Drama continued

To follow up on the previous post…

So I was quite upset when I wrote that post, but I had not spoken with the vice-rector, the man who is basically in charge of taking care of my needs while here. I had called my friend and colleague who is the only one to show me around Yozgat –what there is to see. He came and had coffee with me and I ranted to him about the situation. He did point out a place that might be suitable for me to get some work done, a coffee bar of sort. I went there and found there is no internet connection so I am limited to in the library and during the weekdays/work hours because they control the connection!

Anyway –to keep my sanity, I went back to Yozgat on Saturday and wrote the rest of the post prior to this one. I texted my friend and he came to talk with me again. This time he said I should tell the vice-rector. So, he called the vice-rector and within 20 minutes he and the “head of foreign langs. dept.” –if you remember, actually the head of Physics, showed up on the scene.

I tried to explain to them how I felt. I told them that it was an overwhelming task for a person to come into Turkey for the first time ever, acclimate to the culture, arrive at a developing institution to teach, find there is no program to teach and that this person would have to create an entire university curriculum within a completely foreign university system . . . let’s just stop there. Say that a person was hired, I mean paid a LOT of money to do this and knew that this were the situation and this person had no prior agenda (like learning Turkish or the culture) –then I think I would have no argument. Fine, the guesthouse is uncomfortable, but in time it will be nice.

But for me, I am not a high-paid education consultant (yet). I am a Fulbright ETA with an agenda that does not involve fighting off wild dogs the size of small bears!

Oh, that is something new I have to tell. When I come back to campus at night on the weekends, the bus drops me off at the bottom of the hill, a few blocks down from the guesthouse whereas weekdays it drives on campus. The local wild dogs must know this and roam the campus on the weekends. They are these giant Anatolian Shepherds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolian_Shepherd_Dog that roam in packs. It turns out if there is only one, they won’t really bother you, however I was walking back and there were about 8 of them. I stopped at the security guard house at the entrance of the university and asked if they were dangerous and the young security guy said, no. BUT, he walked me back to the guesthouse. Three of the dogs followed us but then there were these others that were big and ugly, looked like they had been in some fights, that followed further back behind us. He told me a new word, “zehirli” which means, “poisonous, deadly, venomous…” when he pointed to those dogs in the back. Great!

I am getting ahead of myself. I have to finish the story with the vice-rector and the “dept. head.” I told them that my colleagues around Turkey were in better positions but that some were in a similar situation as I am. They knew I went to visit my friend, Sarah, in Çorum, about an hr and a half north of here and asked how she is doing. I told her she is in the öğretmenevi.

AH the öğretmenevi. Literally: “teacher house” the öğretmenevi can be a blessing or a disaster. In Ankara we stayed at a fairly nice öğretmenevi but the one that Sarah stays in is less than nice. However, she does have carpeted rooms, a bedroom, a living area with refrigerator, nice closet space and a bathroom that does not feel like it is an outhouse and internet. She does not have a kitchen –and that is a big problem for her, she is a vegeterian and Turkey is not so accommodating to that lifestyle choice! However, she is within walking distance to a small but wonderful downtown. She took us to a café that was pretty westernized and very warm!

So they thought they would take me to the öğretmenevi in Yozgat. Goooood lord! I almost started crying in despair. Here they have me in a position of hopelessness and they give me the options of a) bad or b) miserable. Well, for now, I chose a) bad.

So then yesterday, I guess word of my displeasure with the university got around to the guy in the international office and he paid a visit to the guesthouse and basically yelled at them for not solving my problems even though they have -0- control over any of my problems. I felt insulted and embarrassed that he would do that. It doesn’t help that the guy who sort of runs the guesthouse already doesn’t like me because I am American. This morning, Monday the 11^th Oct, when I got up, I heard him yelling over the phone to someone about me. Great. Now I feel really unwelcome and like a burden. Like I said, this university is not ready for something like a Fulbright ETA.

So, I am waiting on the decision of my fate. I feel like I am going to be stuck here, however. The Fulbright ETA program is just too new in Turkey for there to be some positive response to this situation. Fingers crossed!

For now, I will continue the development of my curriculum since it is Monday before 5pm and I can have access to the internet. Oh and the library is blessed with a functioning heating system!

Am I being unreasonable? I can’t tell anymore.