When visiting Kuwait, Don't be surprised if......

When visiting Kuwait, people from the United States might encounter a bit of culture shock.  Next week, I will be hosting 2 ladies visiting from the USA. One of them is my mom and the other is a family friend!  Consider this my warning in advance about what NOT to be shocked by when visiting Kuwait.

Horn honking

In the USA, horn honking is considered rude and reserved for times of anger and to warn others of danger.  In Kuwait, the horn honking means hello, goodbye, get out of the way, do you want a taxi, and a host of other things. You will hear horns honking constantly.

this is a typical neighborhood scene

 Trash is all over the place

If countries were houses, and you looked at Kuwait, you would turn it down for lack of curb appeal.  Open fields seem to be the spare garbage dumps of the country.  In the US, we pay taxes for garbage trucks to take away our trash.  Kuwait has not taxes.  Although the country is quite wealthy, the government does not seem to invest much money into keeping streets and fields clean.

3     Malls have revealing clothing

Kuwait is a modest Muslim country.  You may find people dressed in a variety of ways from casual jeans and t-shirts to traditional abiyas and disdashas.  Women who cover only do so when out in public.  In the privacy of one’s home or among female friends, women can wear anything they like. 

4     The Nanny

The presence of nannies in Kuwait is much more prevalent here than in the USA.  Many of my students have one or more nannies who live in their homes.  Expats are allowed to have 1 per household.  Kuwaiti families are allowed to have one  nanny per child in the family.  Nannies often walk alongside parents wearing scrubs and tending to the children in public places. 

5     You might not meet any Kuwaitis

Kuwait has a huge population of expats.  Native Kuwaitis make up only 30% of the population here.  The other 70% comes from other countries like me and the 13,000 other Americans working here.  According to Wikipedia, there are over 500,00 Indians, 450 Egyptians, and 140,000 Filipinos working here among the larger populations.  In the USA, working at fast food restaurants and in retails shopping stores is a teenage right of passage.   In Kuwait, these jobs appear to be reserved for expat and immigrant workers. 

6   Personal Hygiene is NOT universal

I have gotten into some taxis that reek of body odor.  Read the paragraph above.  There are huge cultural differences amongst the people who live here.  Some of these folks don’t use the perfumed fragrances, soaps, and even daily washing habits that we are accustomed to.  Some people are in basic survival mode.  When your basic priority is making enough money to feed and provide shelter for your family, your grocery cart is less likely to contain Dove body wash and deodorant.

7

      Taxis will overcharge you

Drivers often ask wear you are from.  Some of them just want to make conversation and hear your thoughts on Barack Obama.  I have learned that many of them are just deciding how much to charge you.  The meters are usually the best way to get a fair deal.   Don’t brag about being from America.  It drives up the price.  Don’t say that you have been in the country for less than a year.  Anyone who is new and foreign is assumed to be wealthy enough to pay $3-$6 more than the actual price.   Also, you are not expected to tip taxi drivers. 

Ask for a biscuit in America, you will get the item on the left. Ask for biscuits in England or here in Kuwait, you will get the items on the right that Americans call cookies.  Throw in accents when asking for your items, and there is no telling what you will get. 

8     English is widely spoken, but you won’t always understand it

Lots of people here speak English, but it is not a first language for a majority of people that you encounter.  You can ask people to repeat themselves.  I often say “are you saying……” and repeat back what I think they said. Sometimes you will not understand at all.  Just be patient.  We native English speakers are in the minority.   We can hear lots of different accents and languages on any given day.   

Is That Camel Tasting My Hair?

Today I visited a farm here in Kuwait.  My teacher friends and I were checking out a farm owned by the family of one of the students who attends our school.  We found a place that is quite unique in Kuwait and the warmest hospitality that I have experienced since moving to this country.  AND, while I was posing for a photo with a camel, it started chomping on my hair. Yuck! Guess I know not to stand so close next time.

