Palestinians are either city people or country people... and the two groups seem to really dislike each other. More so than most countries that I have lived in. A few of the teachers and employees of the school live in small villages around Nablus and commute in. I have heard on more than one occasion people who also work here say really really nasty things about the teachers who are from the country. More than just things like calling them simple or old fashion.
The story my students read in class yesterday was about the differences between the two and the positives of each. Of the 22 students only 3 said they liked the country and that was because their father's have ranches outside nablus and they get to ride their horses there.
I did notice that the few students that i know who are from the country were the firmest supporters of the city in my class........
Here is one of the essays one of my students, Iyad Amer, wrote:
The city better than the country because there is no shoop in the country. But the city there is and the city there are a toys and many cars. but in the country there is no toys and a little no good carse and the streets in the country is not good. and for all this the answer is the city better than a country.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
and another one bites the dust...
Ode to Rames....
I just found out yesterday that another Palestinian teacher Rames quit.
No warning at all. In fact she called in sick and then quit at the end of the second day of not showing up with no explanation at all.
The strange part is that no one seems too upset by this news; Not the kids, not the parents and not the other teachers.
She certainly was not my favorite person in the school. I had to share a classroom with her last year and ever time i put up decorations she took them right down, even though i was told to put them up by the admin.
But it is strange that she isn't around... I actually might miss her.
She is the second teacher to quit in two weeks. (one of those weeks being vacation) Sabreen was my first Palestinian friend and by far my favorite teacher here at the school. I am really sad and disappointed that she left. Her departure shocked everyone. The reactions were the interesting part, the left of betrayal felt by everyone here really impressed me.
I want to stay friends with her but if i get caught socializing with her, all kinds of drama will break out. Nablus is a small enough town that there is no way i won't get caught either...
I don't know what is going on around here. Four teachers have left in the past month. Who knows how many more will go in the next few.
I finally understand how the Arabic department here feels about meeting and getting to know us internationals. They can't be bothered because so many of us come and go so quickly. I myself am beginning to feel that way about them.... although I won't let myself fall into that trap.
Two or three more internationals will be arriving in the next two weeks. Is it too much to hope for that they might stick around? Or better yet is it too much to hope that I would want them to stick around?
I just found out yesterday that another Palestinian teacher Rames quit.
No warning at all. In fact she called in sick and then quit at the end of the second day of not showing up with no explanation at all.
The strange part is that no one seems too upset by this news; Not the kids, not the parents and not the other teachers.
She certainly was not my favorite person in the school. I had to share a classroom with her last year and ever time i put up decorations she took them right down, even though i was told to put them up by the admin.
But it is strange that she isn't around... I actually might miss her.
She is the second teacher to quit in two weeks. (one of those weeks being vacation) Sabreen was my first Palestinian friend and by far my favorite teacher here at the school. I am really sad and disappointed that she left. Her departure shocked everyone. The reactions were the interesting part, the left of betrayal felt by everyone here really impressed me.
I want to stay friends with her but if i get caught socializing with her, all kinds of drama will break out. Nablus is a small enough town that there is no way i won't get caught either...
I don't know what is going on around here. Four teachers have left in the past month. Who knows how many more will go in the next few.
I finally understand how the Arabic department here feels about meeting and getting to know us internationals. They can't be bothered because so many of us come and go so quickly. I myself am beginning to feel that way about them.... although I won't let myself fall into that trap.
Two or three more internationals will be arriving in the next two weeks. Is it too much to hope for that they might stick around? Or better yet is it too much to hope that I would want them to stick around?
Saturday, September 26, 2009
who knew maggie could cook?
Starting in a few weeks when the last new teacher gets here and I don't have to substitute teach anymore,I will start teaching cooking classes for adults in the morning and kids in the afternoons. I have been researching for about six weeks now things to make in the cooking class but it wasn't until the last few days that I started experimenting. The first thing i discovered is that I don't have any measuring cups, spoons or scales. I can adapt to that pretty easily. The more challenging parts are finding ingredients, figuring out how to adapt recipes to the ingredients here, adapting recipes to local tastes and getting used to the settings on my oven. I also don't have a lot of money to spend on practice runs either.
I will be begging all of you shortly for your favorite recipes.
Tonight this is what i made:
* 1 tablespoon oil
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
* 1 clove garlic, chopped
* 1 cup dry red lentils
* 1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
* 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
* 2 cups water
* 1/2 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 teaspoon curry powder
* salt and pepper to taste
* pinch of cinnamon and cumin
* handful of saffron
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, and garlic until onion is tender.
2. Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the water, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder,and the rest of the spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.
serve over rice.
my housemates seemed to like it. The real test is tomorrow. I am taking some into work to have the admin try it and see how Palestinians like it.
I also made Southern Cucumbers
slice a bunch of cucumbers, marinate in vinegar, water, sugar and salt for several hours in the fridge
and for desert we had
Bread pudding...
I made a variation of the following recipe and served it with stewed peaches
Ingredients
* 12 to 14 cups 1-inch cubes day-old white bread, such as French or Italian
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 4 cups whole milk
* 6 large eggs
* 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
* 4 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup raisins
* Confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish with the remaining tablespoon of butter and set aside.
Combine the heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and raisins in a large bowl. Whisk to mix. Pour the cream mixture over the bread, and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes.
Transfer the bread mixture to the casserole dish and bake until the center of the bread pudding is set, 50 to 60 minutes.
I will be begging all of you shortly for your favorite recipes.
Tonight this is what i made:
* 1 tablespoon oil
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
* 1 clove garlic, chopped
* 1 cup dry red lentils
* 1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
* 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
* 2 cups water
* 1/2 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 teaspoon curry powder
* salt and pepper to taste
* pinch of cinnamon and cumin
* handful of saffron
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, and garlic until onion is tender.
2. Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the water, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder,and the rest of the spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.
serve over rice.
my housemates seemed to like it. The real test is tomorrow. I am taking some into work to have the admin try it and see how Palestinians like it.
I also made Southern Cucumbers
slice a bunch of cucumbers, marinate in vinegar, water, sugar and salt for several hours in the fridge
and for desert we had
Bread pudding...
I made a variation of the following recipe and served it with stewed peaches
Ingredients
* 12 to 14 cups 1-inch cubes day-old white bread, such as French or Italian
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 4 cups whole milk
* 6 large eggs
* 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
* 4 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup raisins
* Confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish with the remaining tablespoon of butter and set aside.
Combine the heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and raisins in a large bowl. Whisk to mix. Pour the cream mixture over the bread, and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes.
Transfer the bread mixture to the casserole dish and bake until the center of the bread pudding is set, 50 to 60 minutes.
Monday, September 7, 2009
and then there were four
It has been quite a crazy few weeks. In the past month three new teachers have arrived and in the past 8 days two have been fired. One for hitting the children and one for verbally abusing the admin.
