Calendar Samalendar

One of the goodies from my students!

Before school started we were given an official calendar, just like at any school. And then, when school started, we were given another official calendar. Hmmmm.  Then my coworkers said, to not trust that calendar until we were told officially by ADEC what was up!

This Eid is our first official holiday.  The calendar says we have Oct 5th thru the 7th off, so we don't have to come back to work until Wednesday.  But people said, hey, we might have the whole week off, just wait until the holiday gets closer.  So, here it is, Sept. 28th and low and behold, what happens? The official holiday gets announced! We have to be back to work on Tuesday! Tuesday! It went from maybe we'll have a whole week off to having to be back to work by Tuesday!  The calendar here is decided by the moon and the official day of Eid Al-Adha is Saturday, so we get 3 days including that day, which is why we have to be back to work on Tuesday. Insert sad face, weepy eyes here!

I asked my students in every class, "who's going to be here next week?" They just looked at me like I was crazy and said, "not me Ms.!" One girl, one bright and shiny girl raised her hand and said, "me Ms! I be here!" I just gave her a blank stare.  Then I looked at her and said, "Mariam, it cannot be just you and me here, like this" I placed my hands under my chin and smiled, "starring at each other!" She said very excitedly, "yes Ms.! Just me and you!" So, it looks like I will have one thing to do next week. Find wonderful activities to share with one student and me! Shiny happy teacher! By the end of the week she will either love me to pieces or hate me!

Yesterday, Thursday, was the last day of the week.  In the morning, I had the same class twice.  We played vocabulary spelling games.  They were so into it that another teacher came to tell us to be quiet.  Then after lunch I was like, do I go to my next class, what's happening? Another teacher said, you can go to class if you want! You'll be the only one in there!

I walked down the long, surprisingly empty halls, lugging my 2 ton school bag behind me. I was looking around like, where the heck is everyone?! Then I glanced out the window to see the yellow school buses loading up all the girls! I looked into the teacher offices I passed and they were all empty! I could hear a trickle of raised voices coming from one room.  I couldn't tell if they were raised in anger or in the Emirate way, which is just loud.  I slowly approached the room and peeked around the door with a small sense of trepidation. To find at least seven members of our administrative staff sitting around on cushions, drinking tea and having henna done on their hands! They waved me in and offered tea and continued their raucous laughter.  I finally was able to extricate myself and return to my office, where everyone was packing up! Looks like, aside from those staff members getting henna, no one else was in the school! Yooo-hoooo! We don't have an extra day off, but we got to leave work at noon on Thursday! Not an even trade but I'll take it!!

I said on my last post how the students kept giving us candy but I didn't add the pictures, so here's a few. I ate so much candy I made myself sick! But, of course, I had to eat most of the other bag as well!

Ciao for now!!