End of September/Mid-Quarter/Break

Friday, September 26
As hard as it is to believe, we have already come to the halfway point in the 1st quarter. It has also been almost seven weeks since we arrived here in Egypt. It's like anything, I guess. Once you arrive at a new location or begin a new job, it takes a while for one to adjust to the new locale, but then once you sort of get into the system, the days begin to fly by.
Kris and I keep VERY busy here, and there isn't a lot of "down" time, or at least there hasn't been that much to this point. Even on the weekends we tend to spend at least a part of each day working on school-related tasks. I don't like to do that, because I really do believe that weekends should be spent recharging one's batteries. However, we are trying to limit our time at work.
This week we will have our first long break. We'll go to school on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and then the next 6 days will be off from school. On our calendar it is listed as Ramadan Feast/Armed Forces Day. Ramadan comes to an end at the end of the month, and the 28 days of fasting will be completed. I guess people throughout the country take some time off at the conclusion of the month of Ramadan each year.
In any event we'll be off until the 7th of October. Kris and I are joining four other couples from school on an outing to the Sinai Peninsula. We've hired a bus and driver that will take us on the 8-10 hour journey eastward across the desert. We'll be staying at a small town called Dahab, which is located a bit north of the famous tourist city of Sharm el Sheikh. If you get your maps out you will notice that the Sinai Peninsula is somewhat triangular in shape. Sharm El Sheikh is located on the southern tip of the triangle, and Dahab is northeast of that on the eastern side of the Red Sea.
In that area there are some fantastic spots for scuba diving/snorkeling. Some of the teachers will be scuba diving, while Kris and I will probably be more than content to do some snorkeling. The waters of the Red Sea are supposed to be filled with a variety of colorful fish and fantastic coral reed formations. Of course we'll also be close to Mt. Sinai, Moses' old hangout, but I don't know that we'll be taking a hike up the mountain. Whatever we do, it will be nice just to see new territory and to have a break.
Each year during Ramadan, children collect food items for food shelves in the area, just like we do at St. Vincent's. I have a boy in my room whose father owns a shipping company. Every year, during this food drive the class that brings in the most items wins a class pool and ice cream party. Well, every year the class that this boy has been in has won the contest, as he brings in HUNDREDS of boxes of food. In fact, on the last day of the contest (Tuesday of this week) his dad sent a TRUCK to the school. It took quite some time to unload it, and the students from my room pitched in and brought the items into a storage room. Thus our class won the contest....I guess you could say that it's sort of a stacked deck; as long as this boy continues to bring in the goodies, his class will continue to win the contest. All the other kids at school have gotten used to it, and they try to beat his class each year.
The skies at school yesterday were a yellowish hue as there were sandstorms in the desert, apparently, and the winds were blowing tons of it into the atmosphere. I was on recess duty at lunch time and you could feel the particles of sand as they drifted through the air. It was just a bit difficult to breathe....Yuck!!
That's all for this week....

Mid-September

As I write this the date is Sept. 13, and we've had 2 full weeks of school. We're beginning to get into a kind of routine, which is a good thing. Life in general can be a bit hectic, so it's nice to have some things happening on a regular, predictable schedule. At the same time Kris and I are figuring out about how much time we need each day and on the weekends to prepare for classes.

One thing that hasn't changed much is the heat. It gets hot each and every day, with temps in the mid-80's; that hea is accompanied by high humidity. Sometine in October, the thermometer should begin to slowly head south just a bit. There are air conditioning units in each room, but they are located in the front. There are also ceiling fans to help circulate the cooler air, but the students in the back of the room are always warmer, while the ones sitting next to the AC are freezing. I have begun to shut it off for periods of time each day to give the "Eskimos" time to thaw out just a bit.

This week will mark the halfway point in the month-long Ramadan period. Each evening during Ramadan when the sun goes down, the people mark the occasion by having "iftar", the evening meal. This is a special occasion and special, traditional foods are prepared. This past week on Tuesday we had our own iftar in the cafeteria. Members of the school board were invited along with other teachers from the staff who live off-campus, so we had a full-house rather than the 15-25 people who usually eat at night.

