Religion in a Muslim Country

It is common for some of my students to pray in the back of the class in the early afternoon.  They do so quietly, but devoutly, and the attention they pay to their faith is inspiring. This week, one of my students asked me what religion I was, and another answered, "Christian." I just smiled. We aren't supposed to talk about any religion outside of Islam in school.

Later this week, I was walking my students to the computer lab and we passed another classroom. My students made me stop so we could look in. The classroom had paper snowflakes taped to the window (odd in the desert), fake snow sprinkled on each desk with a small treat, and a fully decorated Christmas tree with gifts placed under it in the corner of the room.

"It is Christmas, Miss."

I looked into the classroom in shock. They translated from the class' Arabic teacher. They were studying major holidays in other cultures and religions and their relation to Islam. I really wanted to sit in on that lesson....

Meanwhile, as a family, we have found a church that reminds us of home and have been attending weekly. It is the same church that Belle and I went to last year that was closed by the town... Instead of meeting in a church, it now meets at a golf club at the other end of town. It is a nice way to begin our weekends, and fulfilling to my spirit to be part of a faith community.

Where's the snooze button?

I'm now teaching grade 12. It is a different pressure due to my students' exams mattering more than their ECART and the number of exams increasing. Luckily, I work with an awesome grade level team and they did a lot of this term's planning while I was being a full time mom.

It is weird to come into a class mid year because you feel a bit like a sub and it is a harder time to build rapport with your classes. I think it is because they've already established class norms and now I'm tasked with changing them to fit my expectations on how the class should function or adapting my management style to align with their expectations. Add to this the stress of formal observations and you'll understand why I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with leaving my baby all day either....

Zofia & Rob are working on developing new routines, and Belle is working hard on her homeschool curriculum. We are all adjusting to an alarm clock and this weekend went very fast.

Back to school

Tomorrow, I go back to work. It has been a nice extended maternity leave (it ran into the December vacation), but I still haven't finished Zofia's paperwork. The process changed at the end of November, and required an extra step. By the time I received the now required approval to apply for her visa, her required medical card had expired. So, now I must wait to receive her new card with our new insurer to finish the process. Craziness, but typical.

 I had a lovely lunch with one of my favorite co-workers, who eased my mind about all the back to school planning I really didn't do. I've been so busy spending time getting used to being a family of four and celebrating holidays - and trying to catch up on sleep....  I work with a great team, and thanks to their efforts, I should be back in the groove fairly quickly, albeit while getting to know my new students. I don't know my schedule yet, but I'm happy that I will be on nursing hours so I can spend more time with the baby.
Right now, I'm going to go back to cuddling her because tomorrow at this time, I'm probably going to be with a room full of students, missing her.

Christmas Cookies

 One of my favorite holiday traditions is making Christmas cookies. Last year, Belle and I did an abbreviated session because our kitchen was tiny (our refrigerator resided in our living room because there was no room for it), so this year it was nice to go all out. My friend, Kim, and I invited a bunch of little girls over and two nice big brothers and went to town. We made Christmas wreaths, gingerbread houses & cookies, sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies with Rolos, and Russian tea cookies. So yummy!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

The festive season begins...

The nice thing about the "winter" season is that it becomes comfortable to spend time outside.  We enjoy being outdoors and the winter makes it comfortable to sit outside, visit the sand dunes, take walks, and play.  Our neighborhood becomes more alive as children run about playing tag or riding bikes and scooters. This season has been extra special because we've experienced several rainstorms - one lasting most of the day (and causing flooding in Dubai because the roads are not designed to handle precipitation).

One of my favorite things about National Day is how the streets are all decorated with the  UAE national colors (green, red, and white), which helps to fill the missing holiday lights we'd be enjoying at home.  The cars get decorated as well, even though this year there were strict regulations not to do this activity.  Our neighbor has very colorful vehicles and decorated all four of them in similar style. We haven't seen them since the holiday, so they are likely off being repainted and de-crystalized (yes - he added crystals!).  We went with friends and celebrated the holiday in the desert. Most of them camped overnight, but with the new baby, there was no way we were sleeping in a tent for the night. 

