A Very Special Visitor

Stacia enjoying the view from Dhow Harbor at the Scientific Center in Kuwait

When I signed my contract to teach in Kuwait, I was pretty sure I would never have any visitors.  Kuwait is located on the other side of the planet from Iowa and it is not exactly a tourist destination, however, it is gaining some notoriety for its malls and restaurants. But then, very few of my close friends would venture this far out for a shopping expedition, even if it included The Avenues.  But never say never.  I recently had a visitor.  My daughter, Stacia, is in the army reserve stationed in Germany.  Germany is a short six hour flight from Kuwait.  She recently dropped by for a visit during the Kuwait National and Liberation Day holiday.  I hadn't seen her since June, so it was certainly a joyous reunion.  When she finally walked through the doors after a small ordeal trying to get her visitor's visa, it almost didn't seem real.  It was so nice to wrap my arms around her!  

Here we are taking a selfie in front of the Liberation Tower

It was Stacia's first visit to the Middle East.  With all the talk about terrorists and ISIS we hear on the news, most people from the west have preconceived notions of what people in this part of the world must be like.  The greatest takeaway my daughter had of the time she spent in Kuwait was the many kindnesses she witnessed on a daily basis; the elderly man in a dishdasha who offered to take a picture of us in the old souk, the man who with a simple gesture stopped some traffic for us so we could safely cross a busy street, the Iranian merchant who took the time to talk to us about the craftsmanship behind the different wares he was selling.  Most people in the world have much more in common than the differences that divide us.  We share a common humanity and have many of the same hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children.  The people who distort Islam for their own power and evil are an abhorrence to any of my friends of the Muslim faith.  They too are shocked and saddened when the newest ISIS atrocities are aired on television.  There are never any easy answers.  All I can tell you is that I have been treated with utmost kindness everywhere I travel in this country and it was wonderful to share this experience with my daughter.

Soaking up the sunshine along the coastline of Kuwait.

Expat April Weems

April and her daughters, Deshona and Tatanasia.  This was Christmas 2014.  

Before I began teaching overseas, about 90% of my acquaintances were from the Midwest; mostly Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin.  A majority (not counting the instructors who teach Arabic) of the staff here at UAS are American, but very few are from the Midwest and only one other person is from my home state of Iowa.  My prospective has slowly begun to change as I have had the interesting experience of meeting people from all over the United States.  I really notice the range of diversity in  when we celebrate Thanksgiving and friends bring dishes to share that I have never heard of or never associated with Thanksgiving.  I never thought I would have to travel half way across the world to get to know my own country on a very personal level.

This was taken in Texas at a Mary Kay convention.  April was her mother's director!

April Weems has been the eighth grade American History instructor here at UAS for two years.  She grew up in Detroit, Michigan.  One of the defining moments in her life occurred when she was in third grade.  She couldn't focus on the lesson her teacher was trying to teach her.  In frustration her teacher told her, "I don't care if you learn it or not.  I get paid the same."  After that day she decided to take matters into her own hands and she would be the teacher. So at the tender age of eight years old, she decided to open up her own neighborhood school.  She gathered all the neighborhood kids she could find and set up her own play school with herself as the teacher, of course.  She found her calling at a very young age!

This was taken at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions.  April's sister Shay is on the left and her brother Cyrill is center.  Cyrill enjoyed a brief career as #45 for the Detroit Lions.

The second pivotal point occurred when she was fifteen.  After her school physical, the doctor told her she wouldn't be playing  basketball that year.  To her shock, she discovered she was pregnant.  When she broke the news to her mother, her mother didn't react in anger and disappointment.  She told her daughter that if the baby was a girl, they would get to buy dresses.  April was blessed to have a mother who continued to love her and support her through this difficult time in her life.  Parents of April's friends made sure their daughters steered clear of her.  April's mother was the rock she needed because life was not going to be easy for this young mother.

