Heading Out and Heading Home

It was an amazing year, full of many ups and downs, but by far it was a wonderful experience.  For God to pluck this middle aged woman out of Midwest small town USA and plop her down into a desert in the Middle East was something only He could make sense of.  So many friends and family had grave misgivings regarding me traveling and working in the Middle East, especially when so many embassies were being closed shortly before I left.  But I always had peace about my decision to leave my beloved Iowa and venture into the unknown.  I'm not a particularly adventuresome person but I had faith that if God led me to this place, He would guard and protect me.  That he did.  Not only did He protect me, he blessed me with wonderful friends and coworkers and a school that needed a music teacher with passion for the job and patience for the challenges ahead.

It took forever for the the school year to end.  I'm used to wrapping up the year in mid-June.  We didn't dismiss until June 17.  The last two months were as warm as the previous August and September, well into 120 degrees.  I thought a person had to be standing on the edge of a live volcanic crater for it to be that hot!  After my last program, anticipation for coming home made the days drag on and on.  The last day finally arrived.  There was this blur of cleaning and packing and getting a taxi to take us to the airport and there I was on a plane to Portugal, soon to be reunited with my daughter who I hadn't seen since she left for officer military training in Texas in July of 2013.

Lisbon!

After ten months in Kuwait, it was time for a much needed vacation.  Where to go?  My daughter had been sent to Lisbon, Portugal when she was in ROTC at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.  She had a great experience there, so we decided that would be a perfect place for a holiday.  She got there a day ahead of me and was able to meet me at the airport. After many hugs and tears, we headed outside to catch a taxi to our bed and breakfast.  Stepping outside into the balmy Mediterranean climate of Lisbon after the searing heat of the Kuwaiti desert was indescribable!  

View of the street below from our bedroom at our bed and breakfast.

This is what awaited us every morning.  Good thing we had a lot of walking to do every day to burn off all the calories!

Castle of Sao Jorge is a Moorish castle occupying a hilltop overlooking Lisbon and the Tagus River.  It dates back to the medieval period of Portuguese history.  

This was the first place we visited.  It was a good thing I wore my good walking sandals because I never climbed so many stairs in my life!  It was well worth the effort because the view of the city from the battlements was breathtaking.

  

Discoveries Monument is located on the north bank of the Tagus River.  It was built in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of prince Henry the Navigator.  It represents a three sailed ship ready to depart with important historical figures of the time.  It was very impressive.  The figures on the monuments reminded me of the sand sculptures I saw in Kuwait last February. 

Belem Tower

A view from the top of the tower overlooking the bay.

Belem Tower stands on the banks of the Tagus River at the point where it opens up into a bay.  Built in 1515, was originally conceived as a defensive fortress.  It also served as a lighthouse and finally a prison.

It was raining hard that day, not just a gentle sprinkle here and there.   Neither one of us thought to bring an umbrella.  But we were determined tourists and we suffered through the downpour.  The tower isn't that big, so they could only allow about a hundred people in at a time.  Walking through the gates was like stepping back into time.  You could almost hear the footsteps of the men rushing up the steps to man the canons, ready to defend their country at all costs.  The view of the bay was spectacular when the sun finally came out.

One of our favorite attractions was the Jeronimos Monastery.  It was constructed under King Manual I.  Construction began in 1501 and was completed one hundred years later.  The role of the monks who occupied the monastery was to pray for the eternal soul of the king and provide spiritual assistance to navigators and sailors who departed from the beach of Restelo to discover the new world. 

We climbed up into the balcony and had the unexpected pleasure of listening to the rehearsal of a visiting children's choir.

Portugal is well known for their wine.  We enjoyed a beautiful sangria at this little mom and pop restaurant.  

The proprietor of our bed and breakfast highly recommended we eat our last supper at a restaurant run by a friend of hers.  Their specialty is a traditional Portuguese dish called cozido.  So we made our way there that evening negotiating the labyrinth of tiny streets so common in Lisbon.  We ordered the cozido and waited patiently for our meal to come.  We really had no idea what cozido was, but we wanted to try a Portuguese specialty so we decided to go for it.  When it came, we were somewhat taken aback by all this shellfish staring up at us from a pot of stew.  It was a tomato based soup with a wine reduction.  There was also rice in the bottom.  I guess it tasted ok, but I couldn't quite get pass the spector of my food seeming to look back at me.  I guess that's my small town Iowa colors showing!

