Al Bahya Kid Park

We took a field trip yesterday to a local petting zoo...somehow we consider it to be educational as the students are supposed to learn about living things and their environments. In the USA, field trips are more serious, with permission forms to be collected and transportation requests to be made...however, here, it's a last minute thing. As long as the kids bring money and show up, they can come...then again, some kids ended up going and the school paid...Collecting money from these kids was interesting too...some of them had more money in their pockets than I did...The trip cost about 2.50 in US Dollars, and for an extra 50 cents, they could ride a donkey for what turned out to be about 30 seconds. Some students enjoyed this educational adventure...others looked at it as a chance to run around in the sun, or abuse the animals that were there. All of them ended up playing more in the sand or on the playground that was nearby than they did studying the animals. The owner kindly informed me that my class was the worst group he has ever had...I could put that on my resume...perhaps it was the juice boxes they threw into the duck pond, or the candy wrappers they tried feeding to the crocodile...or maybe it was them kicking the monkeys that they were supposed to be feeding dates to. Either way, I feel that my school was well represented by these upstanding students. If only the crodile was a little bigger...

Our 'furnished' apartment

Here are some newer pics of our decorating skills. We hope to add more color as the paychecks come in, and perhaps a shower curtain...but at least it's better than before. enjoy!

Progress at Al Hubab

So far, teaching in the Middle East has been a challenging, but unforgettable experience. I spend more time, dancing around, doing charades, and repeating myself with a louder voice than ever before in the US. The word 'no' is "la" in Arabic, and I often find myself saying 'la' no matter where I am...I guess i use it so much in the classroom that it has worked its way into my own vocabulary. I often sound like i'm singing a Christmas carol, as many people have heard me say 'lalalala la, lala la la' I probably look stupid to these kids, but it's fun.

This week, we've worked our way up to the letter H and the Number 13. These kids are understanding more and more, and though they try to sneak off to the bathroom frequently, as kids in the US do the same to get out of class, they are quick to return. I guess they see my class as fun, as i'm teaching them many of the songs kids learn in preschool or younger.

"if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands"

"the wheels on the bus"

"head and shoulders, knees and toes"

and a few more.

I still have a few screamers and criers, as this is likened unto kindergarten in the u.s. and many of these kids aren't used to doing work, yet alone being away from mama. I haven't sent home any 'homework' because one, they can't do it, and two, i hear they won't...most of the time, i guess the nannies do the work for the students...so i just give them a ton of stuff to do during the day to make up for it. So far, i've met several parents, many of which are impressed with their child's ability to speak English (though it's not much yet), some of them wondering why their child is scared of me (because i'm 4 feet taller than them), and a few come just to see what this American is doing in their town...Mothers are more involved in their child's education, and now and then I get a dad or two who come in for show, just to let the school know they are still in charge. It's quite funny seeing one of my criers change in behavior as mom or dad begin to leave...we often have to peal kids off the doorway to get them into the room, or lock them in the classroom to keep them from running home, and many live miles and miles away. I don't bother anymore...i do not need more drama in my room. If kids are screaming, I am more than happy to let them out. However, I have instated a pepsi bottle as my hall pass, for those kids who would like to leave legitimately. So far, no kid has tried to pee in it (thank God).

Today, I had my colleage from the US compliment me on my progress. He wasn't aware of my willingness to sing and get on the floor with the kids, nor did he think my students would be as far along as they are. It felt good to have another educated person tell me that I was doing a great job. However, i'm nothing special...just a caring guy, willing to look past the head coverings or body-length outfits of my students. It doesn't bother me that my job is hard...it makes me work harder. And in the end, God will be praised, because i can't do it without him anyways...he's been more patient with me than many others...so I have no problem showing a little patience and longsuffering to these little Emirates.

New Place

Hello All!!

This is Mallori, finally blogging on here. Thanks to everyone for your love and prayers during my crazy sickness the past few weeks. I'm doing much better!! Thank God. So we're in our apartment, still trying to get things settled, but it's going good thus far. It's been great having a kitchen where we can cook and prepare food, it's been the best part.

David has pretty much been taking care of everything for us, mainly because I've been under the weather, but also because he has way more patience than me when it comes to dealing with the backwardsness (if that's a word) of this city. It is so easy to get stressed out by the way things operate here. So having david deal with most of the issues with our housing and car and banking, etc., has been great. You all really have to give him kudos because he's done a GREAT job with the transition here.

What else, what else? hmmm...

I went for a massage at a philipino spa and I was in pain the entire time and for about 3 days after. Never again will I go there for anything, nails, massage, wax, nothing. It was so painful and at the time I just assumed that that particular massage was suppose to hurt during but I'd feel great afterwards. Not at all, it sucked.

I'm starting to get bored being a stay at home wife. When we were in the hotel, I didn't notice as much, but now being in our apartment, somewhat in the middle of nowhere, I think I need to keep myself occupied with a job. So hopefully in the next month or so I'll be back in school online and possibly working somewhere here. The debate is dealing with the difficulty of where I would work location wise. We live in Khalifa City which is a suburb of Abu Dhabi. Abu dhabi obviously has the most jobs, BUT I cannot and probably will never drive in this city. It's worse than NYC to me. Three people die everyday here due to car accidents. I've seen about 7 accidents so far. So keep us in prayer when it comes to driving. So, with me NOT driving, working depends on how close it is to home and the hours so David can just drive me to and from.

