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!

Floored

I've peeled myself up from the tile floor to tell you that today was a hot day. I think it was about 115 degrees, or so. What makes it more hot is the strong, sandy wind. It is strange to get used to wind being hot.

And so, we came home and stripped down to lie on the cool-ish tile floor. I mentioned earlier that we do have air conditioning. Yes, we have the capability. But, unfortunately something about the electric cable not being strong enough means that sometimes there isn't enough juice to go around the building. So at night our lights flicker and go dim, and the microwave doesn't produce heat...and the AC doesn't produce much cold. Not all the time, but usually when we're all trying to use energy - either when it's pretty hot or pretty cold and we turn on the ACs/heaters. Good thing that no one else will be living in our building during the really hot summer months (we're staying longer to teach summer school while everyone else is going on vacation).

Sand is the other part of the equation. As I taught my evening class I watched the wind whip up a massive cloud of sand so that I couldn't see out of my thirdfloor window. It's the North African version of fog. I was praying that we hadn't left our windows opened! The students were asking for the English word for sandy wind - and we don't have one of our own! As Artic-dwellers have multpiple names for snow, they have a more advanced sand vocabulary here.

The BBC describes the situation this way: We are "affected from March to June by very hot, dusty winds from the desert which bring very high temperatures, often exceeding 50°C/122°F for a day or two."

Let's hope it is a only a day or two - and that it doesn't mark the beginning of the real summer heat.

Either way, I think we'll be spending a lot more time on our tile floors.

Pollyanna & Culture Stress Indicators

One symptom of culture shock is the tendency to compare the best of your home culture to the worst of what you find in your new home. As an antidote against that, I thought I’d try an exercise of taking a more realistic view – or even one more weighted on the other side. So, here it goes…

1. The kitchen sink: Here there is a ledge that prevents you from standing at the sink – you more have to bend over to it, or put your foot up on the ledge, which is better for your back. VS: In LA, we had a handicapped equipped apartment, so our sink was really low and I chose to do squats at the sink to save my lower back and feel like I was getting something out of it (muscle workout!) besides bitterness.
2. Here, the faucet is too low to rinse large bowls pots. VS: In LA the faucet was too high for the sink and splashed excessive amounts of water around the kitchen.
3. The washing machine leaks across the bathroom floor, and it prevents the bathroom door from closing. VS: We had no washer in LA, so no complaints here!
4. Here the internet is in and out on a constant basis. Though we have Ethernet cables at home and wireless at school, it is often as slow as or slower than dialup. VS: We only had dialup at home in LA, and it was always very slow.
5. We have some cockroaches sometimes in our kitchen (though in the past few hot days I’ve seen four big-mama roaches!). VS: In LA we had an infestation that was near maddening.
6. When the reflective windows are shut the light is quite low inside. VS: We had minimal natural light in LA, and used electric lights almost throughout the day.
7. When sandstorms come we get dustpan full loads of sand in our apartment. VS: Our apartment in LA had a lot of dust. But here, we have a Ghanaian woman who comes once a week to help us clean!
8. The limey-pea green paint with orange curtains and light fixture in our bedroom are 'not peaceful.' VS: In LA our bedroom was in our dining room, living room and study (we lived in a studio!) – and we had no overhead light fixture, and no colors.
9. It's surprisingly hard to stay warm in the winter with tile floors and high ceilings. VS: LA where we were known to wear hats, scarfs and gloves inside our apartment - while roasting in the summers with no AC. Here we have heat - PLUS Air Conditioning. We do try to conserve, but when the temps get into the 120F....! Now that it's hot, the high celings and tile floors are paying off.

Of course, we can’t really do the “Pollyanna” response to everything that’s difficult. We did fix the worst problems: Within my first 2 weeks the gas leak was solved, after 1 1/2 months our toilet flushes again, and even the screeching window hinges have cardboard jammed into them so they've been rendered silent. However, there are some less dramatic issues that are still somewhat bothersome to me (this is my list, not necessarily Jared's):

1. The kitchen sink faucet “travels”…as in, it won’t stay poised over the sink to rinse dishes or fill pots. I know I’ve mentioned the sink a lot here – I think maybe I should just replace the faucet and move on!
2. As a good friend commented recently, sometimes I feel like an over-embroidered potato sack. I’m getting tired of the types of fashions I’m socially obliged to wear here. First, I need to be sensitive in making sure I’m not showing skin. I think that will get more difficult the hotter the weather gets. But secondly, the clothing culture for women is quite high here. To walk out in Rainbows (flipflops), jeans and a shirt (California style), would be frumpy and shameful. As a very young women, both these issues are heightened for me. I get some relief at home, but windows and balconies mean that I’m also on display here. Sometimes I close all the shutters or curtains and wear what I want!
3. Really, the affective aspectives of the apartment aren't anywhere within reach of our cultural definitions of what's pleasant to look at/be in. In short, it doesn't feel very calming and peaceful with oranges, pea-greens, pinks and bright blues. It's the visual equivalent of scraping your fingernails down a chalk board.