This beautiful blue and white house is not a typical style of home found in Kuwait.  It was one of the first surprises of the day. 

The farm harvest thousands of fish which are sold at local markets.

That's the camel that munched on my hair.  Selfie ruined! 

Camels!

Within this greenhouse, we saw a large variety of plants that are not native to this area.  In addition to flowers and potted plants, the farm grows lemons, oranges, pineapples, bananas, and tomatoes.  The owner explained that many people don't even attempt to grow these items because they don't believe it is possible in Kuwait. 

these strawberries are grown in  the greenhouse as well. They were delicious!

Yeah, they have monkeys on the farm

This generous family sent us home with wheelbarrows full of  fresh fruit and vegetables.  

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These ostriches allowed us to pet them until they realized we were taking fresh eggs.  Things got a little tense after that. 

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This family showed us lovely hospitality.  We spent almost 8 hours at the farm.  They gave us snacks,  prepared a lovely lunch including traditional Kuwaiti dishes, and sent us home with huge loads of fresh strawberries and vegetables.  They also gave each of us an ostrich egg.  I'm secretly hoping that a baby ostrich hatches from mine :).  

ostrich egg next to a chicken's egg

* Special thanks to Marife Escueta for sharing photos with me for the blogpost.

What Is in a Name?

As a teacher, I encounter quite a variety of names from year to year.  I have been teaching professionally for 11 years. If you estimate 17 students per year, that totals 187 children.  Basically,  I have learned lots of children’s names.  I find it interesting how the names change from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood. 

My student teaching took place in a small Michigan school near the Ohio border.  The school had a predominately White American population with student names such as Caiden, Jackson, Nicole and Ashley.

Next, I moved on to more urban schools with predominantly African American populations.  I had typical names such as Eric and Jasmine.  However I also had names such as Mehki, Messiah, Omunique, and Alantiaja.

I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2009. Raleigh has a very diverse population.  The names of my students reflected the diversity of their backgrounds.  I had Y’Benny of Vietnamese heritage.  The Y in his name is silent.  I taught male cousins Rishaab and Paarth of Indian heritage.  I have taught 2 little girls named Zainab. Both girls had families from different North African countries.  In this city, I also usually had a large population of Hispanic children in my class including the names Jesus, Josue, Yamilet, and Hilda. 

It seems that there are at least 20 different names that begin with "Abdul" here.  You just have to listen closely to learn the ending.  

Now I live in Kuwait.  I must admit that I scratched my head in nervousness the first time I saw my class list.  How do you pronounce that?  It turns out that standard grammar rules apply with most of my student’s names here.  There are a few vowel sounds that are just different here.  In the states, it seems that some parents seem to strive for individuality in naming their children.  That does not seem to be the case here.  In our school’s carpool line, you will notice multiple children look up when you hear “Muhammad, Abdulaziz, Sheihka, Abdulrahman.”  These names are quite common in Kuwait.   If I had to take a guess, I think there has been at least one “Sarah” at every school I’ve worked in.  It is pronounced a bit differently here than in the states. 

Learning names is truly an adjustment in different places. Unless it is a name that is familiar to me, I cannot always determine the gender of a person when I see their name in print.  Sometimes I get an email from a parent of my student, and I don’t know if it came from a mom or dad.  One helpful hint is that Kuwaiti women do not take the name of their husbands.  If the parent shares the name of the child, it may be safe the assume that it is a father.  If they sign their email with first name only, I’m a bit confused. 

Dear Mr,  umm Dear Mrs, umm Dear Sheihka's parent :)

I have one student in my class of Indonesian heritage.  His mother recently told me that a majority of Indonesians do not share a family name.  This intrigues me greatly.  This boy comes from a family of 5 and no one in his household shares the same last name.  How do you identify families?  How do you decide which 3 names to pick for your child?  I might have scared the mom away if I truly asked her all the questions that came ot mind that day. 

