Treated Like a King

This will more than likely end up being longer than any of you care to read, but I feel compelled to write concerning the past few days. It has been an interesting week, so here is my feeble attempt at enriching your mind with tales from Bahrain.

Let's begin with the school. I woke up ready and eager to see the building from which I will fill young minds for the coming year. It was to be my first day of planning inside my classroom, in addition to many meetings with the administration and my department. I wake up early and prepare myself for what should be an exciting eye opening experience. Our usual driver, Jamel, meets all of us at 7:00am on the dot, every day, and we begin our bumpy journey away from our apartment complex. I say bumpy journey because in Bahrain the buildings are built first, only then to be followed by the roads whenever anyone can get around to laying the pavement. No one is ever in a rush to finish tasks. Everyone takes a, “Oh it will done soon enough,” mentality. Its a bumpy ride across the sandy desert in front of our place, but it serves as a nice reminder that we are no longer in the States.

We drive through dilapidated neighborhoods that seem as though they should be placed in a filthy section of the city; however, we find everything to always be so clean. There is a foreign population of Indians and Pakistanis whose main purpose of living here is to make sure everything remains clean. This morning I saw someone using a spray bottle and a rag to wipe down a stop sign! They are serious concerning the cleanliness of their country and it shows with the cleaning of stop signs – to be sure they sparkle in the sunlight. There are high walls on either side of the road (when you drive through neighborhoods) and beyond the high walls are small homes, of which we cannot see the occupants. Every now and then we pass a massive, extravagant, out-of-place house which only serves our minds to wonder and think of what the residents hold as a career. We pass a run down building which serves as a school. Windows are broken, window units to serve as air conditioners (which in 110 degree heat, doesn't set well with one's stomach) and we are thankful and relieved that it is not OUR school.

We drive a few more blocks and we arrive at the elementary building for Modern Knowledge Schools. Emily smiles and realizes that the school buildings are painted and trimmed at such a higher level than all of the other surrounding buildings. I know she felt a small amount of pride as she walked through the enormous gate, guarded by three or four guards, into the building where 4th graders will be referring to her as Ms. Emily for the coming year. It was a great feeling to see her smile as visions of how she would decorate her classroom filled her head. I waved – she didn't notice, but I was so proud of her at that moment. I can't explain why I was proud. I was just overcome with the feeling that I know she is doing what she loves to do, and that in turn makes me happy as well. She disappears behind the enormous gate and Jamel drives all of us high school people to our building.

We are dropped off and walk through an even bigger gate, allowing us access to even bigger walls, and realize that there is an enormous courtyard for the students to congregate before/after/during school hours. On one end rests two soccer (or football, for which I have been corrected many times) goals for students to play with during the cooler months, and on the other is the main entrance to the school. One of the first things to catch my eyes were the bars on all of the windows. I'm not sure what this would suggest? Perhaps to keep people out in case of a cultural uprising, or to keep students from hurting themselves by falling through such massive windows – either way there are bars on the windows and if it wasn't for the students seemingly not caring I am sure it would have made a bigger impact on my impression of the school. I love the building as well as the people in it and I have yet to have an issue that hasn't been taken care of immediately, or without a sincere apology and promise that it will be soon dealt with. I feel as though I am greatly appreciated and that my time spent here in Bahrain is really going to help the students and the school. For that I am once again rejuvenated and feel that I have 100% made the right decision on where to take my life for the next year. Whew.

The building is three stories high and has all of the accommodations we would generally think of a school having here in the states; except of course for an intercom system. Apparently, it is far to hot and dusty to keep a working intercom system and therefor the administration communicates to the teachers via a memo, which is delivered by hand to each classroom. Makes it difficult sometimes, and especially difficult for this first week. There are teachers constantly coming and going, rarely staying for two years, let alone one full year. This makes it difficult to establish a solid foundation, or even to maintain certain educational standards. Last year MKS employed an individual who did not hold the best intentions. Apparently, he placed a worm virus (I know very little about this, so I know I will not be explaining it the best) into the school's network. This virus was not found until it was activated last week, three days before the students arrived. With this virus the IT teacher (who no longer lives in Bahrain, but is out traveling the world) is able to access and control the computers on the network from any location. He has destroyed files and corrupted the computers. To add to this amazingly awful disturbance to the beginning of our school year, the administration is unable to access the students' schedules.

The students arrive and the situation still has not resolved itself. The school scrambles to print off lists for the students to assign each a classroom, or home-base. The teachers are responsible for their room for the time being. For the first day, the students remain in the same room, with the same teacher and it is treated more or less like a welcome back, how was your summer, here are my classroom rules, day. Everything runs smoothly and the students fail to fully realize the severity of the situation – its a good thing. For the past week a new schedule has been put in place. First of all, each teacher is expected to administer diagnostic testing (fancy phrase they use to describe reviewing material they should already know) and to give lessons pertaining to anything in our field. I enjoy the blissful peacefulness that structure provides and for the first day of not having any structure, and being asked to teach, I find a level of frustration yet to be reached in my adult life; however, it goes well. Its the only thing we can do. A summer's worth of work on the schedules has been lost and the administration is frantically doing all they can to redo and organize so that we may fall into a normal class schedule. Whew.

It may sound overwhelming, but I assure you I have had the time of my life this past week. I have grown to know the kids in my class at such a high level that we spend an hour or two during the day talking about the difference between American and Bahraini culture. We discuss stereotypes and what they think happens in America – and what Americans think happen in the Middle East. I had one student today express his fear to travel to the United States. He thought that people walk around carrying guns and knives, and that murders occur down every street. Americans (dumb Americans) lump all Muslims into a category defined by the few unfortunate individuals that have ruined the reputation of the masses.

It has been an amazing experience and I can't wait to see how the rest of this year will play out. Emily and I are enjoying ourselves more than we ever thought – we have even adjusted to the heat by finding ourselves saying, “Its not THAT bad out here.” We are expected to experience cooler weather by the beginning of October...weather that drops below 90 degrees anyway. Apparently in the winter months we will be wearing sweaters and be spending a lot of time on our rooftop – enjoying the pool, barbeque, and the amazing view we have been blessed with until June.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”