The Other Side of Life

Many expats complain of the lack of social life here. True, there are no movie theaters, no malls or department stores, few restaurants, and little opportunity for sports. We usually enjoy hanging out with friends, learning to cook and speak, and eating. Jared cruises around town with the guys, visiting coffee shops and finding restaurants where musicians perform (the way to hear live music here). Shopping for food and clothes is also an outing for us, and at home we enjoy talking, reading, or playing Boggle.

This is our bread and butter, low key entertainment. However, we have kept surprisingly nimble in our "formal" social engagements - we sporadically break into the diplomatic circles. With such a small pond of expats, we get invites from friends, and it helps that Jared is the music teacher since most events are musical ones.

*FEBRUARY: To the national museum's theater to hear a Canadian classical guitarist, sponsored by the Canadian Embassy

*MARCH:

• To the South African Residence (where the ambassador lives) to celebrate their national day - complete with all foods/beverages imported from South Africa, including some kind of worm delicacy!
• To the Indonesian Embassy for their cultural fair.
  
  
  
  

  Jared examining traditional instruments -
  perfect for his classes on Asian music.

*JUNE:

• To the British Residence to hear a classical pianist and vocalist perform.
• To hear the Germany Embassy-sponsored Jazz Ensemble, from Germany of course.
• To a gathering of the British and Commonwealth Women's Group at the Indonesian Residence for a presentation on the many uses of the Indonesian wrap, involving demonstrations and fashion shows on how to tie them (think of a typical British WI - Women's Institute - meeting, here).
• To our city's theater to hear a famous Bossa Nova group from Brazil (Jared teaches two Brazilian kids, whose father is a diplomat).

*AUGUST

• To dinner with the Anglican Bishop for our region
• To the French Consulate to hear traditional music by a Sufi Ensemble

[Isn't it ironic that we weren't invited to our own two nations' national celebrations?! The Queen's Birthday and the Fourth of July are two of the biggest events on the expat calendar here.]

Mostly, we enjoy these events for the good music, and also the free food. You might guess we're out of our league since we often 'network' with our students whose parents are the big wigs; and since we don't have our personal driver drop us off and pick us up - we walk to the street and hail a taxi. Still, it makes for a nice change of pace, and in a place where it's all about who you know, it definitely helps to have some friends in high places.

[Incidentally, since we celebrate everything, we did pull off our own Fourth of July complete with camel burgers, corn (canned; cobbed corn is more for animal feed and isn't sweet, so we found), ice cream and watermelon.]

'Norweij'

Despite the difficulties of Summer School, we did enjoy being here - laid back pace, time for Arabic and Oud lessons...Jared ate dinner with the school night guards every week. One man learned to cook in the army and is quite good - he thoughtfully sent food home for me one evening. But after 6 weeks of School, we were aching to get out and have a breather. The School was more exhausting than we bargained for.

We spent a few days shopping in London, which I've never had much cause to do before, but what fun! We hit the end-of-the-season sales. I stocked up on tunic-type shirts and ankle sports pants to use as swimwear, and Jared found ties and button-up shirts. I also bought a kitchen scrub brush and my mother mailed me baking soda, an oven thermometer, a potato masher, cockroache traps, razor blades, and cream of tartar - all of which can't be found here. (Not that shopping lists are usually intersting, but they do show an unique snap shot of life.)

Some very dear friends welcomed us in Norway - such a God send. We went first to Oslo tanking up on Museums, wild cherries and peal-your-own shrimp at the harbor. Then we enjoyed the fresh air and greenness of Bergen and the Fjords. A family was generous enough to lend us their cabin in a remote mountain valley which hosts the largest glacier in Europe. Hiking was just what the doctor ordered, and we were thrilled to pick wild blueberries for trail snacks. We were totally impressed with Norweigans as all of them we met picked their own assortment of berries to make jam and juice, and made us waffles and homemade bread - not to mention that they invented the cheese slicer. When our two weeks were up, we actually felt prepared to return.

With such an expensive economy we didn't stock up on anything, except some brown cheese (it's both caramel colored and tasting, best eaten with jam and crisp crackers - who would have thought - YUM!) - and it set off every airport sensor from Oslo to North Africa! But it is safe in our fridge now.

Entering the Soup Race

It's our first Ramadan overseas. Life is very different during this month.

