Third Quarter

 

Happy National Liberation Day!

The week of February 26, Kuwait celebrates not one, but two national holidays:  National Day and Independence Day. National Day celebrates the independence of Kuwait from Great Britain in 1961.

Liberation Day celebrates the libertion of Kuwait from seven months of Iraqui occupation.

These bulletin boards really add to the excitement in the air.

The Arabic staff put on a very beautiful program celebrating the rich heritage of Kuwait.

I really missed the holiday lights at Christmas this year, I think they were saving all the glitz for their National Day clelbrations.

Linda Young and myself dressing up Kuwaiti style

Fellow Expats

Some of my readers have expressed an interest in the people I work with here in Kuwait.  One truth I have all come to know in the world of overseas teaching is that we all have our own personal reasons for working our craft so far away from home.  Some people may even say we are all a little off-balance.  But then I will let you be the judge of that!  I shared my own story in my first blog.  If you are curious to learn more of my personal journey, you can scroll down and read about it.  Today I would like to introduce you to my dear friend, Linda Young.  This is also her first year at Universal American School.  She is an interventionist at the middle school level.  She spent the last school year in Beijing, China and the year before that she was in Laos.  She is a "kiwi" which is another way of telling you she is from New Zealand.  She spent most of her professional years as a classroom teacher and interventionist which is what we call special education teachers in the states.

She grew up in a small town where there was a smattering of cultures from all over the world.  Her mother was a celtic from England and her father was part native Maori.  She learned sword dancing as a child while at the same time experiencing the music and traditions of the native Maori population.  What a juxtaposition of cultures!  As a young mother, she spent a period of time living on an island devoid of the luxury of electricity while at the same time teaching in a small rural school and also serving as principal.  Instead of spending a quiet retirement in her cozy little subtropical paradise, she decided to step out into the world and experience firsthand some of those wonderful cultures she caught a glimpse of as a child.  I have a feeling that Kuwait won't be her last stop!

A Letter Writing Campaign

One morning a kindergarten class came to my door with a letter they took the time to write to me.  Apparently, they were practicing their letter writing skills and chose me as a recipient of one of their first attempts at composing a friendly letter.  I was, of course, very honored to be recieve their first letter.

I have always tried to take the time to answer my mail, although I believe letter writing is becoming a lost art nowdays.  

So I answered their letter because it really did touch my heart.  The last day of school before winter break, their teacher gave them a choice over coming to music or watching a movie.  They chose to see what Mrs. Kluever had up her sleeve that day.  I never thought I could be more popular than Frosty the Snowman!

Mrs. Kluever's Music Chair

I've always wanted a nice tall chair for my music room.  At the beginning of the school year our school principal gave all of the elementary teachers a sum of money to be spent on supplies for our classrooms.  Sorry to say, I can't remember the exact sum, but it was enough to get a lot of things I needed to spruce up my new room.  I seached from one end of the city to the other and finally found the perfect chair my budget would allow.

It was very comfortable and just the right height, but something was missing......

It needed a little flair!  So I put my sewing skils to work and created a cover to fit over the back.  All my little first graders had to touch it as they filed by one day....

I'm always scheming to find ways to entice my students to enter the classroom quietly.  Sometimes if they are extra quiet coming in, ONE person who is VERY, VERY well mannered will have the honor of sitting in my special chair for the day.  I don't give up my chair to just anyone!

Camping in the Desert

When I told my 2nd lieutenant daughter in the army who is no stranger to camping that her mother would be camping in the desert, I could almost hear the disbelief in her voice as we messaged back and forth that day.  OK, this is camping Kuwaiti style.  But I had her going there awhile!  It was a day trip and I was very relieved to discover that we had nice, clean bathrooms with nicely flushing toilets and an abundance of toilet paper which is always a plus around here!

I had henna applied to my hand.  It's a temporary tattoo popular in Arab cultures.  It is done at times of celebrations and holidays.  Young brides will get them on their wedding day.  They tell me it lasts about a week.

I had another chance to saddle up on a camel.  I decided to forgo the opportunity.  I thought the camels looked a little tired of hauling us around on their backs that day.

Anyway, who needs a camel when I can see the desert in style on an ATV?  I have never been on an ATV in my life, so I made sure I really listened to directions!

I managed to get back in one piece.  This is about the flattest ground you will ever see in God's country.  You might think Nebraska or parts of South Dakota are flat, but those places have nothing over the Kuwaiti desert!

We had a lovely catered buffet.  The deserts are always so fancy and beautifully presented.

