So many enemies...

Towards the end of my sojourn in Kyrgyzstan last year, a new teacher arrived at the school where I had been working. Initially, we hit it off. When asked why she had decided to come to Kyrgyzstan, she told me that she had read a book entitled So Many Enemies, So Little Time by Elinor Burkett, which was the travel memoir of a journalism professor who moved to Kyrgyzstan to teach in 2001. She told me that this book had inspired her to look for a job in Kyrgyzstan herself. I had been planning to order a handful of books as a welcome back to the US present to myself, and I added Burkett’s tome to my list and went ahead and ordered it. Then this new teacher and I had what you might term a falling out. By the time I left the country and returned to the US, I greatly despised her. Additionally, in the interim this new teacher had read Saffia Farr’s Revolution Baby – a book which I loathed – and enjoyed it! As such, I had two different reasons to think that perhaps So Many Enemies wasn’t actually worth my time. I shoved it aside, read other books, and months flew by during which I didn’t give it so much as a passing thought. Then, one evening a couple of weeks ago, when I was rummaging through my bookshelves looking for something I hadn’t yet read, I stumbled upon it and decided to give it a shot.

It turned out to be pretty good. Unlike Farr, whose narrative was clouded so much by her utter dislike of Kyrgyzstan, and whose descriptive abilities were somewhat limited, Burkett presents an incredibly accurate and easy-to-picture view of what life in Kyrgyzstan is like. Granted, a lot of what life in Central Asia is like would indeed be viewed by most Westerners in a negative light; however, she presents it in an impartial manner which allows the reader to be the judge. Must be that journalistic training, you think? Burkett, like myself, was abroad during the events of September 11, 2001, and I found that her experiences of what life was like for an American overseas at that time were quite similar to my own. I also discovered that Kyrgyzstan has apparently not changed much at all since her time there (2001-2002) and my time there in 2008. In addition to describing her life and work in Kyrgyzstan, Burkett writes about her travels during that time to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It was specifically interesting to read about her reception in and descriptions of pre-War on Terror Afghanistan and Iraq. I know people who have been to these countries much more recently than 2001-2002, and their more up-to-date descriptions of these places seem so very different from Burkett’s. Sadly, it would appear that things have gone very much downhill. I wish Burkett would return to these countries now and do a piece on the contrasts she would find.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is, that despite my rather silly delay in tackling this book, it turned out to be pretty good, and should be very much on the to-read list of anyone with an interest in Central Asia.

Time spent in my neighborhood...

It probably doesn't say much for my "parenting" skills, that Koala, my puppy that I raised from a baby, is such a bad, bad little girl. Not that I don't love her to death, but she has no manners whatsoever. And for a small/medium sized dog, she is incredibly strong. While Duke can definitely knock me over if he so desires - which is not surprising, as he comes up to my waist - he doesn't ever so much as consider doing such a thing. Koala, meanwhile, for all her diminutive stature, can - and does - knock me over in a heartbeat. Not to mention her love of tying me in knots with the leash and dragging me hither and yon. I took Duke, Koala and Dewey for a walk around my neighborhood this morning, and barely made it home... solely due to Koala's antics. Of course, watching me battle my way out of the various leash-knots Koala managed to tie around me and the other two dogs as we hobbled around the block provided obvious fodder for my neighbors' laughter. Sigh.

Now as you probably know, like to call my neighborhood 'the ghetto' as it is one of the worst (if not the worst) neighborhood in Waycross. That being said, Rob - who hails from Trenton, NJ - scoffs at the notion that anywhere in Waycross could possibly be considered a 'ghetto.' Nonetheless, as I've mentioned quite a few times in the past, it's not the best of neighborhoods. [Examples of this from my own personal experience can be found here, here, here and here.] My street is known to pretty much everyone in the community as the place one goes to buy drugs. I find this fascinating, as most of the houses on my street are rentals. Do these people get into dealing because they move to my neighborhood, do they move there in order to deal, or is it just that my neighborhood is the place in Waycross where the dealing is the most obvious? My street has five blocks, and I know there's one group (gang?) of dealers on each block. The group one block to the north of me is absurdly obvious in their marketing techniques - waving their arms and shouting while making crack/pot smoking gestures. They, unlike the other two groups, still haven't caught on that I *live* in the neighborhood and am not there to make a buy. (Of course other than Rob, myself, and our respective visiting family members, white people only ever come to my street for the purpose of purchasing, shall we say, goods or services. Unless of course, it's a landlord collecting the rent or remodeling after an eviction.) Definitely an interesting world in which I live!

Unemployment and Food Stamps, aka: Why I am annoyed at the State of Georgia

According to the Georgia Department of Labor’s website, if you leave your full time job in order to go back to school full time, you are eligible to receive unemployment. You are also eligible to receive unemployment (albeit less) if, while being a full time student you work part time. Now, according to these factors, I should be able to receive some form of unemployment benefit. Sadly, that is not the case. Why? Well, you have to have made a certain amount of money within the past year to qualify. If they counted “the past year” as being from August 2008 to August 2009, I’d be fine. Unfortunately, they count it from – of all absurdities – April 2008 to March 2009. They don’t count overseas employment, and as I only worked in the US from January to March 2009 (if going by there scheme), I haven’t made enough money to qualify for unemployment benefits. Grrrr.

Then there’s the whole food stamps thing. I figured, I’m super-poor, why not apply for food stamps? Every little bit really does help, and if I could get some money to cover some of my foodstuffs, that would be great. Anyway, first you apply, and then a week or so later you get an interview. In the application, they ask you to list your mailing address and your physical address. Now, let’s just say that after the baseball-bat-to-mailbox incident in my neighborhood, I’ve been receiving all my mail at my mom’s address. I don’t even have a mailbox at my house, so yes, my physical address and my mailing address are different.

