The End Is Near!

The days are dwindling quickly!  Well for me at least!  There are rumors (or rumours) floating around about when the kids will actually stop attending school.  See – here the kids don’t attend school until the “last” day on the school calendar.  They sort of just start trickling away and before we know it there will be no students at school.  We changed our schedule to get out about 90 minutes earlier.  Then we had to go back to the normal schedule for the week our school was getting its inspection done.  Then back to the adjusted schedule.  So that already has sent a message, I think, to the students that the school year is just about finished.  And then this week we stopped doing our morning assembly.  Now we all meet in the school yard and once the national anthem is finished we head to class.  Another sign.  A day or two ago they passed out the final exam schedule.  Previously this was a clue into when it’s time to stop coming and study at home.  So inshallah next week there will be very few classes to teach.  But it’s already happening in grade 11!  This is day three this week where I’ve had less than 6 kids in the class.  Today only 2 and they went to talk to the mudir (principal) about going home.  And they let them go.  So it’s hard to complain when our days get like this and it’s easy to come in go home early.  If only the heat would cooperate. 

We’ve been enjoying our weekends in Dubai lately.  It’s nice to get away from the normal grind and spend the weekend at the beach or doing other things we never have done.  One weekend we headed to Dubai and did the Dubai Dolphinarium.  Here we saw a magic show in addition to the seals and dolphin show.  The kids loved it.  It was what I call hokey but we all enjoyed it.  We also went to a new place in Dubai Mall called Kidzania.  This place is awesome for kids.  They start off by going to the HSBC bank inside and getting their “check” cashed where they can spend it to do certain things or even go “work” at various places and earn money.  We enjoyed watching the kids earn their money and spend of it too.  They did things like work for a phone company, pretended to be a fire fighter, a baker, a dentist.  They spend their money to make their own Coke. Well they think they made it at least.  We spent about 3 ½ hours there and could easily spend the whole day there!  Next time we’ll plan better and get there when they open and stay as long as we can last!  We did have a few issues there with lines.  While we were not surprised at all by the “cutting of lines” it was irritating and we have to do our best to keep our space and explain to the kids that it happens and to get used to it!  We did have to have a discussion with one of the employees about one line issue because Caralyn was going to have to wait even though she was in line.  And anytime we have this issue – I totally understand why some of the locals here have the mentality they do.  Like they’re “entitled” to do what they want. We did have to remind one or two others that there is a line and show them where the end was. It’s only fair, right?!?!?  When we’ve gone to Dubai for the weekend we spend Saturday (our former Sunday) at the beach.  And that is always interesting.

Recently there was an article in the Gulf News about the dress code issues at beaches in Dubai.  They are going to start cracking down on guys who are swimming in their undies and those who come fully clothed to just take photos.  I’ve never seen a lifeguard doing anything at the beach when we’ve gone – that is until last weekend.  Twice the lifeguard called two groups out of the water.  They had folks in their group swimming in just underwear.  So they were asked to leave I guess.  And this was the first time we’ve noticed a sign saying, “no cameras allowed on the beach”. We’ve taken pics several times.  And there were people videotaping their family and friends and such.  But I guess if we’re swimming too then we don’t look like we’re doing anything wrong.  Although I did have to snap the thong speedo dude.

This week has been tough for Jennifer and I since we were both ill.  I started off with some body aches and woke up in the middle of the night with a fever, chills, sweats, and extreme head pressure.  Not fun.  And then I had to do the whole self-discussion of deciding if I can make it through a work day or if I should just see a doctor and then go home and rest.  So since there was a fever, I decided to stay home.  And there’s no “just call in and rest” deal here.  You actually need a doctor’s note for one day off.  So I went to the hospital and three hours later made it home with some meds and a note to rest for two days.  Jennifer gets home early in the afternoon and starts vomiting.  It happened quite a few times and then she decided to head to the hospital.  4 hours later she makes it back home with meds and a note for two days of rest.  So here we were both in bad shape.  And two 5 yr olds to tend to!  But the kids cooperated and were actually good and listened.  Of course bribing with candy helps any kids behave, right?!?!?!  Hopefully we’ll be rested up and feel somewhat normal for the weekend.  Inshallah…

