Clean Clothes

Well, first of all, it is nice to have my luggage. I was able to wear my own clothes during the first day at the Lyceum. I was greeted with caravy (bread) and salt and a traditional dance with song. Upon entering the building some primary students were participating a a remote control car contest through an obstacle course. I spent the morning visiting many classes - geography class, primary physics class, English class for first graders, dance class, a class devoted to the study of local monuments, a demo of their distance education classes built with Moodle and a music class. The physics class was fifth graders that were learning about physics principles from their teacher and a high school physics teacher. Some of the older students had worked with the younger students as they studied principles of physics related to flying paper airplanes and constructing a workable parachute. Today was the final testing and there were experts (students dressed in graduation gowns as judges)that were testing the final products. They graded them on construction and the length of flight or time in the air for the parachutes. A winner was determined based on these qualities. The students were so excited as they watched the results(the same person always flew the model to keep the variable the same). I was so struck with the smiles and motivation of the students as they participated in all of the classes I attended. You could tell they enjoyed being there.

During the Moodle demo, they showed me a site developed by a math teacher that provides tutorial help for students studying for the math examination (sort of like our ACT). This site is accessed by 15,000 people a day.
In the afternoon we visited a museum in the countryside that showed the life of the Kozaks. It included a lunch of traditional food (soup, vegetables, a pastry with meat, watermelon, a sweet pastry and moonshine. The herb in the moonshine was thyme.
On the trip home we stopped at a market with many different vegetables and fruit. A watermelon was selling for seventy cents and a huge potato sack of different colored peppers was three dollars.

This evening I watched a production at the Lyceum put on by former students of the Lyceum. They all are involved in other careers but continue to come back and perform in plays. I found out they agreed to do one more production of this play because Natasha (embassy official) and I were in town. We got home about ten and Natasha, my host, showed me pictures and told me about escaping twice from the Chechin Republic (her home). It is a very moving story and helps me to understand how lucky I am.

The weather has been beautiful and the people are wonderful. Tomorrow I am going to be part of a team as we participate in an IT Olympiad. More to come......