1. We don't eat or drink in public during the day. At school I have windows lining the wall, and the only blind spot is to sit directly under the window. So, we frequently have lunch pressed up against my wall. We aren't using our balconies at home much, either. Many of the teachers 'suffer' because it's cramping their morning coffee routine!

2. Very few people are out and about during the day. Summer-time Ramadan is difficult because it is very hot, but people can't drink. As a result, the beaches have been vacant, meaning we've had wonderful swimming/snorkeling expeditions where I can freely swim without being watched.

3. Sharing break and lunch time with my friends usually involves reclining in the staff room, with many girls sleeping; we don't talk much. It's a relatively new issue for them to have to work during their month of fasting. The two don't mix very well.

4. School starts half and hour later to acknowledge the fact that local students and staff stay up all night. In fact, during this month they virtually switch their body clocks: sleeping during the day, and waking up to celebrate with big meals and late-night shopping trips.

5. The sunset call to prayer is around 7:30pm - marking the time when they can begin to eat. Around 7pm begins "The Soup Race," so named for the first course of the meal - soup. It is wisest to be off the roads and sidewalks during this time because cars fly by at 100mph in a rush to get home and eat. It is amazing to watch, but also scary!

6. Stores open around 10pm. We took a family out shopping for a piano, leaving at 9:45 and returning home around 1am. Last night we went to a concert of traditional music which began at 10pm and after wading through traffic, we got home again around 1am. These nights are hard to pull off on with school in the morning!

7. Some nights Jared's friends pick him up around 10pm and they cruise around town drinking coffees and eating ice creams until he returns home and falls into bed at 4am. Those 7:50am school staff meetings come early, even if they are half an hour later to 'make up' for Ramadan.

8. But I think the best part of Ramadan for me is the TV. They have special shows produced just for this month - but they also show AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos) EVERY NIGHT! Some of you know how much I enjoy that show. It feels good in my soul to laugh hard, and when this month is over I will miss AFV the most!

Surviving Summer School

With a month and a half between us and the end of Summer School, I'm just now thinking I might be prepared to share some remarks about it. Seriously, in our department evaluation meeting a few weeks ago, I almost burst into tears; and the director looked close himself.

All in all, it was a success: no one died; no one was majorly injured; the school wasn't completely destroyed; school lasted the whole six weeks; and there were no major complaints from parents.

In other ways, however, it was a real challenge.

The first day I had two classes of 20 kids, each with a mix of 4-8 year olds. [Note: we were meant to start at 5 years old, but half my group was 4, as I discovered when I asked them in Arabic how old they were.] Eventually I was able to split my classes by age - and to reduce the number. However, 14 4-5 year olds is a handful with no aide. Furthermore, most of them spoke not one word of English. Not even the proverbial, "Hello, How are you - Fine, thank you."

When the books arrived at the end of the second week of school, I noted with dismay that they presume you must teach bilingually at that age. The activities were far to complicated for both their pre-deductive minds, and my Arabic.

No need to rehearse all the horrors here. But I finally saw a real turn-around by week 5 (of 6!). By then my Arabic had progressed enough to be able to give them all the routine instructions: sit down, clean up, where is your bag, it's not time for swimming, be careful or I'm going to call your mother... [Note: our langauge teacher also taught "I know how to hit you until you cry," but I chose not to use that one!]
One of the best moments was early on when I was trying to get a student to repeat a phrase. I was motioning toward my ear in an effort to get the idea across nonverbally. Slightly confused, the little boy came up and kissed me on the cheek. Nonverbal signals aren't universal!

To be honest - I do miss them! I love being here because you can kiss their little cheeks with abandon. No rules about that.

Jared taught the oldest kids - 12-16 year olds. His main problem was that one family just back from Canada sent their [fluent] kids to English Summer School [here read "Day Care"]. He used my room on the top floor. I don't want to make any guesses about what happened during the activity sessions led by teaching assistants, but there are still colorful balls of clay on my ceiling, and all down the hallway. It makes me laugh every time I look up. Apparently we missed the most fun on the last day when a kid jumped in the pool fully clothed to escape the Director who was chasing him; chaos escalated to pizza and anything within reach also being tossed in. What a summer!

Here are a few pix - they're not as angelic as their faces and puppydog eyes appear!