When it rains it pours...

I've often heard the phrase, and have previously felt the truth of the statement, but it seems I am in for a reminder course. A couple of weeks ago I found out that my grandmother was diagnosed with bone cancer in her hip and rib. While she is a strong and optimistic woman she is in obvious pain and the disease and treatment are painful to both the body and the spirits. As I was adapting to this news my students decided to throw me a curve ball to re-arrest my attention. That incident was mentioned below in which students decided to say incredibly inappropriate comments to each other. Parents and admin stepped in and by yesterday things seemed to finally balance back out. It was an awesome day with sunny skies (rather then the dull grey we had been living with for a week or two), a brisk morning walk, excellent behavior from students, productivity at work, and even cookies and muffins baked when I got my next hurdle.
A Skype message was flashing for my attention as I came to turn up the tunes for my baking endeavors and the message shattered my exuberant productivity with news of my fathers admittance into the emergency room for severe heart pain. The rather abrupt message (left in haste by my brother who had ran to retrieve some medications to take to my father at the hospital) justifiably left me shaken. For about thirty minutes I handled the news quite well getting a tray of cookies out, putting a tray in, calling and waking up (and filling in) my sister, and in general pretending that I had important things to be doing. Then I sat still for a few minutes and started thinking about the situation. Mistake. I began to get frantic, jumped on Skype and called my mom. Almost as soon as I heard her voice I was in tears and hearing my dad tell me he loved me then hand the phone back to my mom saying he was in pain and couldn't talk right now put me over the edge. The ambulance arrived to transport mom and dad to another hospital and I was left alone again, half way around the world, with no idea what was going on and no way to help. Thankfully a couple amazing friends showed up and kept me well entertained with positive energy for the rest of the evening.
This morning I got up to good news that dad's chest pain had subsided and that things were looking good. They were going to take him in for an angeogram in 8 hours and I had work to take my mind off things.The day was interesting enough and busy enough to keep my mind occupied. Between colleague differences of opinion, planning, and teaching, there were no dull moments. The day was almost over and ... you guessed it... curve ball.
Standing outside the door after my 3 hour planning meeting (for the last 3 hours all 4th grade teachers including myself and the curriculum coordinator were in a meeting planning our next 6 week unit while substitute teachers were teaching our classes) were four of my best behaved students who immediately started bawling as I approached. Not exactly normal behavior, so I was obviously concerned. I asked what was going on and they got frantically upset. Amid sobs I deciphered that they had done something really bad, they were so sorry, and they knew they were going to be in so much trouble, someone else was taking the blame, and they shouldn't have done it, they were sorry, and they were convinced they were going to be suspended. As I attempted to sort though this latest drama amid choking sobs I discovered the supply teacher, the vice principal, and the parents of one of the four girls' victims in an incredibly charged discussion in the doorway of my classroom. After about 30 minutes of interrogation and piecing together of stories the vice principal, councilor, and I had finally painted a rather accurate picture of a rather childish moment of vengeance that had not been handled well by the poor overwhelmed supply teacher and had escalated into the zoo that it had become.
Needless to say, this situation will take a few days to finish dealing with and die down as it still involves some rather sincere apologies to the second victim that have not been said yet and likely some more parent drama. I just hope that the next hurdle has the decency to wait till I have successfully cleared these most recent two. ;)

Upside? Life certainly hasn't been boring lately! A whole unit was planned today. All four girls have punished themselves far better then I ever could have. And the biggest trouble maker from the previous incident has been better behaved today then in the last 3 months!

Time for Intervention

This last week it has become completely normal for students to be saying completely inappropriate things to each other in my class. Yesterday reached a peak at which they crossed the line. It's one thing to mock each others names say that someone smells, call someone a vampire, or to say that someone is going to jump off a building, those are all bad enough (in varying degrees) and resulted in some rather interesting conversations and notes sent home afterwards, however, yesterday topped it all with two boys telling a girl of mine that she and another boy were going to go on a date and afterwards she was going to suck his ____. Even at home that would be appallingly mature in fourth grade, but in a culture where even saying that they were going on a date is the height of insult to her honor the later part of that phrase was far below the belt. Of course drastic action was taken, admin involved, parents contacted, etc...
This week it has become quite obvious that something about the classroom environment since winter break is not working. Talking to perpetrators about their choices, coming up with solutions and consequences, before break it worked like a charm. Now nothing seems to be working. So... today we are having an intervention.
Today my class is going to spend the day saying nice things about each other. It will start with their morning work where they will have to turn their brains on and think about who in their class is the most respectful, kind, studious, they will have to decide who is the best listener, best communicator, and best bully hero (someone who stands up for others who are being mistreated). Once they have decided what each person in the class is best at then they will have to tell each person in class what they like best about them. We will continue the theme throughout the day culminating with writing and signing new agreements about behavior, choices, and concsequences that, once signed, will be sent home for parents to view, sign, and return.
We may not get through much content today, but this has been a long time in coming and fingers crossed it just might help.

