Good Thursday!

First, we are floored by the amount of people who follow the blog.  Thanks for checking out our adventure.  It's Easter weekend here so I'll express my thoughts on this moment for us.  To my unchurched friends...you know this is a significant part of our lives so grunt and bare it for a moment.  Being in a Muslim country has not effected/affected our lives or our faith.  Luckily, we are in a tolerant country compaired to the surrounding area, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc...
The issue is The Church.  There is a compound that houses 30 churches at different times of the week.  These are Christian however 98% are in another language.  We visited one church meeting on Friday (church day here). No thank you!  Ed I apologize for ever complaining about the length of the service and how the kids and volunteers suffer.  Friday church - 2hours!  And they cant figure out why no one volunteers to serve with the kids.  Then we found a home church on Thursdays.  1hour 1/2 we sit through starting at 7:15ish pm. We celebrated Easter on Thursday at this home church with about 50 others.  So Christ has already died and risen this week so we get to sleep in on Sunday.  Now it's spring break here for two weeks..  We attend a small group in our village.  Great people but the curriculum, ugh! We read through a Bible story THREE times before discussing it.  Marcia, I apologize for ever complaining about small group. We actually shared with them our struggle to adapt to the church - well you know my woman how she expresses herself - she went off on a 20min tirade about the curriculum.  Luckily, we were still invited back.  I never thought church would be the stress in my life.  All this to say - pray for us.  Im grateful there is a Church here and blessed we are not percecuted like neighboring countires.  But im not content to be where i dont feel comfortable inviting unchurched friends.  Its a social club for Christians if the church is satisfied with talking church lingo and persistent on everyone "knowing" their Bible and every story it holds before learning how to honor God with struggles of everyday life.  Do i pull a Martin Luther (16th Century), go rogue and start something new?  Or do we work side by side with the good people here who have passionate hearts to worship the only way they have learned how?  Why didnt MLuther work from the inside out?  Oh yes, they kicked him out.  We need a "church for the rest of us" in the UAE.  You know me ill buck the system but I'm asking for wisdom to do what's right and honor God with our actions.  There are SO many ways we could help the church here but...I keep coming back to; what about the unchurched? - Jeff

Sunday to Thursday

Exhausted is what I am!! I also realized an error in my previous blog. Sorry about that. As a teacher I cannot stand errors in my writing.  Today was actually not a bad day. I received a half dozen roses from a student.  Wow was about all that came to mind. It was so very sweet and I am very thankful that some students actually like me.  These girls are not the easiest. I have 2 fifth grade classes ( my first time teaching fifth grade also).  One class has 27 and the other has 26. This only changes when another teacher in my grade level is absent, then I have about 13 more. This happened this week actually.  Not very easy to have class with that many girls. My girls cannot stand that I make them sit where I want them to. I also move the desks around every week-hehe. One girl actually cried when she found she wasn't sitting by her best friend. I tell them to get over it b/c it's only for three class periods in a row. The girls love to roll their eyes at me as well. I just laugh and say I can do that to, you wanna see. They laugh and we move on. I explain my directions in English and have my highest student (she is awesome) translate in Arabic so that everyone understands. I now know why we make good money here though. We work our butts off every day. The culture here is so very different and it's not unusual for the students to be rude (a lot). They will literally talk right over you. I have learned to make them leave the class and allow them to enter when I am ready for them to. I love them, but they need structure. I think they are learning I love them b/c their previous teacher called them by number instead of their names-what the hell? No way, I told the girls I would learn them and I knew all names within the first 2 weeks!! Not that hard when you care. I have many girls named Hamda and Mouza. Most of my students are beautiful, but they say the same of me. They all want to brush and touch my hair. A sign they really like me is when they sacrifice a piece of candy and share with me. These kids LOVE candy. I now use it as bribery-sad I know, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We teach from 7-3 on Sundays and Wednesdays and 8-2 the other three days.  Remembering school begins on a Sunday still throws me off. We have standardized testing here also. Can you believe that? I guess I thought if I left the states I would not have that as we do, but it's very similar to the CRCT. It's called EMSA. We are doing prep for it. Makes me wanna scream b/c it's very difficult! The more things change here, the more that stays the same. - Jamie

Learning it all again

I'm completely tossing out all thoughts of US dollars, switching to kilometers, and measuring by meters and centimeters while cooking with celsius.  I'm learning it all again.  I walk around with one thousand dollars in my pocket!  Well, ok it's one thousand dirham but still seems like I'm loaded.  My family of four eats out for 200 dirham.  Grocery shopping is over 2000 dirham.  My church offering is several thousand - how happy God must be? So whether I'm hanging curtains, maintaining kph speed while looking 2 km further for the McDonalds that will charge me 11dhr for a happy meal on a 40 degree celsius day...I'm erasing all thought of what I use to know otherwise it really jacks up my brain.  Now, to work on the language. - Jeff

Moving In!

