Landing in Ramadan

I believe I have been here two days now.   I left in such a whirlwind that I really didn't comprehend the huge change that was about to take place.  It really didn't hit me until I checked into Etihad Airlines at O'Hare and I saw women in a variety of burkhas.  Stepping onto the plane was even a bit like walking into Lawrence of Arabia meets Southwest as the stewardesses donned hats with elegant looking scarves which covered half of their faces.  The ride was fine and the service fantastic; however, my seat did not recline.  Fourteen hours in the prone position and I felt a bit like a repressed pretzel.  Despite my ability to sleep anywhere, due to the prone-ness of my position and the anxiety in my head, I stayed up the majority of time.

Landing in the UAE, we were greeted immediately by ADEC (my new employer: the Abu Dhabi Education Council) and we received our visas, went through an eyescan, proceeded onto customs.  My Kathy Griffin book made it as did my bag of diet cookies and a trashy US magazine.  I breathed a sigh of relief and within moments was whisked upon a bus (where I actually did fall sound asleep).  I woke up thanks to a new friend's nudge and entered the land of 16 star service.

Since landing, we've had a few orientations wherein we have been advised of the ADEC vision for education in the upcoming seven years.  I find myself agreeing with so much of what is being said about the need for cooperative learning, respect, and fostering of the L1 (native language) in order to create literacy in an L2 (second language).  In the United States, school districts debate the latter agnosium despite the evidence that clearly states that if a student can't read and write in their native language, he/she will inevitably be unable to process and become literate in the second language.  This is why many schools do not offer Spanish for the Native Speaker, etc.  This is why our test scores our declining and this is why our ESL teachers struggle so hard to get the second language student to become proficient, let alone fluent.  Here, they have taken what we know about language acquisition and developed a strategy around the research such that, I believe they will produce students who can read, write, and speak in both their native tongue and in English.  This is indeed my passion and I felt like the wife in Field of Dreams in the school board meeting; although, this time I wanted to jump up and scream in agreement!!!

Landing in a Muslim country in the middle of Ramadan though has its drawbacks.  In fact, I've never been so parched in my life.  I've never had a bottle of water in my bag, be so excruciatingly thirsty, but then not allowed to drink.  Many of us take refuge in public bathrooms to down our water and take in a breath mint.  However, there are many pluses to this as well.  Who needs Jenny Craig or expensive spa treatments to lose weight? Just get plopped into the midst of Ramadan.  Who needs a 12 step program to refrain from alcohol and tobacco?  Just enter the world of Ramadan where from sun-up to sun-down, there is absolutely no drinking or smoking in public of any kind.  It certainly has kept me on the straight and narrow!!! Ramadan really does put Jenny Craig to shame.

All kidding aside, I'm truly grateful to be here.  Truly grateful for all the support I have from my friends and my family back home.  I believe that being connected to y'all at home helps me in those moments when I do feel like an absolute fish out of water and when I wonder, "OMG, what have I done?"  Thankfully, at this point, when I answer that question, I believe I have done the right thing and have ended up remarkably where I am supposed to be at this moment in time.  Inshallah.