Finally Edition

At last!

This will be my last entry while standing on this rock called Qatar.  We are holding our breath each day, waiting for the next shot across our bow.  I’ve been called in twice and yelled at just to make sure I still know who is in charge. All I got from that was I still know who is crazy!  I got told that I had no right to share grades with my students.  That they would be given grades on the last day of school and not before – so much for transparency and reflection!  I was also told that I had no right to tell them anything about next year – the students have no right to ask questions that don’t concern them like who their teacher might be next year.  The statement that caused me to bite my cheek was, “there are too many questions being asked and no learning happening in the class.” The director told me that she “will” make changes just so they don’t know and “she” will tell them when they walk back in next year.  Wow!  Who’d of thought?  Got a letter from the principle yesterday saying that all my comments were wrong and I needed to retype them – strange since they had already been approved by the HOD and MYP coordinator – just another show of authority.  During the last reporting period, my comments were used as an example of how they “should” be written.  However, only 5 more days of bi-polar education left.

We still haven’t been paid and that has been a stress for the past few days.  It will get to a point that we can’t get our money out of the country before we leave.  They limit the amount we can send out each day and we are restricted on how much cash we can carry.  The school is still telling us it is so that we don’t run away – just another control game, because they still are holding our passports and have not issued exit visas.  We are supposed to close our bank accounts before we leave, but will not be able to get our money out – we just get the shoulder shrug when we ask.

Shippers come tomorrow after school, so that will be one more thing off the worry list.  We have a little more than we thought, but still less than half of what we brought.  We have been taking stuff to school every day to give to the workers – amazing how much happiness that brings to them. 

It sounds like we have some HOT weather on the way.  Dust storms in Central Saudi Arabia are having temperatures in the 60’s (140+ F) and the storms should be here later this week, time to go!

5 more days - 6 and we will be home.

Lesson of the Week: Can’t fix stupid.

Love you all,

Doug and Missie

Less than 2 weeks to go!!!!

Wow,

Fourteen more days and we can be free.  We no longer have access to a car, so we are reliant on the good will of friends.  I guess it is a good thing – I finally got my first speeding ticket on a trip to the store last week – it was a fair ticket, so I can’t really complain (other than the cost of $137.)  The frustrating thing was that it was my last week of driving and I had made it unscathed for almost two years – but still better than most.

Grades are done and reports are in – bad thing is that the kids know it.  With two weeks of school left, it is going to be a struggle to keep any resemblance of order in the classroom.  Then again, we are just as fried as they are and I foresee games and movies as a core platform to the educational experience for the last 9½ days.

Shippers should be here on the 23^rd and our stuff should beat us home by a day.  Not much to ship home, but just too expensive to check extra bags.  We are actually bringing back about 300 lbs. less than we came with, so I guess that is good.  Each time we do this, we realize how much we can live without.

For those of you that follow news in the Middle East, you might have seen the recent discussions about the slavery in Qatar and how several of the watch groups are now bringing it to the world’s attention.  Hopefully the 2022 World Cup will force Qatar into accountability with the rest of the world.  Here is a News Special about the issue – some of the statistics were very interesting to me, especially the number of citizens vs. the number of workers.  A simple slow down will cripple this country – and the workers are already discussing it.  

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/06/201261472812737158.html

We are well compensated, but we have been victims of this “sponsorship” system they have here.  Being prisoners unless your sponsor says you can have an exit visa, no rights when they change contracts, and the constant fear that they can have you deported and take your earnings.

Back in AZ on June 29^th at 5:10 PM – can’t wait!!!

Lesson of the Week: Money is the true corruptor of the world.

Love you all,

Doug and Missie

Fire and Dust

Howdy,

Down to the last few enjoyable weeks in Qatar.  I’ve mentioned over the past couple years about the beautiful dust storms we get here that last for weeks – well, they blew back in on Thursday and are expected to last the week.  Constant winds at 50 to 70 mph and difficult to breath even inside with all the dust.  We cleaned Friday for several hours and today, can’t tell the difference – dust covering everything.  I tossed in a couple videos from our trip to the grocery store this morning - right up to the door of our abode.

Last week was a sad week in Qatar.  There was a fire in Villagio Mall in Doha that killed 21 people.  Almost all of the victims were expats – 13 of them children in the nursery.  Two families lost three children each – one was a set of triplets from New Zealand.  http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/qatar/qatar-studies-smoke-pockets-in-deadly-mall-fire-1.1030510

The blame game has started, but we all know that it will get swept under the carpet and people will get paid off to keep quiet.  The Minister of the Interior issue a “warning” to media by ordering anyone arrested that spread rumors.  The arrest warrants went out before the building was safe to enter – blame someone first before a finger gets pointed at me.  All of the construction in Qatar is the same – disaster waiting to happen.  I wonder if this will catch the eye of the 2022 World Cup Committee???

School!  Hmmmm???? Well, we just have to laugh each day to make it through.  We are now prisoners.  They took our Passports, Resident Permits, Visas, School ID Cards, Parking Permits, and Insurance cards, so basically we are incapable of conducting any type of business.  That should be a challenge next week when we are trying to ship things home.  We should get ALL of our final pay on the 15^th, so they say it is to keep us from running away.  Such trust!!!  They will be keeping about $1000 each from our pay – they can’t show us the policy, but they say they can keep it if we don’t turn in all our paperwork (and they have made that threat multiple times.)  They will give us a checkout list on the 27^th and we fly out on the 29^th – nothing like last minute.  Our half-day on the 28^th has been cancelled – no reason given, just cause!

Spent the weekend packing and sorting.  We think we should be able to keep the shipping to less than 250 lbs.  I think it is pretty good since we shipped 500 lbs. and were able to bring 4 - 70 lbs. bags here on the plane.  We can only bring 1 - 50 lbs. bag + carry-on home with out running up some huge costs.  As usual, we will be giving a lot of stuff to the workers at school.  Just can’t see selling it for a few bucks when it means so much to them.

Lesson of the Week: We have a choice – many others don’t.

Love you all,

Doug and Missie