So today was new student orientation and meet the teacher day at the school(s). We are not new students, of course, but we needed to be there for that meeting to introduce the PTA, so we were. In total, I think there were maybe 12 new students attending, if I'm being a generous estimator, though I know there are at least that many new students in our compound alone, not to mention those in other compounds. So...not well attended. But, on the plus side, at least there was orientation at all this year, so there's that! So many, many baby steps.
Then we were off to meet J's new second grade teacher, Miss S (we do first names here--it weirds all the newbies out and is a good barometer for me for how flexible the new folks are). Miss S commented on the first name business but didn't insist the kids call her something else, so that's a middle of the road reaction. We'll see what she does next. She did manage to make J and his classmate L laugh while chatting with them, so that was a point in her favor. She did seem to know her way around a classroom, so I'm waiting with guarded optimism to see what shakes out for him this year. Her classroom wasn't put together at all and was quite depressing, actually, but it's entirely possible she arrived here two days ago and is still sleep-deprived and doesn't have all her "stuff" together. I'm concerned because I've had some deep reservations about this year for J, mainly having to do with his class grouping. Until now, the school has kept the Western expat kids together, a deplorable strategy in terms of inclusiveness and diversity BUT a hugely successful strategy for a child like mine, who loves rules and can't abide rule-breakers, since the other classes were filled with children for whom rules are a brand new invention. This year, however, I guess they have decided to break up the band and scatter the Westerners throughout the four classes, a move I support in theory, but I will be interested to see how it works out in practice. Fingers crossed!
After meeting with J's teacher and seeing some old friends, we headed over to E's new campus to meet his new teacher, Ms M. Don't even get me started about how far away his new campus is--the school facilities themselves are ADORABLE, but the school is located in the middle of nowhere (and that's really saying something for Doha!) so it's a trek and a half to get there. But off we pushed with a new girl E's age who moved into our compound over the summer and her mother. And there we met E's new teacher and if I am meh about J's teacher, I am beyond thrilled about E's. She actually came to us from the school we were trying to switch E into last year, and she was all sorts of welcoming and engaging and interested and interesting and it was the kind of teacher meeting you hope for. Plus her classroom was all sorts of bright and fun and playful and looks like the kind of place where E will be very happy. She also said, when I introduced myself, "Oh, everyone said I was so lucky because I had the PTA president's child in my class!" so points for remembering that and more points for saying it. I think we'll get along just fine!
And it was a good thing that that meeting went well because quite a few of my impromptu meetings with parents on the way out went less well. Apparently, everyone was waiting around for a PTA to form so they could complain to someone instead of taking their concerns to the admin directly. Yaaayyy...sigh. The current set of problems revolve around transportation and since I figured it out for my compound and am now in charge of the PTA, everyone thinks I should do the same for them. Umm, no, that's not actually my job. It's your job to rally the parents near you and work it out. I'm happy to share our information and contacts, but the legwork is your responsibility, not mine, and not the PTA's. I think I had to say that about 20 times today, making enemies every single time, no matter how much I sugar-coated it. Double sigh.
And THEN, as we were on our way home, the car AC went out completely. This is a DIRE event in the heat of summer. We had had this happen once before and we took the car in promptly, but they couldn't find the problem and then it started working, so they told us to bring it right in if it happened again. But I had the boys in the car with me, plus I was leading the new family back in their car to our compound, so I pulled over, told them what had happened and was getting ready to give them directions to the houses when they volunteered to take the boys in their car, follow me to the Honda repair place, and then take us all back home. Which was INCREDIBLY nice of them, and completely necessary since the boys' cheeks were already flushed and E was crying about the heat, so we shuffled them off to their nice, cool car, I rolled down my windows in a futile attempt to convince myself it wasn't boiling in the car, and off we went. Did I mention the school is really, really far away from everything? Well, it turns out it is as far away from the industrial area where the car repair shop is as anything can be and still be in the same town. By the time we got there, I was dripping in sweat, sitting in a pool of sweat, and brushing the sweat out of my eyes so I could see. On the way home, the wife insisted I sit in the front seat because "look at you; you need the AC!"
