The year was amazing, but it was a wild ride!
Besides never having internet, a lens error on my camera, a lost cell phone, 2 fender benders on the car, and a roommate fleeing the country, the end of my time in Doha was certainly bitter sweet! The "American Girls", as we came to be known, bonded unbelievably well. Girls that I will miss having constant adventures with, miss "Doing the Doha" with, and girls that gave each other strength to make it through! (alright enough of being sappy...)
THE SCHOOL YEAR:
Not quite as I expected, yet what really was? The month of June started with one of my favorite days at school: Pajama Day! On Pajama day students and faculty were allowed to wear cozy clothes, bring stuffed animals to school and even a pillow and blanket. Each class had a turn reading a book in the library. My class sat back, relaxed (well sort of), and listened to Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. My fifth graders were fascinated by the creativity and adventure in the story. I loved hearing their reactions.
Another fun project to finish the year was the End of Year Performance. The theme this year was Our Planet Earth so each class performed a song or dance for the parents and owners of our international school. My 5th grade class decided to do a Recycling Rap. This consisted of rhyming lyrics and a choreographed dance. It was certainly a highlight of my week when we were able to practice. We had a hip hop instructor, Mustafa, come into class to teach us the dance moves! We all had a blast! After hours of practicing, coaching, and persuasion, the end of the year performance ended... well... on a different foot. The grade 5 students truly pulled if off as the music cut out while on stage! We were all disappointed that we could not give performance its full show-biz effect, but the 5th grade students made me very proud by together completing the dance without the music. It was touching that the audience helped out and clapped to the beat. In the end the students were able to see that their hard work paid off, they created a wonderful accomplishment of performing the dance and rap, AND became strong individuals for performing the show despite the technical difficulty! What a life lesson to learn! All the students had smiles on their faces and were excited to be apart of the show!
The end of the school year turned out to be very anti-climatic. Not only did our class have an interesting end of the year performance, we also had no final school day. On the second to last day of school, the administration decided to surprise us and cancel the last day of school. That denied us of final good-byes with the students and parents. Without the "goodbyes" and "thank yous", the usual rewarding feeling at the end of the year was not there. Instead we were left preparing final test for students that did not pass our classes all year. I found it funny that parents essentially wanted to "buy" their failing students' final grades and suddenly decided to care about helping their child when they saw their end of the year grades. Against my teaching philosophy I had to prepare study guides and retests for students that were not going to pass their current grade. Due to my flight home I left the retests, grades and final decisions in the hands of the school. I am sure it is safe to assume those kids ended up moving on the next year.
We had a small end of the year party with the faculty at our school. This consisted of some fabulous food, music, some belly dancing, and even some henna drawings on our hands. A few other June highlights were:
- attending a Lebanese wedding, bride being the art teacher from our school
- hosting a toga party at our apartment
- watching World Cup on huge screens and seeing the whole city become engrossed in the games
- the headache of getting my plane tickets home
- saying our sad good byes!
What I'll miss:
- the daily adventure
- great friends both local and international
- dancing and "doing the Doha" on the dance floor
- the techno music
- the night skyline
- Sushi at Neo Sushi
- honking my horn for takeout service
- feeling exotic as a white American female
You know you are not in Doha any more when:
- you can eat bacon
- you can cut the grass
- you can enjoy cheap drinks
- you are not STARED at as a female
- you can feel safe while driving
- you can listen to music other than techno all the time
- you are not sweating at 7:30 in the morning
- you read a sign in the bathroom stall that reads:
"Please flush toilet paper down the toilet"
Recycling Rap Lyrics:
- Ryan Simonet
It's time for you to make the choice to choose
Otherwise the green will be singing the blues
What I’m about to say is not old news
It goes Recycle reduce reuse, no excuse
It ain’t drastic split paper from plastic
Find a space to place your recyclable waste
Let’s conserve what we have because some day it may be gone
The children of tomorrow can’t wait that long
If life is a play then we all have a part
Listen to the ocean inside of your heart
We mustn’t keep living like there’s no tomorrow
Otherwise the future may have nothing to borrow
It's time for you to make the choice to choose
Otherwise the green will be singing the blues
What I’m about to say is not old news
It goes Recycle reduce reuse, no excuse
