RAIN

You will not believe it but I am curled up in bed right now listening to the RAIN falling outside!!! I never thought I would say that in Bahrain!! It's been cloudy and a little bit drizzly all day, but now it is actually RAINING! And the forecast has rain for the next 5 days!!!!! AMAZING!

Eid Mubarak!

Well, it's time for the second Eid of the year, so we have six days off of school again. The first Eid occurs at the end of Ramadan in celebration of the end of the month of fasting. During the second Eid, many Muslims remember the sacrafice that Abraham was willing to make with his son Isaac. It is tradition that on the first day of Eid, Muslims will slaughter their own lamb early in the morning and then eat it later in the day with family. Although I knew this, I was still a little shocked to step out of my apartment on Friday morning and see a pool of blood in the street. One of the neighbors was cleaning blood and entrails off his front step and the remants were pooling outside my building. Lovely.
It is also during this Eid that many Muslims make a trip to Mecca. I saw on the news that Saudi was getting hit with rain, so all the Muslims in Mecca were getting poured on. I was quite excited about the prospect of rain, and we did enjoy a lovely five minute rain yesterday evening. Unfortunately, before I could get my shoes on and go to the roof to enjoy it, it was over.
The rain has brought in some cooler temperatures, so it seems that winter is drawing near. In the last week I have seen people sporting jackets, snow hats, and even scarves; all necessary in these chilly 75* days. :)

what are they thinking?

One of my better students was studiously bent over his desk working on his math assignment. As I walked closer, I looked at his hand. "What is that?" I asked, to which he enthusiastically replied, "It's my pencil, Miss. I've had it since last year!"

harvest

this is the best I can do :)

morning surprise

after a rather unsettling few days at school, I was treated to an unusual surprise one morning. Upon meeting my class in the courtyard, one of my more disruptive and generally rebellious children walks up to me and hands me a small purple box. "From my mother, " he says.

Hmmm...a nice gesture or a bribe??? I'm not sure yet...

welcome back to school

Just thought I would give you a little update on the happenings of MKS. We've only been back in school for three days, but from what I can tell, most classes are pretty chaotic. I think it's just because the kids have been out of school so long; they can't sit still, can't concentrate, and won't stop talking. That seems to be pretty consistent all across the board. It's like they've forgotten everything completely. Here are just a few examples from the last two days:

1. I was on duty in the cafeteria and right in front of my a little fourth grader punches another boy right in the face. Then he ran away laughing. I caught him by the arm and asked him why he did that and he said, "It's ok; he's my cousin." I took him to the principal.

2. On the second day I called my first parent. This kid is one of two extremes. He is either completely spaced out, like he's on a different planet or he's talking non stop about anything and everything. In either case, he does absolutely nothing in class.

3. At the end of the day yesterday, we were wrapping up our lesson when suddenly one kid says something to another one, which causes him to jump out of his chair and push the first kid up against the wall like he's ready to fight. I wrote a note to send them both to the school counselor, and one of them refused to leave claiming he did nothing wrong. Then the other one also refused to leave. So I said I would keep them after school then, which made the defiant one put his head on his desk and start crying. I took them both to the office after school.

4. One of the kids from number 3 (not the crier, the other one) has decided he is not going to do anything in class. He doesnt' bring his books and he just sits there. Today they were supposed to be working on their vocabulary and writing sentences. He ripped a giant hole in the middle of his paper and wouldn't write anything. When I asked him why, he said he was sick. I told him if he was sick he should take his paper and go to the office. he refused to leave or do his work, so I sent another student to get the counselor. She talked to him for about 15 minutes and called his parents.