Botanical Gardens of Lisbon

Home at Last

Coming home felt a little like Dorothy clicking together the heals her ruby slippers and chanting "There's no place like home, there's no place like home."  To wake up at last in my own bed and run out to my gardens and feel the sweet pleasure of green grass between my toes was a special heaven on earth.  There's nothing like spending ten months in a flat a barren desert to make you appreciate the simple pleasures of home.  It was so liberating driving a car again.  And yes, I could still differentiate between the gas and the breaks!  Cooking in my own kitchen, attending my St. Paul's Lutheran again, FaceTiming my family in the same time zone, shopping in stores where I could find what I needed, and of course seeing my sweet, sweet granddaughter who was an infant when I left and was now an official toddler...all of these were among the best things about coming home again.  

Getting reacquainted with Julia

My daughter, Stacia, and I at the Iowa State Fair

It was wonderful to see friends and family again, and to those of you I didn't have a chance to see, there is always next summer!  The two months I was home flew by in a whirlwind of weddings, baptisms, 4th of July celebrations, and reunions with family and friends.  Every day I was home was an absolute blessing.  Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Kuwait for another year of "Life in the Sandbox" as we like to call it around here. 

This is my son, Brett, and his wife, Sara, my granddaughter, Julia (already in her jammies ready for the long car ride home) and my dad, Ed Kokes.

I'm back in Kuwait for another year. The beginning of a new school year is a busy, busy time.  I've been here for two weeks now and it almost feels like I never left.  But I do have my memories of a magical summer in Portugal and the "land between two rivers" called Iowa.

A monarch resting on a zinnia at the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair

Almost Home

                          A view of the Gulf from the marina on a evenings stroll with friends.

Wow, what to say after living and teaching in the Middle East for the last ten months?  Well, I never did learn everybody's name which was pretty frustrating at times.  What is the fascination for the name "Abdullah" and the nearly ten variations of that name?  It's nice not to have to worry about a car and practically needing to take out a second mortgage every time you fill up with gas.  However, I do miss the freedom to get in my car and go when and where I want, anytime I want.  I'm not a fan of taxis and public transportation.  There are a surprising number of American products and restaurants here, but they are usually pretty pricey.  I've learned to adapt fairly well, I suppose.  It's always a choice to accept the things you can't change and try to put your own signature on the things where can have an impact.

This isn't a culture that is rich in the arts, but that is slowly changing.  This country took a big leap into the modern era once oil was discovered in the Gulf.  I think we teachers forget that reality and tend to get impatient with some of the practices and attitudes we are confronted with on a daily basis.  But sweet faces of children are the same all over the world.  They can also be as exasperating here as Anyplace, USA.  I came here to teach music, and teach, I did!  It was a special challenge my first year.  It wasn't always easy, but I was never alone.  God was with me every step of the way.   When I thought I would never teach again, He had a plan for my life that I never dreamed of.  Jeremiah 29:11

Expats

 

My friend, Penny Lee Hallin comes from Chicago, Illinois. Teaching is a second career for Penny. She attended the University of Colorado and earned a degree in English with aspirations to attend law school.  Before embarking on a career in her chosen field, she decided to take some time to spend with her grandmother who was in declining health.  While she was with her grandmother in Los Angeles, an opportunity arose to become an office assistant at the recording studio belonging to country music artist, Emmylou Harris and her then-husband Brian Ahern.  When it came time for Emmylou to go on the road and record a live album, Penny joined the production team. She worked in the office during the day, and learned the mechanics and operation of the remote recording truck (called Enactron Studios) at night. Enactron was where Willie Nelson recorded his famous “Stardust” album.

A new job opportunity in the burgeoning world of music videos came about and Penny went to work for Backstreet Records, home to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Backstreet was producing one of the first “rockumentaries” for the fledgling cable channel, MTV. Penny was the production coordinator for that project as well as many other music videos for the label’s artists. A chance meeting with the owners of Soundelux took her on a new path as an assistant sound editor for feature films. Penny worked on such movies as “Turner and Hooch” and “Young Guns”. Another opportunity presented itself to move to motion picture editing. She became an assistant film editor on such movies as “A League of Their Own”, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “The Last Samurai”.

