Up at 6! I slept in! Hooray!
I went to school from 8:30 – 1. The bus leaves Mahboula (where I live) at 8:30 and arrives at school around 9. It then leaves the school (in Hawalli) at 12:30 and I’m usually back by 1. I’m still getting oriented and trying to catch up on what the students did when I missed, and plan some more!
When I got back I walked to the fruit bakala. A bakala is a small store. The fruit one is down past a whole bunch of road construction. There’s sand everywhere! My feet are always dusty when I come back from walking around my neighborhood. I don’t do it very often, and NEVER alone at night. I also don’t usually go very far. The fruit bakala is the furthest I’ve gone by myself.
Let me explain:
My neighborhood is an immigrant neighborhood. I am not entirely sure that they’re all legal immigrants. I really wouldn’t blame them, as the process to get a civil i.d. to live here is insane! I believe there are a lot of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi people in this area. (I could have some of them wrong, but that’s what I’ve heard).
There is not a whole lot of respect by the people who live here for the area in which we live. There is garbage everywhere. I usually watch where I’m walking, because you honestly never know what you might step on.
What I see when I walk out the front of my building.
Looking left when I walk out of my building. They're doing construction (more on those joys later) on this 'road.' Every few days or so the area where that person walking is at is a big ol' puddle of sewage. I have only walked in that direction twice, and no, it was not on wet street days. It's gross enough having sand in my damn toes all the time!
To the right of my building (when I walk out). The other teacher buildings are in this direction.
A typical site around here. Rotten buggers!
I am not exactly worried about my safety, but I also am smart enough to know when I should or should not do something. When I was hired I asked about the area, and I was told that it is fine, but just not exactly a good place to go out walking by yourself late at night.
The family building is on the left, and the singles building is on the right. I am SO looking forward to next year! I've been in apartments in both buildings. In the family building, there are two apartments on a floor. That whole bank of windows belongs to one apartment. In the singles building there are 4 apartments to a floor. They're bigger, have an open lay-out and that's enough to make a girl drool. However, I have a bath tub and none of them do!
My building. My apartment is on the 4th (second from the top - the floors follow the British system) floor on the left. The three windows on the left are mine! The large window is my living room, the next one is my bedroom, and the third one is my spare room/clothes drying room/suitcase holder and whatever else ends up in there!
And for those of you who are starting to worry, please don’t. We have security guards in front of the teacher housing. Okay, okay, they’re more like rent-a-cops, but still! They’re always there!
This is Mohammed,I think...I'll double check on that and get back to you. He's really friendly. He's in charge of security here. He's sitting in front of the family and singles building. He's usually there, and his son is usually in front of our building. There are a couple of other guys who work nights.
Day 9, continued:
The H.S. English department got together. Everyone brought something to share. I brought grapes, which is why I went to the fruit bakala earlier! It was nice to meet the teachers from the other grades and just relax. I won’t lie, the never-ending glass of wine I had definitely did not hurt matters!
I met a teacher who works with one of the older groups of students (so sue me, I can’t remember which grade!). We got to talking and found out that we both have Master’s Degrees in Children’s Literature, and had families and friends who couldn’t understand why that particular degree. A kindred soul in the Middle East! She’s written a few young adult books, but nothing that's been published. We discussed having writing sessions, but honestly, I’m so tired I’m having a hard time just keeping up with this!
One of the teachers ordered Thai food. When I was leaving she made me take some, so I did! I had it for lunch the next day at school. It was Chicken Pad Thai and was delicious!
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