5. And this one takes the cake! At the end of the day we usually play hangman while the bus kids are leaving. There is one kid, the spaced out talker from number 2, who sits right in the front so I can keep an eye on him. Well, while we were playing, he was messing around with his water bottle. It has a long shoulder strap which he took off the bottle and was playing with. I didn't mind because he was quiet and not bothering anyone. Well, in the span on a minute, and I kid you not, it was that fast, he had made a loop with the strap, put it around his neck, and tied the other end to the leg of his chair. By the time I turned to look at him, he was on the floor on all fours howling and barking and jumping around like a dog. My jaw dropped, and I literally stood there with my mouth hanging open. Then I called his name and asked him to sit down, so he quickly scrambled into his seat and is frantically aplogizing while still wearing the dog collar and leash. I just started laughing because at that point, there was nothing else I could do.

The life of a school teacher...

virtual shower

This summer my aunts threw me a wonderful wedding shower. Due to my unusual circumstances, they made it a virtual shower where all the guests wrapped up pictures of what they wanted to give me and enclosed the monetary amount to make that purchase once I returned to Bahrain. Well, I've moved into my new apartment and have begun the shopping! Actually, many people generously donated dishes, kitchen appliances, towels, and sheets, so I've only purchased a few things. Here are some pics of the new items...

my favorite...a must have for those who don't enjoy cooking...a crock pot!

hanging by the front door...these colors match my tan furniture and yellow table cloth

this is the green color I'm going to use in the bedroom

kitchen supplies...

I have this interesting gray/white/black squared tile ffloor to ceiling in the kitchen. with bright yellow cabinets

apartment pictures coming soon!

the waiting game

so school has officially been postponed until October 18th. This swine flu paranoia is really getting out of control. The teachers still have to go to school every day though. It's torture. We sit there all day with nothing to do. We pretend to work for an hour and then all gather in one room for coffee. Then pretend to work some more. Tomorrow they've organized aerobics for us to do in the morning with the PE teacher. That could be fairly entertaining.

Here's some before and after pictures of my class. (The before pictures were taken one week before school started.)

the fort

The boys in my neighborhood have been working on this fort for weeks now, and I have been eagerly watching their progress. This thing is awesome. It started out with just the wooden frame, but now it's got everything. I want to hang out there. Seriously. They found a book of fabric samples which they took apart and nailed to the walls for covering/decoration. They put carpeting on the ground with cushions and wooden chairs for their sitting enjoyment, thin screens on the ceiling to block the sun, a bulletin board on the outside to post their important announcements, a wooden platform for shoes so the carpet doesn't get dirty, and of course, the necessary framed picture of the king prominently displayed on the wall. The best part is that the whole thing is covered with Christmas lights, so it's lit up every night. Every evening I walk by to see what progress has been made or what the boys are up to. Usually they are just chilling inside, playing chess or carems or just hanging out. It's funny because it's quite typical for older Arab men to sit outside on the street smoking shisha and playing dominoes. This is like the kids version. :)

the joys of moving

the first three weeks I was staying with the pastor, living out of suitcases

finally moved into the new place, but it took a while to get everything working...

dishes in the bathroom sink

more pictures once I've unpacked some :)

personal bubble

It is a generally know fact that Americans have a rather large personal bubble. We like to keep our distance from people, especially in public places. In a waiting room, we politely leave that empty seat between ourselves and the people waiting next to us. At the gym we use alternating tread mills if we can. In church, we leave a respectful distance on the pew between families. We often don't even realize we do it; it's second nature to us. In fact, we don't often realize we have a large personal space bubble until we travel somewhere outside the US where the rules of personal space are completely different or perhaps non-existant.

This is my story.

