Monday, August 27, 2007

Bar Exam Bathroom Monitor

In all my dreams of living overseas doing international development work, I never once imagined myself as a bathroom monitor. The second annual monitored and transparant bar exam in Armenia changed all of that.

To give some background, a Texas bar exam lasts for 2.5 days, covers about 20 subjects, requires about 2 months of intense turoring and studying, and is incredibly stressful on not just the applicant, but on anyone who knows that person. The exam is multiple choice and essay and timed. The exam is closely monitored and even a hint of improper glancing about or communicating with someone is enough to get you in serious trouble - if not expelled and forever barred from practicing law.

In Armenia, law graduates who have 2 years of work experience are qualified to sit for the bar and can chose to take the civil or criminal law exam. Once registered, the applicant obtains a book of 1000 questions and answers and has 2 months to study. The exam itself is 100 questions randomly selected from the book. Supposedly, the questions tend to be fairly easy - especially if the person studies. The applicant has 6 hours to answer 100 questions.

On August 25, the test was supposed to start at 9:00, but because the head of the Qualification Commission (like the name?) arrived 1.5 hours late, the test did not start until 10.

Here's a description of the testing facilities at Yerevan State University gymnasium: Large enough for the 200+ registered applicants and the 60+ international montitors. Soviet built in 1980; I would have guessed it was from the 1940's. The floors were wood originally painted a lovely blue, but that had worn off many years ago. Plywood covered worn or rotted planks so the floor was mostly uneven. There was no airconditioning nor fans; the only circulation was from the one door into the gym and one door to the smoking area.

After checking purses, bags, and cell phones, a security guard wanded applicants for cell phones. At the front of the room were the some exam monitors, members of the Qualification Commission and the place to turn in the exam. The applicants sat in wooden desks with attached bench seats. Since most Armenians seem to smoke, we provided a smoking area right outside the exam room. While the smoking area was shady and received a nice breeze, the bathrooms were not so well situated. And that is where I was for the first three hours.

Susie, an embassy employee manager type with law enforcement background, had monitored the bathrooms during the last bar exam and was in no mood to have similar situations of large numbers of women talking together. So, she designed quite a detailed plan to prevent chaos and attempts at cheating. First, every person who came to the bathroom had to be escorted to the bathroom checkpoint by a monitor. Once there, the person who needed to pee handed her identification card to Susie. Susie would turn over the identification card and note the time the woman approached and keep the card. When the woman was finished, Susie would write the time she came out, return the card, and make sure the applicant's monitor was there to escort her back to her desk. Too many trips to the bathroom, inordinate amounts of time in the bathrooms would target you as a potential cheater.

Now for my glamorous job: actual checker of bathroom stalls. The bathrooms visually appeared clean, but smelled bad - most likely because one of the three squat toilets didn't flush. You walk in to a room with 2 sinks only one of which works. There is soap, paper towels, and a small trash can. Turn a corner and there are three places of potential cheating. The tanks were up high and each stall was separated by a white tiled wall that ran to the ground. As I am not a sewage system expert, I do not know why it is, but apparently you don't flush toilet paper down a squat toilet; instead you put the used TP in the trashcans. Trash cans that were obviously too small for the 100+ women who had to use them. It was most unpleasant.

That is where my life of international intrigue starts. After an initial sweep of the bathroom located a pen and answers to at least 2 tests (turns out it was some English exam), I began to check each stall after each woman left. That meant using a paper towel as a physical barrier while I lifted and inspected the filthy trash can, swept above the tank and tiled walls. Once I hollered "all clear" Susie would let the woman who had just done her busines return to the test. I also would sometimes follow any particularly suspicious woman (those who had to go to the bathroom more often than was normal was one tip off or the woman who tried to cheat last year was another) into the bathroom. If there were mulitiple women at the same time, I would stand outside the stalls to make sure there was no talking. I felt like a KGB spy --- not a very good one, mind you, as I could not possibly have known whether they were discussing the exam or asking about the weather.

Almost giddy with excitement, I escaped the bathroom and monitored the gym. The attempts at cheating were amazing. Smokers would go outside and talk to commission members (the ones who administered the test!) and other applicants. Applicants would look around the room at each other and give eye signals; the qualification commission board members would whisper to applicants. One did it with me 6 feet away and before I could walk over to hear their conversation (not that I would understand it). Several people would attempt to look at material in their pockets and one woman tried to leave the gym with the test. Another man left, returned, and then tried to demand his right to continue! And even respect for people taking the test was not to be found. Several QC members would answer and talk on their phones while sitting next to an applicant and then give me dirty looks when I said "che" (no).