The First FULL Week of School

Friday, September 5, 2008

We've finished our first full five-day week here at Schutz and at the same time have entered the season of Ramadan. Monday, Sept. 1st was the beginning of the lunar month and thus the beginning of the month-long cycle of fasting. It has been interesting for me to observe the consequences of this within the classroom.
During Ramadan the children who are fasting must eat their first meal of the day before the sun rises, which is at about 6:00 a.m., I believe. During the day they may not eat or drink anything, and so by the time lunch recess ends, the soccer-playing boys are VERY hot and thirsty after zipping around in 85-90 degree temperatures. It becomes a bit difficult to do much textbook reading.
Out of my class of 19 students, I'd say that perhaps 10-12 of them are seriously fasting. The other part of this is that, when they go home after school, they still may not eat anything until after sunset. The days are getting shorter, but yet the sun does not go down until about 6:20 p.m. Many of them will stay up very late, some until after midnight, and then wake up again just a few hours later. The Egyptian public schools, therefore, are not beginning the school year until October.
Anyway, it's been interesting to go through an entire week of school to see how it "feels". The students at the Grade 5 and 6 levels have the following specials during the week: P.E., Music, Art, Foreign Language, Library, Technology/Computer. P.E and Foreign Language classes are held two or three times a week. That depends on which weekly cycle we're in. The other specials are held just once a week. They do have a 45-50 minute block of time for each special. On the days when they have Foreign Language and P.E., those two specials are back-to-back. The students first go to language at about 10:00, and by the time they finish P.E., it's lunchtime. It makes for a nice teacher prep time.
It's strange, after 5 years at SVDP, to see students in the room without uniforms. Apparently that has been proposed in the past, but as right now, the children can pretty much come to school dressed as they wish.
One of my students is Greek; she was born here, but her parents have Greek heritage. Her father is the manager of a Greek restaurant in Alexandria, and this evening Kris and I are going to try it out as we are lovers of all thing Greek.
In fact there used to be many people with ties to Greece, Italy, and other countries whose families had lived in this city for generations. It is so close to the southern coastline of Europe, and many of these folks started businesses here and prospered. After the revolution of 1952 quite a few of them returned to their ancestral homes, but there remain some. In fact one of the administrators at the school has ties to Italy, but he was born here.
This morning, it being the weekend, I worked out in the exercise room. This room has lots of nifty equipment. I tend to use the stair-climbing machine and the bike. Afterwards I went for a cooling swim outside, Even at 7:30 in the morning the temp was about 80 degrees outside.
Friday is our day for washing clothes, and so I did that first.
That's all for this week......

First Day of School-Aug. 26, 2008

Thursday, August 28, 2008

We have come to the end of our first, partial, week of school here at Schutz American School, and it feels good to have the weekend upon us. For 29 years I have looked forward to the first weekend of the school year. Why, you ask? Well, let me explain.........the first few days of school, and actually the last few days of the school year for that matter, are quite intense. At the beginning of the school year cycle, we teachers are trying to put faces to names. At the same time we begin to discover the people behind the names and get to know them. While all that is going on, we must also initiate elementary "boot camp" and help the students adapt to a different grade and a different way of doing things. For Kris and me, the intensity level has been increased this year as we find ourselves in a new country and operating under a new system.

Thus we are happy to have a chance to stop, breathe in the fresh, weekend air, and relax a bit. Of course, at least part of the weekend will be spent back in the classroom preparing the first REAL lesson plans of the year. Sunday will mark the beginning of the first five-day week. We will blow the dust off all the teacher manuals on Friday and Saturday and make some serious planning decisions.

It's been great getting to know the 18 Grade 5 students who are members of the "Desert Moose" family. Those of you who are members of my St. Vincent's family might be interested to know that Marty Moose has come along on the journey to Egypt; however, he has become a DESERT MOOSE. That Marty travels all over the world, even to one of the most arid spots on earth. On one of the walls of my classroom, I have the class list posted under the banner "The Desert Moose".

All of my students are from the general region of the Middle East. Most of them are either 100% Egyptian or have one parent from this country. I have children with family ties to Greece, Lebanon, Syria, U.S. There are two or three children from India and one from Pakistan. One little girl is a new student from Korea, and I have another new student from Egypt. For the most part my class has been together since Kindergarten; put it this way, I would say that at least 8-10 of them have been here for 6 years. So they know each other very well. This is a different experience for Kris and me. In both Bulgaria and Poland the turnover rate was much higher. With very few exceptions students would leave the schools there after three or four years.