I was suppose to be getting the school ready for the start of the community center BUT when they fired the first teacher two days before school started, that was put on hold and now I am back to teaching at the elementary school full time.
It is going well. Very crazy and very busy BUT it is good to be back with the children. I really love them and it is nice not to be in charge anymore.
I don't know what the next few weeks will look like. I know we are looking for three more staff members if you are interested in coming to palestine. it will be interesting to see who that brings. Especially since not only do i work with them, but i also live with them. I just quickly wanted to update the world on my life.. and drama
I was suppose to be getting the school ready for the start of the community center BUT when they fired the first teacher two days before school started, that was put on hold and now I am back to teaching at the elementary school full time.
It is going well. Very crazy and very busy BUT it is good to be back with the children. I really love them and it is nice not to be in charge anymore.
I don't know what the next few weeks will look like. I know we are looking for three more staff members if you are interested in coming to palestine. it will be interesting to see who that brings. Especially since not only do i work with them, but i also live with them. I just quickly wanted to update the world on my life.. and drama
Sunday, August 30, 2009
a day in the life of maggie
What does a day in the life of Maggie look like right now?
Around 4:30 am I am woken up by the call to prayer. Some days it is pretty quick and some days it just goes on and on… I have been told that it takes exactly the same amount of time each day and that it is exactly on the same amount of loudness each day. But I strongly disagree. There are times that I look at my cell phone to see the time and know for a fact that it has gone on for an hour and other days that I know for a fact that it has only taken 10 minutes. Either way I go back to sleep until my alarm goes off around 8am. And then the first thing I do is hop on my computer to check to see if Lana, my boss, woke up in the middle of the night to send me emails with lists of things to do. And then I check face book and then scan the news quickly to see if the world has come to an end.
I am really lucky (or manipulative) and at this place not only do I have four walls (verse the curtain wall) and furniture in my room (verses the cardboard boxes I was using) but I also have my own very pink bathroom!!! The drains in the shower don’t work at all but since there is a drain in floor I take a shower using the hand held shower head in the middle of the bathroom. The same way I did it all over east Asia. The last week hasn’t been as hot so I some times take a warm or even hot shower. (no more complaints about the water being too hot (over the summer) or too cold (last spring)… Finally it is the perfect temperature. I then go back into my room to get dressed and pack up my computer to take with me into work. I make sure to eat a solid breakfast because there isn’t going to be anything else until 4 or 5 pm to eat during Ramadan. Usually we all set off to work together, Maureen, Tony, Jess and I. Both Sean and Lou have gone in earlier.
At work right now I am working on a variety of projects.
The sorting of the student’s text books needed to be finished but the room was locked and I didn’t know who or where the key was. Also I had gone to tel aviv to smuggle last box of books into the city but there were still other books missing.
Lana (my boss) had been to the British council and found out about a program that might be able to save the future of the school… away for us to get accredited through the british system. So she asked me to figure out a way to apply to their accrditation process and to call them and get the details. It was another project I was excited to do but the computer lab was locked and the only guy with the key to it was going to be at the kindergarten all day. And, the internet was semi-down and taking a very long time to load on my laptop. So I needed this was another project that hit a temporary dead end and I was off to work on another project.
I also needed to work on finishing the brochure for the community center I am trying to start. The hold up on this project were that I didn’t know which classes had been approved and the details of them. I figured it was okay since I could at least work on the layout for them…. But the computer I needed to use was in the locked computer lab. I have to use that particular one since it is the only one hooked up to the special printer we have to print them and if I work on it on my computer the alignment gets messed up since this is a mac and the school uses PCs. So I spent 15 minutes making traditional paper mock ups of what I wanted it to look like and put those in my bag for when Ahmad the computer teacher comes back and lets me in the lab. I don’t have where else to put stuff since I currently have no desk. During the summer I had a desk in the office because I was the director of the summer program. Once that was over the desk was moved out faster than I could believe. I am not a regular teacher so I don’t have a classroom and there isn’t a teachers office yet but even then, I don’t know that I will get a desk in there either since the community center doesn’t fall under any existing umbrellas. So for now I carry everything in a computer bag on my shoulder. During the day I usually find a student desk in a quiet room to work or I sit in the lobby in the admin office where the children who are sent to the principals office are sent to sit and wait.
Finally I decide to go to lana’s office (my boss) to see if she has any projects or has a clue to when the people with the keys to the different rooms are coming in.
She is hard at work on preparing a presentation for the board about the school budget. So we sit down and work out the community center budget. Half way through our meeting the school psychologist from the ministry of education comes in to have a meeting with Lana. So I am asked to finish the budget myself and they go to another office behind a locked door to have a meeting. Honestly 45 seconds after Lana steps out of the office her computer completely freezes so much so that even Control+alt+delete doesn’t work and I have to unplug it to get it to restart. Of course I don’t have Lana’s password to get back to the program and I don’t have the numbers to re write the presentation on a different computer. I try to go and knock on the door but Key Ahmad (as we call him) physically refrains from letting me knock. So I check the status on all the other tasks that I have started that morning to see if there is any progress to the roadblocks and nothing has quite materialized. The school secretary assures me that I should just wait a few more minutes… so while I wait to wonder over to another classrooms of one of the other teachers.
This teacher, L, has just arrived about two weeks before. He is a super experienced teacher from America. He has taught elementary school in the Berkley area for 20 years but Palestine isn’t California. And he is having a seriously hard time adjusting to everything. On demographics along he is the target candidate for having a melt down. He is 60, recently divorced and broke. Except for a couple to short trips to Europe on a tour he has never done any traveling or living outside of America. Life here is too different and hard for someone like him to survive much less thrive. I am not trying to be an agest but I have seen from my vast experience that people like him need routine and structure and things to work in just a certain way. None of the above exists in places like Palestine. Also at school the work of EFL, especially the world of teaching at an immersion school is so different than that of teaching at a school in America that anyone less than completely flexible will go crazy. We don’t have crayons or construction paper or zip lock bags. There are no sentence strips or pocket charts. If you want those you have to make them. There are no teacher supply stores. A stationary store has little beyond paper, notebooks and pencils.
Even the educational theories are different here. How ESL is taught in American classrooms seems archaic to an EFL teacher. International ESL teachers are the guinea pigs for every new theory.
Needless to say Lou was cracking and Lana was trying to decide to let him go or not. So I went to see what all the fuss was about. He had spent the last two weeks writing hundreds and hundreds of words, complex words on posters and hung them all over the room. The class that he was going to teach is smart but has one of the lowest levels of English in the school. They are still learning site words, not three syllable words. Plus there were no pictures or definitions or any context clues for the kids to identify these words. All they were going to see was a bunch of English on the walls and then ignore it. He also had a dozen political slogans written out and taped up all over the rooms. He is one of the teachers who actually knows what is going on here but doesn’t seem to understand the very very fine tightrope we are walking on here. Telling kids not to throw rocks is still very controversial. (that was my project last year) but telling them to start a revolution was putting all of us internationals in danger. He was not receptive to any of my mild suggestions that he might want to rethink the words…. He wanted to get into a huge argument with me about it and how it follows all the educational theorist suggestions. I told him I wasn’t there to argue with him but he might want to investigate the difference between ESL and EFL and then I gave him a long list of linguist and educators in the field who would explain to him what an immersion school is all about. The entire conversation he kept threatening to quit. That he couldn’t work under these conditions After that experience, I couldn’t agree with the admin more that it was time for him to go.
