Teachers Housing

Door to the patio

A great view of the other apartments for teachers

 During the week of giving my resignation, the apartments were ready for the teachers to move in. My friend L asked me to come with her while she got her keys and checked up on the place. The apartment complexes are located near the border of Oman. A lot of teachers will have to cross there in order to renew their children's visas.

               

Half bathroom

Living room view

The view from my friends apt. That hole was pretty weird.

The teachers were upset about their apartments. Some of the teachers complained how they didn't want to be on the first floor next to the playgrounds. They didn't want to hear noisy crazy kids when they came home. I thought that was a horrible reason. First of all she was a teacher, how could she call the kids crazy? I laughed to myself at the things some people say a loud. Another teacher complained that she got the wrong amount of rooms. That reason made more sense but the rep for ADEC said it would take some time for her to get the appropriate amount of rooms. The worse was that some teachers had been waiting for months to get an apartment and wasn't even assigned one. My apartment was there and I was leaving. As usual there was a lot chaos just to get a simple task completed. In my opinion, ADEC has to learn a lot more on organization, priorities and follow up.

The border to Oman

The bus I rode with other teachers going to the apartment complex

May I have my passport back please?....

31 September 2010 was a Friday my off day.

In United Arab Emirates the last day of the week is Thursday. Friday and Saturday is the weekend so Sunday is the beginning of the week and is when we return to work.

In the beginning of the week, I already emailed all the necessary parties my resignation letter. I had some trouble of course because I had no clue of who the proper people were to get this letter. I had to call Teach Away and the people they directed me to ADEC was not available. It took me two days just to reach them only to find out their not really the right persons. I got an email of a long list of the people I was supposed to reach. The first person was Jane, I emailed her and copied a few others my resignation letter. It was approved after they recommended I make some changes. One day, I had to have my husband do the emailing and calling for me while I was at school. If I waited to go to my hotel it would be too late and since my internet access was limited i'd be taking the chance of losing another day. Since, I had him do some research and send an email for me, I got an email from one of the supervisors stating I shouldn't have him do anything and they were dealing with me only. I was surprised he told me that because my husband was just trying to help expedite my leaving process. I started to get a little nervous that I shouldn't rub anyone the rub way because they might hinder me from leaving.

The next mission was to get my passport. I now had to deal with the two first contacts I was given. They were very nice but seemed busy and overwhelmed with work. I met one of them at a meeting in the beginning of the week all of us teachers had to attend. It was at a hotel where the teachers were being told about the status of their housing. They were ready but the only problem was a lot of the teachers who were in the groups here before had no money. They had exhausted most of the money they came with and didn't get their housing allowance or first paychecks. On the other hand, I got my paycheck already. It made me realize even further how their system was so backwards. When I spoke to one of the ADEC reps he told me he has to find out where my passport is located and he has no clue.  I just kept getting more and more nervous. How could no one know where a bunch of teachers passport were located? That is some important stuff. We had given our passports so we can get our work visas completed. I sent emails asking can I just walk into immigration and get it but I found out the one of the reps had to find whose hand it was in and he wasn't sure.

Restaurants

My friend L and her sister who also teaches 

Yummy buffet! I had breads and lots of sauces :D

The restaurants were utterly amazing! I have zero complaints about any of them. They all had great customer service and know the meaning of being hospitable.

This restaurant was my favorite as you can see by the smile on my face. I had chicken with couscous and  a ton of veggies and a strawberry Fanta. I tasted some of my friends orange juice. It was freshly squeezed and so sweet!

Some sites as we drove around

Moving Out

In the middle of deciding to go back home and telling my friend L about it, she gets a call from a mutual friend. Some teachers had been complaining to one of the reps from Nirvana Travel about our living conditions. They decided to make a trip over to our hotel to see what we were talking about. When we went downstairs to see him, all the teachers were complaining to him about the food and how some of the female teachers were getting harassed. I was so happy for all of the teachers. I was thinking of staying because I was going to  leave anyways but my friend said it wouldn't be a good idea for me to stay alone there. He made arrangements for all of us to separate to different hotels. I wanted to go to the Rotana so I could be with my friend Stella but that didn't happen. Also, L and I were asked by the Nirvana Rep if we could share a room because they ran out to hotel rooms. I was like sure no problem and L agreed. Now we were moving out! Our buses came later on to take us to our allotted hotels. We were booked at the Intercontinental Hotel. For our inconvenience we were booked the executive suite!!