The weather.......Hot, it has been....a steamy hot. Temps not all that high, perhaps in the upper 80's to around 90, but the humidity is a killer. When I go out on my daily lunch time recess duty I stay under the protection of a porch roof, cause when you walk directly out onto the playground grass you enter the steaming jungle country. When the kids come in from recess, the boys and girls who have been playing soccer are drenched in sweat.....Lots of water gets sucked up from the water fountains in the hallways.

Each room is air-conditioned, thank goodness, but when you walk in the hallways or outside the heat grabs you around the neck and makes you wish for a nice, frosty, -20 below zero day. I've got my room A/C set at North Pole temps, and some of my girls ask if they can put on their sweaters....That's o.k. with me,,,,,I just need to keep my Minnesota hide cool!!!

That's all for today....TGIF, or as I should say over here, THIT (thank goodness it's Thursday)

Oh, and by the way, Ramadan begins this weekend.....therefore, or at least coinciding with, we turn our clocks back one hour tonight....so I'll be looking forward to that extra hour of sleep.

More on Ramadan in the very near future...This will be an interesting experience for Kris and me....Ramadan in a school made up of mostly students who practice the Islamic faith.

Photos/School and Our 29th Anniversary

This page contains some pictures. Go to our main page to read about our latest adventures
Our waiter at the restaurant, Mohammed. He deocrated our anniversary dessert for us and is a very nice man.
This is Mohammed's creation......Ice cream and brownies.
The view of the Mediterranean from our table in the restaurant.
Two middle-aged Minnesotans
The tram that passed us on the way to the hotel.
Kris' classroom
The school's playground.
Balcony of the elementary school. Playground is to the left
Entrance to elementary. (Walter Hall)
Center court between Middle and High School and the Elementary School. Walking forward from here you go to the elementary school.
School swimming pool
Balcony of our apartment
View from our living room

Beginnings

July 31, 2008--
This is being written on the last full day we will spend in our apartment in Osseo. It's the first entry of my Egyptian journal, and I've decided to call it "St. Vincent in Egypt". That seems like an appropriate title, and it connects the present to the future. In other words, I am leaving St. Vincent, bound for Egypt, but with the sincere desire to return to the land of the Royals in the not too distant future.
Kris and I have been VERY busy these past two months as we've unpacked boxes in storage, tossed some things away, recycled other things, and kept others. That was the first part of the summer. In recent weeks we've done the same thing, but this time in our apartment. Our apartment is almost empty now; tomorrow we'll load the last of the items in our garage. Our bed will be one of the last items to be placed in storage. Also, the members of the crack SVDP Kleaning Krew will be here to help load our television onto Warren's truck. It will then be delivered to Janet's apartment.
We then spend the next week in the Maple Grove extended stay motel and continue to work on our packing, this time focusing on our suitcases.
More later.....I now take our car to Carlson Toyota in Coon Rapids for one more fresh drink of oil.
Marty Moose

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Today Kris and I will be getting immunizations at a local travel clinic. This is one "chore" we neglected to take care of earlier this summer. It sort of slipped right on by us.
Yesterday we drove to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to meet up with our friend Loralee. We spent a wonderful few hours visiting with her as we ate at a local Olive Gardens restaurant and then walked through a shopping mall. She treated us to DQ cones before we headed back to the Cities at around 4:00.
Three days to go........lots of little things to take care of...One of our tasks will be to reorganize our suitcases. We sort of tossed things in them at the end before leaving our apartment.


Thursday, August 7
Happy Birthday to Jacob who turns 23 years young today!! This will be our last full day in Minnesota for awhile. Yesterday evening we had a great time over at the Badger's home. Steve cooked up some delicious fish, and we had ourselves a picnic out on their deck. We spent three hours chewing fish and then, afterwards, chewing the fat, so to speak. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening under the warm August sky.
Today we have a few end-of-the-road tasks to take care of. Also, at noon, I'm meeting the St. Vincent de Paul "Kleening Krew" for lunch at Sir Richard's establishment in downtown Osseo. The moving crew always has an end of the summer get together over at Dick's.
We will also be weighing our suitcases to make sure they are each under 50 pounds in weight. We will be taking four bags each, and a couple of them are quite heavy.
That's all for now...it's time to get the day started.