So I went back to the office to see if Lana’s meeting was over and it wasn’t but the two rooms down stairs were finally open so I got to work on those projects and got stuck on more roadblocks…. Eventually I just went round and round between the projects and started making real head way. When Lana called me up to the office to finish the budget at which point I found out that they were going to fire L. I was asked if I would be willing to take over his classes until a replacement would be found. I said I was willing but that I would start working on it until it was official and they had told him. By the time we did all of that it was 4 pm and time to walk home.
On the way home we stopped at a bakery to buy fresh pita and then a little shop to by some hummus to eat for lunch. I am not actually fasting for Ramadan, but I feel akward eating at school while everyone else is fasting so by the time I got home I was weak from hunger. We sat around eating for a while before noticing the electricity was out. At first I figured it was just a power outage but after an hour it hadn’t come back on. I then remembered that the meter downstairs had been beeping for the past couple of days signaling it was time to go and pay the electric company some more money. I was too tired in every way to go so I asked/ begged Sean to go for me…. But we needed to gather some money for him to pay.
The school officially pays for our electricity but we have to pay it out of our pocket and then get reimbursed. After quickly checking with all the other teachers we realized as a house hold we had less than 200 NIS (50$) to live on for the next week. We needed to pay at least 100 NIS (25$) to get the power turned back on. Pathetically we just didn’t have it. So I called Lana and told her the problem. She told me she would send her taxi driver over with some money to pick Sean up to take him to the place to pay. He did that and came back and we waited and waited for it to come back on. But it didn’t. so I called lana who had no idea what to do. She asked me who I thought she should call and I told her Ola (our other boss, the head of academics) had helped me with problems like this before. So we called Ola who called the power company who said they would try to track down their electrician to come to the house. But since we don’t have address here only landmarks I needed to go and sit next to the pharmacy next door (the landmark) and wit for him, he would look for the adjanab (foreigner). Amazingly 15 minutes later he showed up and started working on the problem. The meter was broken.
An hour later the problem was fixed.
It is always something. The day before we didn’t have gas for the stove.
The day before that the front gate was broken. And so on and so forth.
I was exhausted and ready to go to bed at this point but it was only 7pm. My head was killing me so I took a nap only to be woken up by Maureen, (the sixty-seven year old teacher from South Africa) who wanted to know where something was.
I eventually got up a few minutes later to have to deal with the drama about L. He was causing problem and was trying to figure out where he was going to go next and how to get there. Etc…
It just never ends….
I got on line with my computer and closed the door to my room and turned the light off to hide…. Eventually I was tired enough to go to sleep so I turned off the light and then sat there for hours waiting to fall asleep.
There you have it, a day in the life of Maggie. Kinda boring… never the same…
Around 4:30 am I am woken up by the call to prayer. Some days it is pretty quick and some days it just goes on and on… I have been told that it takes exactly the same amount of time each day and that it is exactly on the same amount of loudness each day. But I strongly disagree. There are times that I look at my cell phone to see the time and know for a fact that it has gone on for an hour and other days that I know for a fact that it has only taken 10 minutes. Either way I go back to sleep until my alarm goes off around 8am. And then the first thing I do is hop on my computer to check to see if Lana, my boss, woke up in the middle of the night to send me emails with lists of things to do. And then I check face book and then scan the news quickly to see if the world has come to an end.
I am really lucky (or manipulative) and at this place not only do I have four walls (verse the curtain wall) and furniture in my room (verses the cardboard boxes I was using) but I also have my own very pink bathroom!!! The drains in the shower don’t work at all but since there is a drain in floor I take a shower using the hand held shower head in the middle of the bathroom. The same way I did it all over east Asia. The last week hasn’t been as hot so I some times take a warm or even hot shower. (no more complaints about the water being too hot (over the summer) or too cold (last spring)… Finally it is the perfect temperature. I then go back into my room to get dressed and pack up my computer to take with me into work. I make sure to eat a solid breakfast because there isn’t going to be anything else until 4 or 5 pm to eat during Ramadan. Usually we all set off to work together, Maureen, Tony, Jess and I. Both Sean and Lou have gone in earlier.
At work right now I am working on a variety of projects.
The sorting of the student’s text books needed to be finished but the room was locked and I didn’t know who or where the key was. Also I had gone to tel aviv to smuggle last box of books into the city but there were still other books missing.
Lana (my boss) had been to the British council and found out about a program that might be able to save the future of the school… away for us to get accredited through the british system. So she asked me to figure out a way to apply to their accrditation process and to call them and get the details. It was another project I was excited to do but the computer lab was locked and the only guy with the key to it was going to be at the kindergarten all day. And, the internet was semi-down and taking a very long time to load on my laptop. So I needed this was another project that hit a temporary dead end and I was off to work on another project.
I also needed to work on finishing the brochure for the community center I am trying to start. The hold up on this project were that I didn’t know which classes had been approved and the details of them. I figured it was okay since I could at least work on the layout for them…. But the computer I needed to use was in the locked computer lab. I have to use that particular one since it is the only one hooked up to the special printer we have to print them and if I work on it on my computer the alignment gets messed up since this is a mac and the school uses PCs. So I spent 15 minutes making traditional paper mock ups of what I wanted it to look like and put those in my bag for when Ahmad the computer teacher comes back and lets me in the lab. I don’t have where else to put stuff since I currently have no desk. During the summer I had a desk in the office because I was the director of the summer program. Once that was over the desk was moved out faster than I could believe. I am not a regular teacher so I don’t have a classroom and there isn’t a teachers office yet but even then, I don’t know that I will get a desk in there either since the community center doesn’t fall under any existing umbrellas. So for now I carry everything in a computer bag on my shoulder. During the day I usually find a student desk in a quiet room to work or I sit in the lobby in the admin office where the children who are sent to the principals office are sent to sit and wait.
Finally I decide to go to lana’s office (my boss) to see if she has any projects or has a clue to when the people with the keys to the different rooms are coming in.
She is hard at work on preparing a presentation for the board about the school budget. So we sit down and work out the community center budget. Half way through our meeting the school psychologist from the ministry of education comes in to have a meeting with Lana. So I am asked to finish the budget myself and they go to another office behind a locked door to have a meeting. Honestly 45 seconds after Lana steps out of the office her computer completely freezes so much so that even Control+alt+delete doesn’t work and I have to unplug it to get it to restart. Of course I don’t have Lana’s password to get back to the program and I don’t have the numbers to re write the presentation on a different computer. I try to go and knock on the door but Key Ahmad (as we call him) physically refrains from letting me knock. So I check the status on all the other tasks that I have started that morning to see if there is any progress to the roadblocks and nothing has quite materialized. The school secretary assures me that I should just wait a few more minutes… so while I wait to wonder over to another classrooms of one of the other teachers.
