I can’t explain how it feels to be back in Oman. It’s very similar to after we were evacuated from Egypt and found ourselves welcomed, embraced, encircled by family and friends, and the entire experience was lovely and wonderful and steeped in bittersweetness.
It physically pains me to see my kids so happy here, surrounded by their school family, embraced by teachers and students alike (as opposed to the “no hugging” rule at their current school), being pulled from group to group, “come to PE with me!” Or “sit with us at lunch!” Seeing tears of happiness and sadness in Carter’s eyes as he says “I’ve missed my friends so much!”
Do they have these kinds of relationships at their current school? I don’t know because there isn’t an open door policy there. I don’t walk down the halls several times a week (or day!) forming new relationships with repeated greetings the way it happens here. There is no Costa Coffee in the cafeteria to keep us chatting in the lunchroom in between drop offs, pick-ups, and classroom activities.
Being here reminds me of what is lacking and I don’t know what course to take. Find more reasons to be at school? Try to make it a more welcoming place? Is that even possible when that runs counter to school policy/culture? Or do I go outside the system and go back to homeschooling next year, giving them some of the freedom and flexibility that they’ve been missing?
I’ve always said being happy isn’t where you are, it’s who you are. And that is smacking me in the face as I try and figure out our place/purpose in Bahrain. I’m sure that part of my dissatisfaction is rooted inside me, but I’m also realizing that my happiness is related to my kids’ happiness and as they get older I have less and less control over that.
I haven’t seen the boys this genuinely happy and relaxed since we left Oman. They practically floated down the hallways of the school, fitting in like missing pieces of a puzzle. While the world is talking about adding armed security and buzzers and visitor badges and locked doors at schools, my three showed up with only a smile on the arm of a friend — no prior notice, no notes or permission slips, no questions asked.
I don’t think it gets any better than this, but I’ve become determined to find or create the next best thing (and also come back and visit as often as possible).