Day TWO

Yesterday felt like a million days long, which is understandable since I didn’t even leave the school until 4pm!  Today was a more reasonable 2:30, so there you go.  Because if 4pm became the norm during Ramadan, I have a feeling that it will only get even more ridiculous after Eid, once class itself ends two hours later and I actually have marking and planning to do!

 

I made dinner when I got home. And then realized that it was 3:30pm – which is normal for this culture, to eat a big meal in the afternoon, and have a smaller meal in the evening. I’m slowly turning Arab, one year at a time.  It helps when you’re too busy to eat during school hours.

Today was day two of classes and again, not without it’s challenges (we lost electricity for AT LEAST 2 hours today) but the kids managed to work pretty well through most of the dark and heat. I took the 6th graders on a “field trip” down to the Kindergarten classroom to work, because they still had power there, and the KG kids don’t start until after Eid. Kindergarten is in what they call the “North Tent”, which is a large room used as a sanctuary on the weekends. We sat on the stage and they did their work. It was fantastic.  Mostly because they did their work without arguing with me, and with very few questions. And without a teacher teaching them anything (I’m the facilitator, not the teacher).  It’s a Northstar program and all they have is the textbook at the moment!

This morning at staff devotions, our leader asked for a Jewish song, “you know, something with that beat and those chords” (he was more specific, I’m not musically inclined) and we suggested Jehovah Jireh.

Which couldn’t be more accurate, right about now.

I told you so :)

When I received this job, I gave God three jobs: to find me a place to live, a working residency, and a car.

He gave me a temporary residency, to facilitate the transfer process.

He gave me a home at just the right time, in the right place, with the right everything.

But those are two things that I have almost no control over. Those are (generally) easy to give up and trust Him with.

 
The car was another story. I’ve been looking at car websites for the past 5 months, looking at leasing and buying and generally unsure about everything.  I kept getting the feeling that I should buy, but leasing seemed easier.  I knew that I had given that task to God, but, I felt as though I should do what I can, and let Him fill in the details (note: God lets us try. He doesn’t like being co-pilot, but thankfully, He’s very patient. Sometimes I feel as though He’s sitting there beside me, letting me have fun in the air and taking over the controls when it comes time to land and it’s getting too scary.  But usually by that time, I’m nose-diving to the ground with two stalled engines and begging Him to take over, while He’s graciously and calmly reminding me to remove my hands from the steering wheel.)

The day after I arrived in Kuwait, I went to the Toyota dealership to sign up for a lease. Last year, we signed up at a different dealership and walked away with a car that very day. I assumed it would work the same way, but it didn’t - this place requires that everything be approved. I left with a temporary rental and a promise that they would be done within the week. 

That was almost 2 weeks ago. It’s a little less than 6 KD a day (about $20), and although most days I don’t go anywhere that would cost more than that in taxis, the general freedom makes it entirely worth it.

But I found an expat who is leaving the country and trying to sell is car. I thought it was a long shot, but it seemed like a decent deal (not too good to be true, not a rip-off….) so I messaged him.  We were FINALLY able to meet up today – and he brought it to the church, since I had to work.

I love my new job.  It’s like being part of a gigantic multicultural family. Pastor Keith, our worship leader, is a Mechanical Engineer by trade. Brother Macky, one of the accountants and my building’s superintendent, used to work for Hyundai. They were both willing to check out the car for me, seeing as I have absolutely no experience with any of that and they are actually experts.  They both even took it for a test drive while I was teaching!  They also both speak Arabic and understand legal issues.

Freakin’ awesome is what it is.  We’re meeting again on Thursday, to get the car checked out at the dealership, and I’ll let you know from there.  Anyways, if it fails and the car is actually a lemon, the Toyota lease should be coming through aaaaaany day now ;)

I’m just blown away by the amazing people who I work with.  I think I should bake for them once a week, just to make their day.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

I will almost have a legal residency :) The okay went through at the ministry and we were given a whole bunch of new visas!! I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be a surprise, the conversation kind of came up unexpectedly, but…I’ll act surprised when Mrs. Jacque tells us :)

Isn’t God WONDERFUL??

my 22nd consecutive first day of school

I wore blue.

I drove to school early, singing praise songs at the top of my lungs.

I got a hug from one of my Bible study girls, who is now in the 6th grade.

We had devotions with the staff before we met the students in the courtyard.

I made my 5th graders line up in alphabetical order before we walked to class.  It was surprisingly funny.

I had devotions with my 5th graders.  We read Psalm 97:1-6. Our God is an AWESOME God!

