Teaching in Novorossiysk

Marcia and I took the bus over to Novorossisyk again to teach at Anya's school. I think it's funny that there are more taxi drivers in line at the ticket window than bus passengers. It was another hot, sunny day. Fortunately, the bus had AC. Last nights lesson was based around travel. I'd done a travel lesson in Anapa a few weeks previous, so it didn't take a lot of effort to put the lesson together. There are two classes that we've been working with and it's been a lot of fun getting to know the people. The beginners group has only 5 people. Their English language skills are still pretty limited, but they work hard and want to learn. There are 12 people in the intermediate group. Their language skills are a lot better and they're a lot more talkative. We often ditch the lesson (so much for planning) in favor of talking. I'm more of a conversation facilitator than teacher in the intermediate group. After class we went back to the bus station, where the ticket lady told us she didn't know if the bus was coming or not. The driver hadn't called in, yet, and the ticket lady didn't know if he was going to finish his route or not. Fortunately, the bus did arrive and we headed back to Anapa a little after 9 pm. Riding the bus here is always interesting. Last week, the driver had offered a "special deal" to people if they boarded the bus a few blocks from the station and paid him directly. 20 or so people spent the hour long ride standing in the aisle of the coach bus. This week, the driver made a couple of stops along the way so he could get a soda. He just parked the bus in the middle of the road while he went to the store. This is normal here. We got back to Anapa around 10:30 pm. Many of the marshrutka stop running around 10-10:30, so I called a cab for Marcia. The marshrutka to Su-Pseh stop running around 10:30 pm, so I was planning to walk the last 4 km back to the house. Thankfully, there was one final bus back to Su-Pseh and I didn't have to walk back.

Teaching in Novorossiysk

My friend Anya is an English teacher at a small private school in Novorossiysk. Anya invited me to come visit the school and drop in on two of her classes. "It will be good for the students to listen to an American speak.", she told me, and I agreed to come by. Novorossiysk is perhaps 50 km from Anapa. I don't own a car, here, so that means taking the bus. I haven't traveled by public bus between cities by myself and I prepared myself mentally for a mini-adventure.

Early Monday afternoon I went downtown and purchased a bus ticket at the station. I was swarmed by taxi drivers before I got the ticket window. "No, thanks, I don't want a taxi ride to Krasnodar..." Ticket booths (bus station, airport, movie theatre, where ever...) in Russia are built like armored pill boxes. The attendant lady sits securely behind a plate glass window, dispensing tickets and irritation through a tiny slot. Sometimes there are holes drilled in the plate glass for speaking (usually 4.5 feet high), sometimes not (and you speak through the money slot). Either way, it's almost impossible to understand the lady behind the glass. This particular ticket lady was relatively friendly and only smirked at me once when I gave her a 500 ruble note for a 66 ruble fare (they like exact change). $2.14 is a good price for traveling 50 km to another city.

The bus ride was pretty uneventful. I actually had an idea of where the bus station in Novorossiysk was, so I didn't feel too apprehensive about getting off at the wrong stop. The driver chain-smoked the entire ride. I was a little hoarse and irritable when I finally got off the bus, since I had been breathing second hand smoke and b.o. the whole time. Anya met me at the bus station and we went off to the school. The evening's lessons centered around clothing and appearance. The first class was beginner level. We spent a while on vocabulary and pronunciation. One of the other teachers at the school sat in on class to practice her pronunciation, also. The second group was intermediate level. We started off with the clothing and appearance lesson, but got side tracked on hobbies. We eventually ditched the lesson completely and the students asked me questions (in English, mostly). I did my best to answer in Russian, but had to fall back on English a number of times :) I mentioned that I had worked in the computer industry for 8 years before coming to Russia to visit friends and help out at the church in Anapa.

When class got out, the other teacher and two of the students stayed behind to talk with me more. They commented that leaving a career to come live in Russia was a big change and wanted to know more about why in the world I would do something like that. I think I managed to convince them that I was of reasonably sound mind and that I hadn't been fired from work. One student said she knew some church people who had done something similar because they were following God and asked me if I was doing the same. What a great lead :) We had a good conversation for about 30 minutes and I got to share with them what God had done in my life. They had some good questions, "Did I come to Russia because i wanted to or because I felt I had to? If you're following God, are you really free?" Anya helped out a lot with translation through all this, for which I was grateful (the level of discussion had moved a little above clothing and colors). We had to break off the conversation at 9pm, so Anya and I could run back to the bus station for the last bus back to Anapa. We made it with a few minutes to spare and I finally got back to Su-Pseh around 11 pm. Long day.