Kuwait is known for thier beautiful cakes and pastries.

Believe me, they taste as good as they look!

There has to be SOMETHING healthy once in a while!

You can only do so much to create a look of elegance in the desert...

At the camp there was a tent where we could try on Arabic clothing.  Here I am dressed as a typical Muslim woman you would see out in the streets about anywhere in the Middle East.  I'm pretty sure you won't see me covered in black any time soon, but it is always interesting to step into someone else's world.

A Magical Morning

One day I got birthday invitation for one of my fellow teachers here at the apartments.  I thought that was pretty nice until I read the time:  6:00 AM, Friday morning!   Our work week is Sunday through Thursday, so it wasn't the day that threw me for a loup, I like to sleep in on Fridays.  Oh well, I did go that morning.  I don't often turn down invitations around here.  You never know what life may have in store for you in this crazy little corner of the world.  What I didn't mention was that the party was on the roof and it wasn't particularly warm morning in January!  But I am so glad I went that day.  It wasn't so much a celebration of a birthday, as it was a celebration of hope and friendship as we shared bits and pieces of our lives.

If anyone ever invites you to a birthday party on a roof, don't turn it down, even if its 6:00 am.  You

might discover some amazing people right in your own backyard!

My good friend Ashyana.  Good Morning, Kuwait, from high atop the Hawally Hillton!

As always, I cherish your notes and emails from across the world.  I love hearing bits and pieces from home.  You are never far from my thoughts.  I'm marking off the days on my calendar.  121 days...

Blessings,

Charlotte

Let The Games Begin!

Happy New Year from the Middle East!

Here I am at the camel races.  What an experience!  I will fill you in more later.....

I took a little hiatus from blogging.  December was extremely busy as it is for any music teacher and when school was out for two weeks, I decided to not to do anything that was mentally taxing!  School is back in session now, so I'm back in the saddle (no pun intended for any camel race fans!) and I'm ready to give my readers another slice of life on the other side of the planet.

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a beautiful tree at The Lighthouse Church of Kuwait

I spent a pretty quiet winter break here at the apartments in Kuwait.  Most people traveled to exotic locales and many went home.  I chose to stay here because I have some financial goals I would like to reach.  I will do some traveling before I leave Kuwait because the airfares to many of the countries in the region are quite reasonable, but this was not the time.  Instead, I bought a nice Singer sewing machine and began some projects to help turn my apartment into more of a reflection of my own tastes rather than an advertisement for Ikea!  I invited a friend who had just returned from a scuba diving adventure in Egypt to share a quiet Christmas dinner with me in my apartment.  My daughter FacetTimed us that evening and played Christmas carols for us on the piano while Natalie and I harmonized.  Maybe not quite as exciting as visiting Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, but equally as memorable.

A Day At The Camel Races!

My fellow camel rider

I think this camel was weary of the whole business 

Can you see the mechanical jockeys on the rear ends of the camels?  They are radio controlled by guys in those pickup trucks you see in the distance.

Mmmmmmm, camel's milk!

Inside view of one of the Bedouin tents set up where we were treated to a beautiful buffet dinner.

Last month some friends and I took advantage of an opportunity to go to the camel races, so we,  along with about seventy other expats climbed aboard a couple of buses and were on our way out of the city into the Kuwaiti desert.  We stopped at a local farm and they fed us a beautiful buffet meal.

I couldn't tell you what most of the dishes were, but I'm becoming a fan of Arabic coffee!

We thought they were setting up for a wedding and were pleasantly surprised that it was for us!

The camel races itself were somewhat anticlimatic, but now I can take "riding a camel" off my bucket list!  Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, I'll have to admit to you that I really didn't take a sip of camel's milk from the communal bowl.  I thought it looked like a great photo "op," so I couldn't resist posing for the camera!

UAS Singers

My school has relaxed some of their restrictions on photos that can be published on social media, so I'm very happy to be able to allow you a glmpse of some of my students.