Stalkers

Men in Kuwait have a most annoying habit of behaving like complete skeezes. Now I'm not saying all Kuwaiti men are like this. In fact the parents of my students are lovely individuals who would never engage in such inappropriate or annoying behavior. However, there is a population of men that give all of them a bad name. It is commonly known among western women here that you cannot walk down gulf road during the day without having at least one marriage proposal screamed at you from the window of a passing jag/vet/hummer or an average of about fifteen horn salutes per hour. Now these are annoying enough, but with iPods, sunglasses, and counting to ten every block or so it is possible to get home with no permanent damage done. However, there are some that go beyond rediculous and childish to completely inappropriate. 37709 was one of these.
While walking along the gulf today with a friend we noticed a tan suburban shadowing us. Of course, being fairly savy individuals we are we quietly altered course and went somewhere a suburban can't go (around some buildings on the non-road side). We were so happy to be away from the shady situation that it took us about two minutes to realize that green sweatshirt was tailing us about five feet behind with a ridiculous grin plastered on his face. A death glare soon got rid of him but by this time our path was once again nearing the road and what did we see? That's right, a tan suburban. Waiting. As we passed his spot in the parking lot he revved it up to a whole... 2 miles per hour to keep pace with us. We quickly darted into the mall area where vehicles once again cannot follow. There being only one direction from there it's not hard to imagine what happened next. That's right. He met up with us again on the other side. After darting through parking lots and eventually jumping through bushes to get away from his persistent laps that he insisted on continually driving around us we thought we had finally ditched him. We were now on a main road with lots of traffic. Mistake. Waiting for us circling the next intersection was tan suburban. We were fed up, cranky, and dirty from our encounter with the bushes, so when he pulled out and continued his 2 mile an hour pace right along side us (in traffic) I pulled out my phone bluffed a call to the police, and memorized his license plate number. 37709. He got out of there. Fast. Let's just say if I ever see that tan suburban coming towards me again mister 37709 may find himself having a less then friendly interview with the local authorities.
I don't believe we were actually ever in real danger. If he intended to harm us there would have been no reason to tail us that long. However it is a sad statement that we were forced to walk home through the most densely populated streets we could find in fear of a tan suburban coming back and finding us on a deserted street. Let's just say my friend and I were cranky. Very cranky. It would have been one thing (though still not excusable) if we had been dressed provocatively, however we were both covered from wrists to toes, high collars, and even had our hoods up against the wind. You could hardly see our faces let alone anything else. We were obviously NOT inviting attention. Considering purchasing a taser...

Tigers in Trash Cans

Now let me start by saying that, this is not a rant on animal welfare or city garbage disposal systems.

The other day as I was coming down the steps at school I happened to look out over the wall and saw the strangest sight. Down the block a man was standing next to one of the large industrial dumpsters (the kind that seem to sit on every street corner and parking lot in this city). At his feet was the limp form a large orange and white tiger. The animal was draped over the curb like rubbish bags, and as I glanced back, the man heaved the limp form over his head and hurled it into the trash can. I was immediately shocked and angry. It wasn’t until the tiger was almost in the dumpster that I realized that the creature was a tad more limp then a being with a spine could possibly be.

As it turned out it was a life size stuffed animal that was being tossed out. Why on earth a person would want a life size stuffed tiger is beyond me, and why, especially, when that person lives in a tiny apartment where said tiger would half take up the bedrooms… space and logic aside, my anger instantly disappeared, and I laughed all the way to my next meeting. The real point, however, was that I could have walked away after the first glimpse with a rather exciting tale but a sadly misinformed perspective. Often it takes more than a cursory glance to truly understand a situation, and often anger, while seemingly justified, could easily be turned aside if one takes the time to delve a bit deeper into understanding the situation.

Travels

No deep reflections today, just mindless babbling. After-all, it's a day off! 

Looking today through past trip photos at places I've been and it got me thinking about places I still want to go. My 'trip map' shows a belt around the world, but it appears that the equator is the 'safe zone.' It's not that I don't have the desire to travel to other places, in fact, it is more that I've let others pick my travel destinations for me in several cases. I think I've had enough tropical islands for a little while. Don't get me wrong, I loved them, and I have wonderful memories from those trips; however, the places I've always wanted to see are a bit less of vacation spots and in some cases a bit less... safe.

Places I have been:
Canada (Moose Jaw) - Zero sightseeing or research - hardly counts.
Mexico (don't even remember the name of the city) - was barely in the country long enough to eat dinner. - Also doesn't really count.
Japan (Tokyo) - Only 24 hours, but some awesome experiences.
Philippines (Manila, Puerto Gallera) - 2 separate trips, one was a missions trip to an orphanage in Manila, the other was a scuba and beach bum trip to Puerto Gallera.
Thailand (Phuket and surrounding islands)
South Korea (Seoul, Taechon, Muido) - Lived here for a year. Getting ready to head back.
Poland (Krakow, Auschwitz)
Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Munich, Berchesgarten)
Kuwait - Lived here for almost two years now.
Jordan (Aman, Petra, Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, Red Sea, Jerash)
United Arab Emirates (Dubai) - Visited twice; once for Christmas, once for visa paperwork.


Top Countries I still want to visit: (in no particular order)
England
Ireland
Australia
Russia (St. Petersberg, Moscow, and the Trans-Siberian Railway)
China (The Great Wall)
New Zealand
South Africa
Egypt (Cairo, Alexandria, the pyramids, and The Sphinx - hoping to stop by this winter)
Israel (hoping for this spring)
Brazil (the Amazon)

I'm sure as soon as I post this I'll think of five more that need to be on the list, but tried to keep it to 10; a nice, round number. My 'top' list is always changing, but these countries have been on it for quite some time and here's hoping that at least two of them will join the top list this year. :)