Can of big fat worms......Open

I avoided mentioning anything about schools for so long because I am very opinionated about all the schools here in Al Ain and am definitely not an objective person to ask about them.

On the other hand, I remember coming here to Al Ain and having that desperate feeling of panic because there is a great big black hole of nothingness as far as information goes for this lovely town. (And I really do mean Lovely - I am not being sarcastic - I love it here.)

My two anonymous friends, I am so sorry that there is not much information for you guys out there. It is a terrible situation to be in when you need to make these important decisions and I remember that feeling all to well.

Cairo girl, I will let you do the honors with Choifat information..... I tried and the darn post went on and on and on - heck, I could have published it as a short story! Needless to say, I would not send my children to Choifat if it were the last school on the face of the earth and I had to face a shooting squad on my knees with a blind fold. OK, so, I've gone a little far, but not too far....

Madar... Well, Madar is run by Edugates, and the man who runs Edugates is a former manager in the Sabis (Choifat) organization. Enough said.

Al Ain American School is owned by probably one of the nicest local men I have ever met in my life and the principal is an American lady who I happen to know. She is a wonderful educator and has beautiful credentials, but I have heard that her staff find it difficult to work with/for her. I do not know. I have no personal experience with this. The extent of my personal experience with AAAS is that a friend and I did the initial consultation with the owner over the summer before the school opened and made recommendations as to the curriculum and running of the school. I have spoken to one person who is sending her child there and they are very happy, but a fair representation of the overall quality, it is not. It is an American Curriculum. When my partner and I did the initial consultation with AAAS, we recommended that they use the Harcort school books and adopt a brain based learning/play to learn format. I do not know if this is what the school has done as my consultation with the school ended before the school was completed.

Emirates National School is the type of school that will take your breath away - kind of like a beautiful woman who walks into a crowded room. The facilities are state of the art and plentiful. The teachers are top notch (OK, so I am friends with over 50% of them....I am NOT bias!), and the current principal is a forward thinking practical dreamer who does the best with what she has. The problem? This school has issues in the management which they hope you don't notice because the bling of beautiful facilities is blinding you. The management is a contradiction to what the school is supposed to stand for and does cause issues in the classroom, but not so much so that it puts the children at risk. This year, the classes are randomly organized and therefore the level of learning in any given class is that of the lowest level child in the class. There are talks of reorganizing for next year - which would be a huge boost to the school if it happens. The change that needs to happen is that students should be grouped according to learning level and taught in stages so that the accelerated students can benefit from more stimulation, average students can continue to flourish at the correct level for them and below average students aren't frustrated with levels that are too difficult for them. This is just one problem. Within the teaching staff there are other issues caused by management. This makes for a difficult working environment for the teachers and therefore creates a higher turn over rate. Not something you want to see in a school, but from what I can gather, is quite a common phenomenon here in the gulf.

Future school - WOW. I really don't want to go there. I have extremely personal feelings about this school that are enormously negative. It all stems from the personal experience I had while working there for 7 months. The teachers are good, the facilities leave a lot to be desired (common toilets???) and the "management"....well..... The man who owns the school has a powerful family name and has wasta that is only talked about in fairy tales. Last time I said anything negative about the school, I was fired from my job and no one would hire me for almost a year after. That's all I will say.

As far as not being able to talk to your child's teacher, it is common practice here in Al Ain. I would guess that AAESS does not follow this practice, but it is not unique to ENS. The majority of the schools here in Al Ain have a no teacher contact policy and therefore employee someone called a parent liaison or a parent care officer who is the link between the teacher and the parent(s). I do not know why this practice exists. It is a point of HUGE frustration for most of us and no one can explain to me the reasoning behind this practice. It is ridiculous and stupid, if I may say so....

Ok, that's it. I am not talking about schools anymore, OK? I am finished. I am really scared that this entire post will somehow find me in my sleep and choke me. I have a car payment that needs to be paid for 5 more years and I can not afford to be fired from my job again.......

~JAM

Schools - if I must

The big school question............

Well, my kids obviously go to a private school here in Al Ain. Are they happy with it? Yes, they are - because their friends go there. Am I happy with it? Sometimes. I think if half the teachers weren't my friends, and I didn't know all the behind the scenes upper management crap that goes on, I would be much more happy.

I worry.

Are my kids being challenged?
Are my kids being treated equally?
Are my kids learning anything?
Are my kids being pulled down to the lower level of their non English speaking peers?
Are my kids being picked on by the non western students?

These are just a few things that run through my head every morning when I drop them off at school.

The things is, I can not home school them - I tried (you can read about it somewhere in the July 2005 posts???), and there is really no other choice for them other than where they are right now.

Choifat? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I get sick just thinking about that school and it's so called teaching methods.