In 2000, Penny took a summer course on Italian Renaissance Painting at Oxford University in England. While there, she was fortunate to be shown a chalk drawing done by Michelangelo from a private collection. She knew this great artist was well-known for his paintings but what he really loved with his heart was to sculpt. Penny said she could relate to this (on a  much smaller scale!). Even with a successful and rewarding career in show business, there was something she’d always wanted to do: Teach!

So in 2000, Penny went back to school and enrolled in North Park University in Chicago and earned her Elementary Education Certification.  She taught for three years in Chicago Public Schools, four years in Burbank, California and two years in Denver, Colorado.

                                  Gathering the "flock" in the morning

 

So what made her decide to come to Kuwait?  A good friend and colleague from her days in Chicago Public Schools had been teaching at UAS the last few years and urged her to apply for a job that was opening up in the elementary.  And the rest, as they say,  is history.  It has been a wild ride at times, but mostly rewarding.  As Penny sums it up, "I'm here to give what I can to my students and be open to what I can learn from them and bring back to my own culture." 

Penny came with me and a group of about fifteen of us that started the new year.  Four of our group didn't finish the year with us, but the rest of us are still here and with just days before the end of the calendar year, I think it safe to say that we all have survived somewhat unscathed.  Penny decided she liked Kuwait much more than she anticipated although she is looking forward to seeing level sidewalks and paper towels again!

Greetings!

We were minus about twelve students today.  As the temperatures climb towards 115 degrees, attendance falls off pretty quick.

The last few years I taught in the states, it had become my habit to greet my students outside the door with a cheery "Good morning everybody!"  Being the music teacher, I sing it, of course!  They sing back, "Good morning, Mrs. Kluever!"

Then I give them the new word of the day which is always a new way to say, "great."  So after they hear their new word (this week it was "sublime"), then I sing to them, "How are you today?"  Then they answer in unison, "We are sublime!"  The next exchange is, "Come and find your places," to which they reply, "We will do it quietly!"

They really respond to this greeting and if I give them a word I chose way back in October, for instance, they let me know right away!  Lately I've had to scramble through the dictionary quick before they get my classroom to find a suitable synonym for "great."  I should have written them all down this year...

My last class of the day is second grade.  These poor teachers have to walk their twenty-five or so highly excitable eight and nine year olds with all their back packs and lunch bags down four flights of steps to the underbelly of UAS to get to the music room.  By the time they arrive, usually in two or three scraggly groups, the teachers are somewhat short on patience.  They are using their sternest teacher demeanor with limited effect on their little charges.   It's the end of the day and both students and teachers have about reached their limits.  The students are arranging their heavy back packs against the wall and finding their place in line when I step out and give the students my cheery little greeting.  The kids immediately step into formation and are ready for the greeting ritual.  The teachers sigh, and give me that "Good luck with this bunch today....look".   The kids file in the classroom and if they are quiet enough, someone gets to ring my Chinese gong.  Woohoo!

The teachers get a little snarky with me sometimes about my greeting ritual and sing  a greeting to me when they see me in the hallway or out at recess duty.  It's all an act, of course.  What are we teachers, other than underpaid actors who's day job is to try to educate the next generation?  If we have to resort to the entertainment factor to get our students' attention at times, so be it.  I don't mind being teased.  Actually, some of them are beginning to sing to their students, too.  Whatever works!

The Last Program of the Year!

      A group of my fourth graders

Those of you who know me from my last school in Baxter, Iowa, know how busy my life was teaching K-12 vocal music the previous nine years.  There were four elementary music programs each year, two junior high, four high school programs, small group contest, and numerous vocal music festivals scattered across the school year, plus graduation.  When I came to UAS, the elementary principal asked me to put together a program for each grade level.  After being accustomed to about twelve programs a year, four didn't seem too much to ask.  Four programs became six after I agreed to allow my UAS singers to sing at the Christmas program with the high school band and then I agreed to help the nursery, preschool and kindergarten with their Spring Show.  That was OK.  Keeping busy is a great way to make the school year pass quickly and keep my mind off family and friends back home.