a class of preschoolers

At the last three schools I have taught, I've had a children's chorus which would meet outside the school day.  I decided to continue the tradition with my third and fourth graders here at the Universal American School.  I had no idea if there would be any interest at all in a children's chorus here, but since all teachers at UAS are required to volunteer eight hours of their time to some outside activity involving our students, it was just logical that I would start a choir.  I wrote up a letter to be sent to the parents explaining that I was going to start a children's choir.  The band director asked if I would like them to perform with the band at the Christmas concerts they present to the school. It sounded like a great idea, so I went with it.  Since this activity was part of my required service project, letters to the parents had to go through the activities director.  I gave her my letter that was to go home to the parents explaining that I was starting a children's choir and that we would perfom with the band in December. Both the activities director and her assistant are Arabic, which means that of course, Arabic is their native language.  Apparantly, neither one of them understood the difference between a choir and a band and for some reason they decided to change the wording of my letter that went out to over three hundred sets of parents. The letter they composed also had some punctuation issues.  After the letter was sent out, I kept getting kids asking me about a third and fourth grade band I was starting.  You can imagine my surprise when one of my students handed me the permission slip with the letter to the parents attached which read:  "Third and fourth grade parents interested in joining a band...."  I about fainted!  By that time I'd already had over fifty signed permission slips and my principal set a cap (thank goodness!) at fifty students.  You got to love the Middle East!  I was a little disappointed that no parents signed up for my third and fourth grade parents band!

When all was said and done, I had a choir of forty-three voices.  I had to turn many students away, because it was getting too big, so this semester there will be separate third and fourth grade choirs.

These kids seem to be hungry for more music in their lives which I am happy to accomodate.  They are such beautiful singers.  It blew me away!   It is too bad that we can only give them music once in a six-day cycle.  This at least helps fill that need.

When December came we gave ten concerts in two days for parents and students in the elementary, middle school and high school.  Oh my!  We performed four songs with the band and one on our own.  Our favorite number was a Carribean version of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  We did choir choreogrphy with the song and got the audience to participate with us.  It was great to see so many people dancing in the aisles!  My favorite comments were how the voices of the children had finally brought some Christmas spirit into their hearts.  That is saying a lot in this desert country where you see very few Christmas lights and certainly not a dusting of snow anywhere!  I think that is why I love what I do.

We took this back in my classroom between concerts.  Couldn't fit them all the the picture, but aren't they beautiful children?

May 2014 be a year of wonder and blessings to all of my dear family and friends!

Charlotte

Thanksgiving Far and Away

Greetings fom the Middle East!

Most Thanksgiving holidays you will find me bustling about the kitchen basting the turkey or maybe peeling enough mashed potatoes for a small army.  This year I knew it would be quite different.   I was really missing my family.  Sitting around and staring at my four walls wasn't going to be an option!  There are always people to cook for.  They might not be your family, but sharing a home-cooked meal, especially during the holidays, is one of the finer things in life.  So a friend and I each roasted an eight pound turkey and made dressing and gravy.  We put up a sign in the elevators that Thanksgiving dinner would be served at two o'clock and to please bring a dish to pass.  Twelve people showed up. We had a beautiful meal, great conversation, and most of us staggered away from the table stuffed as we have ever been back home.  I was just thinking that a year ago at this time, eating Thanksgiving dinner in an apartment basement in Kuwait was about as far from reality as I could get.  A year ago most of us didn't even know each other, but here we all were, far from home, but enjoying a beautiful and memorable meal.  Sitting around the table that afternoon we had people from four countries: Cananda, New Zealand, Brazil, and the United States.  States represented included California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas, Florida, and Iowa.  It was pretty interesting trying the different regional specialties.  This was the first of many more holidays spent away from home.  I am already looking forward to the Fourth of July.  I plan to be home for that one!

What a great time!

International Day

Every year Universal American School sponsors a fundraiser called International Day.  Various clubs and classes put up booths and tents and serve food from countries all over the world.  There are many, many restaurants in Kuwait that specialize in food from various countries around the world, so finding the food to serve is never a problem.  You might be interested to know that in the American tent they seved up hot dogs, (beef, of course) chips, and Pepsi.  What, no apple pie!  Boy, everything was either deep fat fried or soaked in honey...that, of course, didn't stop me from sampling much more than I should have.  And, of course, I couldn't turn down that hot dog.  That would be down-right un-American!

A tent filled with Kuwaiti young people doing traditional drumming.

My Classroom

My last school was in Baxter, Iowa.  I taught K-12 vocal music there for nine years.  The band instructor, Christine Heintz, and I shared a room.  Finally, after all these years I have a classroom of my own!  No offense to my dear friend, Christine, but having a classroom totally dedicated to elementary music is quite wonderful!  I didn't have room to bring much stuff for my walls, I had to create everything from scratch, although I will say I got a little help from Pintrest!  I've been working at this for a couple of months.  All my old stuff was pretty shop-worn, so I guess starting from scratch was probably a good thing.  

