Hi all! Another update from the land of sun and sand!
Thursday was a work day. I learned today that all of the teaching materials we use--textbooks, novels, and any other curriculum--has to first be reviewed by the Ministry of Education. They read through everything and take notes about what we need to censor before teaching it to our kids. As a result, whole chapters of textbooks have to been stapled together--the chapter on evolution in the biology textbook, for example--and photos in textbooks that show women in provocative clothing have to be altered. Thus, a picture of a woman wearing a skirt might have to have pants drawn over it in magic marker. Apparently all of the nude figures in the biology textbook have been drawn on to be wearing clothes. Once a book is cleared, it gets a stamp:
I'm interested to meet the kids! I've heard they are very sweet. Classes start a week from Monday so we'll be in meetings until then. Our work week here is Sunday-Thursday. Apparently Friday is a day of special prayer so we have it off. Our school day runs from 7:15-2:00. It's going to be hard to get back into the habit of getting up early! Until then we are getting our classrooms ready to go! Here are a few pics from our school:
Today we went to a Friday market. It was a big, open-air affair with a lot of different roofed sections selling different types of merchandise.
We got a few rugs for our apartment for around $60. We probably could have got them for way cheaper but both Jordan and I are terrible at haggling. When I say a lower price and the person says "no," I'm just like, "Well, okay. I guess that's a fair price!" Stupid Americans, I suppose. :) Here's our rug in our apartment. We thought the garish blue offset our yellow couches nicely:
Here's the rest of our apartment! It's really big compared to our apartment in Fort Collins so we're pumped! It's amazing to have all of the storage space that we do, as well as a washing machine. We're also on the top floor, so that's great!
The water for our building is trucked in every morning and the sewage is trucked out. Apparently most of Kuwait City is not on a grid for sewer so almost every building has water brought in this way. I wont complain unless I run out of water one day mid-shower!
Hope all is well back home! Miss you all!
-Emily
Thursday was a work day. I learned today that all of the teaching materials we use--textbooks, novels, and any other curriculum--has to first be reviewed by the Ministry of Education. They read through everything and take notes about what we need to censor before teaching it to our kids. As a result, whole chapters of textbooks have to been stapled together--the chapter on evolution in the biology textbook, for example--and photos in textbooks that show women in provocative clothing have to be altered. Thus, a picture of a woman wearing a skirt might have to have pants drawn over it in magic marker. Apparently all of the nude figures in the biology textbook have been drawn on to be wearing clothes. Once a book is cleared, it gets a stamp:
I'm interested to meet the kids! I've heard they are very sweet. Classes start a week from Monday so we'll be in meetings until then. Our work week here is Sunday-Thursday. Apparently Friday is a day of special prayer so we have it off. Our school day runs from 7:15-2:00. It's going to be hard to get back into the habit of getting up early! Until then we are getting our classrooms ready to go! Here are a few pics from our school:
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| Jordan relaxing in the courtyard |
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| Kuwaiti and US flags |
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| Middle School courtyard. On the tour, my principal called it "the greenest space in Kuwait City!" |
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| The bubble and auxiliary gym which houses basketball courts and a swimming pool. Jordan shows us how to bend it like Beckham! |
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| The red crescent is for the school nurse's office. I might need to see her if this heat gets any worse! |
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| Stairway to the Middle School |
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| Jordan's home for the next 2 years! |
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| View from the balcony of the Middle School hallway |
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| Jordan's room |
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| My computer and excited face |
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| The school library |
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| Tile mosaic in the library |
Today we went to a Friday market. It was a big, open-air affair with a lot of different roofed sections selling different types of merchandise.
We got a few rugs for our apartment for around $60. We probably could have got them for way cheaper but both Jordan and I are terrible at haggling. When I say a lower price and the person says "no," I'm just like, "Well, okay. I guess that's a fair price!" Stupid Americans, I suppose. :) Here's our rug in our apartment. We thought the garish blue offset our yellow couches nicely:
Here's the rest of our apartment! It's really big compared to our apartment in Fort Collins so we're pumped! It's amazing to have all of the storage space that we do, as well as a washing machine. We're also on the top floor, so that's great!
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| Beautiful view from our 13th floor apartment! |
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| Did I mention the washing machine? |
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| Our bedroom |
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| Lots of storage! |
The water for our building is trucked in every morning and the sewage is trucked out. Apparently most of Kuwait City is not on a grid for sewer so almost every building has water brought in this way. I wont complain unless I run out of water one day mid-shower!
Hope all is well back home! Miss you all!
-Emily
This is so interesting to read about! I truly can't even fathom being so far from home in such a foreign place. Pretty amazing! I hope school gets off to a super start & you love this next phase of life. Can't wait to read all about it.
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