“Take more bread or you’ll be angry at school,” said my host. My face must have expressed total confusion because after some awkward seconds Mira corrected herself. “Oh no, I mixed it up a gain – I meant hungry!” she started to laugh.
It was the first morning of my “real” school day. “Real” because yesterday I was at school only to be introduced to other teachers. Now it was time to observe the lessons. What happened with “I’m-just-going-to-observe” I wrote about it in previous post, check it out HERE.
Usual morning at local family’s kitchen
Not to be angry at school I ate a bit of bread, and as I still had some time until my lessons, I decided to take a walk in the mountains. That plan was meant to be failed. I only walked about 400 meters when a rather fancy car stopped next to me. The driver put his head out of the window and said I better get into his car [not in the rude way but in the way you can’t really dispute]. It turned out he was the director of the school. So, as my argument [that I still have a lot of time until my lessons] wasn’t really an argument for him I hopped into the car and we went to the school, and into his cabinet. I had to sit in front of his huge table and our following conversation looked something like this [in Russian]:
Director’s cabinet!
Director: You are from Estonia, right?
Madle: Yes, I’m from Estonia.
Director: For how long are you going to stay at our school?
Madle: I think around 2 or 3 weeks.
Director: Only? Two months would be better. By the way, do you have a husband and children? Children are a must have.
Madle: Eee, no I don’t. How many children do you have?
Director: Three. I’ll make sure you’ll find a husband from this village, and you need one cow also. You need to learn how to milk it.
Madle: [thinking naively that it was a joke] Only one cow?
Director: If you milk it good enough you can get more. [laughs] [directly] And your Russian is really bad.
Madle: [was just really proud that she had already had a minutes long conversation in Russian which is not her strong suit] Eee, okay. Well then.. Hm. Thanks?
[Someone knocks the door and one strange teacher enters] [they start to talk in Kyrgyz which I obviously can’t understand] [15 minutes pass by] [I’m really bored] [the schoolbell rings]
Director: I need to go now and give a lesson. You stay here.
Madle: [how good I ate this bread in the morning so I’m not angry, just a bit impatient] Why??? I want to go for a walk. Pleeeaaasseee.
Director: [is in a hurry already] To walk? Okay, yes, you can go…. And after come back here to warm yourself up again!
When I finally got the permisson to go walking…
I went for a walk, came back and gave my lessons. At the lunch break the local English teacher came to the empty classroom having a kettle in one hand and a bag with pies in the other. “Now, eat!” she told me and gave me a plate with a pie. She then started to make a tea but the power outlet was too high for a short kettle wire. I can call the next scenario as “How-to-make-a-pyramid-with-the-chairs-to-boil-water”. It all worked out well and I soon started to eat my fabulous lunch.
After my lessons – the sun was already about to set – I was slowly walking back home [hoping to see zero directors to take me into their car] when one girl stopped me. I can’t remember her name but the flip-flops she was wearing in this -10 degrees cold were blue. Still, the locals really use every opportunity to practice their English, so some degrees here or there is really nothing. At the end of our short conversation she found a cookie from her pocket, gave it to me, smiled and off she ran.
Madlena ❤