It was a Thursday afternoon, the last day of the working week. The first week of school was behind us, thankfully. The street and parking lot were packed with cars and buses and wandering students, all eager to get out of there. The teachers were no exception. I punched out at exactly 1:35, the time we were allowed to leave, and made my way over to the high school where the "teacher's bus" was waiting to take us home. I arrived after the short walk, hot and sweaty as the temperature outside was a boiling 110*. I climbed aboard and quickly realized I was one of the last teachers to arrive. (How the others all manage to get there before I do is a mystery. I'll have to work on that.) I slumped into the only free bench--the front row. No sooner had I sat down than I realized there was a black bag sitting on the bench next to me; someone else was already sitting here. Sure enough, as I turned around I saw the bus doors opening and a middle aged teacher from the high school got on. I recognized her from earlier in the week. She was Lebanese, a math teacher, and she always sounded angry, barking orders into her cell phone in Arabic. I apologized for taking her seat, but she seemed unfazed. She slid in next to me, and we were on our way. The bus ride is not a long one; most of the teachers live within five minutes of the school. Since I live farther away, I am the last to get dropped off. As we rolled along, I suddenly realized I was in a jam. The teacher who sat next to me was the second to the last one off the bus. That meant that the bus would empty out, and there would be the two of us, crammed into the front row. And I was stuck next to the window. I had no way out. I consoled myself by saying, I'm sure she'll move to an empty row when one opens up. That's what I would do if I was on the aisle. But I forgot that I was no longer in America dealing with Americans. The bus emptied out and the Lebanese teacher showed no signs of moving. I rode along in silence, listening to her sharp Arabic, thinking, this is nuts. There I was, the sun mercilessly beating down on me through the window, my blood beginning to boil. What is wrong with this lady, I thought, as our legs knocked against one another over every bump. This entire bus is empty and it's hot and she insists on cramming into the front row with me!?!?!? Just move. I tried for five minutes to send a silent message to her brain telling her to get out of my row. When that didn't work, I tried shifting around in my seat to show that I was uncomfortable. I tried moving my bag, inching my leg away from hers, glancing around at the empty seats around us. But nothing worked; she wasn't bothered in the slightest. She didn't care that it was hot. She didn't care that our legs kept rubbing against each other. She didn't care that the whole bus was empty. So why did I care so much? Why was I torturing myself over this? Because it's just ridiculous, I thought. All she has to do is move!!!! But as the minutes ticked by I slumped against the window in resignation. Just look out the window. It will be over soon. It's really not that bad, I told myself. But nothing worked. The only comforting thought was this: next week, I won't be the last one to get on the bus.

the beginnings

So school did indeed start on the 6th of September. The mandatory temperature checks got over fairly quickly, but I'm sure that was due in large part to parents showing up at 6:30 when school was scheduled to start at 7:40. We still had to wait, baking in the sun until 8:00 hoping the rest of our students would show up. They didn't. Most classes only boasted a 50% attendance rate the first day with only moderate improvement as the week progressed. I topped out at 20 out of 27 students. So things were a little slow going the first week. Everyday we got our temperature checked to make sure we didn't have swine flu, and every day I was given a new class list as there were daily changes to the roster. It's very difficult to get things going when your class is so transient. So we didn't, get things going that is. Most of us just spent the week trying to get to know the students and maybe review things from the previous year to assess where are students are at academically. I gave some "tests" at the end of the week to get a feel for the level of my students as well. They were quite revealing.

First, I gave a spelling test. I randomly chose words that I thought a fifth grader should know, seeing as I've been teaching seventh grade for the past two years and really had no clue where they would be. So I went with what I thought were safe words: whale, science, skirt, pencils, beautiful, glasses. I was trying to go for a variety; some with silent letters, some with different endings, that sort of thing. Over 50% of the students failed. Ok, so we need to work on spelling.

Next was the reading test. I read a story out loud to the students. It was a folk tale from West Africa about how the world got wisdom. Here's what happens: the sky god gives spider the gift of wisdom. Spider wants to keep it all to himself, so he puts it into a pot and tries to hide it in the tallest tree. When he can't, he breaks the pot and everyone gets a little bit of wisdom. After reading the story, I asked the students some basic questions: who is the main character, what gift did he get, what did he do with it, and what happened at the end. Again, I thought it was fairly straightforward and simple. Again, a ridiculous number of students failed.

Finally we came to the math test. I had looked through the math book and saw that the students learned two-digit multiplication last year. So I made up 10 problems for them to copy from the board and work on. After putting the problems on the board, there was a chorus of "Oh, this is easy! We did this last year!" Oh good, I thought. It turns out only three out of 20 knew how to do it. The rest just started multiplying any random number they felt like.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me this year.