AAESS? Not going to happen. I have many issues with this school too - the biggest being that my kids are American and the curriculum just won't work for us.

FUTURE? I would rather gouge my eyes out with chop sticks.....I will leave it at that. I am sure the teachers are great and the curriculum is ok, if they are still using Harcourt, but ....well, I will just leave that alone - it is personal.

Emirates National School? Well, Hmmm......

Al Ain American School? Gosh............

They all have issues. Though Choufait has so many things wrong with it I can not even begin to touch on them in a blog post - and I won't.

Like I said, you just need to get here and choose for yourself. Seems most people flock to AAESS and think that is the ONLY school worth sending your kids to here. Not true.

You need to think about what you want your kids to get out of this experience too. Do you want your kids to experience this culture and the people of this country, or do you want your kids to be in their own little ex-pat bubble? How far are you willing to push yourself and your children to help them have a full experience that is memorable and safe? You also need to take in to consideration your child's abilities and how they cope with different situations. What is their academic level? Are they self starters? Do they cope with self study well or do they need more guidance? I find that my children are very self reliant and because of that, are doing well in a school that does not have a large number of expats in it. Some of our friends' children are not doing so well. It is not because they are not smart - far from that - they just require more one on one attention. You must consider these things when choosing a school.

It is all just a very personal subject and I can not tell you where to send your kids. What I can do is advise you to really think about what it is you want to accomplish while here and what it is you want your family to learn while here. What is the point of coming to this strange and beautiful country if you never step out of your comfort zone?

Better yet, what is the point of life if you never step out of your comfort zone?

~JAM

I am here....Just drowning in a sea of work!

Hi!

As you may know, I started working again about 6 months ago and I do love my job! Thing is, right now we are so busy, I barely have time to call my parents in the States let alone type in the 'ole blog.

Life has been surprising the past week especially, and not in a good way. I will start by telling a bit of background:

We went to Paris over Easter weekend. It was a short trip, but we had so much fun. We loved Paris...until this week. Sounds strange since it has been 2 weeks since our trip right?

Well, someone somehow got hold of my ATM card number and PIN and started debiting my account yesterday. They did it 150 Euros at a time. Thanks goodness I get an SMS every time there is activity in my account because boom boom boom there it went and I started calling the bank in a complete panic!

You can never imagine the terrible feeling that comes over you when you are watching your hard earned money disappear out of your account as fast as you can blink and you can do nothing about it. You want to scream, cry and beat the hell out of someone all at once.

The bank was great at picking up on the activity and my phone started ringing with calls from the fraud department and customer service all trying to help me. Luckily, my card was deactivated before they could completely drain my account, but they were able to take out 600 Euros before it was closed. The little jerks debited cash every 30 seconds!!!

On top of all of that, this all happened while I was in the hospital getting x-rays because I BROKE MY LITTLE TOE early yesterday morning!!!!!

Needless to say, I was very happy to go to sleep last night and let the day end. This experience has made me appreciate that we do not rely on my salary for anything except my car payment and I am so thankful that it happened to me and not someone who does rely on their salary to live. Don't get me wrong, I am pissed off that it happened, but at least it didn't devastate us. I do want my money back and I would really like to meet these ass holes who did this.

The long awaited school post has been cut down to this: All the schools in Al Ain suck in their own way. You will just need to come here and visit them to decide which one sucks the least for you then take your chances there. And no, I do not think Al Ain English Speaking School is the best school.............you couldn't pay me to send my kids there, but like I said, all the schools here suck, so what are we going to do? If the curriculum isn't total crap, the teacher are crap and if the teachers aren't crap the management is. Schools should not have a management team! What the hell? My friends and I are desperate to open our own school with a true International Curriculum and a Western management team of EDUCATORS (cause apparently you have to manage your schools here).

There....that's my 2 cents. Let the slashing of my OPINIONS begin..........

~JAM

Thanks guys!

I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who are reading.

I have started a HUGE post about schools here in Al Ain but am struggling with how much and what type of information to write in there. The few schools I have personal experience with I feel VERY NEGATIVELY about and I m finding it difficult to be objective about it. My beefs are of a personal nature and have little to do with the quality of teaching that goes on in these schools, so hopefully you can hang on a little longer for me to write more and edit and get it right.

I will tell all of you that my husband bought me the ginormous iMac recently and IT ROCKS!!!!!! I know it has nothing to do with anything, but just wanted to type it anyway....

~JAM

Life in the UAE and random other crap

I need to start by stating that my sign in page is completely in Arabic now and I am pretty sure I flagged my own blog as having offensive material on it because I have no idea how to read Arabic.

This is just random crap that is spewing out of my brain. It makes no sense, but that's how my brain works:

That said, I thought I would like write a note about life here. It is a question I get all the time:
"How do you like living in the Middle East?" "What's it like?" as well as various other questions about if I have to cover and can I drive..... Seems I have talked about those things before......