This teacher, L, has just arrived about two weeks before. He is a super experienced teacher from America. He has taught elementary school in the Berkley area for 20 years but Palestine isn’t California. And he is having a seriously hard time adjusting to everything. On demographics along he is the target candidate for having a melt down. He is 60, recently divorced and broke. Except for a couple to short trips to Europe on a tour he has never done any traveling or living outside of America. Life here is too different and hard for someone like him to survive much less thrive. I am not trying to be an agest but I have seen from my vast experience that people like him need routine and structure and things to work in just a certain way. None of the above exists in places like Palestine. Also at school the work of EFL, especially the world of teaching at an immersion school is so different than that of teaching at a school in America that anyone less than completely flexible will go crazy. We don’t have crayons or construction paper or zip lock bags. There are no sentence strips or pocket charts. If you want those you have to make them. There are no teacher supply stores. A stationary store has little beyond paper, notebooks and pencils.
Even the educational theories are different here. How ESL is taught in American classrooms seems archaic to an EFL teacher. International ESL teachers are the guinea pigs for every new theory.
Needless to say Lou was cracking and Lana was trying to decide to let him go or not. So I went to see what all the fuss was about. He had spent the last two weeks writing hundreds and hundreds of words, complex words on posters and hung them all over the room. The class that he was going to teach is smart but has one of the lowest levels of English in the school. They are still learning site words, not three syllable words. Plus there were no pictures or definitions or any context clues for the kids to identify these words. All they were going to see was a bunch of English on the walls and then ignore it. He also had a dozen political slogans written out and taped up all over the rooms. He is one of the teachers who actually knows what is going on here but doesn’t seem to understand the very very fine tightrope we are walking on here. Telling kids not to throw rocks is still very controversial. (that was my project last year) but telling them to start a revolution was putting all of us internationals in danger. He was not receptive to any of my mild suggestions that he might want to rethink the words…. He wanted to get into a huge argument with me about it and how it follows all the educational theorist suggestions. I told him I wasn’t there to argue with him but he might want to investigate the difference between ESL and EFL and then I gave him a long list of linguist and educators in the field who would explain to him what an immersion school is all about. The entire conversation he kept threatening to quit. That he couldn’t work under these conditions After that experience, I couldn’t agree with the admin more that it was time for him to go.
So I went back to the office to see if Lana’s meeting was over and it wasn’t but the two rooms down stairs were finally open so I got to work on those projects and got stuck on more roadblocks…. Eventually I just went round and round between the projects and started making real head way. When Lana called me up to the office to finish the budget at which point I found out that they were going to fire L. I was asked if I would be willing to take over his classes until a replacement would be found. I said I was willing but that I would start working on it until it was official and they had told him. By the time we did all of that it was 4 pm and time to walk home.
On the way home we stopped at a bakery to buy fresh pita and then a little shop to by some hummus to eat for lunch. I am not actually fasting for Ramadan, but I feel akward eating at school while everyone else is fasting so by the time I got home I was weak from hunger. We sat around eating for a while before noticing the electricity was out. At first I figured it was just a power outage but after an hour it hadn’t come back on. I then remembered that the meter downstairs had been beeping for the past couple of days signaling it was time to go and pay the electric company some more money. I was too tired in every way to go so I asked/ begged Sean to go for me…. But we needed to gather some money for him to pay.
The school officially pays for our electricity but we have to pay it out of our pocket and then get reimbursed. After quickly checking with all the other teachers we realized as a house hold we had less than 200 NIS (50$) to live on for the next week. We needed to pay at least 100 NIS (25$) to get the power turned back on. Pathetically we just didn’t have it. So I called Lana and told her the problem. She told me she would send her taxi driver over with some money to pick Sean up to take him to the place to pay. He did that and came back and we waited and waited for it to come back on. But it didn’t. so I called lana who had no idea what to do. She asked me who I thought she should call and I told her Ola (our other boss, the head of academics) had helped me with problems like this before. So we called Ola who called the power company who said they would try to track down their electrician to come to the house. But since we don’t have address here only landmarks I needed to go and sit next to the pharmacy next door (the landmark) and wit for him, he would look for the adjanab (foreigner). Amazingly 15 minutes later he showed up and started working on the problem. The meter was broken.
An hour later the problem was fixed.
It is always something. The day before we didn’t have gas for the stove.
The day before that the front gate was broken. And so on and so forth.
I was exhausted and ready to go to bed at this point but it was only 7pm. My head was killing me so I took a nap only to be woken up by Maureen, (the sixty-seven year old teacher from South Africa) who wanted to know where something was.
I eventually got up a few minutes later to have to deal with the drama about L. He was causing problem and was trying to figure out where he was going to go next and how to get there. Etc…
It just never ends….
I got on line with my computer and closed the door to my room and turned the light off to hide…. Eventually I was tired enough to go to sleep so I turned off the light and then sat there for hours waiting to fall asleep.
There you have it, a day in the life of Maggie. Kinda boring… never the same…
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
what i can HEAR outside my window....
Despite having five months under my belt here, I feel like such a veteran resident of Nablus at times. Really I know nothing but after the arrival of 10 new teachers over the summer and three new teachers now it is easy to convince myself that I know a lot more about life here than what I do, especially when it comes to noises we hear from outside the windows.
There is the normal street noises of cars and children playing but then there is a host of many other sounds.
One of the most obviously is the sound from the local mosque five times a day, "the call to prayer". It is almost sad in a way that as Americans our gut reaction to it is fear. None of us want to admit it but I can see it in every new teachers face as they ask about it, they are afraid of what it means or what it is. There are a lot of fear factors when coming to live in a place like Nablus. The Israeli's I met this summer in Tel Aviv told me "i had balls" for living in Nablus. The call to prayer for many is a strong symbol or calling of what makes Nablus scary. I personally find it to be the most opposite sound. It is the sound of church bells to me. I find it haunting in a way... the way that it lingers through the city... the way that the prayer from the different mosques mix with each other..... and the way that it reminds me that I need to pray myself. The prayers are different but as Catholics we also have the tradition of the liturgy of the hours and I have always wanted to pray these prayers... The call to prayer only intensifies my desire to pray the Liturgy of the hours.
The call to prayer usually ends up fading into the background so that I don't even notice it any more but during Ramadan they take on new meaning. The morning call at 4 am wakes people up, gets them to eat breakfast and to pray before returning to sleep for a few hours..