Friday, August 8
Today is the day. As I write this we are about 12 hours from liftoff. The next 36 or so hours will be a fog of waiting, sitting, adjusting, and perhaps most of all, fatique. However, we will take it all one step at a time, one moment at a time.
Yesterday Kris went out shopping for shoes and slacks. No luck on the shoes. We also bought some suitcase labels at Target. I saw Kay Dammer out there, and we chatted for a few minutes.
At about 2:30 I got together with Bob, Warren, Janet, Norm, and Art at Dick's, and we had a bit of a farewell bash. That was fun.
We talked to Matt and Jacob separately yesterday, and then in the evening, to both of them on Skype. That was very cool....first time we've done that.
We'll throw the rest of our things in our bags this morning, and probably at about 1:00 we'll head out to the airport. We're not sure whether we're going to take a taxi van out there or go out with Art. It all boils down to whether or not we can get our suitcases in one car (Art's). We'll probably end up taking a taxi even though it will be expensive.
In just a bit I'll be packing this computer up, so this will be my last entry until we arrive in Egypt. I'll see you all then. Goodbye for now, Minnesota...I'll see you in just a little bit.


Friday, Saturday, Sunday--August 8,9,10
The following contains parts of a letter that I just wrote to our sons, Matt and Jacob. Rather than rewrite the entire experience, I am including sections of it....Read on, friends and neighbors....