Dining room

Bathroom

Living room

Bedroom

 

I had a great time at this hotel with my friend L. We invited our friends over to come check it out. Everyone was so impressed by the view and how spacious it was! I enjoyed every moment watching the sunset. I even caught a UAE traditional sword dance. They sang and danced all night long.

On you tube they have a great video up close of what they were doing. 

Click below:

UAE Traditional Dance   

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

By the end of the second week, I realized that I had some major decisions to make. I honestly felt troubled about a lot of things. In general, the process for new teachers transition into this country was not properly planned out. The travel agency forgot about me and didn't issue my ticket. I had to call until the day of my travel to a get a ticket. If I just waited and hoped my ticket would arrive instead of taking action, I could have left later than September!

Before I go any further, I wanted to say that I made the decision to go back home. It bothers me to speak out about the reasons why I decided to leave because a good number of people felt I should have stayed and taken advantage of the system.

My reasons for leaving were:

I rushed and was rushed to make a decision on taking the teaching position. I first applied for the position, did a phone interview, drove to Georgia for a physical interview, passed the interview and had three days to decide whether to take the position. All of these events happened in less than a week. I should have had more time to do research. I felt such a pressure to take the job because it's what I always wanted to do. I wasn't finding work at home so I felt I must take it. I know i'd kick myself in the head always wondering "what if" I didn't take this job.

In the rush of going to UAE, I found out my husband had to stay home longer than we planned. He had to stay and complete the closing of our house and find someone to rent it out. He needed to do more research on the process of getting out of the Nationsl Guard. I felt bad that he'd have to leave prematurely even though he said he didn't mind. My car was going to cost $3,000 to ship over via boat and I also found out its a bad idea to bring my vehicle because the radiator wasn't built for such a hot climate. If I brought it over the car could catch on fire so renting a car for about $450 a month would be a better choice. The other option was for him to stay the two years in the U.S. to take care of our vehicles and maintain the house. The plan was to have my daughter sent up by November but I wasn't prepared for the idea of having a long distance relationship.

While going to school and looking around the city, I could see the oppression of the women. I thought I had way more tolerance for other cultures but I didn't for this one. I couldn't stand seeing the women covered up. They wore black in the HEAT! They decorated their black Abayas to add personal touches but to me it's still a black reapers outfit. Some women even wore black gloves and black socks if their husbands were very jealous. If the women had a lax husband they could show their face but not their hair do they'd wear the abayas and Sheila's. I could feel such a confusing energy from the women as they looked at me.

The expat workers were being treated badly but getting paid VERY well compared to their countries. The Filipino women were treated badly by their employers and abused by the men. I heard first hand with my own ears, a Filipino woman who worked at the mall in a jewelry kiosk told me how a young emirate boy feeled her up in front of his father. She told the boy to back off and have respect. His father just smirked and told his son to come with him. She told me how the nannies who were from the Philippines, Ethiopia and Somali were physically abused by their employers constantly. She told me they don't report anything because they desperately need the money to send back home. I know this to be true because I have met some men and women who said they signed two or six year contracts to take care of their families back home. It was hard for me to just be in a place were things like this was happening. At least in the U.S we have rights. We can report abuse and maltreatment from our employers. Check out this link: Maid pregnant by 15 year old

I wasn't confident enough, in the private school system for expat children. As I did my research, the private school i wanted my daughter to attend was already full.

So, I told my husband all of these reasons and he made sure to ask if that was what I really wanted. I knew that's what I wanted and now had to find out the steps to getting back home.

This is when my journey began...

Stereotype

During the first week at Al Masa Hotel, I heard rumors that some black teachers were being asked strange questions. A women told a friend of mine that while she was entering standing outside the hotel taking a cigarette break an Emirate man walked up to her and asked, "how much". She didn't understand what he was saying so she asked him to repeat what he had said and he explained how much does he need to pay her to have sex. I was surprised to hear this piece of news. She said a few teachers had this happen to them. I thought to myself why would an Emirate man do that? I came to the conclusion, they probably think American women and in this case black american women are easy to sleep with. I heard by some teachers that since we don't cover up, the men and women think we are like prostitutes. I got angry and the notion and just shook it off. They also said that we have to remember that Muslim men don't usually let their women out alone. I did notice a lot of women with men but I did see some Emirate women travel together.