This summer while i was teaching Kindergarten during the noon prayer we would stop what ever it was we were doing and sit there in silence. The two and three year old's would sit there so calmly with their arms folded at the chest and listen for the five minutes or so. and then when it slowly stopped we would continue on. It was such a beautiful tradition.
The afternoon call to prayer is the only one that I ever have issues with because I usually am in a meeting at school or something and one of the Palestinian teachers will get up and go to pray.... also I usually have to go to the bathroom around this time of day and it is hard to get in because we all share a bathroom at school and before the teachers can pray they have to wash their faces, hands and feet. To do this they close and lock the bathroom door so that no one can get in. It has become at times quite the bone of contention.
The 7 0'clockish evening prayer has become extremely important now that it is Ramadan, because it means people can eat again!!! Right after the call the entire city becomes QUIET. Not a shop is open, a person on the street or a taxi driving. EVERYONE is home eating their meal. Yesterday as we were driving back from Tel Aviv, we got to the check point about five minutes after the call. We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to get into the city because of the yellow plates on the car. On the way out of the city earlier that afternoon they weren't going to let us out. The soldier questioned me and I told him "we were just visiting from Jerusalem. That we were part of an Italian tour group that had come in this morning to see Jacob's well and to go to church in Rafidia. We had gotten separated from the group earlier and had the bus with all the Italians and catholic priests come through yet???" The soldier told me that I was in a car that wasn't allowed to be in Nablus and I apologized profusely. I told him that no one mentioned that we weren't allowed in Shechem (the Hebrew name for the city) and asked what this Nablus place was... isn't it a dangerous place? He told me not to come back....
Four hours later when I did come back, I had to pray that the soldiers had changed duties and no one would notice us.
We didn't have a problem getting in and because of the time, there wasn't a soul except the Isreali soldiers anywhere near the checkpoint. I think they were too stunned to see a car at this time to even question what we were doing back.
The actual scary noises are the guns we hear at night after mid-night. I am starting to get better and better at telling the difference between fire works (which are very popular here) and gun fire. Because Bolata refugee camp isn't that far away we can easily hear the shoot outs that take place there after mid night between the residents and the Israeli soldiers who go in to make arrests.
However sometimes it is hard to tell the difference and there are points some times where it sounds so facinating and close by that you run to your windows to see if you can see anything only to realize that you can't see it and what a stupid idea it was to run to look.
Another scary noise that is very disruptive are the planes over head. They are Israeli military planes. Everyone always asks and I don't know exactly what they are doing but i know they are Military fighter jets. I do know that some times they fly so low that every thing shakes and you can't hear yourself thing. The planes usually (not always) fly in the mornings during english class time and can cause chaos in our classrooms when no one can hear anything. when ever I am outside and I hear them i look up, but can't ever see them.
Yesturday though, i heard a totally different kind of plane, this one was much slower and lower than the other ones we hear.... It sounded more like a commercial jet but I know there is no way it was.
More recently I have been hearing soldiers marching up and down the main street. One night i heard what sounded like hundreds of Fatah soldiers right in front of my house. When I looked out the window that is exactly what it was. My neighbor who knows many people in power had a very famous someone at his house and the soldiers where there as protection. But usually I can hear them marching up and down the streets I guess drumming up support for Fatah.
There are many animal sounds.. Just a few seconds ago and every night around this time there is a donkey and his master that walk down the street. The donkey very loudly complains the whole way.
My next door neighbor has chickens and roosters that are very boisterous. I have been to their garden and know they only have a few of them however.... every afternoon there is one chicken and squacks like it is about to be killed. This is a sound I know all to well from living in China and eating at restaurants where you pick out the animal you want for dinner from the cage outside and then get to listen to it die. thus ensuring that the meat is as fresh as possible. It was only recently that I realized that they weren't actually killing a chicken a day but that one of their chickens is a cry baby.
We also have a cat issue. Cats in the middle east are like rats in New York City. They are everywhere and are not to be taken in as pets. I don't know how they live and survive but they do and are not starving at all. I have seen the neighbors take scraps of food out for them. And when ever i put trash in the dumpster there are usually several cats that jump out at you. So i know they have food. However, at night they like to cry and fight. I am lucky that my window faces the front and is higher up than my housemates. But I too have been kept up all night by these fights.
From my window I usually am kept up by the neighbors. There is a lovely family who has a court yard/ garden right under my window. Extended families live here together on compound type houses. My house belongs to the brother of my neighbor but because of a feud there is brick wall that separates the entrances. They have about 6 children in the family that play in the courtyard usually until about 1 or 2 in the morning. Right now because of Ramadan people seem to be going to bed earlier because they have to get up for prayers at 4 and eat breakfast then so for now the family seems to go in around 10. It took me a while to figure out what all the squeaks and bells and sounds from down there were. I finally did figure it out when I went down there for tea one night and saw all the bicycles and swings and toys.
They for the most part are pleasant sounds and some not but they all take a lot of explaining to the new teachers who seem to have mini heart attacks at each sound.
There is the normal street noises of cars and children playing but then there is a host of many other sounds.
One of the most obviously is the sound from the local mosque five times a day, "the call to prayer". It is almost sad in a way that as Americans our gut reaction to it is fear. None of us want to admit it but I can see it in every new teachers face as they ask about it, they are afraid of what it means or what it is. There are a lot of fear factors when coming to live in a place like Nablus. The Israeli's I met this summer in Tel Aviv told me "i had balls" for living in Nablus. The call to prayer for many is a strong symbol or calling of what makes Nablus scary. I personally find it to be the most opposite sound. It is the sound of church bells to me. I find it haunting in a way... the way that it lingers through the city... the way that the prayer from the different mosques mix with each other..... and the way that it reminds me that I need to pray myself. The prayers are different but as Catholics we also have the tradition of the liturgy of the hours and I have always wanted to pray these prayers... The call to prayer only intensifies my desire to pray the Liturgy of the hours.
The call to prayer usually ends up fading into the background so that I don't even notice it any more but during Ramadan they take on new meaning. The morning call at 4 am wakes people up, gets them to eat breakfast and to pray before returning to sleep for a few hours..
This summer while i was teaching Kindergarten during the noon prayer we would stop what ever it was we were doing and sit there in silence. The two and three year old's would sit there so calmly with their arms folded at the chest and listen for the five minutes or so. and then when it slowly stopped we would continue on. It was such a beautiful tradition.
The afternoon call to prayer is the only one that I ever have issues with because I usually am in a meeting at school or something and one of the Palestinian teachers will get up and go to pray.... also I usually have to go to the bathroom around this time of day and it is hard to get in because we all share a bathroom at school and before the teachers can pray they have to wash their faces, hands and feet. To do this they close and lock the bathroom door so that no one can get in. It has become at times quite the bone of contention.
