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Another picture of me working at my laptop with my dirty bare soles dispalyed.

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A shot of my dirty bare soles.

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Me and Rooha in 2009. She had just started going to school. She is wearing the typical school uniform--blue dress and no shoes! I myself had started going barefoot full time.

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Tanya Nikolosayan graduated in 2004. She went on to study mathematics.

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The Blonde Student

Thursday, September 21 We are almost through reading “Macbeth” and I’m glad of it. The thing is that we’re then going to see a movie version. Hanna has promised to lend me a videocassette and a video player. Which is good because the school doesn’t have audio-visual equipment. Today, as I was going through the lunch room, I’m sure I saw a blonde girl. It was kind of weird because she must be the only blonde girl in the school.She isn’t one of my students, though. Friday, September 22 I saw that blonde girl again today in the lunch room. She has honey colored hair, which makes her stand out, and green eyes. But her facial features have a typical Dakinayan look; sort of rounded, with a broad nose and full lips. She dresses in the school uniform and goes barefoot like the other students. In spite of her appearance, she gets along with the other girls. I’m curious about the girl, but I don’t want to bring the subject up with the other teachers. I guess I’m afraid of offending somebody. Saturday, September 23 Remember that girl I wrote about? Well, it turns out that she is a former student of Natalie’s and that she lives next door. Her name is Tatiana Nikolosayan and she in the fourth level (14 year olds). Her parents are Gabriel and Irina Nikolosayan. Irina is Russian, thought she speaks perfect English. They met while Gabriel was studying in Moscow. Now they teach Russian at the University. They have also translated the works of various Russian authors into the Dakinayan language and are currently working on a translation of Pasternak’s “Dr. Zhivago.” Irina is in her thirties and she is very attractive, with blonde hair and green eyes that have a sensitive look about them. She was wearing a lime green t-shirt and a black veshti, and she was barefoot. Irina says that she initially had trouble adjusting to a barefoot lifestyle, or as she says “I was raised to think that going barefoot was uncultured. But as they say, when in Rome do as the Romans.” Tatiana also has a little brother named Ivan, who eleven years old. Ivan is dark haired though, like his father. Ivan also goes to school barefoot, wearing a uniform of a white shirt and black shorts, like an unshod Little Lord Fauntleroy. He looks so funny! Apparently in this country boys also go to school barefoot, at least in primary school.

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The Cathedral of Hanayeshu at Navapur. The greatest cultural treasure of the Dakinayan people.

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Shopping in the Old City

Saturday, September 9

  Today Liz Shimunayan came by so we could go on our shopping date. She wore a beautiful blue veshti with a white and green floral pattern. She also wore a green t-shirt which showed that she has a fairly large chest, probably in the D-cup range, and a pair of white rubber flip-flops. She says that these and the chapalees she wears to school are the only shoes she owns.

We rode to the old city in an auto-rickshaw, which is a kind of three wheeled motorcycle with the driver sitting in front and the passengers sit in the back under a canvas canopy. Natalie came along too. She said she hadn’t gone to the old city in a long time. We passed by the University on the way. The campus sprawls over a considerable area, but I don’t think it’s as big as the UCLA campus. This is where M.Y. teaches Mathematics. Liz says that her father works here too, as a Biochemistry professor.

 The area around the University looks modern but everything changes as soon as we crossed Polusayan street into the old city. Here the streets were narrow and the buildings were made of wood with black shingles on the roofs. Liz took us to a shop that sells all kinds of beautiful silk clothes. I bought  a red silk veshti with a pattern of white Hibiscus flowers. It cost 80 Tolakas which comes out to 10 dollars. We also went by a leather goods shop where I bought a pair of chapalees for 100 Tolakas, which is about 12 dollars.

I like how they look on my feet; just a loop for the big toe and a strap across the instep. They are the most minimal shoes you can buy. The closest thing to going barefoot.