Well, I'm just going on and on now. Hopefully I'll have more info to share and more experiences to write about in the next few days.

Dubai!!!

We finally ventured out of our emirate into our neighbors', the more popular city of Dubai. I have been wanting to visit, because architectually, this town is a photographer's dream! Mallori 'needed' to go because she was out of her Philosophy-Purity all in one cleanser; and there just happens to be a Sephora in Dubai. Well, we get there, spent our day between two malls, which were beautiful by the way, only to learn that this Sephora does not carry what we needed...However, we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Macaroni Grill, with a terrific view of the Dubai Aquarium behind us, which basically is a 3 story fish tank full of amazing marine life. It was better this way, not having to pay 50 dirhams each to walk through it...wow, I sound cheap...However, I wasn't today. To cheer Mal up, I took her to H&M, which we love, bought her a few items, and also bought her a miniature trampoline (not at H&M, but an athletic store around the corner), which is something she wanted in order to begin her new workout routine. Random...However, this was Mallori's favorite part of our day.

My favorite part, was catching the sunset at the Burj Al Arab, one of Dubai's most popular landmarks, and the world's only 7 star hotel. No, I didn't continue the splurging and get us a room there, but we did spend time at the public beach next door. It was our first time stepping foot in the Persian Gulf, or the Arabian Gulf as it's called here. The water was perfect, a terrific ending to our long but eventful day! After having my fill of taking pictures, we spent about 30 minutes collecting sea shells to decorate our new apartment which we move into tomorrow night. The shells have a pinkish hue to them, which matches our bathroom colors...I got to choose blue for our bedroom, so it's only fair that Mal can choose pink for the Bathroom. We're excited to further decorate and make this large but beautiful apartment more like our own. It will be hard though to leave our current home though, the Beach Rotana Hotel, where we've been for almost 2 months. But I think we'll manage.

Anywho, enjoy the photos!!!

Enjoy

The Interior of our new home!

Here's our amazing living room...off to the right is our gorgeous balcony.

















Here is our Bathroom, with tub, shower (though no curtain yet), sink, toilet and bidet...

Here we have our bedroom, facing the Neighbors... We need Curtains!

Here's our Kitchen...though it's modest in size, it has a great view of our neighborhood (though with the glare from my flash, you can't see it too well) and a partial glimpse of our balcony.

We hope to send more pictures as soon as we actually have furniture.

Chaos in Al Samha

My first day of school was totally a unique experience. Thus far, teaching in this country is far different than in the US. Of 80 students, only 25 of my first graders showed up. I was forced to share the class with the Arabic teacher, who knows a very small amount of English, and who had a totally different agenda for the class than I did. For example, I was in the middle of a lesson, when he decided to take the kids on a tour of the school, without communicating this to me. The fact that I will be teaching more than one group of students in a primary school is new to me too, as in the states, teachers are exclusive for their own classes. The building itself is outdated, as I can open the door to my classroom and look out into a courtyard of sand and stagnant mudpuddles that have been there for who knows how long. The windows are covered with blinds that have been here for years, and the resources themselves are limited. The only sign of modern life in this school is the availability of new computers and projectors to use in the classroom, something only a few schools in Columbus had. Unfortunately though, students do not have paper and pencils, which shows that the way of teaching here is lecture and verbal response. I tried teaching the kids, "father Ibrahim" just to get them up and moving, and they acted as if they were going to get into trouble, just for moving.
The teachers and administrators are terrific though, and my colleagues and I get along well...or at least, if they are talking poorly about me, I can't understand it anyways. The school day is much shorter here, as I begin at 715 though the first period is not until 745, and the day ends at 1230. Much different from home. and of course, having this language/cultural barrier, allows for much effective teaching time during the day. As of now, most of the kids can sing their abc's in English, though many of them couldn't tell the letters individually without the music. Also, half of the class knows the term "bathroom" along with "sit, no, and shhhh." Now, getting them to stay in the class and not play in the bathroom (hammom in arabic) will be my challenge for next week. It has been fun to watch kids be pulled away from their parents, as first grade is like our kindergarten in the USA. Having a teacher who doesn't understand them probably makes it harder, but i'm sure we'll adapt. I will try to keep a positive attitude as I trudge through this change in my career.
On a different note, Mallori isn't feeling well again, as the climate change has been hard for her. She spent the day at our apartment yesterday, waiting for the appliances to show up, and the A/C was too much for her, causing her feel worse. As a married man, i'm learning that my wife's sickness always affects me too, even if I don't get sick too. So keep us both in prayer. Tomorrow, we should be getting our couch set delivered, so we'll have somewhere to sit besides the tiled floor. I will post photos soon. Anyways, we miss all of you...feel free to send some luvin.
Til next time, God bless.
D