So after all the drama of finding out that World Vision apparently couldn't help us with the project, Agii went back and asked again, asking if they could give us SOME support or funding, even if it wasn't the amount we originally asked for. Surprisingly, they said yes and we now (apparently, keeping fingers crossed) have the money necessary to provide prizes and we're pulling together some books that Laura and Agii have to give as consolation prizes for the other students who participate. In addition, Lauren, the Fulbright scholar who lives in Olgii with us, is providing some extra funding. With the combinbed funds from these two sources, the books from Agii and Laura, and help with certificates (and maybe 'medals') from my work, we should have everything covered. It's a nice feeling knowing we can still go through with the project, just a day or two after thinking we might have to cancel it. :)
In other good news, I cleaned up the learning center today and Altinbek, Nurbol and myself made a trip to the market that ended up being more productive than I expected. We picked up a good sized rug, a nice sturdy table (still need chairs for it), a couch with two matching chairs, a clock, a trash can, and a dustpan and brush. Also, the wall is finished so I started hanging up some maps and posters to decorate. The wall outlets are finished and appear to be working with no problems. Nurbol leaves on Monday to go to Ulaanbaatar. He's going there to take the TOEFL test (good luck Nurbol!) and will also be purchasing the four computers that we will be putting in the center. We decided that purchasing them in UB is a smarter idea because it will save us a pretty good amount of money that we can put towards more resources for the center. Next week I will be looking for chairs, small tables and desks, and a few other miscellaneous things we'll need. Things are going well and hopefully everything will be set up and complete before April.
This weekend is going to be a busy one, as Laura and I have to finalize the details for the competition and I have to get my sessions and lesson plans ready for Laura's huge aimag (province) wide English teacher's seminar that's coming up. I am teaching a few sessions and Laura is putting outlines of each session on a resource cd that each participating teacher will receive. There are over 80 teachers coming, along with some more Peace Corps volunteers from across the country and Laura is putting a lot of work and effort into this, so it's a pretty big deal. It should be fun though, I'm looking forward to helping out and meeting some more teachers from around the aimag.
On top of all this, I am back to teaching again, taught most of my regular classes this past week. Erkegul, the English teacher at Darin school, asked me if I could pick up a new class and start teaching the 7th graders there next week. I said I might be able to (I'm sure I'll end up doing it) so we'll talk about the schedule this coming week. Thursday and Friday we have the olympiad and Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, is coming up, so I'm not sure what the school schedules will be like for the next couple weeks. The good thing is that many of the Darin 7th graders are my 6th grade students from last year at the children's center. I saw some of them a few times this week and they were pretty excited to see me. It should be fun to teach them a bit more before I leave.
I will put some pics in my next post, probably later tonight if I have time. I added all my pics from yesterday and today to my Facebook project album so take a look.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075189&id=72206395&l=9b738f88ad
As I said, this weekend and the next couple weeks will be very busy but I will try to post an update if anything exciting or interesting happens and I have some time. :)
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