Teaching in Egypt . . .hmmmmm

Well, in case you haven't noticed I don't discuss my teaching much in this blog. Now THAT is a switch!! Usually I am quite strong in my positions about teaching, probably to my own detriment. And now, I am completely humble. I am not sure what exactly I have managed to accomplish here . . . recently I have collected mountains (OK, hills really) of paperwork in order to get ready to write reports and then hand it all to the kids to bring home. It is a LOT!!! I mean we have covered almost 3,000 years of human history in Social Studies alone! All in a second language which is a lot of work for the kids and the teacher! (Hey!, that's me!) This week all the students are finishing their fourth self-portrait studies with the help of our truly amazing art residents. I am pretty proud of that. The classroom looks and sounds like a studio when I walk in and they are all sketching away. Kids who say they could not possible manage a likeness of themselves are proud to show me their images. Thank God for all his help! And, we have written essays about ourselves. Looking at some I can point out significant progress and in others . . . well - fingernails on a chalkboard is all I can say. But - they are all displayed and I can't say I didn't try! I am sure the culture differences have a lot to do with it all. Managing the class and the 2 languages and how they interact with each other takes 90% of the time which leaves a frantic 10% for i-before-e-except-after-c kind of stuff. . . I just have to smile and wish them all well at this point.

Today started out strangely . . .first one girl said "Miss I have a surprise for you an I can't tell you about it. It's a cake and I got you a big card and we are all going to sign it and then eat the cake for dessert." All I could think to say was "Great! OK!" thinking - hmmm should I act surprised?? And how will we get things done??!

So they spent a good part of our time for writing and get things done working on this card and then at the end said . . . "Miss, miss! Surprise!!" It was cute and lots of lovely sentiments like "Love is in the air" were written on the envelope and in the card. I TOLD you they like their sugar here and their sentiments could NOT be more saccharin!

Well, it was all cute and adorable and the cake was tasty too. The girl who brought it got to give the pieces out to other teachers who let me know that they said, "We are celebrating that Mrs. MaryAnn is leaving." which I am not entirely sure was just an innocent type of  malaprop! The whole cake thing being slightly Egyptized by not have one single butter knife or the likes in the entire building until I scrounged a plastic one from the bottom of the plastic shopping bag used to bring the "washed" plastic utensils back and forth from the house across the street where our lunch is made and to school. Such a long search for that one utensil!! And then there were no napkins or paper towels except the the few I squirreled away the first week of school when a student had a birthday in my class and even that early on I could see that saving every scrap of anything was going to be important. (Of course, I forgot I did that and only knew about these napkins because I have begun to clean out a shelf here and there!) It's NEVER easy in Egypt!! but the date cake was delicious and very, very, sweet with it's coating of pure honey all over the top.

THEN! just to make the morning weirder the next door teacher came to my class ON TIME to ask what the 5th grade should bring and then proceeded to supervise their transition from her room to mine!! First time ever!! I thought I was on candid camera truly. Usually they are told to go to my room and left completely unsupervised in the hall basically acting like zoo animals. And of course, when they came in the were dressed like this and I HAD to take a picture!

I took the the picture told them that they were all now called Erckle and to sit down. Did I ask "Why" (or Lei??) no I did not. In Egypt you don't ask - you just take a picture and keep moving.

So, that was my weird morning. I have two more Thursdays left. We are all getting pretty tired of the whole scene and reflected on the past present and future after work at my place. Complete with a delicious new hors'deouvre oreos with peanut butter and honey! Did I mention that I need to knock off the sugar a bit? Oh, and did I mention gin and tonics?? AND! Did I mention we are still finishing off the ORIGINAL gin I purchased on the plane out here 8 months ago and had to hide in the house of the Muslim woman I stayed with since I didn't know before that that even having it in the house was so bad! Ughhh - it was all fun though and I am not the only one counting the days. I feel pretty guilty leaving early but it can't be helped . . .

Of course, after all the shenanigans I am left with serious reflection and I do worry for these kids. On the one hand they are very wealthy and could be illiterate and lead a fine life full of all the material possessions they could want but on the other hand . . . They do need a school like this to prepare them for a world outside of their little insulated and very spoiled clubs. It is disconcerting to think about. I know that I was here at the beginning and gave it my best shot. At least held the door open for a bit. What comes next . . . who knows? I just have to look at all those Erckles . . . and laugh!