26th September

26th September

“If you over organise humans, over-legalise them, suppress their urge to greatness – they cannot work and their civilisation collapses.” Dune

While I agree with this, SOME organisation is always good, and it’s something I have come to realise here.

The plan didn’t even make it to the director. Apparently, the school wouldn’t be able to afford the initial expenditure. Which seems possible, but is very annoying. There is money is this country – it was just announced that Kazakhstan has twice the GDP of any of the other Central Asian countries and plans to be in the top 5 oil exporters with the next few years. However very little of this money seems to reach the village level, either through tax avoidance, or more likely, skimming. The school must be getting money, but where it goes, I don’t know. But our director is the only person in the village with an I-phone.

So I have decided to modify the plan. Basically, I will buy the books and convert it into a two year plan. Between what the Peace Corps gave us as initial settling in money, and what I haven’t spent while living in the village (and being my usual frugal self) I have 200,000tenge in the bank, which is about £900. And its nothing that I am likely to spend until I finally get a holiday, which will be at Christmas, by which time ill likely have another 100,000 added to it. Therefore, I reason I have money that can be better used, in giving kids books, and making my life easier. If most of the kids have books, and books of the same edition, it will make the planning and teaching of lessons SO MUCH EASIER! The only negative is that I will have to wait a year to get half of my capital back, but that is no huge loss. So 500tenge for using the books for the first year, and 500tenge for the 2nd year. With the plan being that the other English teachers can continue doing this every two years. Which both ensures kids have books, and they also have up to dates ones (I counted at least 5 kids with books from 2002 today)

Also, when I sold my books in Japan, I said that the money would be going to charity, and that I would pick it later. I gave 3000yen to a Buddhist volunteer, who teaches kids in S.E Asia, and I have another 7000yen to spend, which equates to 10 text books here. Another reason that my initial plan was scuppered was the belief that some families couldn’t afford the £3 asking fee for books. And while I put that down to the lack of priority given to English, it is possibly true. Therefore, I think a good use of the money would be to buy books for these kids.

Of course, this 2nd plan needs approval, but as it’s all my own money, I don’t see why it won’t work.

I raised my voice today, during the lesson planning session with the other English teachers, and I regret it, but my frustrations are real, and they really need to understand this. They had been agreeing with me about how bad it was that there aren’t enough books, and how no one in Kazakhstan thinks of the future – only of today. I got annoyed with the fact that these same frustrations I have are clearly know by locals, but no attempt is made to change it!

So I hope that by presenting my offer, people can see me leading by example. The same goes for my English clubs. I currently have 2 x 1hour classes for the oldest kids who hope to study at English at University (3 of them), plus the kindergarten class, on the first Tuesday of the month. I have also proposed a club for 4th class (the year before English starts) for every other week, teaching them the basics and preparing them for the following year, and I would also like to offer a 5th/6th class club, and a 7/8th class one, as well as an indoor Frisbee club once winter arrives – which will be soon, its down below 10degrees at night now.

Teachers here complain about their work load, and its true they have a lot of needless and repetitive paperwork to do, but the fact remains that they will only work about 20 hours a week, and most don’t seem to spend any time planning. So by offering all these classes, in what is my ‘free time’, I aim to show how being a teacher is not simply a job, but a commitment to children’s education.