Thomas journals

December 23rd: this morning we awoke in a thick fog surrounding the train, which evidently slowed our progress considerably. Simple breakfast provided by the train steward, then we disembarked at Giza Station. The travel guide met our train, took us to the Residence Hotel in Maadi to drop our bags, thence on the Tour of Old Cairo: restored with the help of US funds, now more a tourist site than an old city. The new city has literally been built on top of old ruins, such that the original old buildings are a couple meters belowground now. But the alleyways and churches are clean and dry, after the restoration. Several old but still-active Coptic and Greek Orthodox Churches, and an old synagogue clearly not in use though beautifully restored. The newly-rebuilt Coptic Museum is particularly attractive, both in its architecture and its presentation. The country's Department of Antiquities takes pains to note that it protects even Christian and Jewish religious sites; not onl...

December 22nd The aerial balloon ride was a once in a lifetime experience. Our skilled Egyptian pilot flew us to a height of 1500 feet to catch the wind that gave us a 360 degree view of the sun coming up over the Nile and the moon going down behind the Theban Hills.  Descending over farmland, our gondola brushed the tall blades of sugar cane which Barb feared hid snakes -- we deftly landed just on the other side on an unplanted portion of the field. We had two nice surprises while leisurely exploring Luxor later that day -- running into a Palestinian family from the cruise in the Luxor Museum, and later finding newlyweds Ankit and Parul, also from the cruise, in an Egyptian fast food joint. We took them with us back to the rug shop and Parul was master at demanding her price for several rugs, as well as a "proper bag" (not plastic) for her purchases. India had taught her well. We enjoyed our last evening at Desert Paradise Lodge with a long talk with Farida over a delici...

December 21st We were packed up and ready for our last tour of the cruise - to the temples of Karnak and Luxor and we were not disappointed. One could imagine the grandeur of the procession from one temple down the sphinx-lined promenade  to the other temple. Now only two churches stand in the way of restoring the parade route - and Evangelical Presbyterian Church and a large Coptic Cathedral. We enjoyed our last day with the friends we had made on the four day cruise and we said many goodbyes before leaving the ship and moving on to the West Bank of Luxor to the Desert Paradise Lodge in Gourna, a small village across the river from the city of Luxor. We were amazed at the place - an oasis of calm and beauty in the desert. We had 2 spacious rooms with modern bathroom and kitchenette that opened on to a beautiful garden area and small swimming pool. The Egyptian meals were fresh and delicious and our hosts gracious and helpful. We highly recommend this place! Farida, the owner's ...

December 20th A 6a.m. wakeup call got us ready for this day’s exploration of the Valley of the Kings and Queens on the West Bank of Luxor. We awoke to find our ship beside 5 other cruise ships – all tied together at the dock. For the still mentally asleep, it was confusing as we walked out of our ship and then through the lobbies of 4 consecutive ships before disembarking. A short bus ride took us to see the Colossis of Memnon: 2 huge monolithic statues, standing (well, rather sitting) over 50 feet tall, slowly crumbling but still impressive. Then we drove onto the expansive Valley of the Kings. Though 62 tombs have been discovered so far, we saw active work being done to unearth more. Our ticket and time allowed for entry to only 3 tombs – we chose tombs 2, 6 & 11 as recommended by our guide. These were the tombs of Ramesses IV, IX and III – all were incredible in that the paint on the walls was still visible and in some areas vibrant though thousands of years old. ...

We awoke rested – all but for Christopher who succumbed to a sore throat and fever, which we began treating immediately so he can enjoy the rest of the trip. The ship pushed off at 9AM and began the leisurely cruise downriver, north towards Cairo. The wind topside made it quite chilly so Cole and Barb opted to watch a portion of the trip from the large port hole in the minuscule fitness room while working out. We arrived at Kom Ombo in time for a mid-morning walk to see the Temple of the Hawk and the Crocodile in the town named “the City of Gold.” The temple is unique in that it is symmetrically split for the two deities Solek (crocodile headed man/god) and Haroeris (falcon headed man/god.) Back through the gauntlet of souvenir vendors to the boat for lunch, and then watching the passing view from the huge window in our stateroom, intermingled with napping and watching movies. Occasionally we went up top to better follow our path up the Nile to Edfu, but it was very ch...