The 7 0'clockish evening prayer has become extremely important now that it is Ramadan, because it means people can eat again!!! Right after the call the entire city becomes QUIET. Not a shop is open, a person on the street or a taxi driving. EVERYONE is home eating their meal. Yesterday as we were driving back from Tel Aviv, we got to the check point about five minutes after the call. We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to get into the city because of the yellow plates on the car. On the way out of the city earlier that afternoon they weren't going to let us out. The soldier questioned me and I told him "we were just visiting from Jerusalem. That we were part of an Italian tour group that had come in this morning to see Jacob's well and to go to church in Rafidia. We had gotten separated from the group earlier and had the bus with all the Italians and catholic priests come through yet???" The soldier told me that I was in a car that wasn't allowed to be in Nablus and I apologized profusely. I told him that no one mentioned that we weren't allowed in Shechem (the Hebrew name for the city) and asked what this Nablus place was... isn't it a dangerous place? He told me not to come back....
Four hours later when I did come back, I had to pray that the soldiers had changed duties and no one would notice us.
We didn't have a problem getting in and because of the time, there wasn't a soul except the Isreali soldiers anywhere near the checkpoint. I think they were too stunned to see a car at this time to even question what we were doing back.
The actual scary noises are the guns we hear at night after mid-night. I am starting to get better and better at telling the difference between fire works (which are very popular here) and gun fire. Because Bolata refugee camp isn't that far away we can easily hear the shoot outs that take place there after mid night between the residents and the Israeli soldiers who go in to make arrests.
However sometimes it is hard to tell the difference and there are points some times where it sounds so facinating and close by that you run to your windows to see if you can see anything only to realize that you can't see it and what a stupid idea it was to run to look.
Another scary noise that is very disruptive are the planes over head. They are Israeli military planes. Everyone always asks and I don't know exactly what they are doing but i know they are Military fighter jets. I do know that some times they fly so low that every thing shakes and you can't hear yourself thing. The planes usually (not always) fly in the mornings during english class time and can cause chaos in our classrooms when no one can hear anything. when ever I am outside and I hear them i look up, but can't ever see them.
Yesturday though, i heard a totally different kind of plane, this one was much slower and lower than the other ones we hear.... It sounded more like a commercial jet but I know there is no way it was.
More recently I have been hearing soldiers marching up and down the main street. One night i heard what sounded like hundreds of Fatah soldiers right in front of my house. When I looked out the window that is exactly what it was. My neighbor who knows many people in power had a very famous someone at his house and the soldiers where there as protection. But usually I can hear them marching up and down the streets I guess drumming up support for Fatah.
There are many animal sounds.. Just a few seconds ago and every night around this time there is a donkey and his master that walk down the street. The donkey very loudly complains the whole way.
My next door neighbor has chickens and roosters that are very boisterous. I have been to their garden and know they only have a few of them however.... every afternoon there is one chicken and squacks like it is about to be killed. This is a sound I know all to well from living in China and eating at restaurants where you pick out the animal you want for dinner from the cage outside and then get to listen to it die. thus ensuring that the meat is as fresh as possible. It was only recently that I realized that they weren't actually killing a chicken a day but that one of their chickens is a cry baby.
We also have a cat issue. Cats in the middle east are like rats in New York City. They are everywhere and are not to be taken in as pets. I don't know how they live and survive but they do and are not starving at all. I have seen the neighbors take scraps of food out for them. And when ever i put trash in the dumpster there are usually several cats that jump out at you. So i know they have food. However, at night they like to cry and fight. I am lucky that my window faces the front and is higher up than my housemates. But I too have been kept up all night by these fights.
From my window I usually am kept up by the neighbors. There is a lovely family who has a court yard/ garden right under my window. Extended families live here together on compound type houses. My house belongs to the brother of my neighbor but because of a feud there is brick wall that separates the entrances. They have about 6 children in the family that play in the courtyard usually until about 1 or 2 in the morning. Right now because of Ramadan people seem to be going to bed earlier because they have to get up for prayers at 4 and eat breakfast then so for now the family seems to go in around 10. It took me a while to figure out what all the squeaks and bells and sounds from down there were. I finally did figure it out when I went down there for tea one night and saw all the bicycles and swings and toys.
They for the most part are pleasant sounds and some not but they all take a lot of explaining to the new teachers who seem to have mini heart attacks at each sound.
Monday, August 24, 2009
my vacation to Egypt according to Facebook
here it is the story of my trip to jordan and egypt
you might want to start reading from the end of the post to the beginning. otherwise you will be reading from the end of my vacation to the beginning of it.
Maggie Dobbins should have taken the guard up on his offer, she has been sitting in the sun in line at Isreali immigration for three hours.
Maggie Dobbins is tempted to take the eygptian border guard up on his offer to stay there with him forever. Egypt seems to be full of men offering her or stephanie (mostly stephanie) a life of happiness with them in Egypt.. tempting.
Maggie Dobbins can't sleep for the third night in a row. Maybe it is the german family and their drum circle, maybe it is the heat and flies, maybe it is the horrible sunburn all over her backside, or maybe it is the fear that the squid she tried for dinner won't stay down.
Maggie Dobbins went on a city wide search for a popcycle. They have all kinds of amazing ice cream bars but that is not what she is looking for. Eventually she found something that passed but wasn't actually all that good.
Maggie Dobbins had an amazing day snorkeling and now has a very sun burned butt..
Maggie Dobbins got up early to go snorkeling at the world famous "blue hole" ... had to take a jeep there, pasted a zillion camels, a few police checkpoints and amazing views of Bedouin shacks on the beach.. maybe i am really called to be a bedouin.
Maggie Dobbins loves vacation and knows her true calling is to be a bum who just travels around the middle east and africa.... and by the way Saudi Arabia is still there taunting me..
Maggie Dobbins thinks this new room sucks, I need an AC.... it hurts to sleep on my sunburned back, and on both sides that are all cut up from the coral, and on my stomach full of cramps.
Maggie Dobbins is sitting on the roof top restaurant enjoying the view of Saudi, the red sea, and the Egyptian desert and then she realizes how afraid of heights she is and is too paralyzed with fear to climb down from the roof.
Maggie Dobbins sliced up her butt pretty badly trying to climb out of the water over the dead but prickly coral.
Maggie Dobbins pops her head up from time to time to make sure egypt and saudi arabia are still there.
Maggie Dobbins saw a huge two foot fish who let her swim so close she could hear the "crunch crunch" as they ate away at the coral.
Maggie Dobbins snapped her head up from the water as the call to prayer started and wondered what is proper snorkeling etiquette for prayer time.
Maggie Dobbins can't believe she is in eygpt in july with no A/C in her newly downgraded hut.
Maggie Dobbins went back to her guest house and asked to be down graded from the nicest room to the crappiest room... but she will save 14$ a night, well worth it, now she can buy dinner.
Maggie Dobbins doesn't understand why everyone thinks stephanie is her daughter.
Maggie Dobbins hears a very faint call to prayer... she can't believe she didn't wake up to it the night before.. and by the way people here are dressed way to haram!!