I've got the infernal "jet-laggin jag". Anyway, instead of fighting the beast, I'm up and about, and thought I'd give you a write. We arrived in Alex on Sunday morning at about 3:30 a.m., give or take.... Ebert and Roeper airport review on Alex airport: well, let's just say a comparison with Sofia's airport might be in order, except that instead of hordes of devilish taxi drivers waiting to take you places, we had hordes of suitcase dudes fighting over our American greenbacks in an effort to get our luggage lugging permission, That was wild and wacky enough; the fact that it was about 4:00 a.m. when it happened just made it a bit more bizarre.
By the time we got to the school and got to our apt. it was about 5:00 a.m. However, along the Corniche , the seaside avenue which stretches along the coast, there were hordes of people out and about at that time. August is prime vacation time in Alex, and people from throughout the hot hinterland of the country come here to party and cool off.
Our apartmenet: WOW!! In terms of quality, this is one super cool apartment and the nicest one we've ever or probably will ever live in. Let me start with the floor-to-ceiling business. I'm not actually sure how high the ceiling is; suffice it to say that it must be between 12 and 15 feet high. The building is an old one and must date back to the early 20th century. It's located on the second floor of the building, which is mostly made up of other apartments along with some office space and our staff lunchroom.
As you enter the apartment you walk onto a small entryway. Immediately, to the right is the guest bedroom, complete with dresser, a large closet, AND an adjoining private bathroom. (shower/tub/sink/toilet. Complete works....this shall be my morning shave,shower,etc. room.
Now..let's get back to the hallway...if we keep walking straight ahead we walk towards the kitchen cupboards, and in a little nook next to it, we find the stove and fridge. There is a gurgling water cooler, similar to the one we had in Warsaw, with hot and cold taps.
Back to the entryway; this time instead of going straight ahead into the kitchen we will turn left. We walk into our large dining area which contains not only the dining room table but also two bookshelves, a small couch, a nice nick-nack paddywack fancy cabinet for storing china or some such things, a couple coffee tables, and the desk that I'm sitting at as I write this letter. One of four ceiling fans in the apt. whirls away as I tap the keyboard.
We step from the dining area and enter our living room, which has more shelving, a brand-new TV, and two couches....and another ceiling fan... From there it's just a hop, skip and a door away from the master bedroom. Big 'ole ceiling fan slicing through the air, makin' me think that if it ever comes unhitched, I'm gonna lose my 55 year old head. Ah, off of the bedroom is a large storage room in one direction, and the all-important master bedroom, which is decorated in baby-blue.
On the outside of the building is a deck which runs the entire length of the east side of the building. We can walk out there from our bedroom or dining room area, and if we do desire, and I do believe I shall desire, we can sit on a couch or chair out there and enjoy the summer air.
All of the foreign hire teachers live on-campus in similar apartments, while the Egyptian staff members live elsewhere in the city.
Now, about the trip over here....It was a long one, of course, but that's what one has to do if you're going to journey from Osseo to Africa. It will take our bottoms some time to recover, but no matter. Mpls-Chicago was fast, of course....We had about three hours to wait in O'Hare. We met up with Seth and Crystal, two teachers joining us at Schutz. They are newlyweds, married this summer and hail from the Kansas City area. We visited with them for awhile before boarding the plane. Oh, we also me a young Chinese man who had just flown in from Beijing on his first overseas flight. He was on his way to begin a masters or doctorate program at Brown University in Rhode Island. Nice guy.
The flight to Frankfurt..........left at 10:00....8 hours of sitting..Nice aircraft, though...one of the newer European planes. Individual screens with touch control. One could begin a movie at any point along the flight. Bathrooms were interesting, too. First of all, you walk to the end of the plane, where you would normally find the one or two stall rooms. However, on this plane, you actually descend a stairway, at the bottom of which you find about 8 stalls, four on each side. In other words, a separate bathroom area..
In Frankfurt we took a hotel van to an adjoining motel and spent an expensive four hours resting and showering before returning to the airport. The flight to Alexandria, which was supposed to leave at 9:00, didn't actually leave the ground until 9:30. We arrived at the airport at about 2:30. So, from our start in Mpls to our arrival in Alex, it took us about 26 hours to get here. On our flight to Alex we were joined by another Schutz School couple who come from Canada. They were also married this summer....
Now, a bit about our first day....Breakfast was served from about 8-11 in the morning. Groggy-eyed, we dragged ourselves down there at about 10:00. The dining room resembles a small restaurant and is staffed by Egyptian employees of the school. They prepare breakfast, lunch, and supper every day that school is in session. Now, I assumed they cooked for the students as well. It is my understanding that they do not....they cook for the teachers. Now, that is kind of bizarre, isn't it?!!! Am I complaing....no, I think not..The food---Day 1 review: outstanding! If one chooses not to eat a school meal, we need to notify the staff; otherwise it is assumed that you will be there. We certainly do have the option of cooking in our apt or of eating out, however. Now, do you think I'm going to that after a busy day at school? Me thinks: NOT!
We were joined at breakfast by the other newcomers and by the administrative staff, including the director, high school and elementary principals. We got a tour of the buildings, got to see our classrooms, etc., met the finance folks who paid us for our travel expenses (the extra luggage costs)
Skipping ahead to the late afternoon; a dip in the school pool felt good, followed by our dinner. Then it was time for our first foray outside the school grounds. Now, that's like leaving Kansas and stepping into Wild and Wacky Land. There are guards at the entrance to the school. There is also a metal-detector; first one of those I've seen at a school. Leaving through the doors of the school entrance we step into a poorer section of Alexandria, at least judging by the condition of the tenemant-style buildings one sees. The street we walk on is Schutz Street, but to be honest it's more of a glorified alley, but an alley which on a summer evening is VERY, VERY busy. There must have been about 12 in our group, and there wasn't much sidewalk, and much of it consisted of broken slabs. So......we walked upon the street....doing that means you take your life in your hands because the cars are zooming, beeping, and blinking their lights constantly in both directions. When that happens one must scoot and squeeze over to the side of the building. Now, imagine this---this same glorified alley will be the dropping off point when school begins. I can't imagine how that will work.
It's about a 30 minute walk to the Corniche, which is the main drag in town and which contains the high-price hotels and fancy shopping districts. Our mission was to reach the Starbucks which overlooks the Meditterean; well that wasn't our initial mission. We were actually on our way to a Metro market to buy some necessary items such as toothpaste, soap, paper towels, etc. We did, however, find time to buy coffee and to then sit out under beach umbrellas and watch the sun sink beneath the horizon. That was very nice, I must say... We shopped, then it was bac home and to bed by 11:00.
We'll actually do a bit of school-related work today, but most of the day may be spent on personal tasks, which in my case would include MORE SLEEP!! We'll be taking a van journey to a larger shopping mall to buy some more items.. Anyway, enough of that...
One last thing; we have been mightily impressed with the school staff members. I mean, imagine, here we were out at the airport at 3:00-4:00 a.m. in the morning, and not only were the school van drivers there, but they also loaded up all our bags. Additionally, the school's housing and staff liason person was there along with the administration members. That was pretty cool! We we got to our apt. there was a supply of food, a vase of fresh flowers, the air conditioning was already turned on, and there was a note from Samia. (the housing lady) VERY friendly folks, I must say...
Time for bed......Goodnight

