No water, no gas = camping indoors

September 8, 2009

The past few days have been an adventure in the breakdown of public services.

First...the water.

I woke up yesterday and went to wash my face. When I turned on the tap I heard the characteristic burble that caused a Pavlovian wince. No! I thought I left this all behind in Armenia! My host didn’t know why the water turned off, but luckily we had some saved. I should have seen this coming. Having random water containers in the bathroom are a dead giveaway for sporadic water service.

Apparently, this big truck somehow drove over a weak patch of asphalt and fell in, severing a water pipe. We’re still waiting for it to be fixed. In the meantime, Sofia’s son brought over a big jug of water from their house

So I mentioned previously the water containers in the bathroom. Well, there was a mysterious bucket that I was instructed not to drink from. Last night I was washing my face and I saw...A TINY WORM. It was a little itty bitty red thread thing less than an inch long and WRIGGLING. I resolved to purchase water the next day in case this was considered “normal” water in Comrat. Then I saw another one of these little tapeworms-in-training this morning. Eeek!

(Sofia explained to me today that the water in the bucket is from some outside source and should under no condition be drunk...thank God.)

Next...the gas.

I woke up this morning to the lovely news that we would have no gas for four days. That leaves us with one major service left: electricity. Since the stove is gas, that means we can’t actually cook. That also means that we won’t have hot water, but because we don’t have water, that’s sort of irrelevant. Even if we get water back, it won’t be hot.

Once I went to the university, I found out that everyone in their city will have the gas cut off for the next four days. I think if this happened in America, there would be a riot!

So, for dinner we used the electric tea kettle to get boiling water with which we cooked ramen and sausages. Sofia and I resolved that if this continues for another day, we’re going to a cafeteria for dinner. Yay! I feel like I can handle one service going out at a time, but not two. Hopefully the water will be fixed tomorrow.

In other news, my classes start tomorrow. I am teaching six classes (!) and they are very random subjects:

British literature

American Culture and Civilization

American Children’s Literature

Critical Thinking/Reading and Writing

Literary Text Analysis

American Folklore and Myth

I still don’t know the level the students will be at, so I only have a tentative plan for each class. Thankfully, each class is basically like a 1.5 credit class in the U.S. I am teaching 15 Moldovan-style credits (40 minutes), which means 10 real hours of teaching per week. This seems reasonable, although having 6 preps is hardcore.

It’s taken a while, but I think I’ve gotten the system somewhat worked out. One of the professors from my department speaks really good English and she helped me out. Basically, all classes are divided into lectures and seminars, even humanities classes. I’m trying to figure out a way to work with this system without having actually ever taken a math or science class that was divided into that structure.

Well, I have class at 8:00 tomorrow morning, so I’m going to try and turn in early. My classes for tomorrow are all planned and syllabi photocopied (on my own dime...thankfully, it was $3). Teaching is scary! I hope everything goes well tomorrow. I already have my outfit picked out...I guess that’s a good start.