Maggie Dobbins is still sitting here staring at saudi arabia.... saudi arabia... a huge part of her wants to go and see what all the fuss is about.
Maggie Dobbins is sitting in paradise and staring out at the red sea and saudi arabia. there is something just so haram about it..
Maggie Dobbins is hanging out with the Australian guy who she met several days before on a bus in Israel and is tell him all about palestine. And is shocked to hear who crazy it is there. She some how forgot that life there can be quite oppressive
Maggie Dobbins finally found a good shower with plenty of water pressure and very cold water... she is finally very happy but eeeks it is salt water..
aggie Dobbins slept for 12 hours thinks to air conditioning but is sad to discover she can't actually afford to stay in this room and will have to down grade to a room with a fan..
Maggie Dobbins is horrified at herself for loving this touristy town of Dahab. The restaurants on the beach are her idea of heaven. If only she could eat something.. this diet of bread and water is going to save me a lot of money.
maggie Dobbins is starting to think Meirav was right that the Red Sea coast of Sinai might not be as safe as I thought because of the number of checkpoints.
Maggie Dobbins is blown away by the number of police checkpoints and the number of times she has to pull out her passport in Egypt.... this is making the journey from nablus to jerusalem look easy and uneventful
Maggie Dobbins is now sitting on a very old egyptain bus with broken seats, very closed red velvet curtains for another four hours trying to peak out to the red sea..
Maggie Dobbins is now sitting for fours hours in an Egyptian dirt parking lot in front of a tea stand drinking tea waiting for the bus in the heat of the afternoon, melting... but saving money this way..
Maggie Dobbins wonders why this Israeli immigration person has to be so rude. So far everyone at every other border has been so nice.. This one is yelling at me to come to the counter when there are about 27 suitcases and 10 Indian women standing in the way..
Maggie Dobbins is now leaving jordan ( sad), re-entering Israel and is taking a 30 minute taxi ride to the egyptian border and leaving Israel again. this may be a record shortest stay in Israel ever. It very much confuses immigration and gets her several more stamps in her very full passport
Maggie Dobbins thinks petra is still one of the most amazing places ever right up there with Angor Watts and Glacier National park even though she is exhausted and wants to sleep for a million years.
Maggie Dobbins made it down from the mountain unharmed and now has a three mile trek up hill in the desert sun in july to get to the taxis.
Maggie Dobbins is just as good of a pill pusher up here on top of the mountain as she is in regular life offering advil to those in pain.
Maggie Dobbins Maggie just hiked/ climbed up a huge mountain to see one of the world's most amazing sights and is blown away by it only to realize that she doesn't think she can get down the slippery sand covered cliffs she just got up.
Maggie Dobbins almost laughs her butt off at the sight of a vindictive 3 year old's near success at killing stephanie with a donkey and a rope.
Maggie Dobbins is pleasantly watching a three year old dance on a the back of a donkey..
Maggie Dobbins wants to stay put and live in one of these caves here on the mountain side... forget getting to the top.
Maggie Dobbins thinks she might die... she forgot her inhaler at the guest house.
Maggie Dobbins is climbing a mountain
Maggie Dobbins and stephanie are now befriended by Jordanian and Egyptian men and wishes Lacey was here to help translate their "Egyptian Dialect"
Maggie Dobbins is happy her students don't know how to make sling shots but is now taking lessons herself.
Maggie Dobbins is learning to use a sling shot.. watch out Goliath!!!
Maggie Dobbins and Stephanie go and hide from the sun in a cave but are instead befriended by bedouin children.
Maggie Dobbins can't find the Holy Grail
Maggie Dobbins is sad sad sad she forgot her indiana jones hat and whip at home
Maggie Dobbins is amazed by petra
maggie Dobbins wonders how long it will take not to want to hit the deck, she hears fireworks go off.
Maggie Dobbins is happily aware that she is no longer in a war zone.. Jordan is a peaceful place where fireworks are just that, not gun fire.
Maggie Dobbins is in jordan..
Maggie Dobbins heard the best use of Inshallah ever, when asking if a room was costs 10 dinar at the hotel the manager said, "inshallah"
Maggie Dobbins understands why Dylan's students speak the way they do, when he makes random proclamations, " This is my pen, this is definitely my pen". Now i understand what Nidal meant when he stated " School is nine, miss maggie, no workbook"
Maggie Dobbins is overwhelmed by her instinctual strong dislike of the desert..
Maggie Dobbins is on a strange doctor mandated diet for two weeks to fight my intestinal infection: only highly processed foods with no fiber. The only thing maggie could find that the rest stop outside the dead sea to buy were oreos... how strange
maggie Dobbins is a very noisy girl, in case you didn't know and is covertly reading over the shoulder the letter an Israeli soldier got from an American School girl thanking him for his service defending our countries from the Palestinian terrorists..
Maggie Dobbins is very very hot...
Maggie Dobbins got a message on her cell phone from the server saying " Jawwal wishes you a pleasent stay in SAUDI ARABIA". How did that happen?????
Maggie Dobbins can't decide which is more haram: mike the canadian Muslim teacher/ Palestinian activist sitting next to and IDF soldier or next to an unmarried woman for the five hour bus journey to eilot,..
Maggie Dobbins is overwhelmed and outraged ever time she goes to the promise land and has to buy food. Four shekels for one begal seems like a rip off when you can get a whole kilo of pita for the same price
Maggie Dobbins wondered who knew 5 people and 9 suitcases could fit into a small european bmw. The Isreali soldiers didn't even question the fictitious story we used to get through checkpoints with our illegal car... however the Palestinian soldiers that pulled us over weren't going for it.
you might want to start reading from the end of the post to the beginning. otherwise you will be reading from the end of my vacation to the beginning of it.
Maggie Dobbins should have taken the guard up on his offer, she has been sitting in the sun in line at Isreali immigration for three hours.
Maggie Dobbins is tempted to take the eygptian border guard up on his offer to stay there with him forever. Egypt seems to be full of men offering her or stephanie (mostly stephanie) a life of happiness with them in Egypt.. tempting.
Maggie Dobbins can't sleep for the third night in a row. Maybe it is the german family and their drum circle, maybe it is the heat and flies, maybe it is the horrible sunburn all over her backside, or maybe it is the fear that the squid she tried for dinner won't stay down.
Maggie Dobbins went on a city wide search for a popcycle. They have all kinds of amazing ice cream bars but that is not what she is looking for. Eventually she found something that passed but wasn't actually all that good.
Maggie Dobbins had an amazing day snorkeling and now has a very sun burned butt..
Maggie Dobbins got up early to go snorkeling at the world famous "blue hole" ... had to take a jeep there, pasted a zillion camels, a few police checkpoints and amazing views of Bedouin shacks on the beach.. maybe i am really called to be a bedouin.
Maggie Dobbins loves vacation and knows her true calling is to be a bum who just travels around the middle east and africa.... and by the way Saudi Arabia is still there taunting me..