HHHMMM...... I never know how to answer these questions because my brain has a tendency to be a bit of a smart ass (or is that my mouth?) and the first thing that usually pops in my mind is "Living in the Middle East is no different than living in any state away from your family and it is like living in Arizona in the summer, only the local men wear white dresses and the women wear black dresses." Then when I think about it, it is true. It really is not different than living anywhere that is away from your family. Not for me at least.

We are a bit spoiled here in the UAE because it is very open and not restrictive here. I am sure if we lived in Saudi (where they banned Valentines day) I would have a different attitude. But maybe not. I am a very open person and deal well with change. I adapt and basically get on with life as I need it to be.

My life in the US consisted of getting the kids to school then staying home to clean, cook and be generally bored. We didn't have enough money for me to do anything other than volunteer at the school in addition, I couldn't find a job because my degree scared employers into thinking they couldn't afford to pay me. I had one friend. She was very negative. My other friends lived in other states so I had no support net.

Here, my life consists of getting the kids to school, then I go to a job that I LOVE and spend the day with an office full of people that are creative and happy. My kids have friends who they adore and my husband is home every day at 2:30! I have a group of girlfriends who are wonderful and who I spend time with.

My every day life is very much the same as it would have been in the USA. The big difference here is our house, and our income. The interesting part of life here is when we go out in town and try to do or find things we are used to at home. This is the part of life here that frustrates the hell out of me and sometimes drives me to screaming fits in my car in the parking lot.

The things like standing in line at McDonald's. The locals (and the expats who have lived here too long) have NO CLUE what a line is. The other thing that irritates me is the constant line cutting and the complete disregard for others that the women especially show. Driving here is also an exercise in patience. I thought learning to drive on the busy freeways of Houston was difficult....... Learning to drive here is taking your life into your own hands. No common sense at all. Who the heck drives down the WRONG SIDE OF THE FREAKING STREET just to avoid having to do a "U" turn???? I mean, REALLY!

The part that is nothing like home here and never will be is the landscape. This is actually the part that drives me to tears a lot of the times. It is just plain hot. On top of it being hot, it is dusty. Yes, I know we are in the middle of the desert, but the sand everywhere is really depressing to me. It often feels like I live in the middle of a dust bowl. I do love the look of the sand and think the desert is beautiful, but when you come from a place that is lush and green and nature is free to run amuck, the sand and trees planted in perfect lines gets a little (or a lot) boring.

The only other thing that really irritates me about living here is the stares. Everyone stares at me. Men, women, children.....they all stare at me. Why? I don't know. The worker men though.....Oh my goodness......There are times when i feel like giving them the one finger salute. I never would (not even at home), but something needs to be done about this. I witnessed one of these men literally fall over his own foot because he was staring at a group of three teenagers (of Middle Eastern descent) greeting each other hello. It was disgusting.

You know, there are things that happen here (or don't happen here) that are the same things that happen all over the world. You hear about people being taken out into the desert and things happening to them, but that happens in the USA. As a western woman, I feel extremely safe here. I am not scared to walk in the evenings alone, I have never had that feeling of panic when I am alone in a parking garage and a man is walking toward me. I have never had that fear that I must lock my car door as soon as I get in the vehicle to prevent someone trying to pull me out and steel my car.

I have to have a letter from my sponsor to get a bank account, buy a car, have a cell phone, work, etc.... It so happens that my sponsor is my husband, but if my sponsor were my work, then the letter would need to be from my work so it has nothing to do with my husband being dominant. I don't shake hands with people anymore because it is forbidden for a man to touch any woman besides his wife. That is fine by me. I don't usually care for shaking hands anyway. I am typically ignored by my husband's local friends when we meet in a public place. Well that kind of bothers me, but still, it is not really that important to me either because I know they still see me and will remember the kids and me the next day when they ask about our family.

I get irritated at the ignorance and the lack of education I see here. I also get a huge kick out of the willingness of the Locals to share their stories.

I think there are days that I could never imagine living anywhere else but there are also days where I am ready to say "to hell with this" and catch the first flight to the US. The thing is, I felt the same way when we lived in New Mexico or Oklahoma. you have your good days and you have your bad days. What is important is the people you spend your days with. My family is here, so this is where I need to be. I have great friends here and we all support each other on those bad days. I miss my friends in the states, but I missed them while I lived there too.

Life is what you make of it. If you come here and find that you can't deal with it, then leave. If you come here and use the opportunity to learn and make friends (outside of your own nationality) and you explore and understand that you must be patient, then things will be ok here. it can be lonely and painfully isolating at times, but friends help ease that pain. I often remember back to when I was a stay-at-home mom in Roswell, NM and remember the terrible feelings of isolation I had there. It is better here. Given the choice between there and here, I choose here.