Tuesday, I had my first day of co-teaching with Gazmend at Skenderbeu Gymnaz. This is the regular high school in KaÇanik. We started at 8:30 am and we were done by 11 am. He teaches two sections of 10th grade students there in the mornings. The students have English language classes three times a week. On Tuesday, we did introductions. I introduced myself and then the students introduced themselves. They asked me questions and I asked them questions. Some students could speak English well and others could not. On Tuesday, we saw each group for two forty minutes classes and we were done by noon. Gazmend's normally teaches at the vocational high school, but another teacher left the school and Gazmend took over these classes at the gymnasium. The teachers are all very nice and I met many of them in the teachers lounge. Teachers switch classes while students stay in the same classrooms. In between classes, teachers go to the lounge until their next class. The view of the mountains from the classroom were amazing on Tuesday.
Lunch on the balcony
At the vocational school he has mostly senior classes and they are done in 2 weeks. His afternoon classes were canceled on Tuesday, because there was a special activity. Thom and I went for a walk in the afternoon and as we walked by a cafe, we heard our names being called. It was a volunteer, Annie, with KOS 7. She lives and teaches in a nearby village that is a 30 minute walk from KaÇanik. It was such a nice surprise to meet up with her. She has about 7 months left of her service and it was interesting talking with her.
Wednesday was the Labor Day (Dite e Punës) holiday in Kosovo. We had the day off and spent a chunk of the day buying a few things we needed for the apartment. It now feels like home. In the afternoon, we took a long walk to the rock face. After dinner, I went for a walk with Teuta (Gazmend's wife) and her girls. She ran into a friend who was visiting from Skopje. She was here to visit her mother in KaÇanik with her four girls. Her husband, however; works and lives in Germany. She tried living in Germany, but didn't like it. She moved back to Skopje. We walked for a bit and then they stopped at an ice cream stand. An ice cream cone is .40 cents (euro). People here walk a lot at night along the river.
Walking to the rock face
The rock face -- Thom tried to climb to it, but didn't make it today
The railroad bridge (They are working to repair the railroad)
The old factory by the railroad
Salad with roasted sweet potatoes and red lentil fritters
The next day Gazmend and I went to the vocational school in the morning to meet some of the teachers there. I ended up co-teaching with another English teacher and once again we did introductions and discussions. I did four class with him (Vanit) in the morning. He is a cousin of Gazmend. Some of the classes had many students who spoke English well, but other classes did not. One class was students who are studying to be electricians, another were studying to be auto mechanics, another were in a metal works class, and the last were students in the economics / business classes. We went for coffee before the last class with several teachers of mechanical engineering and the principal of the school. It was an interesting morning.
The teacher's lounge
At 3:45 pm, I walked back to the school and did three senior sections of classes with Gazmend. It was fun talking with the different groups of students. However, some of the seniors have checked out and some don't show up. The last class only had two students. It was fun, but it was a long day.
Thom didn't touch base with his counterpart until Thursday night when he had a meeting with them at 8 pm. They wanted to discussed the Friday morning meeting at the municipality. So we are both moving forward in our volunteer work. Today, I only went to two classes in the morning. I was able to go to the farmer's market to pick up tomato and pepper plants to put in our deck planters. I hope we will have tomatoes and peppers this summer or fall.
Tomato and pepper plants
Pepper plant
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