chaos. that's all it is.

Talk about insanity... Today was the first day of school after winter break. At 8:25 a.m. I walk into my classroom today to find it full of students that aren't my own being taught by someone other than me! So I go to the teacher's lounge to figure out what's going on and correct the zavuch's (vice-principal) incorrect schedule which indicates that I have class now. Tamarahon, the zavuch, looks at me like I'm slow as she informs the that I do, in fact, have a class and it's going to be taught in room 18 (my room), of course. Before I finish explaining that there is another teacher using the room, she practically runs out of the lounge to kick out the other teacher, a poor girl from the Education Faculty (program) at Osh State University that was just doing the school a favor by teaching for free. Only after the zavuch kicks out the student-teacher and moves her students to a different class does my old but not-so-wise counterpart (who's been standing in the lounge following the drama the entire time) reveal to me that the schedule's changed two more times since the "final" one was posted last week, and that the students (who are clearly not the reason why these women come to school every day) aren't aware that the schedule changed, so it's unlikely that they will be coming to class.

(Note about schedules in this country: they rarely last for more than a couple weeks. The powers that be change the schedules at random intervals for reasons I have yet to understand. I only taught for three weeks before winter break, so I only experienced the erratic schedule-changing a couple times. But having seen and heard the teachers at my school gossiping in the lounge more often than than I've seen them teaching, I'm beginning to realize that the "random" schedule-changing is not so random after all. Every time a teacher decides she doesn't want a class at a certain time for whatever reason, the powers that be change the damned schedule.)

So as I sit and write this in the teacher's lounge, I wonder how I might help them with their commitment issues. I can't possibly motivate them to actually take on responsibility--it's not in their culture to do so, and they're definitely not getting paid enough to take some on. Even the director, who I've actually come to like, feels no obligation to this institution; he's currently MIA... on the first day of school.

What a lovely start to my first semester of teaching in K-Stan, don't you think?