An early morning pickup from the hotel with four boxes of breakfast arranged by our travel agent May Sedky of See Egypt.  Much quicker ride back to the airport as less traffic at 6 AM. The early morning light allowed us to see "the other side" of Cairo - crumbling slums much like the back side of the Kulri Bazaar Road in our former home in Mussoorie, India. Exteriors of even tony apartment buildings show the wear due to temperature extremes and natural sand blasting. The Cairo airport is modern, efficient and the EgyptAir employees polite.  Our travel agent escorted us to security, quite a nice service when you are blurry and in a new airport.  An easy domestic flight got us to Aswan by late morning.  We were met by the local See Egypt agent who extolled us with the benefits of the smaller, quieter Aswan over the noisy, crowded city of Cairo. We arrived at our boat, the Swiss Movenpick Radamis II, with time for some sun up on the deck, and meeting our...

 Our first night in Cairo We met son Christopher waiting at Shepheard's Hotel a fair distance from the airport -- downtown.  The hotel is old but charming and history-filled: Jim and Gloria stayed there on a romantic getaway from Israel in 1966.  We walked around the city for a bookstore to buy an Egypt travel guide -- found the book, and near Tahrir Square a good shwarma for supper, as well as unusual mac and cheese with salty ground meat inside and on top. The boys still hungry, they had a muffin and milkshake back at the hotel cafe (they had ordered a waffle -- something lost in translation) while Jeff and Barb had a good, cold Egyptian beer in the pub. Everyone at the hotel was warm and welcoming; touts on the street backed off politely. Almost cold, certainly breezy. Cairo is a cross between Delhi and NYC -- busy and bustling.  Fell deeply asleep despite the street noise outside Shepheard's Hotel.

We have all wanted to visit the pyramids, the sphinx, the temples of the pharaohs, chaotic Cairo.   After four months in (relatively) barren Saudi Arabia, we dreamed of meeting up with Chris somewhere in between Austin and Jubail, in the center of the arab world, and also enjoying some family and rest time on a cruise down the Nile...a romantic idea for centuries.    Past family trips have been shorter and more spontaneous, with more emphasis on do-it-yourself and going low-cost.  This time, because of the foreign nature of the place and its chaotic and frankly untrustworthy reputation, and because we are earning more now, we decided to splurge on a travel agent arrangements -- once the cost is sunk, we relax and enjoy the itinerary without having to negotiate the taxi or the restaurant or the tourguide or the ticket booth -- the obnoxious hawkers still swarm us at each stop.  Something in the culture makes these hawkers more irritating than those in I...

From Dammam to Cairo - a bird's eye view Flat sand as far as the eye can see Ripples in the sand - as if a side-winder has moved along the dunes Irrigated crop circles near the western border are the first sign of civilization Mountains rising up from the desert are black and gold, looking like volcanic remains rounded by the wind Sun glinting off the water as we leave Saudi Arabia and cross the Red Sea to the Sinai Peninsula Clearly spotting the Straits of Tiran, and identifying Mt. Sinai - the tallest peak Then sculpted sands and scrub desert to the Red Sea again - a huge expanse Looking back to the jagged coastline of the peninsula Huge barges and tankers waiting off the coast of Egypt Planned beach front community -- a green oasis with houses set in the shape of a flower - first sign of civilization in Egypt Mining making craters of white in a mountain, then flat terrain filled with houses, highways and industrial parks before we touch down in Cairo. --Barb