So at last, May 22 arrived and it was time for the last program of the year; the dreaded 4th grade!  Every school I have taught always has one class that the teachers find particularly challenging and this year it was definitely 4th grade.  I agonized over the song choices.  Didn't want the songs to sound too childish, but they must be kid friendly, singable, and not too challenging for my piano skills!  I have to keep one eye on the music and another on the kids, so anything with five sharps and lots of running sixteenth notes are not going to make the cut!

Part of my select UAS singers looking sweet and angelic.

After songs are chosen and adequately rehearsed and somewhat memorized, the dreaded days of "Rehearsal on the Stage" begins.  We have five sections of 4th graders this year (twenty-five students in each section), so I put together one group of two sections and another group of three sections.  I put together this elaborate seating chart and taped their names on the seats in the auditorium.  Each student at the start of the row holds a card so I know when a new row starts.  The whole system works pretty well.  All the kids have to do is stay behind the person walking in front of them.  It doesn't sound that complicated.  It worked for the  second and third graders.  You have probably guessed by now where this is going!  Someone decided the person in front of them was moving too slowly, so this next line got in front of the line they were SUPPOSED to be behind......!   We eventually got it sorted out.  Thank goodness both principals and all the teachers were there to help.  We have a great staff here and the teachers have been a huge help to me this year.

   Now you know what I REALLY have to put up with!

 

The program went very well, after we had a slight problem in the first song.  One student had a meltdown in front of the entire audience because someone was standing too close to him.  Thankfully, it happened right I front of me as I was accompanying the students as they sang "Puff the Magic Dragon."  I can play that song practically without looking so I kept trying to get this kid's attention whispering his name as loud as I dared.  When the song was over, I walked over to him and he was still elbowing this poor student standing next to him.  There was a little space behind this kid, so I directed him to move.  (He spent some time in suspension the next school day!) The rest of the program went without a hitch.  It is so rewarding to hear Tom Chapin's song "This Pretty Planet" sung beautifully with the magical, unchanged voices of children.  It is such a privilege to work with these slightly naughty, rambunctious kids and showcase the pure beauty of children's voices.  I was told in the airport in Jordan from a music teacher that the kids in Kuwait were pretty difficult, if not impossible, to train to sing properly.  Well, I found that yes, it was challenging, but not impossible!

Summer Just Around the Corner!

My next blog will be coming to you from sunny Portugal!  I'm taking a little detour on my way home.  I'll be meeting up with my daughter, Stacia, in Lisbon for a trip to remember for the rest of our our lives.  I will keep you posted!

Six More Weeks!

My first year here in Kuwait has really flown by!  I can hardly believe there are only six weeks left.  My last program which will be with my fourth graders is May 22.  A year ago my life was a whirlwind of graduations, music contests, clinics, and programs on top of programs.  The pace of this job is quite different than the K-12 position I left back in Iowa.  I was certainly ready for a change and change is what I got!  Now that the end is in sight, I'm getting pretty anxious to walk again through the green grass of home and enjoy an evening on my deck watching the fireflies sparkle in the cool of the evening.  I love Iowa!

Happy Birthday!

Back in April, our elementary principal, Joan Khaja, celebrated her fiftieth birthday.  All day long her office was an open door for flowers, cards, and birthday surprises.  Not to be outdone, I trooped all twenty-five of my first graders four flights up to her office for our own birthday version of Skidamarink.  She was properly impressed and after the grand finale it was time for a group hug! 

Expats

Many of my friends and family back home have expressed an interest in my coworkers here at UAS.  This is the third installment in my expat series.

Ken and Susan Loach arrived here at UAS the same time I did.  We met back in February when we attended an overseas recruiting fair at the University of Northern Iowa where hundreds of administrators search to hire teachers to fill positions all over the world.  We were among the nearly 900 hundred teachers who gathered in Ceder Falls, Iowa, hoping to find the perfect overseas job.  That snowy weekend was a blur of activity from the moment we walked through the doors at 7:00 am to look at the latest job listings to late in the evening when the last interviews were scheduled.  Somehow the Loaches and I made connections.  Come to find out, we had both interviewed with Dr. Alshamali to teach at UAS in Hawally, a suburb of Kuwait City.  Finding a job for any teaching couple is a challenge, but UAS had positions for both of them plus a three bedroom apartment and transportation both to and from school.  None of us knew we were to be coworkers, but when we arrived in Kuwait seven months later, at least I could say I knew someone in Kuwait.  Their daughter, Hope, was the first of my nearly 900 hundred students I would meet.  That's at least one name I could both spell and pronounce!  

