Ah yes, the topic that always seems to have the
least amount of new information possible.
There is a litany of reasons for this, but rather than ranting about
inefficiencies in the Kurdish economy I’ll stick to the topic at hand. Not much has been happening on this front.
Kevin and I are supposed to be teaching two separate summer English courses
with 33 students assigned to each course.
Now in its second week, the course has between 17-29 TOTAL students and
Kevin and I are splitting the responsibilities.
The summer schedule was originally proposed to last from 10:30am-2:30pm
with an hour break for lunch. However,
that has been condensed to around 10:30am-1:00pm with minimal breaks since the
Muslim students cannot eat or drink during daylight hours in Ramadan
anyways.
The
class is fairly easy since the material is largely pre-planned according to a
solid textbook that Kevin purchased in Malaysia. The atmosphere is very laid back, there is no
grade after all, and there is no pressure to be a disciplinarian. What was expected to be a pretty easy 3
months till departure got a little bit easier.
The
only counterbalance to this schedule hand-crafted in slacker’s paradise is my
responsibilities at the nascent Career Development Center (CDC.) Initially this project seemed to be moving
at the speed of molasses. The office
wasn’t set up; staff was largely unsure of their roles; resources were scant;
and the director’s travel schedule made a grand vision ephemeral. Recently, things have begun piecing
together. Although the CDC staff is a
patchwork of employees whose primary responsibilities lie somewhere else at the
university, including myself, I have found them to be fairly motivated. Typically, Kurdish work ethic consists of
ignoring emails, coming late to meetings, and making empty promises. However, this group, all having been educated
abroad, comes with a greater sense of seriousness about what they do. In the few hours each week I spend with them,
we tend to get things done and cut out the wasteful gallivanting.
My
responsibilities with the CDC are twofold, one far more grandiose than the
other: 1) Establish skills workshops for 4 different departments on campus,
total of over 1,000 students, over a weeklong period; and 2) Develop an
internship program by bringing university faculty on board, changing their
curriculum, building university connections with employers, and getting
students on board. Despite this feat, namely
the second task, being nearly impossible in my remaining months, I have taken
to the task. It will be good to put on
the resume and will hopefully solidify a glowing recommendation from my
supervisor. Although I won’t see the end
game, I will get to lay the foundation.
Thus
far the only problem has been dealing with Kurds other than my colleagues. A meeting of Deans was organized for last
week but, 30 minutes into the scheduled meeting time, nobody showed up. As people fretted about wondering what
happened, I started calling them and asking where they were. Catching the hint, my colleagues started to
do the same. Meetings were rescheduled
and upon reconvening Heja and I impressed upon them the vision for what we
wanted to achieve. So far, they seem to
get it. Now, it is my hope that they
start to earn their excessive honorifics that they adorn themselves with by
using titles like Prof. Dr. The only
thing more fitting would be putting redundant at the end.
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