One day I decided to catch a taxi to the mall alone because I didn't want to bother my friends. I knew exactly where I needed and what I wanted to buy so I didn't think it was a big deal. I waved a taxi down got in and went to the mall.  I got my shopping done and headed outside. It was so hot that I had to cover my head as I walked to the line of taxi's. The sun was burning my hair in minutes because I could smell it. I found a gold colored taxi and got in. I made sure to ask him if he knew where my hotel was located. He said yes, he was an older Pakistani man. I could tell by the way he was dressed. He had a different type of hat on compared to the Emirate men. The driver tried to make small talk which was fine with me. He asked if I was married, I said yes and if I had any children. He asked why i was in this country and I told him I work as an English teacher. I arrived at my hotel pretty quickly. The taxi driver told me the fare. As I was searching my purse for the correct change, he said, "I'm coming up to your room". I said to him what? and he repeated himself, "I am coming to your room with you. He put his car in park. I looked at him for what seemed to be a long time. My brain was still processing that information. I gave him the exact change and said no thank you. I literally couldn't believe that just happened as I walked into the hotel. I thought to myself, but my head was covered and I was wearing long sleeves and a long skirt. I really didn't get why he had to step to me like that way. Later on, as I told some teachers what happened they told me it's bad to take the Golden Taxi's. They explained to take the newer silver taxi's or the women only pink taxi's. That was definitely a lesson learned.

Meetings

By the second week of school,  the English teachers were having a horrible time adjusting. One teacher came out crying during recess because the Arabic teacher was giving her so much trouble. We had a few meetings to discuss our issues among ourselves but the English director for our school advised we suck it up for now. Since we had no principal there was no one to bring our issues to.

During a meeting by Mrs. Sharina, the Arabic director announced there would be no curriculum. Since, Mrs. Amal was saying most of my lessons were too difficult I was looking forward to having a curriculum.  It would have given me a better guideline how to structure my lesson plans. She also announced our supplies, books, computers etc were still in route and hopefully we'd get them by next month. She said the word insha'allah almost after each sentence. That means in English "God willing" or "If it is God's will". I really didn't like that word. People used it a lot here. It would be much more beneficial for people to be responsible for their actions. Instead of saying  insha'allah, people should make sure the supplies will be delivered at a set time. I found that very strange they were so nonchalant about things. In America time is money, you can't just guess when things will happen or you will waste time and money. I had barely any resources. I had my preschool activity book and that was it. My internet access was limited because the school had no connection. We also learned that our principal was arriving later in the middle of the week. Her name was Mrs. Tina and she was from Montana.

At the end of the week, we had a meeting and all the teachers had to be present. In the past, some of the Arabic teachers would go home. Mrs. Tina was tall, blond hair and had a tattoo on her ankle. She always dressed nicely, wearing suits and usually pearl earrings. She was very down to earth and easy going. In the meeting, she told us the English teachers are the main teachers and the Arabic teachers must assist us. The Arabic teachers always talked during our meetings. They showed poor conference/meeting etiquette. As soon as the principal said  the English teachers were the primary teachers they grew silent. They didn't appear to be happy about the news at all. I was nervous the Arabic teachers would give the English teachers an even harder time. They are so laid back its not even funny. Some of the English teachers told me how their Arabic teacher would come in thirty minutes late to class. They are allowed to breastfeed so the teacher can come in late without giving notice. There were no strict guidelines for the Arabic teachers. In my head I kept comparing rules to the U.S. which was not a good idea according to some friends.

Teaching...

In terms of teaching, I barely got to do it because only about one third of the students showed up. During the first week Saghriah said we should just let them play so that is what I did.I mostly baby sat and secured the front of the classroom door. They loved using the play dough and made such a mess with it. It made me happy to see how each child interacted with each other. It's amazing to see how different their personalities are when they are so young. Nwal was miss sassy and had to be in control. Hamed was a sweet and calm boy. Salem was the trouble maker. Nasser was the mamas boy and thought he could do anything.

