Week 5

Sorry all I have not had an opportunity to get the blog done till now. We are getting into the swing of things, settling down and actually having to work now. Well kind of, Ramadan is now on so the teaching goes from 8:15 to 12:45 but we then have meetings till 3ish most days. there is a ton on information to take in and try to get sorted out. We are doing a PYP program here, it is different because it is very student driven and inquiry based, it is very interesting but hard to change your mindset from years of teacher driven lessons to having the students push the lessons depending on what they want to know about a subject. There is always a theme to every unit such as caring or the need to explore but allowing student to choose how they understand that theme. make sense? well it is not as easy as that but it is the basic version of the ideas.

Life here is settling down, there are still things that make me laugh here. the traffic is ridiculous but you have to laugh or you would get so frustrated that you would not want to ever drive anywhere here. So I was thinking about a motorbike to have instead of a car at some point but with the heat and the drivers here only the very brave or very stupid drive bikes.....luckily I fit right in the middle of those two descriptors.

I do have to admit I have been homesick this week with a lot of stress that has been going on and would love to sit down to a BBQ at my parents place with good friends, family food and a beer. So when that happens this summer i will be a very happy man.

I have not talked too much about where i am living, it is a nice apartment....kind of. It is tile from front door to bedroom which is nice if you have a maid (which we do). but the tile was put down by someone who has just learned how to tile so that he can come and work in the country. it is shocking actually how poor the poor people are here and how rich the rich are. anyway the place is nice but quite basic, it is what we need for staff accommodation. the only thing I would have to say is it feels like we are back at the dorm rooms in University. lots of drama with 100 people living in the same building.


anyway I do not want to leave off on a negative note, I am very happy. please e-mail me or find me on facebook and say hi. I really do appreciate hearing from people to find out what is going on back in Canada.

Cheers all I will post more pictures soon!

Curtis