When Natalie saw the picture of the boy at the bazaar, it made her think of that famous Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic so many years ago. Well, that picture appears all over the place here, and in fact, last night at the pizzeria, there was a poster-size picture of her looking down at me. And, yes, those eyes do speak so loudly - even more so now.
Here's a link to the story about the Afghan Girl.
I think I mentioned that anyone that wants to know about Afghanistan, should read Sarah Chayes' book, The Puhishment of Virtue. Well, besides writing such a wonderful book, Ms. Chayes started an agribusiness in Kandahar called Arghand. It, within itself is a great story of Afghans given the opportunity to help themselves, in a very Afghan way. Check out their website to learn more.
Today was a very exciting day at work. Today, I met with my Afghan physics faculty - at least a few of them. I gathered up my interpretor, Dr. Wahli, and ... Hold on, I don't believe I've mentioned (or did I?) the interpretor situation here before. NMAA has about 8 interpretors and they are all vying for the chance to come to America to work and/or study. NMAA recommends 2 every year to go. Interpretors at NMAA work for the U.S. and so they get paid exceptionally well - about $600 a month or so which is more than even the Superintendent (a General in the Afghan National Army). Dr. Wahli tried for one of the two slots last year, but was denied. Dr. Wahli is not a medical doctor in western terms, but in Afghan terms. That is, medical school is a two-year program in Afghanistan. I'm not about to belittle his title on the basis of technicalities - it would be disrepectful. He likes for me (us, he's Lem's interpretor as well because he is the most technically oriented of the interpretors presently being employed at NMAA), to call him Wahli. He has been married for nine years and has four kids. I'll have to get a picture of Wahli to post at some point.
So, Wahli and I went over to the office where the physics instructors work. I knocked on the door once and entered (as is custom) and greeted everyone with hand shakes and "Salaam aalaikum" which means "peace be upon you." I'll have to remind myself to describe the little song that Lem and I came up with to remember this saying ... well, here it is. The little tune goes with the song "I say toma-toe, you say tomat-o, You say pota-toe and I say potat-o ..."
You say, salaam, I say aailaikum
I say, waalaikum, you say salaam
Salaam - aailaikum, waalaikum - salaam ...
Yes, I know, don't quit our day-jobs!
After all the greeting, it was time to get down to business. There was lots I needed to know. I needed to know some practical things about the physics courses such as how many instructors (5), how many sections (21), and how often did the sections meet (4 times/week). I had a syllabi, but they consisted of short topical phrases like "forces," or "circuits" with no other detail, so I asked if they had any more detail on the topics, such as what exactly was taught or conveyed during a class. One of the instructors, Col Zalmai, who head a perfectly quaffed head of pepper-colored hair like mine and a mouth full of perfectly straight white teeth (I pretty sure he has a future in Hollywood if he wants it), shuffled through his papers and produced the same syllabus I already had (his in Dari) and he started reading the short topical phrases. He then continued to say that everything that was in the text was covered and he had written the solution manual for the text. I had the text (2 volumes in Dari) and he said he would give me a copy of the Dari teacher's solution manual. So I didn't get much more detailed information, but it was time to move on. I asked about cutting out the last 1/4 of the material that was in the syllabus. It contained stuff related to thermodynamics, fluids, and gases and some other stuff that I've never even heard of. I tried to explain that at western universities, those topics were not included and that maybe we should take those out, add some statics (like the engineering dept at NMAA was demanding), and expand the other topics already in the syllabus. You know, quality versus quantity. He explained that those topics were important maybe in chemistry and biology and engineering, and that in his opinion we should keep it in. Hmm, 0 for 2 - we'll have to revisit the syllabus stuff again. At that point, I looked over and noticed that the keyboards to their computers were completely wrapped in clear plastic bags and that's how them must use them. What a great idea in this dusty hole! We then discussed the $20K of physics lab equipment that just came in and where we were going to store it. They said, that there was only one lab tech for chemistry, biology, and physics and that he didn't know the difference between the equipment, but he was good at hoarding and keeping track of it. I reminded them that I had met him just the other day and right then he walked in. I turned to Wahli and said, "his ears must have been burning" and motioned my hands over my ears. Wahli smiled in a way that I knew he didn't understand, so I explained what it meant. Wahli loved this and then immediately told the others and they all laughed very hard.