Names are very interesting reflections of communities.  I can look back on my career and appreciate the diversity of my students.  Although learning the names of my students and their parents is a task I'd rather have a variety than a bunch of the same year end and year out.  

How I Got My Job Teaching Abroad

Within the international school community, this is time for filling open positions for the upcoming school year.  I was actually hired in February of 2015 for my current teaching position at an international school in Kuwait.  This hiring period starts a couple months earlier for schools overseas than those in the United States. This is quite understandable considering the steps required to prepare for moving to a new country.

Why Teach Abroad?

I started to consider teaching abroad around early December of 2014.  I had looked into programs previously hoping to spend my summers teaching abroad.  Many of those programs are for volunteers and cost thousands of dollars in addition to the expensive airfare.  I started to wonder if I could teach in another country for an entire school year.  I had a couple of friends who were teaching in Abu Dhabi, a city in the Middle East and they seemed to enjoy it.  Online research gave an overwhelming number of possibilities all over the world.  I came up with a few criteria for my job search. 

1.  I wanted to teach in an international school with a curriculum taught in English.  There are lots of opportunities for people to teach English as a second language abroad, and I didn't want that. Those individuals may teach children or adults and don't have to have an education degree.  I basically wanted to do the same thing I did in the states but in a different country.  Surprisingly, this was not terribly hard to find. 

2. I didn't want a climate with snow- It's pretty the first day it falls and then its a hassle.  I'm over it. 

3. I wanted a position that paid my rent and paid a greater salary than I was currently making.-These opportunities abound throughout Middle Eastern countries and far Eastern countries such as Japan and Korea.  I have a goal to be debt free, so I didn't want a European country or Caribbean Island with a high cost of living and low salary.  

4.  I needed a place with lots of travel opportunities- Living in the Middle East means travel time is shorter and flights are less expensive in comparison to traveling from the United States.  In addition, my tax free income means that I can actually afford to take trips to different countries on school breaks. 

How Did You Apply for the Job? 

I asked a friend who lived overseas and did some online research to find the best way to apply for jobs.  I joined to websites designed to help teachers find positions teaching abroad.  The first is a free website called www.teachaway.com.  The second website cost an annual fee of $40 www.tieonline.com.  My current position was actually listed on both websites.   These sites allow you to upload your resume, references, location preferences, etc.  I found that tie online was a bit more thorough in providing information about the schools, the ethnic diversity of schools, the salaries, and the school's locations. 

There are additional sites that can be quite expensive such as www.iss.edu but their services and pricey job fairs were not in my budget.   I considered attending one of their job fairs in Boston and realized that the cost of joining the website, registering for the job fair, purchasing airfare and hotels would cost me over $700. The appeal of this type of experience would have been the opportunity to interview face to face and learn about the schools directly from administrators who were already living there.  

What was the Interview Process Like? 

I interviewed for a few teaching positions.  Teachaway.com does pre-interviews over the phone. If you can pass their very basic phone interview which last about 15 minutes, you will be invited to a face to face interview.  One should note that while teachaway.com is free to join, you are responsible for your travel and hotel expenses to attend face to face interviews in various states. I can recall being invited to a follow up interview in both Atlanta and New York.  I decided against those for my own personal reasons.  I also had Skype interviews with Kuwait and China.  With the exception of our distance, I felt that both interviews via Skype were similar to what I have experienced when seeking a teaching position in the states.  Typically, international school do want you to have 2 or more years  experience teaching in your home state and experience with travel abroad.  Because of the time difference, I do recall my interviews being late at night around 10 and 11pm. I felt very relaxed interviewing in my professional blazer and pajama bottoms! 

How do you make sure that you don't pick a terrible school? 

I don't know.  This may seem like a bad answer, but there is no way to guarantee that you will like your new school and new country.  I did join a website that gave reviews from teachers who worked at international schools called www.internationalschoolsreview.com.  I remember that I would look at schools reviews before I even sent resumes.  Honestly, I'm not sure whether this site made me more reassured or paranoid.   My current school was not listed on that website at all.  Ultimately I prayed about it.  I considered what the interviewers were telling me during my interviews.

