Today I received a few text messages from Nurbol in UB, notifying me that he had purchased the four computers and they would be leaving on a van or bus from UB to Olgii today. Hopefully this means they should get here before the end of the week, barring any problems along the way. As soon as they get here, we can purchase computer desks, get everything set up and I can start installing necessary software. I'm excited because once we have the computers set up and ready to go, we can use the rest of the project money to purchase some more desks and chairs, a printer, and a few other miscellaneous items we need, and finish up cleaning and decorating before we open the center up. I need to work on the details of the guidebook/manual for my coworkers and give them to some friends to translate into Kazakh or Mongolian. If I can get this done as soon as possible, it should make the last couple weeks of the project go very smoothly.
Nurbol took the TOEFL test in UB yesterday and he said he feels good about how it went. He should hear back the results in two weeks and if he gets a passing score, there's a very good chance he will be going to study in Hungary. I'm hoping for the best for him, I know he'll do great as a student in Europe.
The English olympiad is over, things are moving forward on my learning center project, and coming up next is Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, and Laura's big English teacher's seminar. I have to finish preparing a few more details on my lesson plans for that but I'm confident about what I have planned so far and I'm excited to meet more teachers from around the aimag (province) and to see some of the Peace Corps volunteers that will be visiting Olgii for the seminar. Laura is kinda freaking out and stressing about the seminar because it's a pretty big deal and she's been working really hard on it for a while. I know that she's going to do fine and the seminar will be a success. She's a great teacher and I know she really cares about helping out Olgii's English teachers, providing them with new resources and an increased understanding of how to improve their teaching, lesson planning, classroom presence, and overall understanding of the English language and how to teach it.
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