Today is Caralyn’s last day of basketball.  She’s really enjoyed playing.  I think she enjoys doing something that her brother isn’t doing.  Hopefully she’ll want to do it again when they start back up in the fall.  She’s really gained some confidence and such.  She’s also gained a lot of confidence in her academics too – especially in reading.  Just the other day she grabbed a book about seals and was reading rather loudly in the play room.  She’s coming along!  It’s nice to see her come out of her shell a little! 

Before too long we’ll be back in Texas enjoying time with family and friends.  Well after our trip to Paris to visit Disney Paris.  Can’t wait!  And hopefully we can fit a quick trip to the Eiffel Tower too.  It’s nice to be able to visit places we normally wouldn’t.  If we were still in Houston, we wouldn’t even think about going to Paris.  So while it is hard living away from family, we know there are some perks to this location.  And we’re just about half way through this journey.  This time next year we’ll be planning how to sell all our things here we don’t want to go through the huge paperwork trail to head back to the states and pick up where we left off!

Some photos:

The kids started their fun at Kidzania but cashing their check so they can spend some money.  Or they can get to work and earn more!

At the Coke place!  Here they make thier own soda!

Here they were at a bakery making some biscuits.  Not breakfast biscuits - here they call cookies - biscuits.

Cole was working for a bank security place delivering money.

Working for Du - a telephone company.

The Dubai Dolphinarium

We were impressed by these lights.  They tell you if a parking spot is open by the lights!  So if there are all red - keep going to the next row.  Pretty smart!

Jumeriah Beach

This is Lara - the kids' (really Caralyn's friend) friend they met at the beach.  It was really weird at first she was talking to Caralyn and then played in the sand with her and then went out in the water with her.  But I think she just wanted to hang out.  She is from Russia and was visiting Dubai for a week.  They enjoyed her company.

This is what we call a hot mess. 

A week or so ago was spirit week at the kids' school. They did different things each day like wearing clothes backwards, dress as a future career (this is what you see!), a favorite character, mix match clothes, etc.  It made it an easy week of waking the kids up for school!

Dino Live Pics:

The kids used their money to buy these dinosaur fossil blocks.  They scraped and dug out a dinosaur.

We recently had some pics made into canvas hangings.  They are adorable! 

These are 70cm x 50cm.

One of the most common mistakes when our students write is the confusion of the B and P.  Since there is no P sound or letter in Arabic they often choose the wrong one.  Here is a poster that one of Jennifer's students made on the Lamp.  Mary Had A Little Lamp?  Or Lamb?  Another example of how spell check doesn't always help!

I couldn't figure out how to rotate the pic.  But how hilarious is it that a medicine has "retard" in the name.  Really?

Stay Tuned...

One Year....

Hard to believe that a year has passed since we interviewed to come teach in the UAE! A whole year! Not sure we really thought we'd actually move 8200 miles away from what was comfortable and start all over in a foreign county! Seems like just a few months. And when another year passes we hope to have secured a job for the 2013-2014 school year at our same schools and begin planning the move back to Texas! It’ll be like picking up where we left off! Inshallah…

Things are beginning to wind down for the school year. Well – for me at least! At my school our schedule changed this past week. We no longer have period 9 and they shortened all the other periods to 40 minutes. And took out the prayer break. So now our school dismissed cycle 2 at 12:30 and cycle 3 at 1:10. Two days a week I was teaching period 9 which ended at 2:50. So one would think that shortening the school day would help. But it really doesn’t. In fact, I think it just made the kids even more eager for summer vacation to show up. They’re even more lazy and anxious for 1:10.