When I was close to making my final decision about accepting my job offer in Kuwait, I asked the school's principal to put me in contact with a teacher who was currently working at the school on the same grade level.  I sent that teacher an email with several questions about the school and the country.  I felt better asking a teacher who had no obligation to recruit teachers like administrators.  Her responses helped me to sense that I was making the right decision in accepting the position.  I also looked online for information about the cities where the schools were located.

Where do you get information about different countries? 

 I turned to bloggers for information about different countries.  Official travel websites and sites sponsored by the national government will paint the best portrait of the countries they represent.  Those sites are great for highlights about countries.  Bloggers are people who live in these places and are willing to share the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It was important for me to read these.  The novelty of a new location wears off within a month or two.  I needed to know what to expect when the novelty wore off and I was dealing with day to day life.  Because of blogs, I was reassured that I would not have to cover my head as a woman in a Kuwait.  Blogs prepared me so that I was not shocked at the amount of littering and debris around the area. They also helped me to see that despite the stigma that countries in this part of the world have in the media, Kuwait is relatively safe.   Here are some of my favorite blogs:

http://www.expatsblog.com

http://www.expatarrivals.com

https://teachingwanderlust.com/2014/02/28/why-teach-overseas/

packing, packing, and more packing

What happens after you get the job? 

So much!  Preparing to move abroad is quite an experience.  My job has wonderful human resources employees who assisted us with gathering documents for our visas and job permits.  I had a few doctor visits because Kuwait requires documentation that you and dependents traveling with you are in good health and don't have malaria, STDS, TB, and some other things.  You have to make lots of decisions as well.  If you are a homeowner, will you rent out your home?  If you are a renter, will you sell your furniture or pays thousands to store it?  What about your car, cell phone plan, insurance?  How can you find time to say farewell to the people you love, visit your favorite hang outs one last time, and get everything packed before departure?   Gratefully, everything that needed to get done in my life got done, and my move was successful. 

I haven't really fallen in love yet, but it's growing on me!

Do you have any regrets about moving to Kuwait? 

No.  I plan to stay an complete my second year teaching here as well. This has been a learning experience for me and I am enjoying it.   My school and my students are lovely.  Life in Kuwait has it's ups and downs.  Searching for things to do takes more effort than I've had to exert in a while.  Finding the items i want in malls and grocery stores is an adjustment.  Getting used to the various accents of people from all different parts of the world takes a lot of patience.   I still find that the positives outweigh the negatives.


Are you interested in teaching abroad?  Do you have experience teaching abroad?  Share with us in the comments section.  

Elephant World

A highlight of my trip to Thailand was a trip to Elephant World.  From the moment we arrived at Elephant World, we saw these amazing creatures in an up close and personal way that exceeded my expectations.  We began with a talk from one of the Mahouts or elephant trainers who explained why elephants were here in the first place.  Elephant world is a sanctuary for Elephants who are injured and retired from the logging and trekking industry.  It is also a safe place for former street elephants that cannot be released back into the wild.  Elephant Worldhttp://www.elephantsworld.org post signs that tells the story of each elephant telling about their past and how they came to live at the sanctuary.

Elephant World park entrance

the welcome committee!

During the course of the day, we visitors had ample opportunity to interact with the elephants.  Between 10am and 4pm we feed them, observed them have mudbaths, helped prepare their food, and washed them in the river. We began by feeding them.  Elephants need to feed up to 16 hours per day.  The park spends a majority of its budget on food for them.  We helped to feed them watermelon, radishes, cucumbers and bananas. 

baby elephants and their guardian Auntie are led to the river by their Mahouts.  Notice the mom and small child in this photo.  The elephants were quite gentle around guest of all ages

time for a mud bath- the mud acts like a sunscreen protecting the elephants from the intense sun 

the baby elephants are having a bath

Most of the elephants at Elephant World are seniors in their 50s and 60s with the oldest being a 79 year old female.  There are two baby elephants here.  There is a 4 year old boy and a 3 yr. old girl.  They are former street elephants.  The two came to the park together and are inseparable here.  One adult female adopted them and plays Auntie to them.  These babies are playful and naughty.  They have to be chained during feeding activities.  This is not a form of punishment.  This is because they are naughty and hyperactive little creatures that would end up in trouble if they didn’t have boundaries.

