First and foremost, above is a picture of Linda speaking at the swearing in ceremony. The Minister of Education requested that her speech be translated. Linda's Program Director called and informed Linda that her speech has been published in a national education newsletter.Above is a picture of our host family in Shirvan. The father, Hafiz, works for the electric utility as a dispatcher. The mother, Kanule, is a Russian teacher. The children are Fidan, the daughter age 9, and Nijat, the son age 6. Everyone is learning to speak English.Their home is actually owned by Kanule's parents who live in Moscow. The family would be unable to afford such housing on their income of $500.00 per month. They are fortunate in that both are employed and have a regular income. There are some extras in the home such as heat, satellite TV (Turkish), and a computer. Fidan has taught herself English with computer programs and watching English speaking children's programming on the religious channels of their satellite dish. Her pronounciation is quite good. Often Fidan serves as a translater for us when our Azerbaijani fails in the home.Kanule's English is in the early stages with limited vocabulary, less of an ability to pronounce correctly, and grammatical errors. She teaches 3 Russian classes of 45 minutes each. She teaches 6 days a week. (We will write about the educational system in a later post).Hafiz is in the beginning stage of learning English. He attends adult classes at the Turkish school near the home. He has diffulty prouncing sounds, he is learning the verb to be. He has been on vacation while we have been here. He receives 40 days vacation per year. The one day he was called in to work was an 11 hour day.Nijat is very active and demonstrates classic symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome. The family is aware that he is different, but coping skills are negliable. Linda will attempt to find any resources available here for them.In the picture with Linda are teachers from School Number 9 with the male Director who corresponds to a Principal. Linda has been observing their classes for 2 weeks to determine with whom she should work. The teaching styles vary, and Linda is deciding what classes and teachers would most benefit from her presence.Denney is pictured with the Director of the Central Library. The library is open each day from 09:00 until 18:00. Denney is there on Monday through Friday from 09:30 - 12:30 and 14:30 - 17:30. The number of hours that Denney puts in at the library will need to be reduced as he expands activities within the community. During the morning he conducts a conversation club for 1 hour with college students. The afternoon has a 1 hour conversation club with a very diverse group of anyone who wants to show up that day.The club meetings are presently held in the computer room which is funded by USAID in a program called IATP (Internet Access and Training Program). There are 9 computers and a server. 5 of the computers have internet access. The classes (independent study) offered are Word, Excel, and Internet. The Internet usage is primarily chatting, email, and some searches for information. It is free access (slow), and there is normally people waiting.The women with Denney in the computer room are staff at the library. The most important person is Alma on the far right. She is the computer room supervisor and my counter part. There will be more about people in another post. The young woman wearing jeans translates for Denney with the Director. Again, more about people in future posts.
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