When I first walked into the room, it was pretty much a big train-wreck.  It had been a few years since they last had a "real" music teacher.  I guess I'm a scarce commodity in this part of the world.  The up-side to that, is that they treat me very well here!  The down-side is that I had a lot of re-organizing to do.  The equipment is great.  There's more Orff instrumnents than I have ever had and a wonderful Kawai piano.  Finding all the great stuff was like going on a treasurer hunt...new things to unearth each day.  

Problem was, there was a lot of old, useless electronic equipment that is hard to dispose of.  I hate looking at piles of old cords, speakers, and stuff I don't even know how to describe, so I decided we would moves shelves and bookcases around and create some storage space.  Now I have this wonderful walk-in storage area.  I will let these before and after pictures tell the rest of the story.

So much junk!

What a mess.

What to do with all this stuff!

What's up with the green ladder?

That metal cabinet had to go!

Welcome!

Tone syllables and hand signs

"If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing."

A well-equipped classroom.  Glockenspiels on the tables in the back.  Storage behind the grey cabinets in the back.

"Music Is For Everyone"

Goodbye dear friends.  Enjoy your families this Christmas.

Blessings,

Charlotte

First Quarter

I had a nice chat the other day with the superintendent who hired me.  He asked me a rather pointed question, "Do you still think you made the right decision?"  It got me to thinking about that snowy weekend in February; the day of the Overseas Teaching Fair in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  After the first day of interviews I was pretty sure I would have at least three offers, which I did.  One offer was to teach elementary music at a school in the Marshall Islands.  I really liked the superintendent and the small school that he descibed sounded like the American school systems I have always taught in.  The drawback was that there is no cell phone service and after school hours, teachers have to go to the cafeteria to use the internet.  Also, I have come to find out that the sea has been encroaching on the islands and fresh water has become an increasingly scarce commodity.  I'm really glad I didn't accept that position.  The internet here was pretty bad for a couple of weeks and I was not happy!  I was having to trek about a mile to the nearest McDonalds to use their wifi to talk to my family.  My family enjoyed the Middle Eastern atmosphere, but I'm afraid if that had continued, I'd find myself at the local tailor getting all my clothes let out a few inches!  The other school that offered me a position was another school here in Kuwait.  The superintendent was from Iowa and I know I would have enjoyed working for her.  The school had two other elementary music teachers and I would head the small department.  It soulded perfect, but the only drawback was that teacher housing was about twenty miles from the school.  Come to find out, those teachers get on a bus at 6:30 every morning for a 45 minute commute.  I've been doing a 50 minute commute for the past nine years.  When I heard that Universal American School provided apartments the street from the school, my decision was made.  I canceled the two interviews I had set up for schools in China.  The cost of living is extrememly high in China and the smog was terrible.  So here I am.  Nine weeks down and three more quarters to go.  I'm still standing!

      The The vegetable market at the Old Souk

I had my first program last week.  I'm not sure if they have ever had elementary music programs here.  Nobody could remember if they had, so I guess now is as good a time as any to start.  I sat down with the principal and we decided to have one program every nine weeks.  This last program involved the five sections of first grade.  I chose a few Halloween songs and fingerplays and created an Orff arrangement of a Halloween song I found in one of the music series books.  The hard part was getting the students prepared for a performance with just one music period every six days.  And trying to schedule the auditorium and custodians to set up sound and lights and unlock various doors was a particular challenge.  You can't just walk up to a custodian and ask them to help you.  You have to have a work order signed by your principal and fill out a form to give to the person who schedules the auditorium who will check if the date is open and make the necessary arrangements.  I was sure I had done that about a month ago, but on the day of the performance, of course, the auditorium and cafeteria doors were still locked and no one was in sight.  Apparently, the custodian did not have a filled out form with my requests, although I was told by the person in charge of scheduling the auditorium that she would tell Philip what I needed.  He did not have the form, but he was kind enough to let it go THIS time.  Whew!!!    

The Gulf of Arabia taken from the balcony at the Embassy Suites Hotel

 This program had to be scheduled during the day.  If you want an evening concert, you have to contact the ministry of education about nine months ahead of time and hope it gets approved.  So we will have our programs during the day.  The attendance was rather sparce, but I think that when parents see that we are actually having live performances more people will start attending.  We also limited each student to just two guests because we didn't want to run out of space.

The program was very well received.  Parents were proud and kids had fun singing and dancing for the crowd.  I am glad to have that first program behind me, now on to program number two for the second 

grade.  I wish I had pictures if the program to show you, but snapping pictures wasn't on the top of my agenda that day!  

