away the dishes from last night (no dishwasher) and usually the clothes that I had drying overnight (no dryer, but luckily things dry pretty fast around here). Then I take a shower in the dark, as I've yet to get someone to fix the light in the bathroom. It's something I think about while I'm in there, but not much when I'm elsewhere.

By 6:45 I open the doors to Sophia's room (she has double doors) to let in light and I turn on the TV and lower the volume. The earlier she wakes up, the more likely she is to eat breakfast before we leave.

By 7:00 I'm pretty much ready, I just have to eat (bread and jelly or generic Nutella) and drink coffee, and get Sophia ready. So it's usually after 8 before we leave. I understand why many little girls have short hair--that would be so much faster! My favorite show--"Apple Man" we call it--comes on at 8:00, and I tell Sophia that we have to leave when it starts.

It takes quite a while to put on all our gear, and it can get rather hot in the house, dressed in multiple layers and heavy coats. Finally we're out the door and go down 3 flights of stairs and then out into the cold. Usually I take a bag of trash with me--no large trash bag in the house, so the little ones fill up quickly, but the dumpster is on our way out.

We used to walk to meet Christie and then onto school. Now we just walk the two blocks to the bus stop. I urge Sophia to hurry up, until we get close enough to see if the bus is coming. If I don't see one coming, I can relax.

We wait at the bus stop, usually get on Bus 14, and sit for the short ride to school. Frequently we see someone else who works at the school--the secretary, the IT guy, even the vice principal. We get off by the school and walk the short distance (about a block's length) to the school and into the school. I drop Sophia off at her classroom and go into my room (next to hers) to unload. I hang my coat and scarf in the cabinet in the teacher's lounge (across the hall from my room) and put my hat there too, along with a bag with Sophia's lunch--American-style cheese and cranberry juice. The teacher's lounge is usually cold, and our classrooms are usually warm, so since there's no refrigerator, I figure the teacher's lounge will work to keep her cheese and juice cool.

If it's Monday or Friday, I follow my class to the front lobby area, and Sophia goes with her class. Once all the classes are there, someone turns on the Kazakhstan national anthem, and all the children sing. Sophia pretends to sing, although she is apparently learning the words, just from listening so much. Some of the children stand up really tall and proud and shout out the words. The English-language teachers stand politely, one hand over our heart.

Then the Russian vice principal makes announcements or asks questions in Russian, making me wonder what's the point in calling this an international school. Finally she dismisses us and the children run back to the rooms.

If it's Wednesday I have to go to the second floor for "duty" where I'll monitor the hallway between classes. The second floor is pretty boring. The 1st and 2nd grades are on the first floor, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades are on the 3rd floor. I think the 2nd floor contains the science room, the dance room, the accountant's room, the vice principals' office, and not much else.

The school, by the way, is large, although it does not look that way from the front. It is shaped like a misshapen upside-down U. The right side, the short side, houses the International School, the left side, the long side, houses the Kazakh-Turkish elementary and high school. The middle (more like the the middle-right) joins the two schools with a common swimming pool, cafeteria, canteen, and gym. Teachers from both schools eat together, but other than that we don't really see each other much. My duty only involves our side of the school.

Tuesday and Thursday mornings I teach English first thing, at 9 am. Fridays I teach 5th grade math, on the 3rd floor. Mondays and Wednesdays I have free time, which I usually spend feeling awkward in my classroom, doing work in the front (where the teacher's desk and computer are located) while the Kazakh teacher teaches Kazakh, or working in the cold Teacher's Lounge.

At 9:40 the assistant takes the class to breakfast, and usually the foreign kids stay in the classroom. Sophia is not the only foreigner who does not like Kazakh-Turkish food. (Not sure if they serve Kazakh or Turkish food.) Sometimes Sophia takes her lunch bag and eats a slice of cheese. Often the foreign kids stay behind in the rooms, not wanting to go to the cafeteria.