Both Ken and Susan had taught at Henry county schools in Georgia for twenty years.  Susan taught third grade and Ken taught 8th grade social studies. Ken had always dreamed of someday teaching overseas.  Their son, Andrew, was a sophomore when they decided that this had to be the year they would take the plunge.  In two years he would be in college and that window of opportunity would be closed forever.  Ken and Susan wanted their children to experience firsthand, life on the other side of the world; a life you couldn't imagine unless you stepped into it head first.  What we experience here everyday is nothing like what you can imagine when you watch the news on TV or see in a movie. Life here is so very different from what we know in our own hometowns, but at the same time, we are all people sharing the same planet with people that we love and care about.  We all hope for a better future for our families and the countries we love.  We have much more in common than the differences in geography and culture that separate us.  

As you might imagine, the Loaches have grown much closer as a family.  They have gone from a three car family to a NO car family.  I can imagine they get some stares when they step onto a public bus!   Back home there was a TV in almost every room of the house.  Now they are a one TV family that has embraced the fine art of negotiation!  The children are thriving.  Dartmouth is one college among many others back in the states who are considering Andrew for a spot on the lacrosse team.  He was a big part of the UAS basketball team who had their best basketball season on record.  He is now a part of the volleyball team which is a very popular sport in Europe and the Middle East.  Hope is on her way to becoming fluent in Arabic, which is not an easy language to acquire.  Her teacher is surprised at how quickly she has absorbed the language and her parents are very proud of her progress.  Who knows what the future holds for her?

The Loaches are enjoying their overseas experience here in Kuwait.  They traveled to Sri Lanka to see the elephants during the Christmas break and went to Disneyland in Paris in the spring.  What this family has experienced here in the Middle East will enrich their lives in the years ahead and offer them memories to last a lifetime.  Susan and Ken share a deep faith in God and they both believe that God has brought them to Kuwait for a purpose.  Whatever the reason,  UAS is blessed to have them here!

Haute Couture

I attended my first fashion show a couple of weeks ago.  There is a strong influence from India in the high end fashions I see here in Kuwait.  When I heard that the Sadu House was to sponsor a fashion show featuring the designs of a rising star in the fashion industry, Amalin Datta, I decided I had to go.  His work features fabric made from his own designs; "...a synthesis of embroidery print and dye on silk."  The models were stunning in their gowns and saris.  He used a few of our Kuwait Textile Art Association members to model his designs, along with professional models from India.  The Sadu House with its pillars and open spaces was a perfect venue for this event.  The designs were classic and tailored and the colors were breathtaking.  My wardrobe is definitely due for an update, but I had better dust off my sewing machine.  I'm afraid I can't afford haute couture on a teacher's salary!

The tall woman in the ruby red sari in the center of the picture is my friend, Sue.  She has hosted many our quilting get togethers in her beautiful apartment overlooking the gulf.

I'll leave you with a view of the sunset off the roof.

Blessings!

Charlotteo

Music in March

KG Spring Show

The adorable three-year-olds in our nursery program

After they saw my first grade program this fall, I was asked to help the KG department choose some songs that would be suitable for the KG spring show.  In the past, the music teacher wasn't involved.  The teachers put together shows using current pop songs from the radio.  Each teacher would work up choreography for their wee ones and tailors would be enlisted to put together elaborate costumes for the big production.  They would practice on stage for several weeks taking up an enormous amount of time out of their curriculum to make sure their kids would shine.  This, as you could well imagine, got to be extremely stressful.  Some teachers were pretty good at putting a show together and some were pretty uncomfortable with the whole idea...but no matter, the show must go on!  You can well imagine how stressful this could be.

The assistants went all out with the decorations

After I came on the scene and they saw my first graders actually singing and doing little finger-plays, I was enlisted to help put together the spring show.  What I do isn't anything elaborate.  The children sing, mostly in tune, or at least that is what I aim for and I always do finger-plays.  Finger-plays help the little ones with diction and language development.  The voice inflection I use with the finger-plays helps them learn flexibility with their voices.  Since at last UAS had a "real" music teacher, I was elected to reorganize the KG show.

