Back to School

One and a half days under our belts. Our school was off to a somewhat chaotic start, but never-the-less we've started. Thursday and Friday were holidays in Kazakhstan, but we had school anyway. I think we will see a lot more students next week. I'd forgotten what it was like to teach secondary students. Unlike nine-year-olds, they are not excited to learn just at a promise of a sticker. They stare blankly at you while you drone on about your syllabus. At least a couple of my students from last year came to give me hugs.

It's been really hot. Yesterday at school we were broiling. It was 35 C when we got out of school. That's in the 100's, I think. We are all really wishing we had air conditioning at school. Today was nice, though. It was warm, but it felt like the weather was about to change, that end of the summer heat.

Today, I saw somebody lying in the road who I presume had been hit by a car. There was a group of people and a policeman there. I was completely relieved to see an ambulance come up and take the person away. Sometimes I wonder how easy it is to get an ambulance or have an ambulance make it through traffic. I guess today proved that it can happen.

A friend of ours told us an interesting story the other day. He was walking home from the grocery store, carrying all his bags of groceries when he saw something that made him stop. A man was on the sidewalk with two women who looked like his mom and sister or wife. There was also a big, black SUV and two guys were standing outside of it. One of the guys was on the phone. The women were crying and carrying on. The guy on the phone was answering "Yes, okay." Then, he got off the phone and gestured to the guy, come on. The ladies were begging and trying to hold the guy back. I guess he was brave and just got in the car and went off with these two guys. Who were these two guys, you might ask? Most likely, part of the mafia. Who knows what this guy did or who he crossed, but apparently, he knew he was going to get his. Apparently, his family knew it too. It's really weird to be living in an area where there is mafia.

Another interesting note, we now have the president's grandson attending our school. Don't ask me why he's not attending his aunt's big school near us. The family didn't register at our school or anything. They just walked in and walked him to class. They basically told the school, he is going to be in this class because he likes it best. The teacher of that class told them there might be some rearranging, but the mom said, "No, he will be in this class." Then, she went downstairs to the office and preceded to tell the office staff to hurry up and fetch the principal because she was the president's daughter. Joe and I didn't know all of this, but we were wondering whose big, black, bulletproof-looking, siren-topped SUV was in the parking lot after school. I guess they registered about twelve different cars and drivers who might pick up this little five-year-old boy. Very interesting. I'm glad I don't have the kid in my class. There's nothing worse then being told what to do by someone whose power you don't even understand. We tend to think we should treat all of our students equally. I guess the president and his relatives might not agree with us!