At 9:55 it's the next period, and there are a total of 4 periods--40 minutes each, 10 minute breaks in between between breakfast and lunch at 1:05. The assistant takes the kids to lunch and I join Valerie and the other English-speaking teachers for lunch in the teacher's lunchroom in the basement. I quite enjoy the free food, and the purple fruit "salad" is the only thing that I don't eat. The Philippino teachers miss their own food, although they do eat the school's food, and they have noticed that the same dishes are served on the same days of the week. Hm, I'll have to pay more attention.

Lunch is usually a "salad" of sorts--the purple fruit salad is sweetened with beets, hence the color--and sometimes it's a mixture of vegetables that tastes better than the fruit salad. There are two other dishes--usually a soup of sorts and then a mystery-meat and starch (noodles, rice, or a mashed-potato-like mixture). There's also unlimited sliced bread, not the best, but since this is my main meal, I eat a lot. The drink is either some strange fruit juice or tea, and the two are the same color. Sometimes the fruit juice is warm and it's hard to tell the difference between it and tea. Although, they provide spoons to put sugar in tea if it's tea, so that's one way.

The children eat in the cafeteria and then sometimes their assistant takes them outside to the playground, but more often than not their "recess" is just running wild inside the school. Coming from the teacher's lunch room to the classroom you feel like you're stuck in ravaging hurricane full of screaming kids. Really? And it's a surprise that they can't later on settle down?

After two more periods it's "Etud" or Study Period. Sometimes I teach math, sometimes I'm not in the mood (neither are the kids) and I let the Kazakh teacher teach Kazakh. After Etud comes Extracurricular Activity time, which means that the kids whose parents didn't sign them up for anything are stuck, bored, in the room. Like poor Sophia. I can't sign her up for dance until I get her dance clothes. In fact, she doesn't go to dance when her class does. During activity, if a kid does not want to go or does not have the proper attire, he/she is left alone in the room, bored and lonely.

Parents start arriving around 4, after Etud, although some arrive earlier. Some come while their kid is still in karate or whatnot. I try to be polite and talk to them, but many speak English rather poorly.

5:00 is the official end-of-school time, but parents linger and some come late (really late). So, as much free time as I have during the day, there really is no time when I'm alone in the room (hence my rarely getting around to putting up this blog). There's also plenty of other teachers who need to use the classroom's computer, either for personal use, for lesson planning, or for the immediate lesson (playing music, etc.)

5:30 is the official I-can-leave time, and usually Christie finds me and says she's ready to go. If I'm ready, I hurry and get Sophia and me dressed (this takes time!) Sometimes I tell her to go on ahead, I have work to do, or Sophia wants to play on the playground.

When we leave, the Kazakh teachers and assistants are usually still there. There are usually kids hanging out on the couches in the lobby. One evening, we left really late--close to 7 pm--with the principal and a few other teachers. The lights in the school were out. One 2nd grade boy was still in the school. I said something to the principal about there still being a kid in the building, who seemed surprised. He turned around and went inside and talked to the boy.

Sometimes I play a bit with Sophia on the school playground before walking home. Sophia talks A LOT on the way home, and she's in a better mood if it's just me. She loves talking to the other teachers but she gets very frustrated when we adults try to talk to each other. I'm craving a real conversation as much as she is!

Frequently we have to go to the store to pick up something on the way home. So it's rare that we get home before 7 pm. Once home, I make her pizza, which takes time since I've yet to buy a pizza shredder, so I cut the mozzarella cheese they way you cut an onion (at least, the way I cut an onion into tiny pieces). I usually fry an egg for dinner, since that's easy, filling, yummy, and healthy. Not exciting, but I don't need excitement in my dinner.

Often I do a load of laundry in our small, front-load washing machine. I'm so glad that it works! (It turns out that the child lock had been set, which is why it wouldn't work my first two weeks here.)

At 9:00 her favorite show comes on, "Kid versus Kat" then mine. We try to go to bed after that.

Not an exciting day, not too much different from a day in the States.

TV - October 2009

So Channels 50, 51, and 52 show children's shows. Channel 50 is our favorite, Jetix. Channel 51 shows Cartoon Network most of the time; in the mornings it plays TCM--Turner Classic Movies--in English, no subtitles. Channel 52 shows Nickelodeon.