When it comes to dresses, the fluffier, the better!

For my American friends, I will explain that KG means nursery, preschool and kindergarten.  I was a little confused by the terminology myself when I got here.  I had not a clue I would be working with three year olds!  

So I was called in last fall and asked to help choose some music for the spring show.  Next thing I knew it was all in my lap, it was happening March 5 and there wasn't much time! We  organized the KG into 13 separate groups who would perform together; nearly 350 little ones!  So that meant I needed to come up with twenty six little songs and finger-plays.  Boy, that was really stretching my few resources!  I had to pull songs out of my memory and write out accompaniments, plus prepare separate songbooks for the teachers so they could help me teach the songs in their classrooms.  The teachers used their iPhones and actually recorded me teaching their students the songs they had to learn.  I only see these classes once every six days, so I really needed their cooperation.  And they really came through for me and most of all their students. It was truly a group effort.  The assistants, (we call them paras or teacher aids in the states) decorated the auditorium in this beautiful spring theme.  It looked like a magical garden when they were done.  

What  backdrop!

By the time the big day came, the children knew their songs and how to get off and on the stage.  The little ones looked adorable all dressed up in their finest.  I was most amazed at the performance of my little nursery children.  My first day with them was certainly not my finest hour!  It wasn't until about mid October until some of them finally stopped crying the minute they walked into my music room!  I haven't always been every child's favorite teacher, but I've never been known to make a child cry the minute I walk into a room!  But even these little wee ones sang "Where is Thumbkin?" with gusto and enthusiasm.  If we could accomplish that, I'd say the program was a great success.  I know there was some disappointment that the program wasn't very glitzy or as glamorous as previous productions, but the parents heard their children sing and recite poetry appropriate to their development, which if you think about it, is precisely what these little ESL children need and what better way to showcase what they learn in our school than with song and verse?  I will never hear "Where is Thumbkin?" again without remembering the sweet faces of the beautiful children of Kuwait.

A Breathtaking Bouquet

This is what awaited me when i returned to my classroom after the program.  I was totally blown away by the beauty of the bouquet.  It was a gift to me by the KG staff.  I feel so blessed here!

A Slight Case of the Blues

Feeling a little down today....nothing has changed, school is going well.  Had a very good day yesterday.  It was Arabic Mother's Day and I was at the computer when I heard a timid little knock on my classroom door.  It was one of my little second graders, Fatima, with her mother and sister.  She was carrying this huge basket full of fragrant jasmine bracelets.  I was a very lucky recipient!  Apparently she does this every year.  I was blessed all day with this lovely, lovely fragrance.  I was trying to get a report done for my principal.  I had only about 20 minutes left before my meeting.  Then another knock on my door.  This time I was presented with a lovely rose with the words "Happy Mothers Day" printed on a petal.  Yet another knock;  a slightly ornery boy with a Victoria's Secret Bag with perfume in it.  Went to my meeting with the principal and walked out the door and sitting on the secretary's desk was gift bag for me with the most beautiful chocolates you've ever seen!  All so unexpected.

I'm standing in our elementary office area.  In the background you see this wonderful mural of Kuwait painted by Mr. Bernie, our elementary art teacher.

All day I was  on the receiving end of many "Happy Mother's Day" greetings and unexpected kisses from little ones.  It happened once as I was walking past a line of first graders waiting to go somewhere and yet another time while they were filing out of my classroom.  

This is my sweet little Nebaska granddaughter, Julia

My granddaughter celebrated her first year on the planet this week.  I think this is the underlying reason for this little funk I am in today.  Despite all the wonderful and positive things about my life here in Kuwait, I just want to be home for a while.  It's been about eight months and I miss my family, I miss Iowa, and I miss my country.  There, I said it!  I will allow myself this little rant and you, my readers will have to put up with it a for just a little while.  I'm not normally morose, but life is not always a bowl of cherries as the saying goes.  Sometimes emotions just get the better of us and no rationalizing will make it go away.  I am in a good place, the work is satisfying, I have friends and tomorrow will be a better day. I feel a little better already.  Ah, the power of the pen! 

