School continues to be a daily challenge. It seems my students are making progress and at least starting to understand my crazy hand motions I use in order to communicate with them. I have also started to rely on a few students to interpret for me. I can only assume and trust they are actually saying what I have said. It just now dawned on me that maybe they are not doing so. Ha!
I had to write formal lesson plans this week and turn them in, which I am not sure I have ever done. I have always had a plan written but no one has ever asked me to turn them in. I hope I did them correctly.
On Wednesdya around 11:30 am I was informed our grade 4 students would be going to the book fair at the convention center. It seems that school trips are organized at the spur of the moment. Hmmm. So the science experiment we had planned to do was pushed back as was our spelling test and basically everything else. Oh well! That is the part of this life that I will easily become accustomed to.
Jack is loving school and we received a newsletter from his teacher showing pictures of the kids and what they do throughout the week. It's so nice to see him in the pictures and looking engaged, even if he is just posing for the camera. He has been spoken to about playing 'Super Heroes' too aggressively. So each morning when I drop him off he says, 'And keep my hands to myself, I know, Mama'. So at least he is listening to me sometimes.
The hotel life has lost its luster a bit. We are really ready for a place to call our own. We wrote an email to housing to see if it would be possible to move to a hotel apartment. The answer was not encouraging. We are coming upon the holiday, Eid, which is the celebration after their pilgrimage. This means that there will be a lot of people visiting Al Ain and rented accommodations will be booked up, even hotel apartment accommodations. We are just sick of taking our clothes to get washed, eating at the mall food court, and not having a place to call our own. I know in a few months we will look back on this time and marvel at the adventure, but for now we are ready to be in a place.
After the email, I decided that we needed to go to the ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) building and speak to someone in housing. I was told to tread lightly because the person in charge does not take demands very well. I went in and spoke to Mr. Mohammad who was very nice to me. I told him about two apartments that my friend Mary had told me about in her building. She said one of them had been empty for quite sometime and the other one had been lived in by a 'runner'. A 'runner' is someone who just decides one day that they can't live here anymore and leaves in the middle of the night, never to return. The reasons? Usually it is because they have gotten themselves into a great deal of debt over here. Credit is very easy to get and this society is very over endulging because they have a lot of wealth. Sadly, westerners come here and start living as if they are very wealthy. And although we do make good money, you have to keep your eye on the prize. We set out for a wonderful adventure and to put some money away for our kids and ourselves. Our purpose is set and we are not waivering. When we come home it will not be because we 'ran'.
At any rate, after a few tears and learning it would be at least another two weeks (Inshallah- Allah willing- their phrasing, not mine) before we would have a place to live, Mr. Mohammed noted in the computer system that we wanted to live in the where my friend Mary lives. We are hoping to get our friend Cathy and her daughters in there as well, and I did have Mr. Mohammad note that as well. Time will tell.
We found a place for Millie to stay while we work. It's a perfect situation. The PE teacher at my school, Helen, has a little boy named Charlie who is 2 1/2. She said that every morning when she leaves he cries. So she asked her nanny if she would be willing to keep Millie as well and make a little more money. The service workers are not paid very well here. They do get room and board, but their salaries are pitiful. Ms. Janet, the little Sri Lankan nanny, said that would be fine. So Millie started this week. We went over to meet her and Millie loved playing with the toys at Charlie's house. When we got ready to leave Millie didn't want to, which we took as a good sign that this would be a good place for Millie. We were thrilled. She is probably who I have worried about the most. She has only known my mom and dad as far as daycare is concerned so I wasn't sure what this would look like for her. However, when I dropped her off the first day and left she didn't cry one bit. I was so relieved. She seems to be happy and has fun with Charlie. She also loves the baby, Phoebe, who is temporarily staying with Ms. Janet.
So now my kids are sorted out and it is a crazy balancing act, but I think we will be able to do it. Currently, I drive Jack and Millie to Helen's. I leave Millie there, jump in Helen's car with Jack, Lorena (Helen's daughter), and Scarlett (Liz'z daughter, a friend of Helen's). We take the kids to Sunflower School and then go on to our school. On Sunday and Thursday Stuart picks the kids up from school. Liz picks them up on Monday and Wednesday, and Helen and I pick them up on Tuesday. Crazy? Yes! Necessary? Yes!
Things are moving right along. We have one more week of work and then we are off for a week. We are hoping to be in a home so we can get things organized. If not, we will need to just hang around here because our passports are still not back from immigration with our residence stamps in them.
We did find the secret liquor store and the pork shop here. The pork shop says 'The Pork Shop- For Non-Muslims Only'. That would be us!
Hope you all are well. Love and miss everyone!
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