I was ready to teach at least one lesson by thursday of the first week but that didn't happen. On Thursday, Saghriah explained she probably won't be teaching at our school anymore. I was like oh no that's too bad. In my head, I was jumping for joy. She was rude to me everyday during that week. The worse event that took place was when I was explaining with gestures where the students should put their bags she just yelled at the students to sit down. She had no respect for me as a teacher. Also, she would have other Arabic teachers come and visit, and when they did their conversations would last more than fifteen minutes. In the states, if a teacher did that we would be in trouble.

When I asked why she was leaving, she told me her husband didn't want her working o far away from home. She told me she lived twenty minutes away. I thought to myself twenty minute?! That is great timing. People would kill in the states to only live twenty minutes from their workplace. The way she told me the news, I could tell she wasn't too happy but she had to listen to her husband. It quickly passed my mind that I could get someone worse but I tried to stay positive.

On the second week,  I met my new Arabic teacher Mrs. Amal. She was a wonderful lady. The students loved her immediately. Before class started she introduced herself, explained her background and asked about mine. She was the total opposite of Saghriah. I was so relieved to learn that she had experience with English teachers and she was happy to be working with me.

The first English lesson I had for the students was to learn the letter A. I showed Amal my lesson plan. I had it written down  on a sheet of paper. I wanted to tell and show them the letter, have them repeat after me and then I'd point out which pictures started with the letter. At the end of the lesson I would have them color the letter and the pictures. Mrs. Amal told me that lesson was way too hard for the students. I was like really? My daughter was three years old when I taught her the alphabets. She didn't know everything but letter recognition is a good starting point for pre school children. Mrs. Amal strongly suggested I have them color the pictures that started with the letter A. I took her advice but I felt I should have done it my way. I felt like I cheated the students out of learning the right way. During recess, I asked the other English teachers what was going on in their classes. They had it worse than I did. Some teachers could still barely get the students to stay in class and commit to one task. The other teachers had issues with their Arabic teachers and didn't even get a lesson taught. I just thought to myself, clearly the way the students were learning English in the past wasn't working so why couldn't the Arabic teachers let us do it our way? It was hard but I kept trying each day with Amal to make it work. I was able to teach some math lessons dealing with colors and shapes. I also was able to read a few stories to the students. They were engaged and excited to learn and mimic what I was saying to them.

Emirate women

After meeting a few Emirate women, I noticed their gestures and mannerisms were the same as island women. I say that because of the way they spoke to each other. While at school, during recess, I'd notice how some of the Arabic teachers would whisper and look at who they were talking about. They would laugh and make "ah and oh" sounds just like island women would make. I was surprised to see this and realized that all of us women are the same.

The hand movements were the similar as well. I observed some older women putting their hands on their hips when they spoke. Even my pre school student Nwal had some sassiness when she spoke. She was clearly behaving like a woman figure (probably her mother) from home.

Homer wearing a moo moo. I had to add this for comedic relief!

Oh and clothing! I noticed some of the Emirate teachers didn't like wearing their abayas in the school. It seemed to me wearing them made the teachers uncomfortable. The teachers wore clothes underneath them so I can see how it can get very warm wearing the abayas. There weren't too many men around by the middle of the day, so it made sense why the teachers took them off. When some of the teachers took the abayas off, I realized they love to wear moo moos! That was another surprise for me. A moo moo is a Haitian word for night gown. In the Haitian culture, the women wear moo moos in the day and night. They are also mostly worn inside and at home. It was interesting to see the emirate teachers did the same. The moo moos they wore were a bit stylish. They had many different floral patterns and colors.

I found this on google. This is what Moza wore.

It took me two weeks to realize one teacher assistant was the same person. In the daytime, there was an older woman named Moza who was dressed in her complete abaya with her face completely covered. I would say good morning to her and that's about it. In the early afternoon, a woman wearing a moo moo would make short conversation with me outside during recess and brought the students bread from time to time. I didn't realize at first that Moza was the same woman that brought the bread to my class. Finally one day I gathered the courage to speak to her and realized it was Moza! I was like hey it's you! She didn't really get what I was saying because her English wasnt so great but I was happy I figured it out. I could identify most of the women out of their abayas but Moza was a completely different story.



In conclusion, I learned that women are alike no matter where we are from. We might have some differences because of our skin color, culture, language etc. but we are the same. This observation and experience helped me remember to treat people like I would want to be treated and that we are all connected in some way.

