Email Update 4

Massa Khair everyone! (that means good evening)

We start at the school on Sunday, it will be just teachers for one week then the students will start. I got the chance to drive by my school today and it’s pretty big, but it looks nice inside. I guess I will know more on Sunday when I actually get to go inside of it. I will probably spend the first few weeks just getting to know teachers while they are on their planning period (which here means that they are in the teacher’s lounge drinking tea or coffee). The first month of school is Ramadan anyway, so it’s a short schedule and not a lot of teaching/learning will happen. In October (or after Ramadan anyway) we start back to a regular schedule and then I can start to observe in classrooms and get a good feel for what is actually going on everyday.

Besides work stuff we have been doing a lot of shopping. We finally finished cleaning the villa, so it’s not so dusty from the construction work. We bought pots and pans, plus some miscellaneous baking pans. They give us two of everything, so I went ahead and bought a really cute set of dishes that can be given away after two years. There is no guest bed, so we bought a little fold out bed that my mom is sleeping on. It’s a bit hard, so she uses the couch pillows underneath her as extra cushioning. We have spent a lot of time in the IKEA store which is unusual for us, but we have found it to be very resourceful since we can pick up whatever we need at the store (most places have to deliver to you and it takes at least two weeks).

Electrical plugs and light bulbs are a nightmare. We have bought lamps and twice we have bought the wrong light bulbs. Also, the electrical outlets are different. There are three pronged outlets and two pronged ones. We bought a toaster that has only two prongs, but it doesn’t fit into the three pronged outlet, so we have to have an adapter. This is true for the refrigerator and the water cooler as well. So, it’s not guaranteed that if you buy an electrical appliance that it will just plug right into the wall – make sure to buy an adapter!

Levi and I said that we wanted to experience almost everything when we came over here. That experience now includes a car accident. I was driving the rental car in a round-a-bout. There are three lanes in this round-a-bout and I was in the middle one, going all the way around. The guy next to me, in the inside lane, decided that he needed to turn right in front of me. He sped around me and clipped the front of my car. The hub cap flew off of the car and landed across the round-a-bout where the other car was headed. We stopped the car and talked with the guy, who immediately was telling us that we were in the wrong lane and we should have turned. I told him that we needed to call the police to get a report (because you cannot get a car fixed after an accident without a police report). So we had to wait 45 minutes for them to arrive. We had to explain our stories and everyone was talking in Arabic (except us!). We had no idea what the guy was telling the cops, but we could tell from their body language and motions that they already knew the guy was in the wrong lane and should receive the ticket. We waited in our car for them to write the reports and when the cop finally came over to give us the report, it was all in Arabic and we had no idea what it said. The other guy received his report, got out of his car and followed the officer back to his car. This was our clue that he was given the ticket because he was mad and still trying to plead his case. It was too late and the police drove off. Later, at the rental car company, we found out that if you get a pink slip you are not at fault (and we had a pink slip). It was no big deal and they gave us a new car (which we were waiting on anyway). Thank goodness!

My Aunt Barb arrived on Monday night, so we spent some time with her on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since Uncle Kin is busy working we have been able to show her some of the city, but the weekend is here, so I am sure that he will get a chance to show her more.