So, I'm going to look at these three issues and see what adjustments might be possible. I'll let you know...

North Africa…Where all your Dreams Come True

We saw a poster with this title other day and it made us laugh. However, we shouldn’t laugh too hard because this week two of Jared’s long-term dreams came true.

1. For a violin.
2. For a grand piano.

How was this possible?? Well, one of the only music stores in the country (affectionately called “The Yamaha Store”) had a going-out-of-business sale. We rushed over after school one night and bought mass supplies of guitar/violin strings and picks, drum heads and sticks – even guitars. Once the store is gone, it will be hard to get such supplies for the school, so Jared stocked up. We first bought all these goods... and then Jared turned to his own interests – a German violin that he’s been eyeing for a few weeks. Since he was a boy he has wanted to have a violin and learn to play. After all the (school’s) money we spend on the music gear, the shop assistant–turned-friend was more than happy to make a good deal "because it’s for you." As I say this he’s sitting behind me practicing his scales – and is quite happy.


When he’s not spending free time on the violin, he’s over at the school on “his” new baby grand piano. With school funds, he negotiated from 19,000 dinars to 10,000 dinars. Then he showed up the next day with 9,000 dinars in cash (see the picture of what that looks like – the 20 dinar note is the highest bank note available, but school mostly had 5’s and 10’s on hand that day!).



The real feat, though, was transporting it to the school. With no one in-country with piano-moving expertise, we hit Google to get some advice about how to do it. Jared insisted on being present for the move, and he was flexible and gracious when a flat-bed mini-truck pulled up to the shop. But, he wouldn’t budge in insisting that they remove the petals and actually cover the piano. They obliged and found some bed sheets to wrap it in - before using duct tape to secure the piano in the back of the truck (I’m really sorry I didn’t get my camera in time to document that!). Jared hugged the driver and pleaded with him, ‘shwaya, shwaya,’ – ‘please, slowly, slowly.’ It made it in one piece to the school, but then the nine men had to wrestle it up three flights of steps! I’ll spare the details and let you see the pictures…

Pizza and Pancakes (…with Date Syrup)

We still find it hard to believe that we’re actually living here. Plus, we’ve been globetrotting quite a bit the past few years, so it’s hard to grasp the idea that we have full-time jobs and are settled. “Settled” sounds like a relative term. Anyhow, in a recent conversation we determined that a place is finally becoming home we can do our usual pizza and pancake rituals. This involves making whole grain fruit pancakes on Saturday mornings and whole wheat veggie-mania pizzas on the weekend…and we’re getting close.

We’ve got the pancake thing down now, though Jared now sweetens with date syrup and Cat with honey since maple syrup is a decidedly North American product. As for pizzas, we haven’t quite rolled out our own dough yet, but we’ve just found some suitable flatbreads to use in the interim. I’m full right now after Jared just produced his first batch with fresh herbs - savory and mint. Wow, so good.

Through the Eastern Gateway

Urban gateways are striking. They are often imposing structures, representing historic moments, people, or cultures – things not to be forgotten but remembered. And through the opening of the city gate lies a story and context for life.

As our departure from this country is nearing (in five days, actually!), we are more intently looking from the Western gateway in New York City to the Eastern gateway of North Africa. Catherine and I have committed several years of our lives to attempting this transition from West to East. We hope to learn Eastern languages, develop Eastern ways of thinking and reasoning, adapt to Eastern lifestyles, and discover Eastern cultures.


As we leave the Western gateway at NYU, we look back on the familiarity of stores we frequent, greetings we understand, food we enjoy, and sounds that we expect. These are things we are comfortable with, or, at least, have learned to live with.

But in moving towards the Eastern gateway, we see and hear the bustle of souq (“market”) economies, desert hospitality, guttural languages, and bright foods. Our initial experiences we have had beyond the very gate pictured below have been different and, at times, strange. Excitement and anticipation overwhelm our senses at the possibilities of more participation in this “new” world. With a healthy sense of adventure and reality, we are eager to engage the peoples of the Eastern gate.


As your view into the Eastern gate is hidden in the picture, our purpose as blogging “sandtravelers” is to bring this wonderful Eastern world, beyond and inside the gate, into focus through travel accounts and conversations along the way. Of course, we are beside you in the journey, since most of our experiences will be new for us also.

We welcome you to this site and hope it will be a pleasant way to spend time and keep up with us! And with that...bi-salaama! We leave you until the next entry “with peace.”