It has been a few days since I’ve taken the opportunity to sit down and write a blog entry. I apologize to those of you who have been awaiting some sort of word about my current situation. The time difference has made it a bit of a challenge for me to make voice contact and with limited access to the internet each day, I find that I don’t really have the time to surf the net and write e-mails as I would like to.
First off, I want to let everyone know that I am surviving just fine in the Middle East. Late last week, my placement was changed from Liwa (also known as the empty quarter) to the Al Ain district. Luckily, I hadn’t left for Liwa yet, so the drive from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain only took about an hour and ten minutes. Had I originally been placed in Al Ain, I would have had to endure the bus ride from hell which resulted in 2 breakdowns and six hours of driving. The downside of being in Al Ain at this point is that I have had to stay at a 1 star hotel with very few amenities. I found out that this is a short term situation tonight, and I will write a bit more about that at the end of this blog.
Al Ain is known as the green city; I’m shocked that there can be so much vegetation in the desert. I’m also shocked by the amount of western influence that you can see in the shopping malls and cars. Today, I ordered Hardees to my hotel room for 25 dirhams – that’s about $7.25 Canadian. One thing that I am starting to get used to here are the roundabouts. So far I have only seen a small handful of traffic lights in this city. Most of the traffic is diverted with roundabouts in which you have to yield to cars coming around the roundabout. It’s quite convenient, but perhaps there are just a few too many for my liking.
So about my placement. . . . as some of you may have heard, I have a very long commute into work each morning. It’s about 80 km each way, directly through the desert on the way to Dubai. I’m placed in a small village called Al Schwaib, at a school that has boys from Grades 1-5. In total, I think there are 146 students at the school and I teach 36 of them. My placement is second grade, and I think it would be fair to say that they are a handful at this time. It’s very hard to communicate with them as their English skills are pretty much limited to the alphabet and their numbers up to 20. I have been doing my best to make hand gestures and to speak very slowly. I’m also modelling everything that I want them to do before I distribute any work to them. Behaviours are typical for boys, but perhaps a bit exaggerated due to the frustration with the language gap. It breaks my heart to hear a child talking to me with such a strong look in their eyes, and I have no clue what they are saying. I’ve pretty much figured out when they need to use the bathroom or have their pencil sharpened but beyond that I am clueless. I’m working on learning a few Arabic phrases to get their attention – my favourite so far is eskoot, which means listen.
So while I may be having a bit of a difficult time with the commute and with the boy’s behaviour, I do have to say that I am very grateful for a kind administrative and teaching team at the school. They have all been so helpful in providing me with anything that I need. Their words of encouragement and support have been keeping me going. The school hours are short, but the day seems to go on forever. School starts at 7:15 am with a 15 minute assembly in which the students do some exercises, followed by the playing of the national anthem and a reading from the Quran. They then filter to their classrooms, which are located all around the central courtyard where the assembly takes place. My classroom has 2 air conditioners and 2 ceiling fans, and it’s smaller than my hotel room. The heat smacks you in the face whenever you open the door into the courtyard. School is finished by 12:35, but on most days I will have to stay for an additional hour to work on professional development / planning activities. I’m not complaining though. I can still be home well before 3:00.
Having a school that is in the middle of nowhere is a bit of a novelty. There have been a few occasions this week where I have come in direct contact with nomadic camels. On Wednesday morning I was parking my rental car (yes, I had to rent one given the great distance to school) outside the school and there were 3 camels about 5 feet away eating from a garbage bin in front of the school. I really should bring my camera as I’m sure this is a sight to behold. Also, the classroom is fully equipped with a computer, wired internet and data projector, as well as an ELMO which allows me to project images via a camera through the projector. The nice part about it is that I can still see the students while modelling for them.
Our weekend here is Friday and Saturday, and this is taking some adjustment for me. This morning I woke up around 4:30 and I went down to the front of the hotel for some fresh air. In the background I could hear the call for prayer coming from two different mosques in opposing directions. There was around a 1-2 second delay between the mosques, and the reverberation was really quite beautiful.
And now, finally some good news!!!! About 4 hours ago a note was slipped under my hotel room door telling us that a bus was picking us up at our hotel and taking us to our new apartments. A couple of nights ago we went and signed some papers and picked up bank cards and they had promised us that we would be getting the keys to our apartments. I was shocked when this actually came to be. I am still in awe of the apartment that I’ll be living in. It has 2.5 bathrooms, a bedroom the size of my entire apartment in Toronto, a balcony with sliding glass doors, 2 other bedrooms, a massive livingroom, laundry room and kitchen. It also has marble floors to boot! I imagine I’ll be moving in there within the next few days as the relocation money hits my new bank account. I’ll be furnishing it modestly, but it will be comfortable living. If anyone wants to come visit, I will surely have the room!
Anyway that’s all for now. . . . more to come after my birthday!
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