Had some interesting discussions with some kids today. It all started when I asked a kid when he would turn in the product of his project. He responds to my question with, “Tuesday, Inshallah!” If you’ve been keeping up with our blog you know inshallah means “god willing”. I told him, “no inshallah – yes or no?” He laughed because he thought I didn’t understand what inshallah meant. So after some translating and discussion we all agreed that we hear inshallah so much that many many many many people use it when they really mean, “it’ll never happen!” So later another student said his final product will be turned in tomorrow and there was no inshallah added to it, we all just laughed!
Later that same period – we were watching a PowerPoint one of the students copied….I mean created! He of course had no idea what he meant when he copied the text from the internet! So the kids would start saying, “Teacher – Shawn – copy paste, copy paste!” Why did they say this? Because they knew, as well as me, that this was not their original work. It was copied from some site! And this isn’t just your typical lazy kid – this happens with kids can easily do a great presentation and earn the highest mark! But their school culture is too strong to actually cause them to sit and write using their own brain. Then Abdullah proceeds to tell me that anyone can go to the library and pay “him” (him must be one of the workers – not sure if it’s an actual librarian or what!) 10 AED and he will give you a CD with a presentation on it and even type in your name and info. I just laughed and he laughed with me. We always talk about the issues with education here! I told him that plagiarism is extremely serious in college in America – that you get expelled for it. He couldn’t believe it!
The week brought on some interesting issues with me. I started feeling like I was coming down with the flu and such but after a day I went back to my exercise routine and thought it would help me shake whatever was taking over me. Boy was I wrong! I spent the next several days feeling worse and I ached soooo bad! Then Thursday I wake up feeling better and ready to finish the week out. Well I wake up and have this rash/bump thing all over my head, face, and chest. I then got worried and decided I better go see a doctor. And seeing a doctor here means you go to the hospital to the urgent care clinic. I was lucky enough that the doc on call that day was an American doctor that quite a few folks recommended. He did some blood work, strep test, and said that I had the beginning of the pneumonia. And the weird thing was that I might just have the measles. It’s going around here and if you have very little of the vaccination left in your body since we’re vaccinated so young – then you have a chance of catching the virus. So that test takes a week – and so we’ll find out if that it was it was. They don’t treat it just let it run its course. But I’m much better now – no rash/bumps and glad to come back to work just in time for the easy three weeks!
So this morning on the way to work two of the LT’s that ride with me to work were telling me we were having a parade for National Day. And of course, since I didn’t know, I didn’t bring my camera. So we get to school and a kid tells us that he brought his camel to ride in the parade. We go in, clock in, and head to our department room. No one had any details on the parade or where it starts or even what time. Someone was blowing up balloons in the foyer too. So we never did figure out where to go, since we’re always left in the dark, but we caught the end of the parade from our office windows. There were a few horses and the camel. They walked down the street into the front courtyard area of the school and then hallas! After they posed for pictures in the front of school, as we walked out to the front, two students of mine were in the foyer with three falcons they brought. Falcons are a big deal here. They had them tied to a glove type of the thing. They even had their eyes covered with these little suede helmet things. They were pretty darn neat! And he tells me they spend around 10,000 AED (about $3,600) for each one. So after all of this hoopla, the kids sort of roamed and never really did anything. I was asked to cover a class for another LT who is out sick with the same thing I had, rash and all! His class only had 6 students. I was ready with a movie in hand! After 10 minutes another teacher asked if he could have the class so I left. They sent the kids home early today – after 3rd period – and the social worker apparently told the kids to come back when the first day of exams starts – which is not until December 7th. Today is November 28th! So it appears that for the next several days we will sit here and make sure we graded all of our ECART projects and play on the internet and chat. Then when we have exams, they only give one a day so they kids are only here for a few hours anyway. Fun times! And this weekend the Ministry of Education declared Thursday a school holiday for the Muslim New Year and then National Day is Friday/Saturday so there will be lots to see for that!
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| A gift from one of Jennifer's students. |
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| Some artowrk that some girls at Jennifer's school made. It's the outline of the UAE and they decorated it with some shimmery type material like the flag. |
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| Kids even write on the bathroom walls here - only difference is they not only sign their name - they write what class they are in. |
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| Nice 40th display at Jennifer's school. |
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| One day last week at my school, some kids did some sort of traditional dance thing using some guns - of course not real loaded guns. And a staff member did some traditional dance using a small skinny shephard's stick thing. |
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| My school's foyer |
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And the UAE folks are sooooooo pround to be Emirati they decorate their vehicles. Some are nice and fancy, and well others....just some spray paint looking art. Nonetheless, they are all proud!
This is Caralyn's dress she got - she'll wear it Jennifer's school for the National Day festivities and then wear it to her school for their festivities!
Do you know what place this is?
kids at Jennifer's school brought in these birds. And do not think they bought them - some girls told Jennifer their father just got the bird outside and then they painted them. They kept them in the kitchen at the school (the teacher kitchen - talk about sanitary!) They kept them there for several days until yesterday they released them. Some didn't leave right away - guess they liked the food they were fed! Or maybe they were embarassed to fly out in public looking like that!
Some National Day event at Bawadi Mall. We never did figure out what they were doing, but did see some of the guns so they must of danced and such.
More UAE colored dressed the girls wear. Check out the wings!
We also spent our first Thanksgiving here in the UAE! Believe it or not - there were quite a few options. Several hotels were hosting dinners, and there were a few LT's who were acutally cooking meals too. We opted for the hotel option - fairly cheap - no cooking - no cleaning - and with me being sick - it was perfect! Here are some photos:
Why this picture? No reasons...just thought it was a good photo! It's disgusting, right? Maybe it'll help a smoker see how nasty it is. Imagine the smell too!
Stay Tuned...