Third Grade Program

After I took this pcture, the principal told them to tuck in their shirts!

March has been a busy month for programs here at Universal American School in Kuwait.  March 27 we had our third grade show;  six sections, 150 students.  I put them into two groups.  Luckily, they all fit on the risers, barely!  

Some shirts got tucked in and others, not so much....

One of my all-time favorite kid songs is "Swinging on a Star."  It's from an old Bing Crosby movie call "Going My Way."  The song compares different personality traits attributed to animals, to the attitudes some kids have towards going to school and manners and other positive characteristics that we as adults think is important to cultivate in the next generation.  The kids loved it, of course.  We had this great choreography going too...but I had this little nagging feeling that maybe I should run the lyrics by my principal.  This culture does not appreciate swine like we do in Iowa.  We even have bacon flavored ice cream for heaven's sake!  They also don't care for donkeys for some reason which I didn't persue.  As you can about guess, even though the song doesn't put these animals in a good light, nor does it anywhere encourage the consumption of pork, I was told to nix the song, which I did.  So I had to dig out my files again and search for a new song. Thank goodness I brought a lot of music with me because you can't just make a quick phone call or go online and order music over here in the Middle East.  So I found "Picnic of the World."  The tune you would recognize as the "Can Can" song by Offenbach.  It goes, "All the nations sitting on a blanket, having a picnic, the picnic of the world."  And so it goes on to name all these nations having this great picnic and maybe things aren't always so perfect with "problems and annoyances, but all knowing that the deep down heart of it we're all a part of it, the PICNIC OF THE WORLD!!!!"  The kids came through.  They were even on key with the proper vowel placement for that last high note (although there was one part they got slightly lost, but since I also had to accompany them, plus try to help 75 ESL kids remember the lyrics of a pretty challenging song, I won't kick myself too hard for that!).

My third grade UAS singers.  So very proud of them!

After the second group of third grade students sang, it was time for my UAS Singers.  First semester I combined both 3rd and 4th grades.  But since the choir grew to almost 50 students, I decided to have a third grade UAS Singers the third nine weeks and 4th grade UAS Singers the second nine weeks.  So now I have a group of close to 40 third graders.  They are beautiful singers and quite a nice mixture of both boys and girls.  Before they sang their last number I made a little speech to the parents;  part of it went like this, "...despite differences in geography and language, we are all here to make this planet a better place for future generations."  It's only been 23 years since Iraq invaded Kuwait.  Many of the parents sitting in the audience were children during the time of that invasion and remember well those dark days.  I wish you could have heard these children sing from their hearts that day: "Peace in our hearts, peace in our hands, peace in our lives, peace our lands. Peace unto you, peace unto me, peace unto all the world's family.  So many people have helped shape our lives, striving for truth, they have lived and died.  We remember their faces, we remember their names, we strive to continue what they strived to gain."  

When they were finished singing, there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.  The beauty of the message and the purity of their voices touched the hearts of everyone who heard them sing that day.  That is a concert I will never forget.  

TTFN (ta,ta, for now!)

We have just started our fourth quarter.  Almost time the to start the great countdown!  I'm so looking forward to walking on green grass of Iowa again and checking out the latest blooms in my garden.  Three more months and I can hardly wait to see family and friends again and get caught up on everything I missed since last August.  Two or three more blogs and I should be home at last!

Blessings,

Charlotte

Q8

National and Liberation Day

A quick pose during morning duty.  

In my last blog I shared information regarding the upcoming National and Liberation festivities here in Kuwait.  On our last day of school before the holiday we had a costume parade and oh what a parade it was!  I've never seen anything like it.  Many of the children were dressed in traditional costumes of this country and others were all decked out in red, green, black, and white.  Many of the mothers put make-up on their little girls for a very striking effect.  Such beautiful children, I'm sure you will agree!

The confetti canon just went off!

World's Largest Sand Sculpture Park

A massive sculpture

When I think of sand sculptures, being from Iowa, I think of the big sand sculptures we would see in the Cultural Building at the Iowa State Fair every few years or so.  I'm not in Iowa anymore!   These sand sculptures are part of the world's largest sand sculpture park in the world.  It was built by an international team headed by stone mason Delayne Corbett from Canada.  The sculptures are based on 40 different scenes from the Arabian Nights.  This sculpture park is the size of four soccer fields.  They used 28,000 tons of sand, which is about 1000 dump trucks at a cost of about $3 million US dollars.  