On the upside: it was by far the fairest exam given. The pass rate was slightly higher than expected: about 50%. The ones that were suspected of cheating did not pass; a couple were expelled outright.

Next year I told my boss Sonya that the bathroom monitors needed surgical masks, disposable gloves and aromatic candles.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Madisen is back in Texas


I am in Dallas (Arlington to be exact). I got in Tuesday at 2. Guess the suprieses we got.

First of all, We were getting on the flight to heathro. When we are in the air, a guy sitting next to us tells us the plane is going to SYRIA. Yeah. We think we got on the wrong flight, but we didn't. A plane broke down and we had to pick up the crew and some passengers. This took a little while, about an hour. So everyone is late for our flight, including us.

Once we get to Heathro, we get on a flight to Boston Logan. Me and my nana fly on first class. I sleep about 4 hours. The flight attendents stuff us up with food, I thought I ate a little to much.

Once we get to Boston we want to stay at the Hilton, the closest hotel. They don't have any availible rooms, when we waited about 20 mins. for the shuttle to pick us up. A guy owns a box of rooms and he happens to have an open one. We stay in that. It is nice, but guess how much it is. $249. We get up in the morning and want to eat. It is not included with the room. So I have a muffin while nana has coffe.

We fly to Laguardia, in NY. We get on the second flight to Dallas.

That is all about our trip.




Madisen

From Lori: she is now back with Tom and very happy to see him and Daisy. We miss her.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Waterparks and swimming in Armenia





Yerevan is hot. The summer is not as long and intense as in Texas, but hot enough. While it cools down some at night, the days hover in the high 80's-90's and low 100's. We do have a pool at our house, but it has no filtration and has to be drained about every 2 weeks (I would prefer weekly, but it is not up to me). At least there is chlorine. The kids - especially the boys - jump in and out several times a day.

A few weeks' ago we went to Lake Sevan - a huge body of fresh water that covers a significant part of Armenia. It is lovely - surrounded by mountains with ancient monasteries in view. The water is very cold as the elevation is quite high.

We stay at this hotel on the lake that boasts of its own waterpark. The kids were thrilled - 3 whole days of swimming and two water slides! I was thrilled because I could sit by the pool, look up every few minutes and count 3 heads, and return to my book. Now for the reality: it didn't open until noon each day leaving about three hours to kill between breakfast and swimming. And even worse - the slides were for kids at least 10 years old. Madisen had no problem; shy Cole pretended he didn't understand when they asked him how old he was and scooted down just fine; but poor Austin was obviously not even close to 10. Even after I talked/motioned to the lifeguard that Austin could swim, he still couldn't go on. The first full day he watched Madisen and Cole Ryan slide down. The second day, the lifeguard got sick of his sad, pitiful face coming up and down the steps and finally let him go down. Austin was thrilled. And the lifeguards were relieved he could swim.

Now for our Yerevan waterpark experience. We pack up and go with Amy, Sonya, and their adorable new son, Jaden, who is 11 months,to THE waterpark in all of Armenia. Despite the fact that Austin measures exactly 120 cm - the cut off height to use all the slides - the waterpark refuses to give him the correct wrist band and he is stuck in kiddie land. I explain he can swim, I point to the measuring stick. All to no avail...he must stay in the kiddie area, may not go in the wave pool, and can't go on the big waterslides. So two of my kids can go on everything and one can't - a huge logistical headache for mom.

Next problem: glasses. You can't wear them at all. Amy can't see without hers and they are plastic lenses. That didn't matter - they wouldn't even let her stick her legs in the baby pool with them on. I had on cheap plastic sunglasses and had to take those off too.

After about 2 hours in full sun, I make the kids wear their t-shirts in the water. Two different lifeguards told me and the kids to take them off. I said no, pointed to the sky, said in Armenian "big sun", pointed to the kids' skin and said in Russian "red" and refused (I was adamant as the kids had already burned and peeled at Lake Sevan despite repeated sunscreen applications). At one point the lifeguard told me that I couldn't swim with a t-shirt on so I dove into the water and showed him I was quite capable of doing so and said the kids were too. After repeatedly asking why and pointing out other people who were wearing shorts, skirts, and even entire cover ups in the pool, they gave up and just pretended they didn't see us breaking the rules.