DFACS (the Department for Family and Child Services, aka the food stamp folks) sent me a letter to my mom’s address stating that my telephonic interview would be today, 8/25. It was at a time when I was available, so I wasn’t concerned. Then, a few days later, I came home to find another letter from DFACS, this one wedged into my front screen door. It stated that my telephonic interview would be on 8/24, right in the middle of my physics class. Same case worker and everything. It also said that if I couldn’t make the interview, I should call and reschedule. Which I did. Except that all I was ever able to reach was the case worker’s voice mail. I did leave her a detailed message, but... I came out of physics and turned my phone on to discover a message stating that my application for food stamps had been turned down because I did not participate in the interview!

I immediately called the case worker back, and again, only reached voice mail. I left a message again explaining the two letters and the two different dates/times for the telephonic interview, and I expressed my desire to have an interview at the scheduled time on 8/25. Of course, she didn’t call at 9am. At 9:10, I called her and left a third message. I was planning to go down there and talk to them in person after class, but she called me at 9:45. The interview did not last long... apparently, if one is a full time student, one must also be employed a minimum of 25 hours/week in order to qualify. This is pretty absurd, considering that if I had the income generated from 25 hrs/wk of employment, I wouldn’t need food stamps! Grrrrr. Thus ends my first ever attempt at seeking government assistance; back to going it alone, as usual.

Who needs gainful employment when one can work less than 10 hours a week at minimum wage?

I have a job! I managed to snag one of the few student assistantship programs available through Waycross College. I’m certainly not going to make my fortune doing this, as I will be working ten hours a week or less for a whopping $7.25/hr, but that’s a good chunk of change more than no income at all… and besides, I couldn’t cram a full time job in around this course load anyway! I’m working for the PREP program, which is a program Waycross College runs with the local area middle and high schools. It helps keep at-risk students on track for college (at-risk being defined as those from low income families, families where neither parent went to college, and single/no parent households). I’m helping with the middle and high school students over in Pierce County (Blackshear), which is a bit of a drawback, as it takes a good 20+ minutes to get to the schools – luckily my car gets excellent gas mileage! So far, all I’ve done is paperwork (apparently that’s a big beginning of the school-year task for the program), although eventually I’ll be planning events and fund raisers and helping with tutoring.

One bizarre thing to share: the architectural design of Pierce County High School is based off that of a tri-level women’s prison! My first day there, I kept thinking that the building had a very strange design and that it reminded me of... something. It wasn’t until the PREP director told me that it was based on a plan for a prison that it all clicked into place. No, none of the cell – er, classroom – doors slam shut with a clang when the bell rings, but once you know what you’re looking at, it’s simple to take any scene from any prison movie/show and superimpose it on your surroundings. Not as creepy as the morgue-turned-dorm at Sewanee, but still a tad disconcerting. And at least the PCHS kids aren’t saddled with that horrific “mouse ears” design of my former high school. *shiver*

Back to School!!

Today was my first day of school in eight years! I feel a little rusty being back in the classroom after so long, especially since the only “classes” I’ve taken since graduating from college were my rather pathetic attempts to learn Korean and Kyrgyz. The students at Waycross College range from those fresh out of high school (most of them probably fall into this category), to those in their twenties and thirties, to those in their fifties! While I’m not the only “old fogie” enrolled at WC (and yes, it totally amuses me to abbreviate it as such) thus far, I’ve only encountered one other person already in possession of a Bachelor’s degree, and she is there simply to take art classes for fun. I don’t think there’s anyone else there in the same situation as myself.

I only had one class today: Physics. I have to admit that physics scares me somewhat. It was the only class I ever dropped when I was at Sewanee, and I did so because I was doing rather poorly. In my defense, I was 19, away from home for the first time, and spending every evening partying like a rockstar. Certainly none of these things apply this time around! It doesn’t seem hard at all as yet, although we covered very little ground in our first class. I suspect it will get tougher as it goes along. Tomorrow – biology and chemistry. I’m looking forward to biology; those of you who went to the same high school as I did and who remember Mrs. Mac probably understand why I can’t say the same for chemistry!

As a side note, WC has super-awesome wireless internet, which means I’ll probably be spending a lot of my free time on campus taking advantage. My mom’s response to this was, “Oh no! I’ll never see you again!” (I have no internet at my house, and have been going over to hers at least once a day to make use of the interwebz.) Of course, she teaches history at WC, so I’m not really sure what she’s talking about :-)

One last tidbit of news – I’ve actually started posting things over on the Brierpatch Cats Blog, although sadly, they're not the happiest. Go check it out. Hopefully there will be some good news over there soon.

Not exactly news, but...

...the road to The Land is flooded again, after being passable nearly all summer.

Signs of the times: Waycross Signage

While I do find this amusing,
it doesn't exactly make me want to go in there and buy food!

When teaching English overseas, I found that my students always wanted to translate the idiom "fed up" as "full" - After struggling to explain the correct meaning, I know this sign would totally throw them off!

Recommended blog!

Oh, this amuses me to no end: http://waycrossga.blogspot.com/ - specifically the "Drugs & Thugs" segments. Here's a quote:

In the 1900 block of Hazel Street, a house under construction was inspected by members of the Waycross Liberation Squad and found to have un-needed items like a portable air compressor, a framing nailer, a cordless drill, a metal chop saw, and a skill saw. The squad members quickly liberated these un-needed items (and probably headed right to the pawn shop).

My mom lives just down the road from this house, and I actually saw the squad cars there the other evening and wondered why...

Freedom and Poverty! And Blogging! And Pets!