Well we made it! We spent the first night in our new place last night. We moved into a place called The Village. We are now called the "village people". I think they have shirts, seriously. This place is so stinking huge I can loose my kids in here. It have a huge flight of marble stairs, 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths. Wow!! Neither one of us have ever lived in anything this large. We are gonna have to hire a part time maid b/c seriously if you know me, that much cleaning, that ain't happening! We have been to the mall every day this week buying stuff for this place. My question remains, will we ever be done?? Jeff is my new handy man-he hooked up washing machine & dishwasher. The washer & dryer is one unit, you turn it on, it washes and dries in one machine. BRILLIANT-come on America, get w/ the program. He also put together my vanity table. Did not want one, but there are no plug-ins in the bathrooms here so I'll be getting ready in the bedroom @ 5 am. Poor Jeff:o) we were told we don't receive a bill for power & water, we just call whenever. WHAT? Who can remember that. We will forget & call in a couple of months & the bill will be outrageous. We have a lovely pool here, but there's no water in it. They said it would be ready in 2 weeks (of course they said that 2 years ago).  Each room has its own air control which is cool. I have been scrubbing floors and cabinets until I'm so tired. The woman that lived here before was so gross. Well I'm going to go now and sleep in what they call a king bed, but actually it's very small (Jeff and I have bumped foreheads during the night-ouch. If anyone ever wants to send a care package-ha! Ha! - Jamie
Our address:
Jamie Skinner
P.O Box 88888
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
056 3379820

Getting around

So the inside lane goes all the way around to exit crossing three lanes, the middle lane does whatever it wants, and the third lane takes the first exit off the round about.  This is part of my new driving lessons. I feel like I'm 16 again navigating and learning new rules for all these roundabouts.  Ive only gotten lost once, like - where the hell am i lost - not im on the wrong street lost.  im on the wrong street everyday...cause all signs are in arabic.  I count roundabouts to figure out where im going.  Driving to Jamie's school is simple but watch out for camel crossings.  The camel farms are near the Oman border near her school.  Speaking of Oman!  i got stuck at the Oman border with two girls in my arms for 2hours.  The attendant made me get out cause they were frustrated with me.  Apparently i wasnt doing something right.  Who me? Not my kind of excitement.  The drive is rugged, desert brown land, but the mountain across the street from the school is majestic.  I love that drive.  The radio plays everything in Arabic, as they should, but when the rare American song comes on, the girls get excited to hear a piece of home.  Home...the girls miss home, until they get into one of three pools, then all is forgotten. Me, I'm good taking it all in, trying to remember names and getting our permanent housing set up. Still in a hotel for now living out of a suitcase. Still feels like a vacation.
- Jeff

School Daze

It really is a daze at times! I have to say, some things are the same as the states and some things are vastly different. Learning my students will be difficult b/c I have 53 total (27 one class and 26 in the other). I miss the older days where I only taught 10 at a time.  Many of my students share the same name. I have all girls which is a blessing from God b/c the boys here are rough. I have a Emrati principal, 2 vice principals, 1 head of faculty and a grade level chair-chain of command is rough. My school is 1 year old and very nice & huge! We have 1300 students & I get lost in the building every day, seriously! The school week here is Sunday thru Thursday, so instead of TGIF it is now SHIT (so happy it's Thursday) -don't you love it. We were given a list today of topics not to teach; one long list by the way. I had to go to the board of Ed office and get fingerprints. While there I found out we may be getting a brand new, 4 bedroom apartment for housing-sweet! How awesome is He. So far, so good. Very tired and dazed. - Jamie

People

We have met many teachers here from New Zealand with great accents who call McDonald's fries "chips."  I was invited to a room where people were playing ukuleles and singing.  They handed me a guitar so I had to join in fumbling with chords of Irish songs.  I did learn how to play the ukulele quickly.  Just an awkward sing along all together.
We take a taxi just about every where in our new city of Al Ain...till we figure out the bus system.  We have learned taxi drivers really don't know where anything is.  They may circle around the block then say, "I don't know."  Driving is nuts.  There are round-abouts everywhere with people maneuvering through three lanes around the circle.  I felt like we were drifting (fast and furious).
Many of the women are covered head-2-toe in abayas on the body and the scarf on the head.  I can't wait for Jamie to try it out.  She doesn't have to but...
The kids haven't really asked about this or why the men wear these skirts going commando underneath.
The minority group here are people from India.  I'm trying to learn names but sometimes the names are long.  Luckily, men are just named Mohammed.  I beat a guy named Mohammad in ping pong today.  He gave me a look...I thought, what have I done?
And then there are Americans. We are in a hurry and we demand a lot.  We have learned to slow down and be patient.  Nothing is done fast here except when they drive.  That's where they release all their patience. - Jeff