April spent two years in an alternative school for teenage mothers.  Her future didn't look too promising at this point.  But instead of giving into despair and hopelessness, she dug in and decided that adversity would propel her to success.  She proudly finished high school with honors.  After high school she decided to join her sister who was living in Hawaii at the time.  After six months in Hawaii she returned home with her young daughter, but once again her life was about to change.  She discovered that she was pregnant again.  But this young woman wasn't about to take an easy road.  April decided that if she was to make decent life for herself and her young family, she would have to get a college degree.  There were to be no sororities or dorm experience for April.  Her mother wasn't even going to be there to help raise her daughters.  She was needed in Hawaii to help April's sister with her young family.  April was nineteen years old.  Deshona was four and in a few short months was about to become a big sister.  This young mother never lost her faith in God or herself.  She put her daughter and newborn baby girl into daycare and enrolled at Baker College in Detroit.  To help pay the bills, she did accounting work at a casino, then a nursing home.  When she had almost completed her degree in accounting, she listened to her heart and made the decision to pursue a teaching degree.  This decision meant she had to almost start over.  April knew this was her calling, so she took out more school loans, and got on track to become a teacher.  She managed to juggle motherhood, part time jobs, and a full college load.  She beat the odds and graduated in 2008.  She moved her girls out of Detroit to start a new life in Virginia.  She found a job teaching in Woodbridge, VIrginia. When her youngest daughter, Tatanasia, was ready for college, April had some dreams of her own.  She had always wanted to travel.  There was a great big world out there and April wanted see it for herself someday.  Her daughters loved their mom enough to encourage her to make that dream a reality.  They told her, "You have always been just a mom, go out and discover who April is!"  And that is how she found herself teaching eighth grade social studies in Kuwait here at UAS.

April wasn't done planning out her life by any means.  When all the other new hires were out and about getting to know Kuwait and traveling around the world during breaks, she was holed up in her apartment finishing her master's degree in Educational Leadership. She completed her studies last spring.  This young woman is really driven to succeed.  Her family couldn't be more proud!  Shortly after she arrived home last summer, her family put together a graduation ceremony for her like no other, complete with speakers, award presentation and conferring of degrees.  UAS has recognized what a jewel they have in this outstanding educator and has hired her to become the new assistant principal for the elementary grades.  Welcome to the elementary, April!

April's story is one of hope and perseverance.  How many nineteen year-olds would embark on a college career as a single mom with a four-year-old and newborn?  I could barely balance my checkbook at that age!  She shared with me that as she was growing up, her mother taught her to have a tough skin. Being black in Detroit was never easy.  Her mother told her, "You can do what you put your mind to do.  Do your best and God will bless you."  

This was taken in 2015 in Sicily, Italy last year for her birthday 

"Just like moons and like Suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hops springing high, STILL I'll RISE." Maya Angelou 

FIRE !

This was taken from the top floor of our school looking down on our back parking lot.  The blue building in the right of the photo is the teacher residence.  The fire was at the power plant.

As a teacher, I have experienced countless fire drills in my career.  When the fire alarms went off Wednesday morning, March 15, I assumed it was yet another fire drill.  In fact, the day before this happened, we had all received emails alerting us to the fact that the fire department would be in the building testing our fire alarm system that day, so if the fire alarm went off, it would only be a test of the alarm and we were not to take our students out of the building.  So the following day, Tuesday morning about 9:15 am, the fire alarm went off.  I told my preschoolers to set down their lummy sticks and line up.  I led them up the stairs in the usual path I always take.  I was met by one of our guards on the staircase and was told to go out the front door instead of the side entrance and by the look on his face, I could see he wasn't kidding!  So I changed directions and proceeded to lead my little charges in the direction of the front entrance.  Fortunately, their classroom teacher met us on the way out of the building.  When we finally made ii to a safe place on the front parking lot, we looked up and it seemed like a corner of our building was on fire.  Dark black smoke was billowing into the sky.  We were soon relieved to discover that it was not our building on fire.  It was the power plant adjacent to our building.  But a power plant on fire isn't a very comforting thought!  The air was getting a bit uncomfortable with ash flying around, so we were given permission to bring our students into the nearby Direct Aid building, which houses the African Muslims Agency.  They were very kind and allowed our KG and elementary students to enter their building.  They had a very big open meeting area which was large enough to house our nearly 1,000 KG and elementary students and staff members.  Each teacher found a spot to "camp out" in.  Everyone had large laminated signs so parents could easily locate their children.  

I tried to make myself useful by helping the littlest ones find the restrooms and get them back to their teachers without getting lost in the mass of students.  I also held a few impromptu singalongs here and there.  Most of the children were picked up by noon and to the best of my knowledge, no child got lost in the shuffle! Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day, so my friend Hedy and I treated ourselves to a lovely lunch out and picked up some groceries on the way home.  All in a day's work!

This is what we found in our mail boxes yesterday.  Noura Al-Ghanem is the owner of our school.  Feels nice to be appreciated.  Thanks, Mrs. Al-Ghanem!