On the plus side, I find the students to be quite enjoyable. They don't yet have the attitude of a seventh grader and they really are quite nice. I think it's going to be a good year. :)

first day of school

Well, school was officially postponed until the 6th of September, tomorrow. All of the teachers were very thankful for the extra days to prepare our classrooms and do some lesson planning. The main issue revolving around the topic of starting school is swine flu. For never hearing about it in the US when I was home for the summer, I sure hear about it all the time here. And cases keep popping up. Since most of the student body leaves the country for the summer holiday, people are worried about students coming back with swine flu and infecting the school. So to prevent such a disaster, my school has decided that they will scan each and every person before allowing them to enter the school premises. That means that tomorrow morning, every person that wants to enter Modern Knowledge School must have his or her temperature checked. There are close to 2,000 students at MKS. And they must all be checked in a single file line. And most of them will come with a parent on the first day. Maybe both parents. And a housemaid. They will all need to be checked in a single file line. Oh, and did I mention that we will probably only have two, maybe three, scanners to check these temperatures? So 2,000+ people will need to wait outside the school, in the heat, for their turned to be scanned. I can just imagine the chaos and frustration...

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. :)

back in the boiler

Well, I'm back in Bahrain. Things have been pretty interesting the last two weeks.
First of all, it's ridiculously hot. Like you open the door and step into a sauna kind of hot. The only thing I want to do is take a cold shower, but you can't even do that because even the cold tap gives warm water. I turned off the water heater so I could take "cold" showers, but it's still like taking a hot shower. So we run to our air conditioned locations and park it there

When I first got here, my life was pretty much in limbo. I arrived on a visitor's visa, which only lasts two weeks, I couldn't get in touch with anyone from the school, I had no place to live, and I didn't know when school was starting. Now, a few weeks later, I"m happy to report that at least some things have become clearer.

1. My visa is in the hands of the school now. They are getting a month's extension until all the paperwork is complete. Basically they have to take care of all that, so it's not my problem. Cross that one off the list.

2. Teachers started school this past Tuesday, so I have a better idea of what's going on there. However, as of Thursday, my classroom was still being cleaned (it was filthy), the furniture was all shoved into the center of the room, the AC was really working, and the new lights hadn't been installed. School is supposed to start on Tuesday. In America, we would get really worried about all of these things because it would appear that nothing is ready and it won't be ready on time; however, as a two year veteran of this system, I've come to realize that it's better to just sit back and relax. Things will get done when they get done.

3. I found an apartment! After one short week of searching, I found a nice, brand new, two bedroom apartment! It's not far from where I lived last year, and I can get a ride to school everyday! The only downside is that it is unfurnished, and by unfurnished, I mean completely empty. I am buying window air conditioner units, a fridge, and stove this weekend, so hopefully, I can move in next week. We also hit a huge sale at the furniture store, so I will have a bed to sleep on! All of that should be delivered in the next few days. Cross that off the list.

4. As I mentioned before, school is supposed to start on Tuesday; however, we have been hearing rumors that the governement has declared school can't start until the end of Septmeber, after Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam. No one is really listening to that, and the private schools are planning to start September first. Yesterday I just heard another rumor that the goverment has mandated that none of the schools can open until the 6th of September, next Sunday.
So I guess on that front, we are still in limbo. But hey, 3 out of four isn't bad. :)

I have picutes of all these new changes that I will try to post once the internet is set up in my new place.

