Thomas journals

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