Last week of term 1

This week was quite different than any other experience I have had in an educational setting. At this point in the term, I am told, there are very few students who come to school. This year seems to be no exception. The reason? I am not sure exactly. The parents whom I have spoken with are very concerned about their daughter's progress, so it is not a lack of concern for academics. I believe a great deal of it is generational. Also, the country as a whole gives a great deal of attention and concern to the family. It seems when my students are not at school, they will be traveling with their family or doing other family activities.

The entire week, each day, the numbers in our grade level diminished.  The first day was relatively normal, by Monday we had about 30 of our 160 4th grade students in school. Tuesday we had 8 students and Wednesday we had 2, who seemed to disappear during our 1st hour class. The teachers were in a meeting. The specialists were in classes with the kids who remained and.....mysteriously gone at the beginning of second period. On Wednesday no children were in school so we had meetings to finally get our new school organized. In the best of conditions, when there is only one language to consider, opening a new school is really difficult and we have been no exception to that rule. So we were all very productive on Wednesday. By Thursday we were ready to celebrate. We had one short meeting in our committee meetings and then we all enjoyed some time together as a staff, with food of course. By noon the place was nearly a ghost town. I stayed for a while so that I would not have to work over our three week break. I have no need for that. 

Outside of school, Christmas shopping was completed, our family photos were delivered (which we love!), we finished packing for England, and managed some special time with Cathy and the girls.

Tuesday evening we had our Christmas celebration with Cathy and the girls. We had initially planned to have dinner at Cathy's place. But after a long (or short in our case) day at work we decided to go to our favorite curry restaurant, called the Curry House, ironically enough.  As always, the food was delicious. We went to Cathy's apartment after and opened presents. 

When we left our place for the Curry House we stopped at the dry cleaners to drop off Stuart's work clothes. As we were coming out of the neighborhood onto the main road, we noticed the police were doing random stops to check for driver's licenses and insurance cards. I think people try to get away woth not having either.  Seems that is the same in all countries. Naturally I was one of the people they randomly stopped. The officer took my license and insurance card. Stuart had decided he didn't want to drive my car, which never happens. He always drives. At any rate I was the one who had to give out the information. He took down my license plate number and checked a few other things. Then he passed my insurance card and driver's license back to me. We were stopped at a round about so I pulled forward to see if I could get out into that crazed crowd. As I did I head Stuart say 'Um, this is not your license'. Clearly the officer had another set of information in his hand when he returned the cards to me. He had given me Mohammed's license and insurance card. Hmmm. I held it out the window and said, 'These are not mine'. He didn't exactly understand me until I showed him the picture and pretended to circle my face with my finger while saying 'This is not me!'  He had me to drive around the round about, park behind his patrol car, and then he was able to give me the correct information. Whew! Losing something like that here, I would guess, would be difficult to replace. 

We are off to the UK tomorrow so I will close out this post for now. It seems strange that Christmas is two weeks away since outside it is still 90 some odd degrees. I used to find the warm weather a strange phenomenon when I first moved to Phoenix.  Through the years I have learned to think of temperatures in the 50s as a sign of Christmas. But now I guess my new temperature gauge will be in the 80s we will know that Christmas is close. Seems abnormal, but I think a lot of new 'normals' are starting to enter our lives. Still enjoying our lives here. Love to you all!

The Telfords