I will leave you with a few shots of my favorite places in Kuwait.   

   

another shot of the Gulf of Arabia

     

Al Hamra at Night

Blessings,

Charlotte

                                            

Random Thoughts

Sad Farewells

This was going to be a mostly fluffy piece about new and interesting places and out and about in Kuwait and then I decided to write a very honest piece about the realities of overseas teaching.  Many people choose to teach overseas for a variety of reasons.  I know many very fine teachers who possess a sense of adventure and teach in one part of the world for a couple of years and then off they go to a new assignment, ready to experience a whole new culture.  Then there are those teachers like me.  A year ago I never dreamed of teaching overseas and then one day I was called in to the superintendent's office and informed that he had made budget decision to cut the music staff in half, thus eliminating my job.  For many of us older teachers, we chose to come here because we still possess the heart of an educator and aren't ready to retire. Many schools in the American school system prefer to hire younger teachers.  This is also true of Cananda, the UK, and parts of Europe.  

A view of the Freedom Towers from the Old Souk

I have told many of you in personal emails that overseas teaching is not for the faint of heart.  Two of my fellow teachers who started with me were sent home last week.  Some days I feel like I am in some surreal Middle Eastern teacher bootcamp.  The new classroom teachers have really struggled.  UAS is an enormous school system; at least enormous by my small town Iowa standards.  A new position in any new school system is a challenge.  There is a new grade program and edline to master, and many new routines and procedures unique to a large school system in the Middle East.  Combine that with jet lag, culture shock, and living in what is pretty close to a college dormitory with the people you work with everyday.  This can be a recipe for a disaster if you aren't careful.  If you come here with a large amount of personal baggage and you lack a healthy support system, it will be very difficult to succeed.  I thank God for my dear friends and family who send me emails and hometown updates.  You know who you are and I thank you for that.  You keep me sane and grounded.  I love finding your messages in my inbox! 

Loxshmi, my maid for my classroom.  She also escorts my little ones to the bathroom.

Blessings

I love my new job.  I don't have to deal with most of the issues that challenge the classroom teachers.  I have challenges of my own.  There's the names!  In one class alone I have an Abdullah, Abdullahziz, Abdullahrachman, Abdullahwahab and probably another one I forgot!  I know one classroom teacher who told us she tells the Mohammeds to line up, Abdullahs next, then the Jousefs and that about takes care of half the class.  She has a wonderful sense of humor and has us all rolling on the floor with laughter.  Thank God He gave us all a sense of humor!

My style of teaching seems to suit the students here.  For many years I have lined up my students before they enter my classroom and greet them musically, then they sing back to me.  It calms them down and gets them ready to enter my little world after a four flight trek from above.  And then I have my little star class reward system.  The class earns a maximum of five stars through good behavior and participation.  Sometimes an individual earns a star for the class on his or her own.  And then there are the bonus stars...I'm sure you get the picture and then the final star is earned when they line up quietly.

This is all reported back to the teachers and they can add marbles to the jar or whatever reward system they use.  It works pretty slick.  I wish I thought of it years ago!  

I have made some wonderful friends here.  There's my friend who regularly drags me out of my coccoon into an an adventure into the streets and alleyways of Kuwait after a long week at school.  I have met a fellow quilter who invited me to join a quilting group here in the city.  She is a very accomplished quilter and I hope to learn a lot from her.  I have a group of young teachers who invited me to a birthday party at a very chic exclusive restaurant.  I opted out of the bowling activity.  No sense in embarrassing myself!  And then there's the wonderful couple from Goergia who brought their second grade daughter and son who is a juinior in high school.  We first met at the Overseas Teaching Fair in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  My counterpart in the music department has successfully taught here many years and she takes me to church each Friday.  There are my fellow "newbies" who were part of our FaceBook group that was assembled to help us navigate through the reams of red tape we had to navigate to get our visas.  It was quite a process.  We are permanently bonded!

A Trip to the Tailor

I have lost weight since I have been here.  I have no idea how much since I don't own a scale, but one of the new pairs of pants I bought in August fit me like clown pants!  I didn't bring my sewing machine, so I hired a local tailor to alter them for me.  He charged me the equivalent of $5.00.  Cheaper than buying new pants.  He did a great job, so I'll be bringing him more work to do!

Part of the reason I have lost weight is because grocery shopping is such a chore.  I mostly get my food from the local co-op (a government subsidized grocery store).  It's a couple of blocks from my apartment, but I never buy more than I can lug home.  The other reason is all the walking I do.  I don't take a taxi unless where I am going is truly not within walking distance.  And my classroom is four flights of stairs below the elementary office and I'm too impatient to wait for an elevator.  We have two and one isn't very reliable.  A friend of mine got stuck once, so I make it a rule not to use them unless its above the 5th floor or I have a load to carry.