Thankfully my children don't know about Walking a Mile for a Camel . But, to answer the more direct question: do you ride to school on a camel? No. Do you see any camels? Yes. From 201011RT Maybe you can spot the camels sitting by the roadside in this photo? From 201011RT We did have a couple camels resident near the Jubail corniche (waterfront park) last month, as part of a small circus-like setup giving donkey rides and camel rides. But they have moved on now to greener pastures. We see very few animals, aside from a few scrawny cats around our housing area, and a few stray dogs outside the walls. The compound truck sprays insecticide every other evening, so we have mercifully few flies or mosquitos. We often see sheep or goats being transported in pickup trucks on the superhighway, but never literally on the hoof. During the recent Eid-al-Adha holiday week, the Gulf newspaper published a public service ad from AbuDhabi reminding people that animal slaughtering should ...

Perhaps because many other Western holiday celebrations are banned or muted, Hallowe'en is celebrated with more fervor here. The school held a big Hallowe'en costume festival with spooky hallway, refreshments. Barb helped organize the seating, here surrounded by many of her students. From Halloween Festival and Play Practice Our K-10 student body is quite diverse -- about half are from muslim countries -- but all seemed to enjoy parading in costume. It is particularly ironic as the Saudi national dress itself constitutes an elaborate costume in the U.S. Our night ended with a staff performance of Monster Mash. From Halloween Festival and Play Practice

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back.  His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty.  The air-conditioning usually works too well.  I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

Sometimes we get some simple pleasures: the coffee provided in the teachers lounge is pretty good, considering it's a large percolator. And every couple of weeks, Barbara S. drives up from the district office (well, actually, of course, she doesn't drive herself, but you get the idea) to help with testing and advice with learning-support. She makes it her duty to bring us a stack of Krispy Kreme donuts. Imagine. Fresh Krispy Kreme donuts. Hard to resist, especially at coffee break time -- most classes have a break between 10 and 10:20. A few weeks ago we went down to the big city (remember, the tri-cities area of Dammam/ Khobar/ Dhahran) and drove past the fast-food shrine. Notice the starry icon of CarlsJr (california) merged with Hardee's (their label here). Note also the pickup truck in the foreground with the omnipresent Saudi Aramco logo. From 201010 Saudi scenes

Cole and I went to the dentist yesterday - very good by Western standards. Excellent facility, equipment, treatment, office workers spoke English and knew all about our international medical insurance requirements. I was admonished for letting my scheduled cleanings go so long ( 18 months), but luckily, no cavities or permanent damage. I was too embarrassed to explain that we had no insurance in the US last year; hence the long time between cleanings.Why was I embarrassed? Was it a reflection on my country - the land of plenty - that didn't have enough jobs for its citizens and certainly not affordable healthcare for all? Afterwards, we went to the Al-Rashid mega mall and stopped at a familiar diner for lunch - Johnny Rocket's. I had happy memories of eating at this chain while visiting my parents in California. Why it the first place that  allowed me to use a "Senior Citizen Discount" at age 55! We entered the diner and were amazed at the interior - identical down ...

    Jubail School is part of the International Schools Group district. We are also member schools in the Near East South Asia council of overseas schools. (Note that Woodstock is also a member of NESA) NESA schools cooperate to develop ways of continuing education even when a school's population must be evacuated. Online learning can continue. We scheduled three Virtual School days in October to rehearse: students stayed home, teachers came to school, and education continued.     Our district arranged a contract with a company in the U.S. to host our online coursework, using Moodle -- I implemented Moodle at Woodstock in 2007, as a local help for teachers and students.  Unfortunately the first day online was a disaster, with impossibly-long response times.  Perhaps the U.S. company was not prepared for 3000 users to login at 1am on Sunday morning (yes, the work-week in Arabia is Saturday-to-Wednesday!). The second and third days went f...

