Things are clearly all settled in now as posts are becoming more sporadic and increasingly difficult to come up with anything, “new and inspiring” to say. I pretty much know exactly what to expect, what frustrations I will face, and what joys I can take out of this experience. Although my vacation to Sweden and Estonia was not even two months ago, I feel the need for another vacation brewing. Nawroz break starts on March 7th and I truly cannot wait. Time has slowed and each day is merely building in anticipation of my next trip.
Similar to my angry venting about the blue towel crafted by the hands of Hades, I must now lament about the production of lids. Yes, that is right, lids. Whether it be Tupperware style containers or large bowls to store leftovers, the producers seem entirely unable to craft lids that fit. There was some sort of miscalibration which has effectually rendered the products useless because they cannot close properly. Unwilling to throw them away, I have resorted to wrapping uncovered edges in tin foil so that the food does not spoil. Add this to my list of other “repairs” around the house: stuffing paper towels into a large hole in the wall so that mosquitoes do not enter; tying our broken drying rack to the railing on the balcony with a garbage bag so that it doesn’t fall over; creating a suspension weight with a large wedge so that the flap to the bathroom fan can properly close; and hiding our toilet paper under the lid of the washer machine so that water from our free flowing shower does not soak it. Ah yes, a regular MacGyver.
There is no doubt that I could find a better way to repair things, but my methods, while probably not the most efficient, are certainly the most cost effective. You can pretty much buy anything here in the market, bazaar, or seikh (spelling indefinitely wrong). But there are always lingering questions about whether or not you are buying a real product or some cheap knock-off from China or Turkey. It is common knowledge that most products made in China are of poor quality, aka, pieces of shit. But for many common uses they will do the trick and will only cost a few bucks. The cost of living is already cheap, but you can REALLY save some money here if you do it right. The markets offer shops where you can buy clothes by the kilo (I got a warm, fall jacket for about $6); dress clothes for discounted prices; and anything else you can think of (except pets as they don’t have any).
The only reoccurring problem is if you want to buy something genuine but are unable to discern whether it is real or an artificial copy. Store owners will constantly tout products as being made abroad, namely in Turkey or Germany, as if that automatically gives a seal of approval. The owners themselves may not even be knowledgeable about whether the product is fake or not. For example, I want to take whey protein after the gym, but I could be just taking Kool-Aid mix and be entirely unaware. It isn’t really possible to conduct an experiment on the powder to check its ingredients, and newly printed labels can be easily affixed. So I am left wondering, hoping that the placebo affect is just as valuable.
On a more encouraging note, I finally worked up the gall to test out the Iraqi banking system. To my pleasant surprise, there were no problems in my transfer and the money was in my American account in about 72 hours. I used a government bank which charges a $25 flat rate in addition to .1% of the total transaction. Due to the accusations of corruption and mistrust silently hurled at everything government related, I almost went with a private company, the Kurdistan Investment Bank. However, they charge a $100 flat rate and .3% of the total transaction. Given the discrepancy in prices, I decided to take the risk. First time worked like a charm, and I will certainly be using the government bank again.
University Life
At school things are going pretty well. Classes seem to be progressing, and although correcting papers can be a drag, lessons seem to be going well. In all of my classes there seem to be three main levels: the top 10% who are cruising along and can hold their own with most English terminology; the middle 80% who constitute a mix of a) those who can do the work but are middling along, and b) those who level of English is almost up to par but not quite; and the bottom 10% who can barely construct a complete sentence. It makes for an interesting dynamic to say the least. They should probably be split into different English courses by their current level, but the administration didn’t want to do that so this is the path we travel.
It is evident that views on education here are much different than they are in the United States, and this is probably due to a confluence of social, societal, and cultural factors. Education seems like it is important to some students, but most don’t seem to take it that seriously. I have often seen laughs at complete abominations of test scores. In the US, those people would be weeded out or it would be more of a badge of shame to score so low, not humor. I have tried to combat this in a number of ways. I have pressed on them perhaps harder than any other teacher, or so they tell me, to really impress upon them the importance of hard work. I consistently tell them that they will not get an A simply for showing up, and they will not charm me into giving them a good grade by their personality alone. Whatever they get, they will earn it. I assign homework nearly every night, which is proving to make my life more difficult as well, and grade rather harsh. “Sink or swim” is what I tell them.
After about a month in class I have a nearly 40% fail rate for Terminology and 35% for English. It seems high at first, but the people who are currently under 50%, the minimum score to pass here, honestly do not deserve to be here. In my opinion, it is better to trim the bottom layers now rather than later. But at other times I feel that I am constantly straddling a fine line where I ask myself, “Am I expecting too much? Or are they just giving too little?” Time will tell, and the mantra I heard while at City Year certainly proves to be true here as well: working with youth is like throwing seeds over a wall; you will never know which ones will be eaten by birds, washed away, or take hold and grow.
Socially, the students have really taken to Paige and I. We are near the same age as them, are both gregarious, and don’t elevate ourselves to the status of, “all powerful professor.” This has allowed them to feel quite comfortable with us and has given many of them additional confidence to speak in English and trust us as people. Outside of class, although they still call me Mr. Ryan, they are more akin to friends than students. There is obviously a gap in the levels of maturity, but this is an area that I can, perhaps, impart some of my experiences on them....if they stop flirting with me.
The students here inhabit a place that is very different from the one that their parents grew up in. Their parents lived through the struggles of Saddam, fighting for independence, and atrocities against the Kurds to get where they are. Compared to the sparse villages and minimal public services of the past, Kurdistan has seen dramatic growth. Despite the growth, the older generations still very much place an emphasis on traditional values. Younger people don’t compare Kurdistan to how it was in the past; they compare it to the West and think of how undeveloped the country still is. They look at the values system as antiquated and long for change. These students are at the middle of a cultural divide that will effectively shape and define this area’s future.
This is perhaps another contributing factor to the lack of real output in the classroom. The traditional economy has always been shaped by familial relations. We call it nepotism; they call it the way of life. Many of the students probably don’t see a reason to work any harder than is absolutely necessary because they know that hard work isn’t going to be their key to getting ahead. In the US we opine that it isn’t what you know, it is who you know. While networking certainly maintains value and influences our success, amplify that by 100x to understand how it is here. The formal economy is still developing, and at every level you will hear stores like this.
What I find interesting, and I have pressed my students on this, is that a healthy majority of people readily admit that corruption is rampant. Yet at the same time, the people want the government to do more and they trust the government the most out of any institution. This type of cognitive dissonance has yet to register in the minds of many people here. In their defense, they don’t have much to compare to. They were ruled by a dictator for decades and it has barely been 20 years since they managed to break away. The American experiment in democracy has arguably taken over 100 years to iron out some of the major kinks, and we are still doing it today. Change never comes easy, and it is often in the shape of a slowly trudging snail rather than a speedy freight train bringing all our aspirations to reality.