Yes, that is a McDonald's sign hovering over the elephants.  McD's is everywhere!

The lighting was spectacular.

These massive sculptures defy description and my pictures barely do them justice.  The detail on these sculptures was exquisite.  It was like stepping into a magical world.  The sculptures were lit up at night which added to the aura. There were sound effects and and fire effects and dry ice smoke.  If you are really curious, I know there are youtube videos you can find on the internet.  

This was one of my favorite pics of the day.  You could buy these lanterns that you could write a message on and launch into the sky.  There were hundreds of these lantrens floating in the night sky.

Up it went with a smiley face and his baby sister's name "Fatima" scrawled across the top.

It was wonderful to see all the families strolling about from one sculpture to the next.  I visited the park during the Liberation Days festivities.  Everyone was sporting the colors of the Kuwaiti flag.  I will have many wonderful memories of that  amazing day.

Fellow expats 3/6

I would like to introduce you to my colleague in the music department.  She describes herself as a "little Jewish girl from New York."  She is my dear friend, Hedy Menendez.  Teaching is a second career for Hedy.  She was a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines  for twenty years.  Pan American closed it's doors 9:05 am, December 4, 1991.  Hedy was packing her bags for a flight to St Thomas         when she got a call that Pan Am had filed for bankruptcy.  Suddenly she and 20,000 other Pan Am employees from around the world were unemployed.  Hedy held a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami.  She had trained to be a concert pianist, she held a minor in flute performance and had also trained to be a vocal music instructor.  So she was one of the lucky ones.  She had a great back up plan.  So she dusted off her diploma and renewed her teaching certification.  She got a job as an elementary music specialist teaching K-4 and middle school vocal music.  She taught in Miami for seven years.  Then in 2003 she went through a painful divorce.  Her heart told her that the only way she could heal was to leave Miami and start a new life.  Somewhere, anywhere, but just not Miami.  One day she finds herself looking in the Miami Herald for job openings and she runs across an ad for an opening for a music instructor overseas in Kuwait.  What could be further away from Miami than the Middle East?  So she takes this job teaching band at Universal American School here in Kuwait.

She arrives at the school.  Someone leads her down into the basement and down a dark hallway.  They open the door and she sees these very green walls and dark green carpet.  The equipment consisted of some random percussion equipment that had seen better days and a couple of sorry looking electronic pianos.  They had gone through four instructors the previous year.  She tells me she sat down and wondered what on earth she had gotten herself into.  Then she prayed, "God, you put me here for a reason.  I don't know what it is, but I'm trusting you to reveal it to me in your time."  And He blessed her work here.  The students were hungry for instruction and eager to learn.  With the help of the principal, she put together a budget and ordered new instruments and music and all the other equipment a good band program needs.  She called friends back in the states for help and advice and in no time these students were ready to perform in public.  They were invited to perform at the Middle Eastern Toastmaster's convention.  There were events at the Regency Hotel.  There were Christmas shows and a Spring Talent Show that is well known throughout the city.  UAS has a band program we are very proud of.  Hedy brought it to life and she gives God all the glory.  

Desert Truffles

My friends and I were on the backside of the Friday Market when we saw these ramshackle sheds all set up and draped in red carpet.  We were curious, so we stopped to find out what they were.  Come to find out, it was a truffle market.  This gentleman and his artner were very eager to show us their wares, which at the chepaest were about $12.00 a kilo.  They invited us up into their and stall and they took many pictures of us posing with them and the fungi.  I don't think too many Western women cross their paths!  Anyway, it was one of those interesting encounters that are fun to share.

Here we are, mugging for the camera.

My friend, Linda, took this shot.  She has a small camera and snapped this one very quick.  I'm quite sure he had no idea he was being photographed!

Quite a Good Likeness!

This budding artist brought me this picture a few weeks into the school year.  I especially appreciate my crown with the little eighth notes and a glowing star on top.  I think this little gal has a future in fashion merchandizing ahead of her.

So Long....

I couldn't resist leaving you with one more shot of the beautiful children of Kuwait.  

Blessings to you from the Middle East!

Charlotte