Maggie Dobbins thinks this new room sucks, I need an AC.... it hurts to sleep on my sunburned back, and on both sides that are all cut up from the coral, and on my stomach full of cramps.
Maggie Dobbins is sitting on the roof top restaurant enjoying the view of Saudi, the red sea, and the Egyptian desert and then she realizes how afraid of heights she is and is too paralyzed with fear to climb down from the roof.
Maggie Dobbins sliced up her butt pretty badly trying to climb out of the water over the dead but prickly coral.
Maggie Dobbins pops her head up from time to time to make sure egypt and saudi arabia are still there.
Maggie Dobbins saw a huge two foot fish who let her swim so close she could hear the "crunch crunch" as they ate away at the coral.
Maggie Dobbins snapped her head up from the water as the call to prayer started and wondered what is proper snorkeling etiquette for prayer time.
Maggie Dobbins can't believe she is in eygpt in july with no A/C in her newly downgraded hut.
Maggie Dobbins went back to her guest house and asked to be down graded from the nicest room to the crappiest room... but she will save 14$ a night, well worth it, now she can buy dinner.
Maggie Dobbins doesn't understand why everyone thinks stephanie is her daughter.
Maggie Dobbins hears a very faint call to prayer... she can't believe she didn't wake up to it the night before.. and by the way people here are dressed way to haram!!
Maggie Dobbins is still sitting here staring at saudi arabia.... saudi arabia... a huge part of her wants to go and see what all the fuss is about.
Maggie Dobbins is sitting in paradise and staring out at the red sea and saudi arabia. there is something just so haram about it..
Maggie Dobbins is hanging out with the Australian guy who she met several days before on a bus in Israel and is tell him all about palestine. And is shocked to hear who crazy it is there. She some how forgot that life there can be quite oppressive
Maggie Dobbins finally found a good shower with plenty of water pressure and very cold water... she is finally very happy but eeeks it is salt water..
aggie Dobbins slept for 12 hours thinks to air conditioning but is sad to discover she can't actually afford to stay in this room and will have to down grade to a room with a fan..
Maggie Dobbins is horrified at herself for loving this touristy town of Dahab. The restaurants on the beach are her idea of heaven. If only she could eat something.. this diet of bread and water is going to save me a lot of money.
maggie Dobbins is starting to think Meirav was right that the Red Sea coast of Sinai might not be as safe as I thought because of the number of checkpoints.
Maggie Dobbins is blown away by the number of police checkpoints and the number of times she has to pull out her passport in Egypt.... this is making the journey from nablus to jerusalem look easy and uneventful
Maggie Dobbins is now sitting on a very old egyptain bus with broken seats, very closed red velvet curtains for another four hours trying to peak out to the red sea..
Maggie Dobbins is now sitting for fours hours in an Egyptian dirt parking lot in front of a tea stand drinking tea waiting for the bus in the heat of the afternoon, melting... but saving money this way..
Maggie Dobbins wonders why this Israeli immigration person has to be so rude. So far everyone at every other border has been so nice.. This one is yelling at me to come to the counter when there are about 27 suitcases and 10 Indian women standing in the way..
Maggie Dobbins is now leaving jordan ( sad), re-entering Israel and is taking a 30 minute taxi ride to the egyptian border and leaving Israel again. this may be a record shortest stay in Israel ever. It very much confuses immigration and gets her several more stamps in her very full passport
Maggie Dobbins thinks petra is still one of the most amazing places ever right up there with Angor Watts and Glacier National park even though she is exhausted and wants to sleep for a million years.
Maggie Dobbins made it down from the mountain unharmed and now has a three mile trek up hill in the desert sun in july to get to the taxis.
Maggie Dobbins is just as good of a pill pusher up here on top of the mountain as she is in regular life offering advil to those in pain.
Maggie Dobbins Maggie just hiked/ climbed up a huge mountain to see one of the world's most amazing sights and is blown away by it only to realize that she doesn't think she can get down the slippery sand covered cliffs she just got up.
Maggie Dobbins almost laughs her butt off at the sight of a vindictive 3 year old's near success at killing stephanie with a donkey and a rope.
Maggie Dobbins is pleasantly watching a three year old dance on a the back of a donkey..
Maggie Dobbins wants to stay put and live in one of these caves here on the mountain side... forget getting to the top.
Maggie Dobbins thinks she might die... she forgot her inhaler at the guest house.
Maggie Dobbins is climbing a mountain
Maggie Dobbins and stephanie are now befriended by Jordanian and Egyptian men and wishes Lacey was here to help translate their "Egyptian Dialect"
Maggie Dobbins is happy her students don't know how to make sling shots but is now taking lessons herself.
Maggie Dobbins is learning to use a sling shot.. watch out Goliath!!!
Maggie Dobbins and Stephanie go and hide from the sun in a cave but are instead befriended by bedouin children.
Maggie Dobbins can't find the Holy Grail
Maggie Dobbins is sad sad sad she forgot her indiana jones hat and whip at home
Maggie Dobbins is amazed by petra
maggie Dobbins wonders how long it will take not to want to hit the deck, she hears fireworks go off.
Maggie Dobbins is happily aware that she is no longer in a war zone.. Jordan is a peaceful place where fireworks are just that, not gun fire.
Maggie Dobbins is in jordan..
Maggie Dobbins heard the best use of Inshallah ever, when asking if a room was costs 10 dinar at the hotel the manager said, "inshallah"
Maggie Dobbins understands why Dylan's students speak the way they do, when he makes random proclamations, " This is my pen, this is definitely my pen". Now i understand what Nidal meant when he stated " School is nine, miss maggie, no workbook"
Maggie Dobbins is overwhelmed by her instinctual strong dislike of the desert..
Maggie Dobbins is on a strange doctor mandated diet for two weeks to fight my intestinal infection: only highly processed foods with no fiber. The only thing maggie could find that the rest stop outside the dead sea to buy were oreos... how strange
maggie Dobbins is a very noisy girl, in case you didn't know and is covertly reading over the shoulder the letter an Israeli soldier got from an American School girl thanking him for his service defending our countries from the Palestinian terrorists..
Maggie Dobbins is very very hot...
Maggie Dobbins got a message on her cell phone from the server saying " Jawwal wishes you a pleasent stay in SAUDI ARABIA". How did that happen?????
Maggie Dobbins can't decide which is more haram: mike the canadian Muslim teacher/ Palestinian activist sitting next to and IDF soldier or next to an unmarried woman for the five hour bus journey to eilot,..
Maggie Dobbins is overwhelmed and outraged ever time she goes to the promise land and has to buy food. Four shekels for one begal seems like a rip off when you can get a whole kilo of pita for the same price
Maggie Dobbins wondered who knew 5 people and 9 suitcases could fit into a small european bmw. The Isreali soldiers didn't even question the fictitious story we used to get through checkpoints with our illegal car... however the Palestinian soldiers that pulled us over weren't going for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)