Friday, August 15
At the top of this page you see several photos taken yesterday. My intent was to post them down here, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Hey, I was proud of myself just because I was able to get these photos here in the first place.
Anyway, as some of you already know, since I've written to you individually, yesterday's "workshop" was not really a workshop. Our fearless leaders had scheduled a day at the beach, figuring we all needed a break from the jet lag, unbagging bags, and our minds beginning to sag. So---roundabout 10:00 two of the school's van drivers' loaded us all up and we took off for about a 30 minute trip east of here. The area to which we travelled was at one time the summer grounds of the last king of Egypt, King Farouk, who got himself deposed back around 1952. The grounds are now sort of a park, I guess, but they also include a private beach area. In this section of the grounds there are many "cabinas", or small summer cottages. They are not really designed for overnight stay, but are mostly used for staying when one wants to get a taste of surf and sand. The particular cabina we visited is owned or rented by an American teacher at our school and her Egyptian husband. She has lived here since the late 1970's and was married around 1980. She graciously offered to open her place up to about 12-15 of us.
My oh my we had a very nice time. The school cooks packed up a picnic lunch for their "children", and after a first round of swimming, we ate and then went back to the water. All in all we spent about 4 hours there.
The lady in the first picture ( in the blue dress) is the one who let us use her cabina. The beach is about 25 yards from the front of the cabina.
All but just a few of the people in the pictures are the new hires. Along with our hostess these included the elementary principal and another high school teacher. The rest of the returning teachers will join us next week.
Anyway, it was an ideal way to end our first workshop week, and we all went home refreshed. Today, being Friday, is the start of our weekend....That will take some getting used to. At around 1:00 the several mosques in this area began broadcasting about an hour's worth of services, sermons, etc. (Let's just call it the Lutheran Hour) and the various voices and chantings could be heard throughout the 'hood.
Tonight we will all go out to eat at a local hotel to celebrate one of the teacher's birthdays....
Tomorrow we'll take the school vans out to a local French superstore, Carrefour, to buy more goodies.
It's been an incredibly strange, but nice experience to have all of our meals prepared for us each day. The cafeteria is located on the bottom floor of our residence hall, which is called Roy Hall. Each breakfast, lunch, and dinner we all walk down the stairs from our rooms and meet for the meal in what resembles a small but very cozy restuarant. It has sort of reminded me of "Groundhog Day" in that is always the same group meeting at the cafe...only the meals change. The cooks are a friendly bunch AND they prepare absoltely delicious and interesting meals.
Among the group of newcomers we have one child, a very cute little boy named Noah. This guy has been and will continue to get a lot of attention from all the adult teachers during the year.
That's all for today......

Tuesday, August 19th
Today is the first full staff teacher workshop. All the returning Americans and Egyptian hires will be there. I think we've met all the returning Americans, as they flew in from Frankfurt on Sunday morning. Of the Americans who are here on the stafff, I would guess that only the high school principal and his wife, and the technology teacher and his wife are older than us, and they certainly are about our ages. In other words, we are the graybeards in the bunch. The two couples we flew in with are probably in their late 20's to about 30 years old.
Yesterday we had four hour-long sessions. After the last one, at 3:00 we piled onto one of the school vans and took a tour of Alexandria, from the far eastern portion where we went swimming last week (the old palace area), to the far western section where once stood the famous lighthouse which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Not much remains of old Alexandria. Really, nothing does except for a few unearthed remains which have recently been uncovered by archeologists. Most of the old city was either torn down or remains buried under about 15 feet of soil.
We did drive past a couple of unearthed treasures, including an ampitheatre with some columns poking up out of the earth.
On the site of the old lighthouse (I can't now remember the name...I'll get back to you on that...think it might have been called the Pharos lighthous) there is a fort built about 500 years ago.
We ended up at another shopping mall, this one called the Green Plaza. Did a bit of shopping, ate our supper out there and then returned to the school. That's all for today....