HERE IS WHY I AM READY TO GO HOME
The forecast for my last week in Bahrain:

WedJun 17
Sunny
112°HIGH
91° LOW

ThuJun 18
Sunny
112° HIGH
89° LOW

FriJun 19
Sunny
110° HIGH
88° LOW

SatJun 20
Sunny / Wind
108° HIGH
88° LOW

SunJun 21
Sunny
108° HIGH
88° LOW

MonJun 22
Sunny
109° HIGH
87° LOW

TueJun 23
Sunny
109° HIGH
87° LOW

WedJun 24
Sunny
111° HIGH
87° LOW

ThuJun 25
Sunny
113° HIGH
89° LOW

who would have thought

all the way from Sioux City, Iowa :)

gifts from my students

a Bahraini house dressan engraved "Mr. Jena" heart keychain a matching bust set of lotion and perfume

the only good thing about 110* weather...

laundry.

wedding in Dubai

Rey's brother, Melvin, and Charlene

Rey's parents

The next Mr. and Mrs. Phillips

my little green escape

Rey got me these plants from the Iranian market. I'm trying to keep them alive on my balcony in spite of the boiling temperatures. :)
Any one know what kind of plants they are???

the other side of the island

my creative student

I assigned my students to write a story that was set in Bahrain. Here is one of the best ones. I was laughing out loud as I read it.
What follow is the original text. Words in [ ] have been added by me. :)

MKM's Unit Tests
Final Edition

In Bahrain Mall once upon a time there was a kid and his friends. They want to cheat in the test, their names was Mohammed, Khalid, and Mohammed. they call themselves "MKM", first M for Mohammed, K for Khalid, and M for Mohammed. They wanted to cheat in english test that Miss Jena gave them, it's spelled "Je-e-ena". Khalid always wanted to take the -1 book from her, cause every time they do something she says -1! is that the way they treat children like us. [Students get points for behavior and participation in my class. When they misbehave, they lose points, hence the -1]

Mohammed and Khalid first went to steal the key from Miss Jena and then give it to Khalid to stay talking with her, and in night they came to steal the unit test papers from Miss Jena classroom. That was only a plan they didn't do it but they think it's easy to make a lie on Miss Jena.

So first they started, Khalid started jumping as Mohammed (1) was giving him a sign and he gave out a sound "hoo hoo hoo" like a monkey, in the class Omar said, "That is crazy." Then Miss Jena enters and usually says like a machine "-1 and go to Miss Ferial" [She is the section supervisor and if students misbehave, they get sent to her office :)] Khalid didn't stop until I took the key and gave it to him. I said to him, "Goodbye friend, " Miss Jena asks me if I want to leave. I refuse. [If students are really acting up, I ask them if they want to leave my classroom]

At night I went to Miss Jena's class. It was dark and looked scary because the teacher have a dead body under the table!!! I was scared but Mohammed came from behind me and said, "Let's do it man, let's rock and roll. I answered, "You like hip hop, don't you?" He ignored, Khalid came also, "I am suspended" that's what he said. We went to the table and near the cupboard we opened it. There was a skeleton. We screamed like girls. Then the teacher said surprise and said "Let's sing" We sang it's your brithday by 50 cent and we said we will not cheat again.

Where do they come up with this stuff???

the funeral

I saw my first funeral in Bahrain a few weeks ago. It was quite the experience. I'm glad I was in my car or else it would have been quite frightening. We turned the corner from one of these little side alleys onto one of the larger back roads and were immediately met by a mob of men coming down the street. They were chanting and parading down the street together. We pulled off to the side and watched in confused fascination as they came closer and closer. As we watched, we realized that the men were passing something between themselves. Once the men from the back passed it forward, they would walk up the line to the front where they were ready to receive the burden again. It was only as they got closer that we realized what they were passing: a dead body. It lay on a simple wooden platform, and the body itself was tightly wrapped in cloth; the topmost cloth was a decorated piece of green fabric. They marched down the street in this fashion, displaying the body, all the way to the cemetery, where the body would be placed in a grave. No coffin, no flowers, no nothing. This was the middle of the day, about one o'clock and only men were present. I learned later from a friend that this was really quite common; the cemetery is right at the end of our street and Bahraini's always bury the dead in this fashion; so I guess I shouldn't have been shocked, but it's not really what you expect to see on a random Tuesday afternoon.