I'll have that Nokia, Thank You

Who would have thought how important cell phones are to a human being. Especially when you are far away. I knew before leaving to Abu Dhabi I'd go without a cell phone because my provider AT&T would charge and arm and a leg for me to have service there. My husband set me up with Skype and a Magic Jack but those proved to be a bit stressful to use. The time difference took some getting used to as well because when it was evening for me it'd be early morning back home. I was very happy to use Skype twice a day to see Jade go to school and go to bed. There were many times that Skype would freeze and our calls would drop. So, at times our conversations would end without us getting to talk about everything we wanted.

 It was very hard being away from Jade, she just started kindergarten and this was her first time in a public school setting. She needed a lot of reassurance from me but I couldn't be there as much as I wanted and could have. My husband was doing a great job taking care of her but I could see it was difficult for both of them. It was hard for me as well because I've never been away from my daughter for more than a weekend. I had all kinds of guilty feelings but kept telling myself she'd be there soon.

I noticed most of the teachers brought their families over so that didn't help my feeling of being alone at times. Teach Away highly suggested that we don't bring our children or spouses because it would be too stressful for them in the hotel. I could understand how it was true because that would be more heads to feed and entertain.

One day, while using Skype, I noticed my husbands face was extremely troubled. He said everything was fine but I could tell something wasn't right. My process for applying, getting interviewed, and preparing to teach in the U.A.E took less than a month while all the other teachers I met had one year! We had three days to make a decision in Atlanta whether to take the job or not. I started to realize that maybe I didn't make the greatest of decisions. Even though we agreed for us to do this something wasn't clicking perfectly.

I also learned from my husband that he wouldn't be coming in a month as planned. He started looking for work here but couldn't find anything. Also, since he is in the army he found out Abu Dhabi is neutral ground so there are no army bases. That meant he couldn't just get up and leave because he still has to report to the U.S. National Guard and go to drill. So now we had to decide if he would quit the army, be unemployed and stay home in the U.A.E or stay for the two years of my teaching contract in the U.S. I started to feel sick to my stomach of that idea. We just got married and now we had to spend two years apart?! I couldn't picture that happening at all. I had a lot of thinking to do....

After a few days of technical difficulties using my Magic Jack and Skype, I decided to buy a phone. The original plan was to wait for my husband to Jailbreak my iPhone so I could use etisalat's cell phone service but the wait was too hard. All of you smart phone people out there could understand. Me being without a phone for a week was so excruciating. I wished I had my iPhone since I got on the plane and the first day of school.

I wanted my phone for school because I could have easily used the GPS to find where the school was located. I could have saved lots of time and hassle. I went to Carrefour to buy a phone, nothing fancy just something to get me by until I got my sweet iPhone back. When I walked up to the counter, I already found the phone I wanted. A simple pre paid Nokia 1280. I could text and make phone calls to home without any interruptions. Finally, I was able to communicate to the ones I loved more efficiently. It was a primitive phone compared to my iPhone but it helped me appreciate things so much more.

Skype helped with visuals but the phone was so much better!

Too much fast food!

During my stay, I had to eat out every night. I didn't realize that would be so difficult. A lot of the teachers were very skeptical about going out. It turned out not to be so bad because there were so many options!I started off by going to the buffets in the mall. I didn't really pay attention to the price at first but I quickly noticed that I had to stop or my pockets would be emptied in a heart beat. The buffets had all types of basmati rices that came along with all types of sauces. Buryani chicken was my favorite with naan bread. They also had plenty of  drinks like Pepsi, Coke, Tea and Water. I had to stop eating there and many other vendors because the price was equivalent to about $9 per meal.

My McDonald's receipt

Fish restaurant receipt

When I'd go get something to eat in the afternoon and evening, I'd catch a cab with some co workers that also stayed at my hotel or with my friend L. My friend was great to go with because she was just like me, easy to talk to and a great listener. We would talk about our day and what we would be doing if we were back home in the states. In the afternoons, we typically went to McDonald's and KFC because they were so much cheaper. It cost about $4 per meal. I enjoyed eating the big macs at McDonald's and the fries and chicken at KFC.

After a week of eating out twice a day, I became very tired of eating those two meals. I then realized I should buy healthier snack items at the supermarket and eat those instead.