So. We currently get paid in dollars. It is in our contract. Up until now, we've been, every two weeks, getting dollars, exactly like our contract says. The exchange rate keeps improving (more som to the dollar), so we keep getting happier and happier. Until yesterday.
We all had individual meetings with our boss, who told us that because of the economic situation in Kyrgyzstan, they can't afford to pay us anymore in dollars or they will go bankrupt. They earn their money in som when the students pay for their lessons, and they change som into dollars for us, so every month they are effectively having to pay us more (more som to get the same dollar amount). So, to recify this problem and "prevent the school from going out of business," if/when the exchange rate hits 41 som to the dollar, we will get paid in som instead of dollars, at the rate for 40 som to the dollar. So, instead of getting 650$/month, we will get 26,000 som per month. If the dollar keeps getting better, we will be making less than 650$ in comparison. If the dollar (hopefully) gets worse, than we'll be making more than $650. The school is taking a gamble by changing our contracts, because if the dollar gets worse, then they will still have to pay us the 26,000 som, even if the exchange rate changes. But it probably won't. Oh well. So when we go to change our som into dollars when we leave Kyrgyzstan, we'll get a lot less than we would have gotten if we'd just been paid in dollars in the first place.
Personally, I don't care. I came here thinking I was going to earn $500/month anyways, so eveything is more than that. But some of the other teachers thought it was wrong just on principle for them to basically give us all paycuts, which if course I can understand from their point of view too. But it's just another little thing that makes life a little bit worse here.
BUT, on a good note (and there almost always is a good note), this coming week is test week. Another month of teaching down, and it's an easy week because it's just test review and test writing! Only 4 months after this to go. I got great feedback from the student surveys, so they all seem to like my teaching.
Today the school organized a trip into the mountains. It was about 45 minutes out of Bishkek, to a place none of us had never been before. 9 teachers and foreign students went, and we walked around in the mountains for a few hours, played in the snow, and sat by the river. It wasn't a strenuous walk at all, it was just pleasant. Than there was a (naturally?) heated swimming pool that we relaxed in for a while before heading back to Bishkek. It was as Soviet as you could imagine, with walls/ceilings that clearly hadn't been de-molded and sculptures of Russian space shuttles and Sputnik on the wall. It was definitely an experience, and the water was really warm!
Tomorrow we're going to have a bonfire in our courtyard again, just like we did in September. We'll make shashlyk and hopefully find marshmallows at the supermarket to roast! Mike and I are going to the bazaar tomorrow, where we'll practice our Kyrgyz language skills.
Next month I'm taking Russian with my friend Kole from WI, so it will be interesting to have a conversation partner in class- up til now, all of my lessons have been one-on-one. His speaking is better than mine, so I'm sure he will motivate me to improve my speaking. My Russian teacher told me that my speaking is pretty horrendous, but that I have good grammar. Go figure, I would have said it was the other way around! Ah well :)
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