A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: Communication, Not the Norm

So last weekend was very relaxing, it started with Thursday. The fog was so dense we weren't able to make it to school, attempts were made to make it in only to turn around and come right back. Sunday, fog again, didn't make it into school. I am not going to risk my life to make it to school, like I have told my coworkers, I like my life and getting into a car accident because someone was going to fast or couldn't see me isn't in my current life plan. Monday, fog again, however we made it to school. We were slightly delayed in getting here because one of the teachers I was driving received a call on our way to work from a courier saying he was on his way to her place to deliver something from the bank. Well, we told him we would pull over on the highway and wait for him. He showed up on the other side of the high way and like they tend to do here, he walked across the highway to our car to deliver the package. Having been here since September and out in the west since October, this is not an uncommon thing. There are always men on the side of the road walking, waiting to be picked up, crossing the highway, some run and some choose to risk their lives and leisurely walk across. So having this courier deliver on the side of the highway was not exactly shocking. We finally arrived at school only 30 mins before school was out, and the translator informed us that our principal was not very happy that we hadn't shown up (you know because we had a choice) and was yelling at her because of it. I apologized to her for having to listen to her yell and that it shouldn't have happened. We explained to her that we weren't going to risk our lives just to get to work and she understood. The next day, the tone of the Arabic teachers changed, you could tell they weren't very happy with us at all. I explained to my co-teacher why I wasn't there and she seemed to be sympathetic, but I could tell was still irritated. I would have been irritated as well if I had to have the kids all day, but at least they have an advantage and can speak their language.
As I was leaving school on Tuesday, I was stopped by the translator and the Arabic teacher that is on my committee. I was given a list of things that my committee needed for their binder by the next day, yes, the next day. Now, let me explain something to you, this visit we are going to be having in about two weeks (their one day visit is Sunday) is equivalent to Accreditation (my skin crawls just having to type that word) in the states. HOWEVER, with accreditation, we worked on gathering data and information for about a year and a half, NOT two weeks! I should mention that during the school day, we had bicycle day which involved all the parents and people from the community as well. The kids rode their bikes from one end of the parking lot to the other end and the top three kids from KG1 and KG2 were awarded a trophy and a medal. One of my boys won 3rd place for KG2 which I was very proud of! So among all of that craziness and not knowing what our role was exactly was in it, the end of the day was the last straw. So, when I got home on Tuesday, I worked for about 4 hours gathering and making things for my committee. I produced everything that was needed for our committee, but was not exactly happy about it. I do not like to do last minute things especially when I don't see the point in it, which I do not see the point of this visit at all.
On Wednesday, after school, I went to go find Monica, the very nice woman who is in charge of making copies for the teachers. I had given her a hand written behavior log, one for KG1 and one for KG2 in the morning to make ONE copy of each. I hadn't had them returned to me, so when I went searching for them she informed me another teacher had taken them, well, she hadn't so I started to panic because this was something that was hand written and couldn't be printed again. I found them in the hands of the lady who is on my committee! Oh man did my blood start to boil, I snatched them out of her hands which probably wasn't very nice, but if she would have waited 2 minutes, she would have had them. Anyway I had Monica make me the copies I had asked for at the beginning of the day (would it be so hard to let us make our own copies, just saying). I was then shut out of the office where the copy machine is because the VP was exhausted from the day and laying on her couch (eyes rolling right now). Anyway I gathered my papers and brought them to my committee and was then asked if everything was there, at this point in the day I had had enough of kids being rude and disrespectful as well as the adults I had encountered, so I rudely took out the papers and flipped through them showing her EVERYTHING she had asked for! We were also informed that after school on Thursday, a day in which we are allowed to leave at 12:45, we needed to stay until all the binders were finished. This is all well and good if you UNDERSTAND what is supposed to go into the binders and oh yeah, could READ the language they are in! We were also informed that Thursday would be Math day since last Thursday we couldn't do it because we weren't there. So, we pretty much taught all day, which is fine, but also not fair. I did number basketball where the kids lined up and I showed them a number, if they knew it (numbers 1-20), they could shoot the ball, if not they would go to the back of the line. They loved this and I had fun with them. One of our KG2 teachers was out sick, so we only had 3 rotations, not 4. The end of the day had nothing scheduled which apparently meant that the English teachers should have to stay with the kids because you know we taught all day, so sure why not. I took my kids outside with another teacher to play on the playground. After school, we all decided that since we had ALL done our parts for our committees we could leave at 12:45, all at once. Well I got caught by my committee and asked to help. She told me that I needed to help put the binder together, I told her I didn't know how it should be put together and wasn't sure how much help I would actually be. She told me I needed to take the pile of papers and put them back to back into plastic sleeves. This is all well and good, however half way through this, I realized that since their entire language is written completely backwards from the English language, I was more than likely doing this all backwards. I finished what I was told to do and went to find her and inform her that I had finished and I needed to go and take another teacher to the TAMM center in town. She didn't seem very happy about it, but whatever. On my way out I walked by my principal who said nothing to me about leaving, which I didn't understand, but oh well. I walked out to my car thinking everyone would be standing there waiting for me because I was the driver, only to find everyone gone! I received a text from another teacher saying they were at the TAMM center waiting for me. They high tailed it out of there in order to avoid being pulled back in to help, which we can't exactly help anyway.
Thursday night, Cormac, Rebecca and I went into the city to eat at Samurai, a delicious sushi restaurant as well as go to Waitrose which to me is a little bit of heaven in the city. It is a grocery store similar to Metropolitan Market back home. We ventured back home, where I have been relaxing all weekend, trying to prepare myself for what is to come this week at school. Enjoy the pictures!