All the hotels in town offer special holiday events and tree lightings.  Last year, we attended the Danat's and Santa arrived via camel. This year, we decided to bring the girls to the Rugby Club's Christmas Party for the Santa visit. This year, he arrived in a 4x4...
The nice thing about the Rugby Club event was that there were lots of Belle's friends there, and they were able to decorate cupcakes, make reindeer food, ride horses, have dinner, and eat cotton candy while waiting for Santa to arrive. Belle was awesome and brought Zofia up when she visited with the jolly elf and posed for pictures prior to his arrival:

Now we are planning a cookie baking day to have some of her friends over to help make it a bit more festive. It makes me miss Belle's godmother and uncle because there won't be any collegiate colored cookies without them and Audrey is an awesome baking partner. Next year.

Thanksgiving 2012

Our first blessing

I've been doing the "30 days of giving thanks" and some days I have to look a bit harder to figure out what I am thankful for, other days it is very easy. Every year, Belle makes a hand turkey and fills in the things she is thankful for: friends, family, shelter, food, the country we live in and the country we are from. She writes some big things on her small hand.

Our newest blessing with Mama C.

This year there are big things that I am very thankful for, but at the same time the holiday season is bittersweet. This is the second year in a row that we'll be celebrating the holidays far from our country, our family and friends, our church, and without snow.  We wanted to go home badly but by the time we could purchase tickets, the airfare had become so prohibitive that our choices were to extend our time here for another year (to pay off a small loan to go home) or forgo our visit so that we can move back at the end of the school year with enough money to allow us to resettle. When we looked at the options, it was a fairly simple family decision. So barring anyone visiting us, the first time anyone from home meets Zofia will be when she is nine months old...

Ashaunda, Zofia, & Rob

We have many blessings though, and we hold them close to our hearts. On Thursday night, we went to our dear friends', the Giles', to celebrate Thanksgiving. Ashaunda and her family have become our extended family here in the UAE and we are blessed to know that they will continue to be a part of our lives long after our adventure in the sand has ended.  Our friends, Michelle and Kelly, came with us to celebrate as well. One of the things we've learned in our expat life is that it is easy to celebrate events with people you've just met because we're all far from home and that connects you in a way that can't really be expressed.  This feeling carried into our Friday celebration at a neighbor's home. We were invited to two events on Friday, but because Zofia has been battling a cold, we elected to stay close to home.

I'm going to look back on this time and remember the blessings more than the trials, I think. We have met some incredible people, seen things we never imagined and have the best souvenir of our time abroad. So today, I'm giving thanks for my family's willingness to embark on this adventure and all the things we've learned.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

The homeschooling debate

Last year, we sent Belle to private school. It was an easy decision for us because she does well in social learning situations, has always loved school, and that was our only option for schooling if we were not going to homeschool (Western expat children are not able to attend public schools in the UAE).  We spent the whole year questioning the decision as we watched the work she brought home, saw what she was studying, and dealt with the outcome of the classroom behavior of her peers.

This year, we decided that her only option if we wanted her to return to her previous level of academics and progress (as well as avoiding the horrific behavior she was subjected to), was to homeschool. I spent most of the summer researching different programs, determining what we felt was important, examining the work she would be doing in our home district and what curriculum would address her needs. We finally found one that we felt was challenging, appropriate, and fully addressed social studies, science, and language arts. We decided to work with the same math program as her home district. Her school year began a couple weeks before her local friends because we knew we'd lose a bit of time adjusting to the new baby when she arrived.  Her curriculum is everything we hoped it would be and I gladly pay the tuition, shipping costs for books and manipulatives, and the supplies that accompany her learning experiences. To build in more opportunities for socialization and social learning, she is a member of the overseas Girl Scouts and takes piano lessons.

Lately there has been a lot of debate in our expat community due to recent government committee discussions about mandatory schooling for all expat children, and where homeschooling falls in this context.  Some of the conversation is quite upsetting and disturbing as some members accuse homeschooling parents of doing it out of "cheapness" or "laziness"... This makes me think more about my own understanding of homeschooling prior to our overseas experience. I always wondered how children would be socialized and whether it was possible to provide an adequate education for a child without the support of a school system. I now am much more informed and recognize that there are benefits to homeschooling that I was quite blind to before... That does not mean that we'll be homeschooling the girls when we return to the states where the school programs are much stronger, but we now have an understanding of why some parents select this option.