I attempted to explain to some of my 11^th graders that they should be grateful that their day is now less and they have more time to enjoy life outside of school. And they still want to leave a few minutes before the bell rings as if those few minutes will make life that much better. And how they should work harder since the principal changed the day and made it better for them! But of course not. Give them an inch….

It’s also been interesting watching our kids really changing and growing here too! Well sometimes it’s interesting. Sometimes there is nothing fun about it. Like birthday parties. There have been instances where one kid gets invited to a part and the other doesn’t. One party Cole Caralyn was invited to and once we got there one parent asked another why she didn’t invite the “boy”. The mother then said he could stay. Well this weekend Caralyn was invited to a birthday party and Cole wasn’t. When Jennifer was talking about leaving soon, Cole ran upstairs to get his shoes on and such. Well we told him he wasn’t invited and staying home with me. Then the whining started and even tears! Poor guy. And then Caralyn has to say, “You were invited to Ahmed’s party and I wasn’t!” But that just upset Cole even more because that was the party at this huge park at the mountain at 8:30 at night and we never could find the party. We drove around for 30 minutes but never saw a birthday party. Cole probably can’t wait to get invited to the next party and rub it in Caralyn’s face! On the positive side, Caralyn is really getting good at reading. She’s finally building up confidence and even wants to read with her brother. And her teacher said she’s beginning to read out loud in class too! While it isn’t the education we’d get back at home, its working and they’re learning. And just because it’s different doesn’t mean its worse.

There was a shooting in Al Ain back on Friday May 4^th. It was not really near our house but near Al Jimi Mall. This mall seemed fine to me, but several folks say it’s the ghetto area of town! So apparently there was some vehicle accident or road rage situation between two vehicles. One vehicle had 4-5 folks in the car and after this altercation someone shot the two men in the other car. Killed them. Right there in the car I guess. And this all occurred at 5 p.m. in the afternoon. The two men killed were from Oman. And the shooting vehicle fled the scene and supposedly was caught on the road to Dubai. I’ve read conflicting reports from different newspapers. They’ve arrested three suspects so far. I’ll be curious who the suspects were and what their punishments are!

Speaking of May 4^th – we had some Texas friends over for dinner. We invited all the Texas teachers over but we only had about 12 that came. But we had a good time chatting, catching up, and sharing crazy and hilarious stories. And we kept it like home and enjoyed tacos for dinner! It was our Cinco de Mayo meal! It’s great hearing about other teacher’s experiences here in the UAE! It will be sad to leave one day and have these friends still here!

There are some things that I will not be sad to leave. These are things I will never get used to here.

The first and most irritating is the way some of our coworkers are treated. I would use the word coworker but I bet if you ask any of the Arabs at my school, they’d never attempt to put this group of folks into the “coworker” category. These are what they have labeled as Tea Boys. In the states, they would be known as custodians or janitors. But here they have more responsibility than just to keep our school tidy. Their “additional duties as assigned” paper must be rather long! They clean all the cups/mugs that teachers drink their tea and coffee out of. They make coffee and not only do they make it, they go and serve some of the teachers and administrators as if they can’t walk to the room and pour their own coffee. It’s a hot mess. And then today I was appalled. A teacher put in a large amount of copies last week. So this morning he asked the “tea boy” to go and bring them up to our office. And my first thought was, “He can’t go get them?” “REALLY?” Of course not. He had to drink his water and recline back in his chair while someone else gets his papers. It amazes me. And I’m not talking about an Emirati here either – this is a man from another Arab country who is here in the UAE to make a better living for himself. Clearly he thinks he has arrived!

