Day Six - Nurek

We ventured to the south of Dushanbe to continue our visits. This time we went to the town of Nurek. This town is famous for it huge dam and hydroelectric production. We got to tour the facility because the local head of education has pull, so he actually took us in his car. We weren't allow to photograph inside. We did go inside and see the turbines, as well as the main control room. If you find an older James Bond movie and find a control room run by Spectre, this is it. All the gauges were needles, and the readouts on top we’re numbers made out of light bulbs. You might even think there were vacuum tubes inside. Regardless, this thing was within 1% accuracy for measure the Megawatts being put out. They have never done major upgrade or maintenance since its been installed, they have just added more units as they have added turbines. The facility supports up to 9 turbines. A solid soviet work of engineering. We then toured the dam itself and around the dam for some spectacular views and pictures. The water on both sides has this wonderful blue coloration, it looked quite inviting to jump into.

Lunch was in a local restaurant, then onto the school. Outside the ILC, they were waiting in traditional dress with a large bread that had the words WELCOME on it, baked into the shape. Tradition is that guest such as ourselves break off a piece of the bread, dip it in salt and then consume. It reminded me of a good big salty pretzel.
We went in the room and sat at the Kings table, there is always a table and we a treated like royalty every time we got to one of these schools, so I can only assume that what it would be like to sit at a table as a king.
This was fun. They had some history and other presentations in English, but they also had some riddles for us to try and solves. I got one right and was rewarded with a Snickers bar, which was exciting because all the rest of the writing on the label was not in English, probably Russian. One thing I am slowly getting used to is the no ice – drinks at just below room temperature. Luckily the fruit sodas here are great. We have had peach, pear, apricot and apple. But back to the good stuff, the kids!
They had some dancing for us. At this school my heart was totally stolen by a little 5 year old girl. First she performed an Indian style dance with amazing yellow costume. Then after a performance by a teenager of traditional tajik dancing, the little girl teamed with a little drum player and performed traditional dancing also – it was amazing, I was wondering how could I afford to pay for a performance like that. As soon as the song was over I zoomed out to our vehicle, got a teddy bear my daughter had donated (she had won three at a festival in Houston, left them wrapped so I could take to Tajikistan) and brought it in for the dancing girl. I’m sure McKenzie would have approved of my choice. I have some close up pictures of this child and she is just stunning. But which of these kids aren’t?

George, the teacher from Washington state, did his powerpoint on using the computer and internet in the classroom, and also on his hometown and school. That is actually a big deal here. They want to know if things they have read about America or American schools is true or what do they have in common with themselves. After that, our projector quit working again, as I was going to use the CPS with them. Did it anyway, just had to use my computer screen. We got by and got some good photos probably. They were the first students in Tajikistan to use that technology, I hope they understood that! It also has a random student selector, and we used that feature to give away some prizes.

We then broke into individual groups, and George talked about the software used to put together the multimedia presentation his students use. I was entertaining a group with the chain and ring and Andy was doing something with the teachers I think, plus answering questions from a small group.

We then got pulled to the internet and participated in a live online chat between ourselves and the other schools in the country. It was hectic, but fun. We took turns using the two computers between the three of us.

Next some girls said they wanted to take a picture with me. I said ok, then they said in the courtyard, and once in the courtyard they said over to the side of the school, I said ok, then they said over behind the school, and then over by the wall/fence, and then on the other side of the fence, then over toward the river and then down the steps and I was trying to figure out how can I tell them this is called “kidnapping”, but then they said down by the river and wanted to go down the steep embankment, and I indicated I didn’t like that idea, so we walked down to a jetty type structure. We got our pictures, and they asked fun little question coming and going. One of them spoke pretty good English, but wouldn’t speak to me, so the other four would ask her how to say something and then they would ask me. I almost felt like I had a fan club but the whole thing was about getting me to find boys to email them! On our way back, I got some of the lip products my sister sent from her company, they seemed quite pleased by the little special gift each of them got.

We got back inside for more pictures with different combinations of people. I then went to the car again, and brought my little white board and dry erase markers in. The each student would write their name, and hold the placard and I would photograph them so we could put names and faces together much easier.

We then got online and I showed them my wedding pictures, as wedding are a interesting topic to girls of course. The translator hung out and helped with questions and answers, thank god for her on this trip, she is invaluable.

We then leave to go to the home of a student to spend the night. They feed us dinner and breakfast. As welcoming and hospitable as everyone else we have met.