Eventually we all made it back, from our very long, very trying day. I'm ready for school to start so we can just get on with things--hopefully in a car with a functional AC!
Then we were off to meet J's new second grade teacher, Miss S (we do first names here--it weirds all the newbies out and is a good barometer for me for how flexible the new folks are). Miss S commented on the first name business but didn't insist the kids call her something else, so that's a middle of the road reaction. We'll see what she does next. She did manage to make J and his classmate L laugh while chatting with them, so that was a point in her favor. She did seem to know her way around a classroom, so I'm waiting with guarded optimism to see what shakes out for him this year. Her classroom wasn't put together at all and was quite depressing, actually, but it's entirely possible she arrived here two days ago and is still sleep-deprived and doesn't have all her "stuff" together. I'm concerned because I've had some deep reservations about this year for J, mainly having to do with his class grouping. Until now, the school has kept the Western expat kids together, a deplorable strategy in terms of inclusiveness and diversity BUT a hugely successful strategy for a child like mine, who loves rules and can't abide rule-breakers, since the other classes were filled with children for whom rules are a brand new invention. This year, however, I guess they have decided to break up the band and scatter the Westerners throughout the four classes, a move I support in theory, but I will be interested to see how it works out in practice. Fingers crossed!
After meeting with J's teacher and seeing some old friends, we headed over to E's new campus to meet his new teacher, Ms M. Don't even get me started about how far away his new campus is--the school facilities themselves are ADORABLE, but the school is located in the middle of nowhere (and that's really saying something for Doha!) so it's a trek and a half to get there. But off we pushed with a new girl E's age who moved into our compound over the summer and her mother. And there we met E's new teacher and if I am meh about J's teacher, I am beyond thrilled about E's. She actually came to us from the school we were trying to switch E into last year, and she was all sorts of welcoming and engaging and interested and interesting and it was the kind of teacher meeting you hope for. Plus her classroom was all sorts of bright and fun and playful and looks like the kind of place where E will be very happy. She also said, when I introduced myself, "Oh, everyone said I was so lucky because I had the PTA president's child in my class!" so points for remembering that and more points for saying it. I think we'll get along just fine!
And it was a good thing that that meeting went well because quite a few of my impromptu meetings with parents on the way out went less well. Apparently, everyone was waiting around for a PTA to form so they could complain to someone instead of taking their concerns to the admin directly. Yaaayyy...sigh. The current set of problems revolve around transportation and since I figured it out for my compound and am now in charge of the PTA, everyone thinks I should do the same for them. Umm, no, that's not actually my job. It's your job to rally the parents near you and work it out. I'm happy to share our information and contacts, but the legwork is your responsibility, not mine, and not the PTA's. I think I had to say that about 20 times today, making enemies every single time, no matter how much I sugar-coated it. Double sigh.
And THEN, as we were on our way home, the car AC went out completely. This is a DIRE event in the heat of summer. We had had this happen once before and we took the car in promptly, but they couldn't find the problem and then it started working, so they told us to bring it right in if it happened again. But I had the boys in the car with me, plus I was leading the new family back in their car to our compound, so I pulled over, told them what had happened and was getting ready to give them directions to the houses when they volunteered to take the boys in their car, follow me to the Honda repair place, and then take us all back home. Which was INCREDIBLY nice of them, and completely necessary since the boys' cheeks were already flushed and E was crying about the heat, so we shuffled them off to their nice, cool car, I rolled down my windows in a futile attempt to convince myself it wasn't boiling in the car, and off we went. Did I mention the school is really, really far away from everything? Well, it turns out it is as far away from the industrial area where the car repair shop is as anything can be and still be in the same town. By the time we got there, I was dripping in sweat, sitting in a pool of sweat, and brushing the sweat out of my eyes so I could see. On the way home, the wife insisted I sit in the front seat because "look at you; you need the AC!"
Eventually we all made it back, from our very long, very trying day. I'm ready for school to start so we can just get on with things--hopefully in a car with a functional AC!
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