 We had lunch at a samosa shop. Samosas kind of look like chimichangas. We had them with Cokes. In Dakinaya soft drinks still come in little bottles, not in cans. Then we went by the Cathedral. Most Dakinayans practice Nestorian Christianity. The Cathedral is called Hananyeshu, which means Merciful Jesus, and it is a square structure, with a large pendentive dome on the top. We stepped inside, but we had to remove our sandals and enter barefoot.  Inside the light streamed in through rows of windows, and it gave the light blue of the interior a mystical appearance. The Dakinayan church does not use images, but there is an impressive bronze cross in front of the altar screen. It was very beautiful.

 We returned to the Tomasayan house and Liz showed me how to wear the veshti. It turns out that the way to wear a wrap-around garment like a veshti is to tie it about an inch higher than your normal waist line, and tie it on the side not the front. That way it won’t fall off or start swirling around if there’s a breeze.

I also got to meet Liz’s parents. Her father, the professor, is named Benyamin and her mother Marta is the Headmistress of a school. Liz also has a brother named Edward who is married and lives in another part of the city.

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Liz Shimunayan in her classroom when she was teaching level 6 (twelve year old girls.)

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I lecturing barefoot in my classroom.

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The Barefoot School

Note: this is my diary from my first year teaching English in Dakinaya from 2000 to 2001. I had just graduated from UCLA and my job search wasn’t going well. My roommate Courtney suggested I apply at International English, a firm that finds teaching finds teaching positions in Asia. She had already gotten a teaching job in Japan. I went and applied , but because I had waited so late, the only position they had available was in Dakinaya, a country I had never heard of before.

  Sunday, September 1, 2000

  I am currently in Navapur, the capital of Dakinaya. Tomorrow I’m going to start teaching English at a Secondary school for girls.

  I am staying with the Tomasayans. The family comprises Natalie, who is also a teacher at the school; her father M.Y. (Matay Yosip or Matthew Joseph) who is about fifty and a  Mathematics professor at the University; and Deena, M.Y.’ s wife, an attorney who in her forties. They all speak English and they all seem like nice people. They also have a maid called Mary, who appears to be about 40. She doesn’t speak English but she’s a very good cook. Like today she made a fish dish which was kind of spicy but I’m used to it.

I was kind of disappointed because we were sitting at a table and eating with forks.

  The  Tomasayans live in a house that is two stories tall. Downstairs is what they call the “parlor”, the dining room, kitchen, as well as a bathroom, and a small room for the washing machine. Upstairs they have three bedrooms and another bathroom. I’m going to have a room to myself which is a relief.

  Dakinaya has a tropical climate. I really don’t know much about the country. But I hope I like it here.

Monday, September 4

 Today was my first day at work. We didn’t actually have any classes, mostly it was getting ready and meeting everybody. The students won’t start school until tomorrow.

The name of the school is the George Eliot Secondary school. 

In Dakinaya High School starts at the age of 12 and lasts for six grades, which they call levels. These are numbered in ascending order, which means that the youngest level is the sixth while the highest level is the first. I’m going to be teaching the first level, the 17 year olds. The reason for this is because I don’t know the Dakinayan language. I can’t make out the alphabet which to be honest looks like a bunch of squiggles. I did buy an English Dakinayan dictionary and Natalie has been helping me out. Like she helped me transliterate the names of the students. The good thing is that the classes are going to be small.

 Another difference from back home is that the teachers are addressed as “Master” or “Mistress.” It’s a British custom. Dakinaya was a British colony until 1947.

 The school is run by Headmaster Danilayan and Assistant Headmistress Abramayan.

I’ve gotten to know the other teachers in the English Language Department. The “Chairman” is Hanna Lukasayan, a woman in her fifties, who is going to teach the second level (16 year olds). I also met Filipa Grigorayan who will teach the third level (15 year olds) and Pamela Rafeelayan who will teach the fourth level (14 year olds.)