the facelift

My project over spring break was to paint my living room. Here is the before and after:

engaged

So here's the story. We were on a camping retreat for the youth group (Rey has just joined the leadership staff), and we are out in the middle of the desert. Now, this camping trip would probably be considered one of the worst ever, by our standards, but the kids loved it. First, as we are driving out to the desert, it starts raining. Yes, it never rains here and the day we decide to go camping, it rains. So we get to our site, which is basically in the middle of no where in the desert. It stops raining for about 30 minutes but then starts up again, so here we are trying to set up tents in the rain with 30 kids who have never been camping in their entire lives. They have no clue how to set up a tent, and we are trying to do it in the rain. Then some of the tents don't have all the pieces so the kids are standing there holding the tents together and I'm trying to tie the poles together with pieces of cloth that I ripped up. We finally get the tents together but there aren't enough for the leaders so we have to sleep in the car. Anyways, we are planning to cook dinner over the fire but the person in charge of dinner forgot to bring lighter fluid. All we have are huge pallets of wood and four lighters. So it takes forever to get the fire going, so now we are wet and starving and trying to cook hot dogs on hangers. The rain finally lets up for a bit so we can enjoy the camp fire but it's still drizzling. Then one of the leaders is getting ready to do his lesson, and Rey stops him and says there is something he would like to share. He starts this speech about why he is joining the youth group and how he wants to support me, etc. and then he pulls out this box and I'm like, WHAT?? All the kids are screaming and oohing and ahhing, so he gets on one knee and asks me and yeah, that was that. :) It was really sweet. So that was the good part of the camping trip. But things just kept going. At about 3 in the morning, it got super windy and one of the tents blew over with a kid inside so Rey had to go rescue him. Then in the morning it finally cleared up but it was sooooo hot. Then our vans couldn't come pick us up so we were stuck in the bloody hot sun for 2 extra hours in the desert, and then we got stuck at KFC for 2 hours because of the stupid vans again. So yeah, that was the memorable engagement story. :)

my mother, the can lady

My mother is in the habit of getting up before work to go walking. She used to go with her good friend and our neighbor until she moved; these days she is going solo. I'm not quite sure when it started, but at some point my mother realized that people leave an awful lot of cans on the side of the road. Of course being the clever, economical Dutch woman that she is, she looked at those cans and saw an opportunity: both to make the world a little cleaner and to make a few bucks. So she started walking with a bag so she could pick up all the stray cans that people had carelessly thrown out the window of their cars. At first our neighbor was a little embarrassed to be seen walking with "the can lady," but she soon got over it with a little shake of the head and an "Oh, that's just Sheryl." Well, here I am, 24 years old, and turning into my mother. Since starting the school recycling program, I am completely nuts about recycling. It's come to the point that I am incapable of walking past plastic bottles and cans along the road now. In the two short minutes it takes to walk from school to my house, I manage to pick up enough items that I can barely get the door open. So, I've resolved to start carrying a recycling bag. Yes, I am joining the can lady in her quest to clean up the planet. :)

going green

Last week we had a green day at school to celebrate our drama this year, which is about recycling. We organized the green day as a fundraiser for the drama as well as to promote recycling and taking care of the environment. We sold flowers and plants to the students, had a delicious Chinese buffet for lunch, and sold other snacks and green colored food to the students. My contribution was to designate certain trash cans as recycling cans and guard them with my life to make sure that no one dumped their ice cream into it! :) I also had nice environmentally friendly and recycling washable tatoos which I passed out to the students, who were thrilled to have them on their faces; however, the supervisor soon spoiled our fun when she made the students wash them all off before the first period was even finished. Sad.

We've also teamed up with a German company who is working to lauch the first recycling campaign in Bahrain, which we desperately need! In fact, we just had four large recycling containers delivered to our school this morning, the second location for the containers on the whole island. I'm super pumped about this whole campaign. I've created recycling bins for my classroom and am giving extra credit to every student who returns a canvas bag filled with recyclable goods. GO GREEN!

Some pictures from green day...

seventh graders

The wonderful, smiling faces I see every day...