From 201010 Saudi scenes Coleman sits on the couch in our living room, with his new macBookpro and our pillows from India and our new lamps and shades from Ikea. From 201010 Saudi scenes Then a fancy dinner, with lampchops from New Zealand, via the new Lulu's Hypermarket and Barb's careful broiling. From 201010 Saudi scenes

From 201010 Saudi scenes One of the nice aspects of living in the same community with colleagues is the ability to do some professional development informally -- I invited our 3 neighbors to come by to test out the new online course management system (Moodle) to help prepare for upcoming Virtual School Days. Here we are, gathered around our dining room table, all with laptops looking at http://vs.isg.edu.sa/

From 201009 Saudi scenes In the town of Rahima, near the central fish market, is a street we call Chicken Street. Literally fifteen shops in a row (you see the middle 5 pictured above) sell chicken. In our standard idea of economics, this appears to be inefficient and unprofitable -- we feel that if the poulterers all dispersed to different parts of the town, they could corner a local market as the closest convenient shop, and also reduce the likelihood of customers taking their business elsewhere. So why do they all locate in one central place, and thus struggle mightily to compete, perhaps reducing their profits and by the way forcing chicken customers to travel all the way downtown? I think the main reason is that customers prefer the open-market scheme, where they can compare goods from different sellers in an open environment analogous to the nearby old-fashioned fish market. A lone market can be attractive when the goods are indistinguishable commodities -- in a U.S. supe...

The Good - Life on our compound has it good points - the nicely landscaped grounds despite the intense heat - beautiful bougainvillea bushes, frangipani trees, palms. We especially appreciate the two pools on the compound, often swimming at night when the water is the coolest.  The Bad - This the view from our pool. We live on a secure compound, so there is a "buffer" zone around it complete with razor wire. Not far enough away is an oil refinery and those are the flares that cast an eerie glow at night. Air pollution is visible day and night. and the Ugly - This is the sight we see everyday on our way to work - scrubby desert littered with blown-out tires and plastic bags. Does the king know about this blight on the landscape of his country? To be fair, environmental eyesores are intermingled with beautiful bridges and amazingly well constructed roads. This is a country of contrasts.

With only three weeks of school under our belts, we were off for a week so that the majority of our students could celebrate Eid with their families. Family is obviously important in Arabic culture - you see children with their parents everywhere. While some of the more religious Muslim children told me of their trip during the break to the holy sites of Medina and Mecca, the majority of Arab children told me of gatherings with family members. Expat families like ours took the opportunity to travel away from the confines of the compound, even if it was just to the next big town. Jeff tried out his driving skills in the fast pace of Saudi highways (often 120kms/hr) in the car we are thinking about buying second hand - a Volvo station wagon. We have not seen one other such car here, but feel confident with its tank-like body and reputation for safety, so may be proud owners when our iqama papers are finally processed, allowing us (well, Jeff) to get a legal Saudi driver's license. ...

From 201009 Saudi scenes During Ramadan the evening meal to break the daily fast is called iftar .  The local luxury hotel -- formerly a Holiday Inn, now the Jubail Intercontinental Hotel -- hosts a buffet dinner each evening in a huge semi-permanent tent, air-conditioned of course.  Our school staff enjoys an annual tradition of enjoying this buffet.  For about 20dollars each, we enjoyed the camaraderie and the fresh food.   The place was crowded with both expatriates and local families -- all of the women were black-robed in the obligatory abaya (note Barbara and Marca in this photo), From 201009 Saudi scenes but many local women wore full niqab as well, requiring them to carefully lift the veil in order to take a bite! From 201009 Saudi scenes

I'm enjoying the International Primary Curriculum that I am teaching at ISG-Jubail School. My first graders entered into the first integrated studies theme of Celebrations! by planning a pirate party, start to finish. They planned food, decorations and activities, including a treasure hunt for chocolate coins and imaginative play on a pirate ship. The Pirate Ship in the Classroom It's fun to be in a K-10 school - the older students came out and cheered on the costumed "pirates" as they paraded around the school. The pirate celebration Next the students studied different elements of celebrations and one of those was the wearing of masks. The children designed a mask on the computer in their ICT class and then made an actual face mask in Art. Masks and IPC We finished out the investigations with a history study of Then and Now , researching items from the past and seeing how they have changed today. The children made timelines showing how they have changed...

