I screwed up big time. I never verified that my student loan deferment was accepted. Just assumed that I would hear something if it was not. The letters and warnings were all sent in paper form to my mom's house. She is in Costa Rica. For some reason my loans don't qualify for the public service deferment, instead I have to fill out the economic hardship deferment. I downloaded the correct form today after getting an emergency forbearance over the phone last night. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted all of the photos off of my ipod in the process. Super bummed. I thought I was deleting somebody else's photos because there is file named "stuff from Josh's ipod" which I thought I was inside of when I saw the large photo file. The bright side is that I did not accidentally delete all 7 of my recently acquired Harry Potter books in mp3 format. My steadily accruing string of lesson plans and other random information make the disk quite full (all information I need or might need I store on my camera or ipod), or at least it was quite full before I deleted my photos (tear). Of course I have those photos backed up on cd in NM, but no way to look at them now. I should get an actual little external flash so I don't have to carry my electronics everywhere, of course it's nice to have my camera with me, because Kodak moments are fairly common.
So, frustration boiling within for being careless with my loan status and my photo stash led to a fast 8 miler through woods and fields with some pickups thrown in on smooth sections. The gophers are working overtime. Who eats gophers?
Now my achilles hurts, which is another frustration I don't feel like dealing with right now. Guess I will play violin, clean my bathroom, or find some other activity that makes me feel useful. The network is down at school which means only one computer can get internet which means everybody waiting for one computer. I got 5 minutes today which is barely enough time to load gmail. Downer few days, hope I can score a goal in the game on Sunday and help my team bring home the cup. I also got accepted into the PEPFAR AIDS/HIV training in Kyiv which will start on the 21st. That week of school combined with the Easter break week following will give me two weeks away from teaching. Time I could use to re-energize.
With all the other money drama, I almost forgot the latest development in the ever surprising Ukrainian education finance system. I had a feeling that our school had more money than the government gave. I learned about the $2 million World Bank loan in my district, and now also how each class is responsible for providing a sum of money to buy books, chalk, and all other "school needs". This comes from parents.
Anyway, the latest deal for my apartment rent is 92.5% funded by the Peace Corps and the other 7.5% by my school. The director of my school negotiated this with my director in the Peace Corps. Yesterday she called in all of the teachers I work with and told them that they were responsible for paying that part of my housing expenses. Not all the English teachers, only those teachers that I work with. They must pay every month, and even in the summer. The teachers have to pay to work with me? This makes it even harder to introduce new and unusual techniques, which some of the teachers are already hesitant about, and now they have to pay to watch me do my weird communicative method which may or not improve their students' test scores on the old and less than communicative tests. The other reason it pisses me off is that the English teachers recently each gave the director a cash gift of 50UAH for her 50th birthday. This sum would exactly cover the amount needed for my living for the entire 23 months they are being asked to pay. Yet instead of my director just taking it out of her pocket, she takes it from teachers who make less than half of what she does, and already have to contribute to a variety of other school funds.
