Settling In

Greetings from the Middle East!

Now that I've been here about a month, my life here in Kuwait has fallen somewhat into a routine.  The teachers have to clock in by 7:00 am.  School begins at 7:45.  This is a very hot climate, so I'm sure that is the reason for such an early start for the school day.  So I am up at 5:15, well actually 5:30 because I always press the snooze button.  I start the coffee pot and get ready for my day. I try to be out the door by 6:45 and take my leisurely stroll across the dusty parking lot and go through the gates to "thumb in."  We have an electronic time clock here at UAS that reads our thumb prints after we put in our code.  There's about 180 teachers and administrators on the staff, plus all the office people and support staff.  I imagine that's a lot of people to keep track of.  If we don't get thumbed in by 7:00 am, we have our pay docked about 5 KD I'm told.  One day I thumbed in, but I kept getting denied. So I went to the central office and we checked the code to make sure I had the numbers correct.  Well, that day I had my right arm full of stuff I was carrying, so I used my left thumb.  The machine didn't recognize my left thumb!  Of course, if you thumb in, you also have to thumb out and that is where I have trouble remembering correct procedures, especially when I stay late and the school is somewhat deserted.  

   This is Abdullah, the copymaster supreme!  Just one of the three copy machines he uses

    prints about 80,000 copies a week and goes through nearly three canisters of toner.

I have morning duty on day 1, 2, and 3.  My job is to attempt to keep order among the roughly 400 students in my zone.  They usually stream in between 7:00 and 7:15 am.  Many are brought to school by their drivers or nannies. Heaven help me if these children decide to rise up in rebellion.  I don't even own a whistle!  My favorite mental snapshot is of a very handsome, well groomed Kuwaiti father in his flowing robe and white starched headress accompanying his little preschool daughter to school.  In one hand is his little girl skipping along beside him.  In his other hand is a pink My Kitty lunch bag.  So cute!  

I have two classes of preschoolers each day.  Wow!  I had two bawling three year old boys yesterday.  I think they were competing to see who could give Mrs. Kluever the biggest headache!  One eventually worked himself into a big enough fit to throw up all over my carpet.  I was not happy!  Occasionally we have an escapee. Thankfully, we have maids on the floor.  Yes, maids, not custodians.  One of the duties of the maids is to take the little ones to the bathroom and sometimes that also includes rounding up the random child who heads out the door.  I promise you, I'm not torturing these three year olds!  Some of these little ones have not been very acclimated to the outside world and have problems adjusting to a new environment.  Some of these children actually do enjoy coming to music!

The students generally speak English.  It isn't their native language.  Arabic is usually spoken in the home and they have an hour of Arabic class each day.  That may vary with the younger students.  There is an entire staff of Arabic and religion teachers.  English is the second language for most of these students, so when you give directions, they don't always process everything you tell them.  It's really an adjustment for some of the more experienced classroom teachers.  The students are bright and teachable, however, there's an extra barrier to cross to help these children achieve what would be expected of children in the states.  

I teach seven classes of music each day.  Nursery, preschool, and kindergarten meet for thirty minutes and the rest of the classes meet for 40 minutes in a six-day schedule.  The day goes by very quickly, but I don't have much time for lunch.  I don't eat sandwiches because I try not to eat much bread, and have haven't seen much good lunch meat anyway.  The first day I used the microwave, but I was late for class.  I'm in the basement and the teacher's kitchenette kitchen is four floors up.  The elementary office is also on that same floor.  Who needs a stairmaster when the elevators are slow and one of them has a mind of its own?  Yesterday I counted seven times going up and down those stairs.  Boy, by the end of the day I could really feel the burn!  

I still can't get used to my workweek beginning on Sunday.  All last Wednesday I couldn't figure out why I was so tired.  Eventually it dawned on me that tomorrow was actually like Friday in the states.

My brain is still back in Iowa.  It will get to Kuwait when it's good and ready!  

Tomorrow is Saturday and many of the elementary teachers, including myself, spend a good part of the day in our classrooms.  I'm still getting my room to look like a classroom, as opposed to a large junky space with very white walls.  It's gradually getting there.  Those of you who know me from my nine years at Baxter, Iowa, know that the band director, Christine, and I shared a classroom.  We made the best of the situation, but it is pure pleasure having my own classroom.  I didn't have enough space in my luggage to bring much bulletin board stuff, so I'm pretty much having to create everything new that I put on my walls.  My old stuff was getting a bit shop-worn, so it was time for some updates anyway.  I will post before and after pictures on my blog when I'm done.

   A skywalk over a busy highway we came across on a Saturday excursion.o

Yesterday was the fourth Thursday of the month, which means the students can wear street clothes instead of uniforms.  My goodness, the colors and variety were dazzling!  All these little girls were coming up to me during my morning duty to show off their beautiful dresses. I told one little girl that she looked like she was in a flower garden.  She told me her mother was a fashion designer.  She designed the fabric and made the dress for her daughter.  It looked like a Monet painting.  I felt slightly underdressed that day!

Today is Friday.  My friend and I went to The Avenues, which is a mega mall.  I thought Mall of America

was huge.  It will take all year to explore all the different shops.  Most chain stores you see in the bigger malls back home you will find here, plus chain stores from all over the world. We are trying to make our apartments look a little less like dorm rooms and a little more like a home away from home. Sometimes there are too many choices!  If you see something you like, you better buy it or you may never find that shop again!  We've been there twice and still have barely scratched the surface.  

Tomorrow I will go to school, work on lesson plans and put more stuff on my walls.  Next week will be week number five.  Can't say the time has gone fast.  Everyday presents itself with new challenges and it's own rewards.  I still miss my family, green grass, and the great Midwest.  But my place is now here in Kuwait.  This is a part of God's plan for my life and I will go where it takes me.

Blessings,

Charlotte