The electricity went out for at least 30 minutes – but these kids seem to be used to it. Thank God for windows, booger jokes, and flexibility.

Seventh grade art consisted of downloading their lessons from the internet (their online course) and starting the introductory assignment. One of the students doesn’t have wireless internet on her laptop.  I would adopt that kid, if I could.

Sixth grade art resembled the beginnings of my Art 9 Foundations course :) You can bet I’m using as many of those lesson plans as humanly possible!

A “15-minute” break after class turned into 2 minutes, and I downed a few almonds and some chocolate milk, before heading to our assembly.  Where my kids were wonderful.

It IS the first day of school, you see.

Clean up/go home was a little dicey, but it was a pretty messed-up day, so that will be something we work on for the rest of the week, when our time ISN’T cut short by an extended assembly or chapel.

At one point during the day, the 6th graders were quietly doing their art assignment and I walked over and glanced through the window into the Lighthouse.

 
It was just chairs, set up for church, and no one was in there, but…I realized. This is my JOB now. I get to come here every day. I get to hang out with these kids every day. I get to focus on Awesome God every day.

Which, in this Title Page life, is the most important thing of all.

“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (CS Lewis, The Last Battle)

soaring on wings like the eagles

Since arriving back in Kuwait, it seems to me that jetlag hasn’t been overly kind. It isn’t the fact that I’m really tired or anything – rather, it’s the opposite. I’ve had more energy in the past week than I’ve had all summer! Hallelujah!

But my appetite is almost non-existent and I’ve been sleeping very few hours. Now that it’s been a week since arriving, I can officially say that jetlag is over, and I blame STRESS.

But I haven’t been tired. And I haven’t been hungry (or not enough to be bothered by it, anyways). I think it’s just the fact that school starts on Monday and I’ve never taught grade 5 before.

In fact, I’ve never really taught anyone younger than grade 9. And now I’m teaching everyone from grades 1 to 8? That’s 213 students.

And I’ve never taught BOYS.

But so far, in the past 4 days we’ve spent at school setting up, I’m feeling more prepared and ready than I’ve ever felt for the first day of school.

And I’m HAPPY.  Despite not eating, despite not sleeping, I’m not grumpy, either. It took me 3 times as long to get home yesterday due to traffic, and it didn’t bother me.

That’s peace.  When you can’t do anything to change a situation, so you just accept it with patience.

I’m maybe a little nervous that all of my hard work could be a slightly damaged on Sunday when I get back into school, because my classroom doubles as a church service room on the weekend and in the evenings.

But even if it is, I know where it came from, and it can all be replaced.  (Plus…laminating things is REALLY FUN)

Oh yeah, and I saw Pastor Jerry today for the first time since coming back, and he gave me a hug. There really is nothing better than a hug from Pastor Jerry!

Welcome home!

another new beginning

Have I mentioned that I have a new job at a Christian school in the Muslim country of Kuwait?

For the first 3 years, I taught at an International American school. Although technically secular, the school must offer the study of Islam and censor all teaching material in order to be approved by the government.

So besides the fact that we observed Muslim holidays, the students took courses studying the Qur’an, and there wasn’t even the slightest mention of the Holocaust, it was pretty much just like a regular public school.

Here enters in my new school.

Today was our first official staff working day. I say “official” because we all know that we’ve been working for days (or weeks) now, but today we actually had to be at school.

Once arriving at school, I was summoned up to the staff lounge (more like a staff hallway) to pick up the new textbooks, of which there are about 6 million for the 5th grade. All from A Beca.

(Did I mention that I’m the 5th grade homeroom teacher now? They never found another teacher and it was only practical to merge the four eighth graders and nine seventh graders and move me down there. I did, technically, offer to do this last May, so I’m not complaining.  It’s funny, because I was pretty sure it was what God was asking me to do, and when the school decided against it in May, I just figured I was confused. Turns out…not so much!  God and I are still working on this communication thing. I don’t trust myself nearly enough yet to believe that what I sense is actually from Him…)

Anyways. I digress. Continuing on….

After unloading all the books in my classroom, I opened up the cabinets to discover a million MORE books. And dirt. And other random materials like bulletin board decals and whatnot.

6th grade books.

Old math textbooks. (etc etc etc)

24 little cubbies for the kids (as imma need every one of them).

One of the fourth graders came and gave me company for a while – she’ll be one of the good apples. It helps that her mom is a teacher there, too.