She is snacking after a bath in the river

I was surprised by a couple of things at Elephant World.  The first thing was the close level of interaction between guest and elephants.  We touched them and walked with them.  When you walk through the park to different areas, there is no fencing separating people from the animals. The second surprising thing is the fact an elephant can walk up next to you without being detected.  These animals weigh 4-6 tons. You don’t even hear them coming!

 

these elephants snuck in when they saw us preparing a lunch of sticky rice balls for them

I learned that elephants are very intelligent creatures.  They can remember childhood friends when they have been apart for over 20 years.  They have the largest brains of all land mammals.  They mourn and bury their dead and return to the burial place later.  They actually cry tears of sadness. They use tools such as sticks to scratch themselves. 

The park was very child friendly.  These children are painting a ceramic elephant to take home.

beautiful setting

even though the elephants were not a threat, I still would get nervous when they got very close to me.  These mahouts(trainers) who spend every day with the elephants are clearly relaxed around the massive animals.

Most park guest stayed until 4pm and departed for the evening.  I chose to spend the night at a park bungalow in their overnight program.  Personally, I feel that the $125 price for this package was a good value.  I was able to spend 2 days at the park.  I stayed in a comfortable bungalow.  I will admit that I found the adjoining bathroom creepy because I had to exit my room and walk outside at night time to use the restroom.   The park provided all of my meals from lunch on day 1 until lunch on day 2.  On the second day, I continued to interact with the elephants in a much smaller group of 3.  I also went floating on River Kwai.  This consisted of simply putting on a life vest and allowing the current to carry me down the river for about an hour.  I compare this to tubing, without the innertube. 

 

my bungalow

Why didn't you ride the elephants?

Riding elephants is called elephant trekking.  It is a huge industry in Thailand, but not really best for the elephants.  I found my experience interacting with and learning about the elephants to be more meaningful than riding on its back for 30 minutes.  Elephants are wild animals.  There is no such thing as a domestic elephant.  There are only wild elephants in captivity.  That means that at some point, extreme measures have to be taken in order to for them to allow people to ride them all day.  I didn't want to support those practices.  This is also the reason I didn't go pet tigers in a temple. but that is a separate soap box. Check out this website for more informationhttp://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/elephant-conservation/travel-guide

Why are the elephants here?

In Thailand, elephants were a major part of the logging industry until this practice was outlawed in 1989. This means that when trees were cut down, elephants were used to pull them from one location to another through the jungles rather than vehicles. A majority of the elephants at this sanctuary are older than 50 years old.  That means that some of them were a part of this industry and endured stressful work conditions.  A couple of them are blind because they got branches caught in their eyes while working in the jungles for logging.  Some of the elephants used to work in the trekking industry.   Even though these creatures are massive, they are best able to carry heavy loads on their necks.  This is the reason that the mahouts ride the elephants on their necks if necessary. Many of the elephants in the trekking world work very long hours and have injuries related to the heavy saddles and people on their backs all day. Elephants who are giving rides at parks all day certainly don't have 16 hours to graze for food.  The 3^rd reason that elephants come to elephant world is because they were once street elephants.  This practice has now been outlawed as well. Elephant owners housed them in the city and allowed people to ride them, feed them, or pose for photos with them in exchange for money.  These elephant’s feet don’t develop properly because they have been living on hard concrete rather than in a natural habitat.  They also cannot be released into the wild because they were raised to depend on humans for survival.