Now I Can Focus on Getting Internet

I just finished a very stressful week.  The smooth landing I experienced returning from America last August was not repeated in my arrival back to Azerbaijan from Europe.  Arriving home I found my water pipes were broken, my gas was off, my phone had been disconnected and my internet had stopped working.  These aren't things that you can simply call to fix, they take multiple trips and different trouble shooting sessions.  As of now, only my gas is working (though the plumber is coming for a third time tonight).

Furthermore, this past week involved a massive amount of preparation for Kelly's and my first Training of Trainers Workshop, preparing strong English Teacher to teach trainings on Interactive Teaching Methods.  Much of the work had been done, but we were a little shocked to find that instead of the 10-15 teachers we assumed each workshop would have, we would have potentially 40 teachers.  We were on pace to go way over budget on our first training that was completely untested.

Between my apartment and the training it was enough to ensure that I didn't get a good night of sleep all week.  And it was a relief to leave Khachmaz for Mingechevir, knowing that I would be able to get away from my home for a couple of days and get the training over with.  Problems continued to be texted at me on the noisy 7 hour bus trip and I started making plan Bs, Cs, and Ds in my head.  Kelly and I greeted each other in Ming with a simple 'I can't wait to get this over with'.

But the training went great.  The teachers were active.  There seemed to be a real enjoyment and excitement about this workshop; rather than learning about specific methods, something most of these teachers are familiar with, they were learning a new set of professional skills that would allow them to help weaker teachers.  When we asked who thought they could hold a training in the next month, 11 teachers raised their hands, with many others asking if it was acceptable to hold a training in the next two months.

I've had enough experience in Azerbaijan to know it's unreasonable for me to expect 11 trainings, but I was thoroughly impressed with the caliber of these teachers and am confident that more than 3 teachers (our stated goal) will hold a training as a result of this workshop.  Yes we are now certainly over budget and we have to make some substantial changes to our training agenda, but the workshop itself was a complete success.

Kelly and I suspected that this could be a project Azerbaijanis would receive really well.  Instead of targeting the mediocre teachers, trying to get them better, we're targeting the exceptional teachers, preparing them to help make their fellow teachers better.  But all of this was just assumption until our first workshop.  I'm really pleased about the initial response and am excited to see what results from this over the next two months.