July 12th, 2019

The test did not go as badly as I expected. My group was with the teacher who gives harder tests (there are two teachers: a man and a women; we are in groups of 6 and switch off week by week which teacher we are with). I got an average score for the week. I wouldn’t call it a statistically significant decrease, and considering the change in teacher I think I did about the same. So there is plenty of room for improvement next week! One of the issues and things I want to work on for next time is prioritizing the vocab. The test ended up being weighted 80 for the written section and 20 for the speaking, even when our class spent like an hour on all the segments of the speaking and the other section like ten minutes each. If I had known that I would have put in more time on the vocab instead of stressing about knowing every word of the poem, proverbs, and story.

            I also had my mid-program conference, since Sunday will mark the halfway point of the program. It’s crazy how fast the time has flown by. The first week felt super slow, but these last two weeks have absolutely sped by. Every student and the RD have a conference. They are blocked for 30 minutes, but mine lasted about 20 and it was among the longer ones (just because I am chatty, not because there were any issues to discuss). My RD didn’t have any concerns and she seemed to think I was academically moving at a good pace. We also briefly discuss my problem reading out loud, but since it’s a problem in both Tajik and English I don’t think there is much to be done.

            Friday is really nice because I actually get to hang out with my host family. This past week I have spent so much time just locked in my room (the lock because my 2-year-old host brother likes to come in and write on my stuff). Usually I am able to do my homework in the same room as my host family or next to my ten-year-old host sister who is doing her homework for her summer English class, but memorizing stuff is different. In order for me to focus or have any hope of remembering it I need to be distraction free. I feel like I need to spend more time with my host family, but it’s hard because they often just go to their separate rooms, and when I go into the kitchen where my host mom she feels the need to stop whatever she is doing and talk to me. Today I played for my host brother for a long time. He and his sister put these temporary tattoos on me. I have to say temporary tattoo technology has advanced quite a lot from my day where you would hold a wet paper towel over your arm for five minutes and be left with a mushy piece of paper. These you just peal, stick, rub for like a second, and pull off. They are also scented, which is an interesting new innovation.

           

Notes from the Visit of Tajikistan Country Director from WHO

At lunch, the Country Director from the World Health Organization’s Tajikistan office came to speak to us. While the first half of her visit was mostly her reminding us of the dangers of drowning and smoking and drinking, as well as the importance of hand washing and vaccinations, she made some interesting points that I am going to write out here:

-       Tajikistan is trying to move away from the old Soviet healthcare system, which mainly focused on hospitals, and towards a system that has a focus on primary care with more family doctors and small practices.

-       In Tajikistan, most people pay out-of-pocket making healthcare quite inaccessible and costly for the people. The government is working on developing health insurance providers [whether it would be universal health insurance, state health insurance, or through private companies was unclear to me]

-       There are NGOs working on using technology to connect doctors to remote areas since Tajikistan is 80% mountains. This way through Skype or calling doctors can be brought in.

-       The rates of HIV are quite high here among certain populations such as prisoners and others incarcerated in Tajikistan [she didn’t specify any other populations or elaborate further]

-       Rates of asthma are quite high due to the low air quality

-       The president of Tajikistan recently got an award from the WHO for his successful campaigns against smoking [though walking around Dushanbe the effects are hard to see]

-       The high number of Tajiks working abroad poses a challenge to infectious disease control. Often Tajiks will be working in Russia where they happen to contract TB or some other disease, since they get sick and can’t work they get sent home where they bring the sickness back with them. The ministry of health is working to find ways to serve that population.