ISG Jubail School is the Anglo-American school for this area: Jubail is one of two planned industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, given a special royal commission for development and planning.  Our district, the seven schools of International Schools Group, runs the school in the other industrial city -- Yanbu -- as well.   Jubail is on the east coast, between Dhahran and Kuwait.  Our nearby "big city" is the tri-city metropolis of Dhahran-Khobar-Dammam, where all the big shopping malls and quaint old markets are, along with the central 3 schools of our district, where Coleman attends high school.  ISG Jubail has 410 students -- an average of 2 homerooms for each grade, K-10.  Class size varies, up to 22.  I have 12 in my required course "Computers & Information Management"; Barb has 12 students in her first-grade class.   Most of the teaching staff come from the U.S., some from the Commonwealth.   Several teachers are wives of engineers an...

The Red Sea Housing Company operates our Desert Palms Compound, of about 150 prefab townhouses built about 30 years ago.   One advantage of the age is that there are numerous large shady trees now, including a couple in front of our place.   This photo catches our front door and the driveway that connects several units.  The fitness center is visible on the right side of the screen, with outdoor basketball half-court and tennis courts beyond it.  Our building is a duplex townhouse -- our neighbors are teaching colleagues with three young children. The photo is taken from our small driveway where we will park our car (once I get my residence permit and can legally own a car).   To the left of our front door is our garden hose and trash (which is collected daily).  Behind the unit is a fenced area of pebbled ground--some people manage to keep a few bushes, but the climate is quite harsh.  Inside are three bedrooms on two floors.  Photos here...

50% humidity It’s hot, stunningly so.  Truly like a steam bath – the eyeglasses fog up, and clothes get sticky within two minutes of just standing around. But we knew that.  Summers in Texas, or south Florida, are occasionally similar.  This is relentless.  The only change seems to be the humidity level, as we are located within a mile of the coast. Back to the house... a couple more inside photos, taken last night: One of three powder rooms.  The other two have bathtubs. The view from the stairs

We arrived at Dammam airport to a tremendous crowd of migrant workers waiting to get passports examined.  A few of us bossy teacher-types found the group of 20 new teachers and herded them together, then the school’s travel agent fortunately had contacts that took us to the front of the queue.  Our customs check consisted simply of Xraying all the bags (perhaps seeking bottles of liquor?), thus eliminating our worry about search for religious books or immoral DVDs or vitamins.    Although they had told us they would be waiting for us, it was still a pleasant surprise to be greeted at the airport by so many administrators – the superintendent and the principals and counselors of the two schools that we new teachers would join.  The heat and humidity outside the airport was expected, but still wilting.  The minibus was pleasantly air-conditioned, so we enjoyed a cushioned ride over superhighways for the hour-long ride to our new homes.  We finally ...

We flew easily, with surprisingly few problems departing New York.  However, Barb’s brand-new carry-on bag did not fit in the test box just prior to boarding the plane, so she had to check it. Coincidentally, one of our soon-to-be colleagues experienced the same thing just before us, and recognized Barb when we arrived in Dammam Airport – both small bags had gotten waylaid somewhere in transit, and we both had to wait to report them. Our scheduled layover in Amsterdam allowed Barb to get her nails done in style, and Jeff to win a few euros in the slot machines – a good omen.

We sort, discard, sell, pack in preparation for renting out the house -- sooner than anticipated, August first. Put many things up in the attic, loan a piano and some furniture out to friends, and put some in storage room 444.  Then we depart later than anticipated: August 10th, for International Schools Group in Saudi Arabia. Click on the link for some photos of our last weeks in New York.