Out in the Countryside

Now I have more time to write about our outing to Goygol two days ago. The architecture there is different than the houses in the rest of Azerbaijan and Halima explained it is in the German style. We visited a beautiful, new park that had views of what I considered to be mountains, but Halima scoffed at my use of that term because they are "small." Halima's students built a fire to have a picnic and roast sausages. Nearby, there was a group of boys who had also built a fire, and one of Halima's students asked to borrow a kebob stick, which we had forgotten to bring. The boys obliged, and later our students offered the boys sausages, which we ate on big hunks of fresh bread. I admired the friendliness and sense of cooperation between the two groups.

Feeling Humble

Today I held a session on interviewing at Halima's office with teachers of English and then we went to an organization called Intelligent Citizens where I spoke to college students about my school. After my presentation there, student visitors presented information about study abroad opportunities. Our last stop was back at Halima's office where I met with some of her newsletter students. While I discussed interviewing techniques with them, one of the students said she would like to be thought of as humble. This made me think about how we view that quality in the U.S. Do we value the concept of humble? (I am sorry to say the first image that came to my head was Donald Trump.) No, we do not value being humble. We like to be the best, to be the winners, to be "No. 1." We like confidence, and, to an extent, bragging. This made for a very interesting cultural discussion. There is a certain connection to the idea of moving up in the world, to competing, and to voting in a Democracy -- and to boasting. This thought was humbling, indeed.

Flower Day

Today was a national holiday in Azerbaijan: Flower Day. In the main square in front of the government building in Ganja, there were dance performances, music, booths with books and traditional objects, and, of course, flowers. Halima's students showed me around the city in the morning and then we went to Goygol, which is a more pastoral town outside of the city. I will post more about Goygol later.

I had time to reflect on my meetings with the teachers yesterday and found one point of difference that was particularly interesting. When I explained that my subject area, journalism, is an elective, I found that schools here do not have electives. All of the courses the students take are mandatory. Everyone goes through school until 9th grade. At that point, students will then study skills for a job or continue with 10th and 11th grade studies toward going to a university. There is no 12th grade. The teachers seemed to like the idea of elective classes so students could choose subjects they enjoy, making them more motivated in school in general. I explained it is also very nice for the teachers of electives who then have only students who want to be in that class. I explained that I enjoy teaching my students so much because they are very interested in the subject.

A Tale of Two Schools

Today I did teacher training at two different schools. The first school had some access to computers and a projector, though no Internet. The second school (in the first and third pictures)was formerly a boarding school/orphanage and had a sparely decorated classroom without any type of chalkboard or whiteboard. You can see in the first picture that I have taped my lesson information to the back of a chair that we placed on top of a table. This school is large with a spacious play area but needs repairs, some of which were going on as I visited. The children you see are playing in the schoolyard, with a water fountain/spigot to their right. The local TV station filmed some of my lesson at the first school and interviewed me. Halima said it should be on TV tonight. I very much enjoyed being at both schools and found the teachers to be interested and involved. In the next few days, I will be working with students -- some high school age and some college age. I am looking forward to it!

Very Busy (Flexible) Day

Today I put the new, flexible, go-with-the-flow Rhonda to work. We started out heading to a school for me to do a teacher training, but hit a bureaucratic wall and had to change all our plans. Instead, I met a couple of Halima's private students, first in her classroom and then out and about in the city. The images here are of the government building (last night), and then of some kiosks on the street, and men playing Backgammon. While there is mostly a modern attitude toward women here, there are still some areas where only men sit to gather, like this park area near the Puppet Theater, or certain restaurants. At the very end of the day I met with local TV journalists. They will be coming to film my lesson tomorrow when I train teachers (Boy, this lesson had better be good!), and they will also interview me. The journalists were very interested in looking through the issues of The Circuit that I brought here. They were very impressed with our ability to generate advertising revenue. This was an unplanned visit that has now turned into a plan to be on TV. I'd say that's pretty FLEXIBLE!

The View from the Top

My first day in Baku! This picture was taken from the top of Maiden Tower with a beautiful view of the city. It was a perfect spring day, though there was a little fog, especially over the Caspian Sea. The modern structures in the distance are new buildings being constructed to look like flames. Fire is a symbol of Azerbaijan. I only had a few hours in Baku this morning, because then I got on a bus to Ganja. The ride took five hours, but now I am in my final destination. I will post much more tomorrow!

Tomorrow!

I'm leaving for Azerbaijan tomorrow! (This is the world's shortest blog post but packed with excitement!)