Natalie will teach the fifth level (13 years). The sixth level (12 year olds) will be taught by Liz Shimunayan, who is about 24. She’s very nice and friendly, with a small round face and big dark eyes. She wore a yellow blouse, a sarong skirt with a beautiful green and blue design and chapalees.  These are the kind of sandals where the sole is attached to the foot by nothing more than a strap across the ankle and a loop for the big toe.

 Everybody seemed nice and helpful. But even so, as I was getting ready toward the end of the day, I began to feel uneasy.

Tuesday, September 5

Today was the first day of class and it was weird!

 I woke up this morning and started to get ready. Natalie advised me to “Wear something discreet, with sleeves. And skirts should be below the knee.”

 So I put on a white blouse, a black skirt with a pink floral pattern, and a new pair of Birkenthongs. To be honest I was trying to look like Ms. Schwartz, who was one of my favorite teachers in High School. I took English Lit. and Creative Writing with her.

 Natalie, for her part, put on a long green dress with a yellow floral pattern on it and a pair of chapalees, which I guess are considered a step up from mere flip-flops. We walked  to scholl because it’s only a few blocks from the Tomasayan house. Natalie carried an umbrella because as she put it “You can’t trust the weather.” Even though it was only eight in the morning it felt as hot as an August afternoon. But so far I liked Navapur. The tall palm trees reminded me of Costa Mesa.

 When we arrived at the school, Hanna Lukasayan talked to me again. She said that the girls in my classes, the 17 year olds, already know English grammar. I still felt nervous though. 

George Eliot Secondary School, which is so named because it is located on George Eliot Street, is a quadrangular, two storey building. It is much smaller than the High School I attended. In the central courtyard a palm tree was growing. I noticed two girls walking by. They were dressed in the regulation uniform, white blouses and blue skirts, but they were barefoot. I assumed they had taken off their shoes for some reason. 

The first bell rang at 8:25 and the first class came in. They were dressed in the uniform—but they were barefoot. That seemed weird. I was already bewildered, having to introduce myself and check the attendance and assign textbooks. 

I was glad when that class period was over. But then the second group came in and they were also barefooted. I looked out into the hallways and saw that all of the girls were unshod. 

But even worse was the way they kept looking at me, like they’d never seen a blonde person before in their lives. I almost felt like saying “Is this supposed to be a joke? All right, you got me! Ha ha!”

 When lunch time came I walked to the teacher’s lunchroom. I sat down with the other English teachers and asked, politely, why none of the students were wearing shoes. Hanna Lukasayan said that it started with the economic crisis of  1998. Many parents said they could not afford to buy shoes so Headmaster Danilayan allowed the girls to come to school barefoot. In the two years that followed, all the girls stopped wearing shoes. 

Hanna Lukasayan didn’t seem pleased with the situation. But Liz Shimunayan, who’s been teaching at the school for a couple of years, is all for it. She says that in this country children are allowed to attend primary school barefoot, so why not secondary also?

She also says that she herself conducts her classes barefoot.

 Things didn’t improve during the afternoon classes. I was so happy when the last class period was over at 2:30. I had one free hour at the end of the day, so I slumped in my chair and kept trying to deal with the “culture shock.”

 When Natalie and I were ready to go we stepped outside and found that the sky was completely covered with gray clouds. It seemed odd given that the skies had been clear just a few hours before. We didn’t walk more than two blocks before a heavy rain began to fall.

 “Right on schedule,” Natalie said as she deployed her umbrella. The rain was so heavy that we removed our sandals and walked the rest of the way barefoot. Well, I guess it makes sense in that regard!

 So then I started to think. Personally, I like going barefoot. Mostly indoors though I’ve done it outdoors on occasion. In fact, I’m really not much into shoes. I spent most of the time at UCLA with  a single pair of Birkenstocks. Though I did buy a pair of dress shoes with two inch heels. For job interviews and that sort of thing.

 Come to think of it, I would’ve liked to have gone to school in my bare feet. Though I would’ve still worn shoes from November to March, when the weather in Costa Mesa gets cold and rainy.