Next problem: Kiddie waterslides and Austin. Since he couldn't go down the big slides, the kiddie slides were his only option and not turned on until about 30 minutes before we left. Imagine lots and lots of children rushing to the top of the waiting area that serves 3 different slides with no identifiable line for each one. Now imagine one young lifeguard - obviously childless and just in the job to pick up teen age girls - trying to corral about 20-30 screaming, excited kids all of whom were cutting in front of each other. And then add the parents who were either trying to cut into line for their kids or yelling at the lifeguard for not letting their kid go down next (even when they had obviously cut in line). Now imagine Austin who had been taught at his Montessori school to stand in a proper line and was actually doing it. So Austin can't even get to the slide. I end up having to stand near him telling the kids who are trying to cut "che" or "nyet". He went down exactly three times before we left.

So, here are the rules at the only waterpark in the city of Yerevan: you can't wear clothing to protect yourself from the sun, you can't wear glasses to see, you can't wear sunglasses to prevent sun damage, you can't go down big waterslides unless you are more than 120 cm, and you practically have to fight with other children to get onto a kiddie slide.

But amazingly you don't have to know how to swim - and most people don't. Now, for babies and young children who are only permitted in shallow water, this is obviously not an issue. But here is what is amazing.....at every single slide, and at the trapeze bar, we were asked if we could swim. Cole was first asked and then Madisen. I chalked it up to them being kids. But when the lifeguard asked every one of us every single time.... I got the hint. So, when a person says they can't swim, the lifeguard at the top of the ride yells down to the lifeguard in the pool. The pool lifeguard meets the non-swimmer at the end of the slide or after dropping from the trapeze - from 10 ft above into 12 feet of water (!)- and escorts them out on an approved flotation device.

Oh yeah, babies are not required to wear swim diapers.

I think it is just easier - and maybe even cleaner - to swim in our MBG - mosquito breeding ground - that we call a pool.

Cute Armenian Animals





Here are some of the cute animals that we have seen.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Animals of Armenia and my last post

I am coming home in 6 days with my nana(if we get on all the flights)! I was supposed to be the only one coming home, but something happened with the tickets so now Cole may come home with me. I don't want Cole to come home. I will email everyone the pictures.

The dogs of Armenia. There are ALOT of them. First I will tell you about Rex. Rex is a German Shepard. He is owned by our Landlord. He lives in a 6x2 foot cage. He eats bread and water. Rex has NOTHING to play with, so when he gets bored he plays with his water bowl, and sometimes knocks the water out. My grandmother feels so sorry for him. When she came brought some bones up for him, he loved those.

We saw a dog in a church. I don't think he has a name, and I decided to call him Shiloh(After our Guinea pig that died). Shiloh was very cute. We fed him 3 beef jerky strips. He even rolled over so we could rub his belly which mom said later that that ment he trusted us.

We saw turtles on the street there were baby ones. We all held one.

We don't have a picture of this dog, but she was so cute! We saw her at the gas station. She was black and just getting her teeth in. We gave her some bread to chew on, and she loved it. She also rolled over on her back.

The dog with her puppies we saw in Georgia(not the state, the country). Alot of people fed her, I guess because her puppies were so cute. 1 time when we were walking by, she got up and left her puppies. We got to touch them. I went to go look for the mother, and she was sitting behind a homeless woman. I think the woman was very kind to the dog, and looked after her.

We also saw kittens. They were in the garage by our house. They were so cute! I can't really explain them, but their eyes were not opened. Cole is holding it when it is more grown.

We went to the zoo twice. It was small and was your average day zoo, until we came to the lions and tigers. The cages were so close that you could literally reach out and touch them. They did not have very much room, while the horses had alot. There was also a mother with her cubs.

There are alot more animals here, but there are so many I can't explain everything. Here is one more thing.

On the way to school there was a puppy and a dog. The puppy was half way across the street when a car came. The puppy stopped, and then made its way to the other side of the street while the dog crossed the street with the kids who were crossing the street with a crossing guard.

1 more thing. Piglets. We saw some piglets. This is the last picture. Aren't they cute? We saw them nursing but did not take a picture of that.

Madisen