A view of the many flights of stairs in my building.

Until Next Time...

I promise not to write so much in y next blog.  We have a week break so I have extra time on my hands.  It is the Muslim holiday of Eid.  I'm sure many of you are jealous because I have this nice break, but you will have the last laugh when you are enjoying your summer vacation and I'm still slogging away in the classroom until the middle of June!  

I bought some baskets from this gentleman at the Old Souk

This is an amazing time in my career.  God could see how life was pressing me down and leaving me weak and exhausted.  It seems that in His infinite wisdom, he plucked me out of Iowa and inserted me into this little corner of the Middle East.  Each day I pray for wisdom and discernment and I ask to be a blessing to the lives I touch.  

God's blessings to all of you, my friends.

Charlotte

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

Two Weeks In Kuwait

    This is the American Universal School in Kuwait.  A rather imposing large blue building

Greetings From the Middle East!

As of Thursday, September 12, I have taught fourteen days at the Universal School of Kuwait.  We have a six-day schedule.  There are six sections of most classes including Kg-1 and Kg-2.  There are three sections of nursery, which are the three-year-olds.  These little people (which can have very big voices when they are crying) I see twice in a three day cycle.  The other classes I see just once every six days.  Nursery and Kg-1 and Kg-2 I see twice a week for thirty minutes.  The other classes I see for forty minutes once a week.  I teach seven classes each day except on day three where I have planning in the afternoon.  The day goes by very quickly; not much time to catch my breath.

The culture is very verbal, which is a polite way of saying that these children love to talk!  So discipline is very important.  The children are pretty sweet and eager to please, but like my students back home, they need to know what the expectations are.  They also need plenty of gentle reminders and that constant positive reinforcement.  All the classes except for nursery have at least twenty-five students per class.  That is a lot of positive reinforcement in one day!

                    This is Mohammed, our one of our four full time guards.  I feel very safe here.

Adjusting to a large school system is almost as much of a challenge than the whole culture shift.  And the names!  Did you have any idea that there are at least five or six variations of the name "Abdullah?"

There are usually three or four Mohammeds in each class.  Some spelled with "ad" at the end and some with "ed."  There are some Arabic names with sounds that I haven't vocalized since high school German!  But I keep trying.  My students are very patient with their teacher from America.  My rule is that only the owner of the name I mangle is allowed to correct me.  Some of these children are so soft-spoken that I will occasionally make an exception to that rule.  

I have made name cards for all students 1-4.  They are about the size of a large notecards.  They have a large note on each card with their names written across the top; all laminated.  These become their assigned spot and double as a seating chart.  We have practiced the fine art of passing all the cards in correctly so I can put them back down in the same order next time we have class.  We'll see if they remember next week!  When they raise their hand to answer a question, they hold up their cards so I can call them by name, assuming that I remember how to pronounce it!  One of my class rules is "Always try your best."  Learning their names will be my challenge this year!  Someone told me it is impossible and to not even try.  I'll let you know how I'm doing in about nine months!

I know many of you probably chuckled when I mentioned that I would be bringing my beanie baby collection to Kuwait.  After I wrote that, I got to thinking that some of you probably thought I was a serious collector and couldn't bear to leave my little friends behind.  I have picked them all up at garage sales and Goodwill.  I use them in place of beanbags to teach my students beat.  Little did I know that unless these students have traveled to the states, they have never seen beanie babies.  These kids haven't had a certified music instructor for two years, so everybody is working on beat, which can get a little boring for older kids.  You should have seen the eyes of these children of wealth when I opened up my tub of beanie babies. I had fourth grade boys giving their animals kisses before we had to put them back in the tub when it was time to line up!  Who would have thought?

Its been a good two weeks.  I'm gradually getting my feet wet. My colleagues are from all over the planet and have taught all over the world.  Everyday brings new ideas and challenges.  Even the simple act of buying cheese over the counter in the local grocery store becomes interesting when you find out that the man from behind the counter is from Egypt and is delighted to let you try this and that.  It is an amazing experience, but I miss you all. 

Many thanks to so many of you who keep in touch.

Blessings,

Charlotte

                      A view from the rooftop of the teacher's apartment building.

    The building on the left is my apartment building.  I live on the third floor.

                       Goodbye until next time!