Another is the whole situation of the maid’s quarters. There is this room that most villas have that is designated for the maid/housekeeper. There is a room, air conditioning, and a full bathroom. Well by full I mean sink, toilet, and shower. It’s not like full as in some two sink counter with some nice lighting and a nice large walk-in shower or a tub with jets. Besides they don’t believe in counter space in the bathroom! Anywho…so there are people (from various parts of the world – America included I’m sure!) who move here and enjoy the luxury of having a maid. And you know what – we do too – but ours does not live with us and it’s just to clean our villa once a week. But some have a live-in maid that cleans, cooks, does laundry, and cares for kids. I suppose it’s like a maid/housekeeper/nanny all in one! And they expect them to sleep in this tiny room. I heard a friend who was visiting us in Al Ain say it is basically an indentured servant. Straight Up! And the pay they receive is crazy. And most will say something like, “it’s the going rate”, or “that’s what the agency said to pay them!” Really? So we know of nanny’s (who do everything in the home!) that make anywhere from 750 AED to 1200 AED a month. And I think they are provided with food that their employer buys. I think. So 750 AED to 1200 AED in U.S. Dollars is about $203 to $326. Can you imagine? I can’t. We pay our cleaner more than they charge, but as I type this I feel like I should pay more every week. It’s baffling still – even after living in this country for 9 months!!!

Trashing your county. Literally. We see so many people, including the kids, who just drop trash where ever they want. It might be in the mall, the cafeteria at school, or the street. And why do they do it? Do they really not care about their city and county? They have so much pride for the UAE and yet they trash the place. Well that’s because there are workers who are the trash-picker-uppers. They work for the trash company. They walk around in a full jumpsuit type uniform with a pitch fork and trash can and collect all the trash people have thrown out the windows and such. It’s another one of those things that you just never can quite understand. And if they don’t have laws regarding littering, they should. But then again you’d need police that are vigilant to see this. And we never really see police just patrolling the streets. I rarely see one in my day-to-day driving.

We want to tell our Mothers HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TOO! We know it’s not the ideal Mother’s Day since they have children who are not there to spend the day with. No matter where in the world we are, we appreciate and love our mother’s! I was reading inspirations quotes the other day and saw this one: “We never know the love of the parent until we become parents ourselves” written by Henry Ward Beecher. Totally true too! Wallah as we say here in the UAE! Wallah is like saying “swear to God” in Arabic.

I have been attempting to learn phrases in Arabic these last few weeks. And there are several that I throw out there and the kids just crack up! Here they are:

Isma = listen

When there is a kid who I know never listens the first time I tell them to sit down, I go up to them and say, “Isma….ELISS”which means listen…sit down! They smile and 99% of the time go sit down. Well for 5 minutes at least!

Hilawa = candy/sweet

I have been handing out hard candy to those kids who do what I ask and complete their work. It’s really helped some of them actually sit down and cooperate. Inshallah it’ll keep working. At least until they quit coming to school!

Mafi Maloom = I don’t know

Sufra = zero

I’ve started reading several various blogs that teachers here in the UAE have been writing as well as some from the new crop of teachers who are getting ready to start this journey we started a year ago! Well then I wondered how many people have read my blog. I remembered that Blogger keeps stats on your blog. So here are our stats:

The blog has been viewed: 6,981 times and by folks in the USA, Ireland, Canada, UAE, United Kingdom, Mexico, Turkey, India, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan. That's pretty cool, I think!

Here are some pics: 

This is a cool lamp from Turkey we bougth at Global Village back in March when our fam was here visiting.  It's awesome - especially at night with all the lights out.

Movie Time!

Poor Cole - looks constipated!  Either way - theyr'e cute!

So the weather here has become almost unbearable!  We've had temps up to 115.  Some say it's reached 120+.  And last week we had some crazy winds/sand storm for a few hours.  It was like hurricane winds - or at least it felt like that in a vehicle - and there was all sorts of brush fliying around.  But our cactus plants are thriving!  All sorts of new growth. 

These plates are awesome!  We bougth them at our church.  The Lord's Prayer - one in Arabic and one in English.  Not that we'd know if the Arabic one was not the Lord's prayer!  

Janae and Janese cooking up some queso for our Texas Cinco de Mayo dinner! 

They were both great! 

Cole doing some reading homework.  Homework time is always eventfull whether that be negative or positive!  And it's only the beginning! 

STAY TUNED...