And then we had a staff meeting. Which involved a time of praise and worship, Bible reading, and prayer…before we even began the meeting. The Senior Pastor’s wife gave us all journals so that we can write down the changes that happen this year, the growths (okay, now that I repeat it, it sounds like we’re middle-schoolers ourselves…)

The meeting was good, I met a lot of people and even remember many of their names.  Katie G kept making me socialize. It’s for the better, I’m just good at shying away from it.

After the meeting, I was in the secretary’s office, looking at the Bible Study books (of which there is a plethora).  Her office is connected to the director’s office by a small window (with no glass, just shutters). His office was locked. She needed some specific books from there. So I climbed through the window…

Seriously, this year won’t be boring.

Nope. Not one bit.

And I love it.

Choosing the red pill was totally worth it.

year four begins

Here I am, back in the desert for the fourth time (really, year four! I know, it’s insane and time flies).

I’ve been wanting to write for a while now, and tell of all the fascinating things I’ve seen and done this summer.  But when I finally sit down to write, it seems to negative or too plain or too cliché.

Although I FEEL physically fine and awake, I know that jetlag is playing with my emotions and thoughts and nothing really feels clear right now.  An idea may seem acceptable at the moment it arrives, but a while later I realize how ridiculous it really was.  Give me a week.  Then my ridiculous ideas can just be pegged as me being me and I’ll write them anyways ;)

 

When I left my parents at security in Toronto, it was almost like the feeling of when I left 3 years ago. A whole lot of unknown. Upon accepting the job in the Spring, the unknown was exciting.  Now, it’s…overwhelming. My prayer right now is that it will be exciting again.

 

But on the plane to Frankfurt, I sat beside Vlad, a guy from Kyrgyzstan who is living in Toronto. He was probably the most chatty person I’ve ever sat beside on a plane, including close friends!  But he restored my faith in overseas living.  So far, he’d lived alone in Israel for 12 years and Toronto for 5. His family lives in Southern Germany, and he’s finally visiting them after not seeing them for 3 years. It really puts my 4-9 month separation from family into perspective.  Of course, he doesn’t have 8 (almost 9) nieces and nephews who grow significantly each year…

 

On the plane to Kuwait, I sat beside a man who, for the first 20 minutes of the flight, seemed to be crying. He kept covering his face and sniffing…and raced to the washroom once the seatbelt sign had been switched off. But, seeing as it lasted the entire flight, I’m pretty sure he was just sick and booger-y.  I hope he feels better soon, he’s in the US Army.

I arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday night, and my flight was 15 minutes early. Early flights give me a small thrill. It’s nice to be ahead of the game.

 

I opened the door to my apartment, which had been closed for 2 full months.  This is always a fun game.  What will it look like inside? 

There were ants on the floor, tiny flies in the water tank of my toilet, and dust EVERYWHERE.

 

The dust, I’m used to.  The bugs…not so much.

Note: the ants are pretty much cleared up with a little Raid (although I’ll still go and pick up a few ant traps), the flies in the toilet tank are gone thanks to my mad butt hose skillz (and a lot of flushing)…and I cleaned up as much dust as I could without using the vacuum cleaner.  All between the hours of 11:30pm and 2:00am on Wednesday night.

 

Yesterday, Katie G. drove me to the Toyota dealership so that I could lease a car. Of course, silly me, I didn’t look up the directions before we left and just relied on memory…but here’s a small equation that one should always remember:

memory + jetlag + sleep deprivation + everything in Kuwait is brown = absolute disaster

We drove around for a good 45 minutes (to an hour) before we finally found the place…in a completely different area than I had anticipated.  Turns out it’s about 10 minutes from our building, in the opposite direction.

I so smart.

(“Meskina” is Kuwaiti for “poor thing”. Meskinaaaaa….I haven’t seen her since she dropped me off, but…hopefully a few cookies will make it okay…)

But the dealership won’t give me a car until I’ve been approved, and seeing as it’s Ramadan, this could take up to a week.  So I’m renting a small white Yaris until they call.  I named it Schubert and it’s very cute and drives well.  And most importantly, the air conditioner is fantastic. 

And when it’s 42C in the shade, that’s a little bit important.  Imagine what it’s like inside a car with the windows shut, in the sun.  Just like a sauna.  Except hotter.

Here’s a few pictures of my apartment the way I left it in June. Now, imagine it all covered with a layer or two or six of dust and you can imagine what I saw when I opened the door.  It’s almost back to normal and that makes me very happy.

Now…off to church, the place that really makes this country feel like home :)