Friday, August 22—Celebrating our 29th Anniversary
This week has been one spent mostly working in our classrooms, along with several meetings. On Tuesday the full staff met for the first time. We had a breakfast at 8:30, followed by a general “nuts and bolts” gathering. During that meeting we played an “icebreaker” game, during which time we introduced ourselves to each other.
We do have air conditioning in each classroom, so it is turned on the minute we get inside of our rooms, ‘cause it is quite hot outside. The temps for the most part have been in the mid to upper 80’s, but it seems that even in the morning they are already in the upper 70’s, and they don’t begin to ease until sunset.
Starting over at a new school means learning a new system again, and of course that is at time frustrating and quite time-consuming. We know what we want to do in order to get our rooms ready for the first day of school, but going about it, finding the right materials, etc. can take a lot of time. In the end, one does what one can in a given 24 hour day. We can only proceed by taking one step at a time.
Cats—there are many of them in this city and on the campus of the school. These are ownerless, feral cats, and they live off the land. At lunch the other day I commented to one of the veteran Schutz teachers about all the cats we’ve seen and she said we can be thankful for them. If not for the cats….we’d have lots of rats. That does make a great deal of sense, because as Kris and I have trekked on over to the stores and restaurants located about a 20 minute walk from here, we have seen a lot of trash on the ground. Not everywhere, but certainly in many spots. Some of it is paper, but there are also many food scraps. I don’t know what kind of trash removal system they have in the city, but whatever it is, there are a few “gaps” in the system.
We have gotten our class lists now, and so we know the names of the children we’ll be getting to know so well during the course of the next 10 months. I believe Kris had 18 students, while I’ll have 19. Two evenings ago we had a poolside barbeque for all employees of Schutz and their families. We were able to meet the children of some of them as well as members of the school board. In fact Kris and I sat at a table with two American members of the Schutz school board. One was there with his wife, while the other man is currently living here by himself while his wife is back in the U.S. The man and wife have lived in Alex for over 20 years. They have grown children who were raised here but live in the U.S. now as adults. The other man has worked here for about 12 years. Both couples sent their children to Schutz for at least part of the time they were growing up.
Kris and I will observe the 29th anniversary of our wedding on Monday, the 25h; however, that is a school night, so we decided to celebrate it on Friday evening instead. We had asked a veteran teacher, Kelly, to help us choose a restaurant. She suggested one located in the Four Seasons Hotel, which is located across from the Mediterranean Sea. This hotel is part of a complex of shops, a sort of mini-mall that contains a Metro grocery store. This is where Kris and I have gone on our 20 minute walks from school
On our way…we walk to the sea from Schutz. We walk along a tram line as we head towads the 4 Seasons Hotel. At the moment I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I will say that we had a wonderful and very unique evening. The restaurant serves mainly Lebanese food, and Kris was keen to try it out. It’s located on the 4th floor of the hotel. When we exited the elevator we walked along a corridor with walls draped in paintings depicting scenes from ancient lands. The restaurant itself was a work of art, and both Kris and I agreed that it is probably the most upscale eatery in which we’ve celebrated. The waiter, a very friendly man by the name of Mohammed seated us at a table next to a window looking out on the Med. It was a gorgeous site to sit there and look to the north at that big puddle of water stretching from east to west to eternity.
We told Mohammed that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and asked him to take a photo of us sitting at the table. We also took one of him. The meal; well, Kris ordered some kind of Lebanese dish—I don’t remember the name, while I ordered an old favorite, moussaka, which we used to eat in Greece. It’s an vegetable feast of tomatoes, eggplant and other assorted goodies. At the end of the meal Mohammed surprised us by presenting us with a dessert. He had placed two scoops of ice cream seated on a wafer of some sort along with two “brownies”—yum, yum. On the plate he had written in chocolate script. “Happy 29th Anniversary”. We were very touched at his thoughtfulness. When we left we were given fond farewells not only by Mohammed, but by what appeared to be the entire staff of waiters AND the manager. There must have been 4 or 5 people shaking our hand as we left. It made for a remarkable exit, one that we’ll always remember.
Today we will take a journey to a “paper souk” or market where we can find cheap school supplies. We will be led by one of the veteran teachers. Later in the evening Kris and I will be picked up by one of the locally hired teachers, a lady who teaches French at the school. She is going to take us to her home where we will have “tea”. This woman is our “buddy”. All of the new hires have buddies who will help us and guid e us during out first weeks and months here.
That’s all for today.