Wednesday, November 28

On Sunday November 25, we took all the elementary (144 children) in 3 large buses to the Syed Darwish Theatre here in Alexandria. It is the Russian Ballet Season and the Karkov Children's Ballet Company was performing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. They were beautiful musicals. Several other schools were there also for the performances. Of course, on the way home we were caught in a traffic jam and we had to get all the children out of the buses and we walked them up Schutz Street to our campus. Even then we were an hour late getting the children back to school. But everyone made it safe and sound and the parents understand about the traffic.

On Monday, November 26 we decorated our Christmas tree in the dining room at Roy Hall where we eat dinner. We started at 7 pm and had pop corn to eat and warm chocolate milk to drink. We decorated several dozen sugar cookies that the cooks had made for us. We each get 3 dozen cookies to take back to our apartments for Christmas. We had a fun evening.

Yesterday and today Pat was called to sub for the 4^th Grade teacher. David (ESL teacher) and Pat pair up and we do the subbing together. The kids help and we had a good 2 days.

This Thursday, we have our monthly assembly. We are celebrating Walter's birthday. Our elementary is named Walter's Hall after the founder. Each class is preparing food in their classrooms and we will have our assembly at 11am then we'll eat the food the children prepared. Just hope no one gets ill!

Thursday night we are going out with the Grill Club to the Sea Gull Restaurant. The restaurant is located on the water and has many unique items on display – things you would find in old time amusement parks. We'll take a bus because around 20 of us are going. Another great night of fish!

Friday night we have International Night here at Schutz. Pat will be working at the Japanese Booth with another teacher from Japan. We will have crafts, etc. There will be several countries represented and each will have a booth and activities.

We start our Secret Santa the first of December. We'll each draw a name and throughout the month give your Secret Santa gifts and we will end it on December 18 with our Christmas Party for the staff. It was fun last year and we are sure it will be fun this year again to give and receive secret gifts.

Sunday, November 25

Over the 3 day Thanksgiving holiday, we ventured to Ain Soukhna – Stella Di Mare located on the Red Sea about 90 minutes from Cairo. Unlike Sharm el-Shiekh and Hurghada, which seem to cater more to the European crowd, Stella Di Mare is a favorite for Egyptians because of it’s proximity to Cairo. English and Arabic are the main languages spoken here. As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was nearly ideal for late November. Temperatures were in the mid 70’s during the day with bright sunshine. Three other couples joined us on the trip although not all stayed in the same hotels. We were able to book our reservations early and enjoyed the accommodations of the Grand Hotel located on the beach. We had a short 5 minute walk to the Red Sea.

One of the main features of the Grand Hotel is the Thalasso Spa. This spa features a wide range of services such as massages of various types, beauty and other health treatments. On Thursday, Pat enjoyed a “ant-stress” massage and on Friday, we both spent nearly 5 hours in the heated indoor/outdoor seawater hydrotherapy pool. The facilities here are first-class from the rooms, beaches, pools, and the restaurants.

Our stay was “Half-board” which included full breakfast and evening meals. As with most resorts of this type in Egypt, there are two scales for costs – a “resident” cost and a “foreign” cost. Since we have work visas, we qualify for local Egyptian resident charges. For instance, our room (including half board) cost approximately $110 per night while the non-resident charges were $240 for the room and $35 for the meals. It is easy to see why tourism has become big business here. The cost to stay here for non-residents (while higher than for locals) is still quite a bargain compared to similar resorts on the European side of the Mediterranean. And while the local resident rate is very reasonable, it is out of reach for the typical Egyptian. Most of the local hire staff at our school could not afford to go there more than once in their lifetime. It again highlights the distinct social and economic class differences that exist here among the Egyptian people.

Tuesday, November 13

Friday evening was our annual Galabaya Party up on the rooftop of Roy Hall (the main apartment building for resident staff). It rained a little in the afternoon (the first rain since we arrived in August) and we were fearful that the party might have to move indoors. This would take away from all of the colorful decorations that the workers put up for the party but fortunately it cleared up and dried off. Most of the resident staff attended as well as a few local hire staff. All were dressed very colorfully in their Galabayas – a traditional garb in
Egypt. We had good food, drink and entertainment. We brought over “Catchphrase” and that has been a big hit at our get togethers.

Earlier in the week, we had a bit of a scare as on Monday Pat discovered that she was missing the main diamond from her wedding ring. We looked all over the apartment and tried to “retrace” her steps and check wherever she had been. By Thursday, we had given up hope of finding it. Then after school she was moving the coffee table near the davenport and saw something bright on the cushion of the davenport and there it was! During the week we probably look over that area several times and even sat on those cushions a few times We were very happy to find it.

On the weekend we went out to Carrfour to a movie. In the parking lot, there are mobile car washing carts where the operator will wash cars for 10 LE (about $1.70). We saw several cars being washed. After the movie we stopped at a unique fish restaurant and had shrimp (probably 8” in length) as well as grilled sea bass. The place is not much to look at but the fish was delicious. The restaurant shares it’s kitchen area with a couple other places. There are numerous cats around the tables finishing off what the customers don’t eat.

We finished up interviewing for a new head of schools. The Board brought 3 candidates in over the past three weeks. It is a very intensive process for the candidates. They meet with the staff, the students and the PTA as well as several meetings with the Board. Each evening that they are here, there is an elaborate dinner somewhere that they attend. We may know by next week if they pick one or re-open the process.

Letters of intent for the teaching staff were due as the school tries to get a feel for how many teachers they will need to replace. This year we brought in 11 new teachers and it looks like a few might not stay for the second year. Right now we have 5 vacancies with the possibility of an additional 5 more. It is getting very competitive in the overseas teaching market as there are more schools and the demand is greater than a few years ago. Since Egypt is viewed as a Middle Eastern county, some are a bit hesitant to come here. As a school, we need to do a better job of retaining good staff.

Saturday, November 3

Wednesday, the 3rd grade had their Assembly. The stage was set up like a “Jeopardy” show. David (our ESL teacher) was Pat Sajack and Pat was Vanna White. The 3rd grade was split up into 3 teams and we had a team of teachers. They had to answer questions about 7 countries in the world. The audience (the rest of the elementary) asked pre-written questions and the contestants then had to answer. It was a wonderful assembly and the 3rd grade was did learn interesting things about these countries.

Thursday evening was our annual "Fall Festival". We started setting up at 4 PM and the Festival started at 6 PM. We had games and food. People from the outside came in and sold items such as jewelry, wall hangings, glassware, scarves, etc. Pat had a Ring Toss booth with the Kindergarten teacher. They made a big sign and had prizes to give away. It was fun because everyone dressed up in Halloween costumes. Pat said she went as a “Pretend Cow”, whatever that means. I am a sponsor of the Seniors and we had three activities: “Dunk a Punk”, a Haunted House and “Pie in the Face”. The Seniors also sponsor a dance at the end of the evening.

The quarter has ended and it is a very busy time for the teaching staff as they work on finalizing grades. Remember when report cards were just grades? Now we have skills to assess for each class and of course, comments for each student. I am fortunate with only one class (along with two other individual independent study classes). Many of our staff will be assessing many more students in a variety of classes.