Intro to the School and the Country

After three years as teaching missionaries in Seoul, Korea, God called us back to the Middle East, to teach in Qatar. Our years in Saudi Arabia have made our transition here easier - we already know the culture, the religion, the environment, but more importantly, how to be Christian in an exclusively Muslim country. We look forward to supporting the Christian community here and modeling Christ’s love to our students.

We are settling, in our apartment in Al Wakra, Qatar (yes, emphasis on the first syllable: QATar with a sort of soft initial K sound). The apartment is spacious and solid, with good air-conditioning and reliable electricity and fairly reliable water. The school owns the building, so we know all our neighbors automatically, and we leave our door unlocked. We are about 5 miles down the coast from the airport, so we can easily pick you up if you come to visit!

Most of the teachers are US or Canadian, with a few Europeans and Middle Easterners in the mix. Most of the students are local Qataris whose parents want them both to learn English and to go to a western university -- or at least one of the several university branches in Qatar. Ours is a private school, owned by one of the family businesses in this suburb of the capital. The country offers its citizens a voucher system which pays parents when their children pass a school year (with certain attendance requirements). Then again, Qatar citizens have the highest per capita income in the world, so they can afford private school tuition.

Part of Vision International School’s cachet rests in the fact that it is managed by ISS, International Schools Services (based in Princeton), thereby enforcing higher standards than most other schools in the area. Our school is determinedly secular, in that religious celebrations and symbols are limited to the Islamic Studies classes. Some of the families are quite conservative, wanting to keep boys and girls separated, and wanting the girls to keep their hair covered. Still, we are glad that they want an American education, with its values of open inquiry,scientific discipline and global perspective. As with most schools, we limit discussion of religion and political topics -- we must be quite careful to avoid any hint of proselytizing, and Palestine is a delicate subject. Remember: we are guests in this country.

Comments

Where we are working now

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...

Riding the Bus often

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...

Reservoir of European Youth, Parliament

A few days ago I walked to the nearby Pasteleira Park, planning to visit the city museum at the Reservoir. Walking through the park I noticed a large group of young people gathered in a circle, engaged in team-building activities. My days in education attuned me to the spectacle and piqued my interest, so I sat on a nearby bench and watched as a succession of enthusiastic students ran to the center and started an activity, which all the others joined enthusiastically. What sort of group would this be? A typical high school class would include a portion of disinterested teens, and others only half-heartedly participating. This crowd was unanimous in their excitement. I also noted that the leaders were speaking in English, though the breeze muffled the words. I walked around, found a couple of older participants on the side, with official-looking lanyards, and asked: this was an activity of European Youth Parliament , simil...

Thomas journals

Search This Blog