another interesting week in Kuwait

I've been meaning to update this week, but I keep forgetting. I've gotten out of the habit of updating the blog and then the moment has passed and I've already moved on.

I mentioned the fish, the cockroaches, the fire alarms last time.

I mentioned the deviled eggs (which were delicious, by the way! although not quite like mom's)

and this week, we've had a few other interesting experiences...or namely, one. Well, two.

On Wednesday, I had to supply for the grade 10 PE class and they were taking a test on soccer. If there's one thing these girls hate, it's tests or quizzes, and a lot of them will try their best to cheat in any way possible. I'm slowly catching on to their tricks...but in any case, it just so happened that during their quiz, the sky outside turned from a dusty grey to a dusty orange to a dark dark orange.

You try controlling a classroom of students (fix that, an entire school of students) who think that they are going through the apocalypse! Our superintendant put it appropriately; she said that it's just like a snowstorm in Canada...but slightly different. Parents called and took their children home early, during the worst of the storm, instead of waiting the hour for the sand to go away...so we spent the good part of 4th block just keeping everyone from going crazy. Our job was to keep students in the classrooms. Or at least keep them from running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Success? Sure, let's say so.

But here's another image of what the storm looked like from inside the classroom...

Tell me this isn't crazy! It was rather surreal...

I had Pam pose, just to prove to you that it's real. So this is Kuwait at it's worst! It's called Saraya and it is a storm that comes out of nowhere, without warning, and leaves almost as quickly as it comes. It went from slightly dusty to bright orange to slightly dusty in a matter of 2 hours. I must admit that we were hoping students would stay home on Thursday, but alas (or fortunately?) students came and we were able to hold lessons.

Three more weeks of classes, a week of exams, two weeks of organizing and then we're finished! It's hard to believe that the end is coming so soon...and yet we are very excited. 41 days!