I then asked them, what they wanted or expected from me. They all feverishly spoke to Wahli for several minutes then Wahli said that they really wanted my help with how to teach the labs (check, I could do that) and then they really wanted me to teach them in the "modern way" of teaching. They explained that they all learned in the old way and that's all they really knew and basically what they did. Ah, here they reveal that they wanted something more. I asked what the "old way" meant to them and they said, when the teacher just lectures and the students take notes and maybe read the book. I asked them what they thought the "new" way of teaching was and they didn't know, they just said there must be some other methods. Yes, here was my chance at a little faculty development. I explained that at the US Air Force Academy it was my job to do just what they were asking me to do and I said what they wanted to do was to get the students involved in their own learning - to be more student/learning-centric rather than teacher-centric and allow for more peer-to-peer learning. I explained that the most effective learning occurs when the student starts speaking the "language" of math, physics, chemistry, engineering, etc. and they do this through interaction with the teacher, but more importantly through interaction with other students. They bobbed their heads up and down after Wahli's translation. Then I said for a typical lesson, that maybe they might lecture for 15 mintues, then have the students practice problems on paper or the board for a few minutes, then maybe have a demonstration to see some physics concept(s) in action. Then I said, "In America, we say variety is the spice of life. The more things you can experience, all the better you are." I explained this all to Wahli and said that teaching was the same way. People learn in different ways, some need to hear it (through a lecture), some need to do (read/write and struggling thru problems), and some need to see it (visualize a concept). After Wahli translated, this is where I made my money for the day. It was like a light bulb went off - just as I've been fortunate to see with students at times "when they get it" - finally. They really liked this idea and seemed very excited and they all kept nodding their heads and saying in English, "yes, yes!"
I told them that I was a visual learner and that if I can see something done, I can really understand it better. I told them the story of when I was in high school and worked for the moving companies. That I was a good packer because putting stuff on the truck was like putting a big puzzle together - I could see where to put the pieces almost instantly. They like this story too.
Near the end of our conversation, I asked Col Zalmai if he had a lot of children. He said 6 and then I told him that I had 5 and that's why we both had so much gray hair. They laughed at that too. I then showed a family picture and we discussed all our kids and their ages for a few minutes. As I left, they said they were really glad I had come to their country and they were excited about learning so much from me. I told them we would learn a lot from each other. I hope I don't let them down, but at the same time, I hope they don't let me down either. I hope they really do want to work at making their teaching more effective - nothing would be more rewarding to me if I could help them do that.
After that, we had lunch in NMAA's mess hall. It would be our (Lem, Brian, and I) first visit to the NMAA mess hall. The Army guys had been joking over the last week that they "had only found one worm in the rice over the last six months" and that "mystery meat was usually kinda of tender - probably because it was dog meat." But, we decided to go anyway. We sat at the Superintendents table with him and the Dean and several faculty. The meal was some lentil soup, long-grain rice (I didn't find any worms), stewed carrots, the mystery meat, naan (wonderful Afghan bread!), and oranges for dessert. As most of you know, I don't eat meat, and Brian's meat plate was very close to me on the left. I think there was actually something wrong with the mystery meat, because its odor literally made me gag. The rest of the meal was just fine and I will return if just for the naan! Here are some pictures of meal. In the third picture, you can see the Dean (a Colonel) on the left and the Superintendent (General Sharif) on the right. The last picture shows women's table. 
Well, this post has turned into something entirely too long. I hope I'm not boring too many of you. Please excuse any typos, I'm to the point where I just type what comes and don't bother spell-checking. Thanks for tuning in.
4 comments:
You may want to mention the Afghan dislike for dogs...I wonder if the lack of dogs around is because they often become dinner, or if their dislike for dogs also translates into a dis-taste! Surely it wouldn't be rude to simply ask from what kind of animal their meat comes?! And, I think it would be interesting to find out.
It is true that Afghans are not dog lovers that the Americans are. You don't see dogs around because the are bred and used for dog fighting only, not pets. It may be against the law in the U.S., but here it is a popular gambling outlet. You do see lots of cats because they help keep the rodent population down. The Army guys joke that the mystery meat is actually the losing dogs in the local dog fights. However, I ask an interpretor and he said Afghans don't eat dogs. The meat that is served is always labeled as beef, chicken, and sometimes lamb (or goat). An interesting note is that sometimes they serve pork in the KAIA chow hall. It is interesting because all the food servers are Afghans, hence Muslim, therefore pork is viewed as unclean and they don't eat it. I had also thought that they weren't allowed to handle pork either, so I'll have to ask how all that works.
I wouldn't have asked...sometimes it is best to not know! So there are wild cats roaming the streets instead of wild dogs? haha
I didn't think the other picture of the Afghan girl could possibly be the same person because her nose doesn't look right but Nat says that your nose keeps growing all of your life....
Post a Comment