Saudi Arabia

So life has been incredibly busy here at school the past couple of weeks. We're coming to the end of several of our units, so preparing for the assessment at the end and trying to fit all of the necessary instruction into our condensed Ramadan schedule has consumed most of my time. It hasn't all been work though. Last weekend a friend of a friend who's in the US military took a couple of us to the Saudi border. Women can't enter Saudi without their husband, father, or son, so we were only able to go to the border and turn around, but it was fun to get to see the desert of Kuwait outside of the city and look into Saudi. I have several students who are from Saudi or have relatives in Saudi, so they were all very excited for my little excursion as well. :)






Other highlights of the past couple of weeks have been visiting the Kuwait towers:






and breaking the fast at a posh hotel with the other AIS Kuwait staff:




I've started Arabic classes with a couple of other teachers at the Arab-Western Awareness center, hired a maid (I'm so spoiled! I know) and enjoyed just getting to spend time with new friends here.


Today is the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which is the three day celebration of the end of Ramadan. We have six days off of school, so I'm really excited to have some time to catch up and get ahead at work and to just relax. My Kuwaiti Residence permit came through just this Sunday, which means I'm able to leave the country! A friend and I booked a flight to Dubai for Thursday-Sunday of this week, and I'm excited to see a new city and experience Dubai. I hope everything is going well with all of you, and check back next week for pictures and stories from Dubai!

Gurgiyan

Today was the the third and final day of Gurgiyan in Kuwait. Gurgiyan is a holiday similar to American Halloween that is celebrated in Gulf States such as Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It happens about ten days into Ramadan, and is a way for kids to celebrate and enjoy the month even as their parents are in the middle of fasting. Basically, kids (and their teachers:) ) dress up in traditional Kuwaiti/Arabic clothes:












And go door to door in their neighborhoods collecting candy and nuts after they sing a Gurgiyan song. At school, student brought in more candy than you can imagine-it was kind of like Halloween on steroids. All of these boxes are filled with elaborate bags of candy:





Which were then distributed. The corner pile is the candy I received, 1/25 of the total amoount in the room:



And spent the remainder of the day whining about how they didn't want to be in school! It was really fun to see all of the kids dressed up, and we did complete some academic work as well as the games and parties and parades throughout the day, so all in all I think Gurgiyan was a fun day.

None of the kids (or teachers, for that matter) could really explain where Gurgiyan comes from and what the deeper meaning of the holiday is, but it seems like it's just a fun day of celebration. We also had an elementary fashion show and parade, and it was so cute to see all the little ones dressed up. I don't think there are many things cuter than a kid dressed up in a dishdasha (the traditional white tunic Arab men wear).



Tomorrow it will be back to the regular routine, but there are only eleven (and potentially ten, depending on the moon) days of class left before our six day Eid holiday! The year is flying by on our shortened schedule, but I really am proud of the progress my class has already made and I think it will only get better from here!

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

To see where my student's writing skills are I had them write a page about what they did over the summer. To get an idea of the kind of life my students lead, here are some excerpts from the lovelies in Five Orange:

*To begin the summer, my father gave me 1,000 KD (Kuwaiti Dinar, about US$4,000) for passing fourth grade.

*Next I went to Santorini, Greece. Our hotel room had two floors and our own jacuzzi.

*I flew to Malaysia on business class for the summer.

*This summer I went to New York, Florida, Texas, and London

*I went to Sant Tropez. It wasn't fun. I went to Monte Carlo-it was fun.

*In July I went to Paris, then to London.

*I stayed at the Waldorf Hotel in New York for some of my vacation, before I went to Los Angeles and met Hulk Hogan.

*I visited Disneyland twice and Disney World over the break.

Monday is a special holiday in Kuwait, Gurgiyan. Check back Tuesday for a Gurgiyan description and pictures!

Cruising the Gulf

Ramadan Kareem to everyone! The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on September 1st of this year, our second day of school. Ramadan is the month in which Muslims believe the Holy Qur'an was revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad, so it is the holiest month of the year for Muslims. It is also the month in which Muslims are expected to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and other worldly activities from sunrise until sunset. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, and it is taken very seriously by Muslims. At sunset Muslims break the fast with their families, and at the end of the month the festival of Eid al Fitr celebrates the end of the month. There are already decorations everywhere, and workdays shorten for the month so as not to overtax and dehydrate those fasting. It should also be noted that the Islamic calendar is determined by the moon unlike our solar calendar, so Ramadan moves forward 11 days each year. Right now Ramadan is beginning at one of the hottest times in the Middle East, but 15 years from now it will be in the winter. About 20 of my 24 students are fasting (it is up to families to decide when their children begin to fast, but it's usually not until age 13 or 14 that children are expected to fast, although many begin practicing at an earlier age), so it's been a challenge to make sure we're not overworking any of the students during the day.

The first week of school went fairly well for me. I really enjoy my class, and it's been fun to get to know them and get an idea as to where they are academically. Most of my students come from extremely privileged backgrounds, and because of this are used to having many people they can go to when they need something, so we are focusing on working independently and critical thinking skills. :) It's definitely a great group, and I think it will be a fun year with them.

Friday is the holy day for Muslims, so our work week goes from Sunday-Thursday and we have Friday and Saturday off. On Thursday night I went to the Advocates for Arab-Western Relation center with a bunch of other staff members to break the fast and learn about all of the classes and activities the AWARE center offers. I lazed the day around Friday, and this morning a group of us went on a cruise around the Arabian (known to the rest of the world as Persian) Gulf. It's still very hot and windy, but it was a nice way to see the Gulf and the Kuwaiti coastline. You can see the Kuwait Towers, the biggest Kuwaiti landmark, in the picture below. Just like at home the weekend has gone by way to quickly, but it was nice to get away from the school a little and hopefully be refreshed for a great week!



Until next time,
Jessie