Jetix plays our favorite shows, which usually come on one after the other. Sophia's is a show called "Kid Versus Kat." Same name in Russian, just with a heavy Russian accent. A boy and his sister's cat spent most of the show plotting against each other. Many of the shows on Jetix seem to be originally from Canada--some say in the credits that they were made in Canada, others have a bunch of French and English names in the credits.

My favorite show grabbed my attention when I first saw it; I think it has me intrigued and amazed that someone actually made this show. There's a girl with pink hair, a pink mini-dress, pink tights, and pink tennis shoes; she hangs out with with a bunch of puppet-children, in a town that also has a puppet-mayor and one other puppet-adult. Their hero is Sportacus, a real man dressed in blue-and-white spandex who eats apples and is always jumping around and doing gymnastics. At the end of each show they all sing and to a dancey-techno type song. There is a bad guy too, Robbie or Rodney Rotten, who also dresses in spandex. He doesn't sing or dance, though.

The show is originally in English; every now and then there are written words (such as when someone wrote a letter to Sportacus) and those are in English. I think in the credits it says it was made in Iceland. It can't be American. American men don't wear spandex and jump around doing splits and somersaults.

The music is catchy, and the plot is simple enough to follow. Apples and vegetables are good; they give Sportacus and the children lots of energy. Candy is bad; one bit of candy makes Sportacus very sick. The bad guy is dumb, and usually falls into his own traps.

Still, I'm amazed that someone made this show.

And I just figured out why they never show my show when the advertisement says it will. At least, I think I figured out why. When it says "19:00", which means 7:00 pm, it does not show it at 7:00 pm. I bet that's 7:00 pm Moscow time (or who knows? Some other country or location?) I'll have to see.

English-Language Church - Sunday, 25 October 2009

Last week we had missed church, due to waiting an hour for the bus home from Central Bazaar, so this week I was determined not to miss it. We arrived just at 6:00, and luckily Mass did not start until after we'd found Christie and sat down next to her. The Russian-language Mass had been full, although not crowded, and this one was nearly empty. In front of us sat the two nuns that Christie had talked to after the Russian-language Mass two weeks ago. They look like they belong to Mother Teresa's order, based on their garments.

Behind us sat an older couple. Across the aisle were a man and a blond-haired boy, maybe about four. Next to Christie sat a young black man. There were a couple other people in the church. The Philippino teachers sat in the choir, singing.

A man with an American accent read the first reading and the Responsorial Psalm. The African man read the second reading. Christie read the General Intercessions. The man and small boy collected the gifts. Sophia went up for Communion--we knelt in front of the altar and the priest came by with the host dipped in wine, to place on our tongues. She knelt next to the blond boy, and the priest blessed the boy and then Sophia. (I had instructed her to cross her arms across her chest, which at our church at home shows that you want a blessing, not communion, and the priest understood that.)

After church we talked to a few people and met one of the nuns. The altar boy came up and introduced himself, in non-accented, perfectly articulated English. He is from Maryland and is in 4th grade at one of the real English-language schools in Astana (I have learned that there are one or two, they are rather small, but are actually English language, as I had thought my school would be!!)

We talked a bit about pancakes and maple syrup and he said he'd ask his mother to get me a recipe for pancakes. So yay, an American boy not much older than Sophia, and Catholic too.

Yay, an English language church! A short Mass (due to so few people)!

First Snow! - Sunday, 25 October 2009

The forecast was for snow today, and Sophia went to sleep last night excited, and woke up disappointed. I was relieved. I know that once the snow falls, it will be at least 5 dreary, long months before it goes away. Not ready for it!

Sometime in the early afternoon I opened the curtains in Sophia's room to see snow falling. Sophia was so excited! She wanted to go outside and have a snowball fight right away. I could see the snow was not sticking--just making the ground yet. Astana is full of dirt, so this could get muddy.

We played inside and later it started snowing more, so we bundled up and went outside. Yesterday I had finally made it to Artyom and bought Sophia a heavier coat and some boots with soft material inside (wool perhaps? It's common around here--you need more than just regular boots to keep warm). I know she'll still need more once real winter comes, but it was under 7000 Tenge--a little over $40--for both, so definitely a good deal to keep her warm in the meantime.

We went over to the playground by Christie's apartment, and we played for a while. The snow started sticking on some of the play equipment first, so Sophia made a large and dirty ice ball. I found a stick and wrote the words "Astana holodniya" --Astana is cold--in the snow.

Finally I was too cold to take it any longer, and I suddenly wondered how on earth I would make it through the winter. What had I been thinking? Here I was, bundled up far more than I'd ever bundled up in South Carolina or Paris, and I was freezing cold--and winter hadn't even started! I told Sophia it was time to go inside and luckily she did not object. I would not let her take her ice ball inside--I assured her that she'd have five more months to collect ice balls.

Inside, luckily, we warmed up pretty quickly and I decided that so far, I could handle it. If it takes half an hour for me to get freezing cold, yet I can get warm again in half an hour, then it's not so bad. Maybe later I'll go crazy, but not yet.

This evening we went to church--English language, hurrah!--and Sophia happily through snowballs at the Philippino teachers after church. They were bundled up in new coats, and freezing cold. They're probably wondering how they're going to make it through this winter even more than I am.

Yet they, like Sophia, were excited about the snow, and took tons of pictures of themselves, in the snowfall, in front of the church.

Birthdays - Friday, 23 October 2009

October 23 is my dad's birthday; and when I got to school I learned that it is also Lynn's birthday. Lynn is one of the new Philippino teachers. However, I realized, that it was not my dad's birthday. It was 9 am here, which meant that it was still October 22 in Greenville.

Lynn had let it slip that October 23 is her birthday, and her assistant teachers told her students, who told their parents, who bought her presents. Almost every student had a card or present for her. One student even had memorized a poem! She received mostly flowers and chocolates. How sweet!

We rode the bus home with Lynn and two other teachers, and as we were heading towards the main road, where they would veer right to head to the apartment, and we would veer left to head to the supermarket, Sophia asked if she could go home with them instead of going to the supermarket with me. They said yes, of course, and so I was able to go to the supermarket unhindered. How nice!

In the end, it was an embarrassing experience, as I didn't have enough cash on me, and they do not accept credit cards. I had to return half my items. How frustrating it is to have enough money to buy something, but not be able to buy it because you don't have the cash on you!

I returned home, put away the items, and then walked the 9 flights from my floor to their floor. I noticed that the entire door handle and lock were out of their front door, and I could look into their apartment! I'm not the only one with things that don't work!

I knocked on the door and was let in to a warm and cozy atmosphere. All 5 Philippino teachers were there, including the two who had been out sick that day. A young Kazakh woman, who had met the male teachers at their residence, was there too. Food was cooking and there was a cake on the table--a celebration of Lynn's birthday! Sophia was eagerly awaiting the cake.

I ate tuna fish pasta and drank a little bit of wine; everyone talked and laughed and had a good time. The cake was yummy, although Sophia didn't like it, and the chicken took a long time to cook but was delicious. They called it "fried chicken" although it was entirely different from Southern-style fried chicken. It was fried in oil, I think, and not breaded and deep fried. It was moist and delicious.

Sophia went into the living room/bedroom and soon was wrestling Eric, the really tall Filipino teacher. She wore him out. Then she learned that she had permission to jump on the bed, and very excitedly jumped over and over. When it was time to go, she hid a stuffed animal and tons of shoes behind the couch. I was embarrassed and showed the teachers and offered to force her to put everything back. Instead of being upset, the others laughed and took out their camera to take a picture.

The next evening, we called and wished my dad a belated birthday. Like just about everyone else, I was a little sick and had lost my voice. For about 1000 Tenge ($6.67) Sophia talked for nearly 20 minutes to my parents. She was in a very good mood and very excited to talk!

More birthdays coming up!