One of the things that sustains our sanity while living in the Middle East is reminding ourselves that it’s Not Quite Right. Whether it’s corn on pizza (really, I’ve seen it) or a rule requiring mask wearing while driving alone, certain things don’t make sense to us. I know NQR is a judgment that could come from a mindset of western superiority, but I promise you, it’s not that. It’s just a way to remember that things don’t work the same way here as they do at home and to try to not let it upset us. Generally after 10 years overseas I don’t have many NQR moments anymore, but this summer has been full of them — all related to COVID and travel and testing and school requirements. :sigh:
The latest headache was a few weeks ago and I lost the energy to write about it, but in short, the requirements for school opening were outlined in July, school admin had spent 6 weeks working out a way to get kids back to in person classes within the restrictions (they removed walls to enlarge classrooms to allow appropriate spacing, etc) and then a week before school was to start, the guidelines were changed again (via the official channel of Instagram) meaning that Caleb would have to start the year with 4 weeks of remote learning (among other things).
Thankfully our school is “nimble” (the word they are emphasizing for this year) and they scrambled to create “classrooms” that would meet the new rule of no more than 15 kids per class.
One of the adaptations is a magical shower curtain that allows a class of 20 to be divided into two classes of 10. The teacher can teach both sides, but kids are only allowed to play with the kids in their “class” at recess. But recess is only once a day for 20 minutes and they have to stay within a square marked on the ground and not touch each other and they eat their snack and lunch at their desks, so . . . not sure how much playing they’ll be able to do. Thankfully Camille’s teacher divided the kids so that they each have at least one friend on their side. And as crazy as the idea of a shower curtain might seem, I’m thrilled that it allows them to go back to school in person!
There’s also temperature taking, hand washing and sanitizing, mask wearing, directional signs and dots on the ground to guide spacing — whoever is in the business of producing stickers and sanitizing products is making a mint this year.
But today was Camille’s first day of 5th grade and it went well. We rode bikes to school, she sanitized her hands at the gate, parked her bike and walked off to her classroom, following the orange dots that designate the path for 5th grade to follow. She was nervous, but I think that was regular first day jitters magnified by all the changes at school. She came home proud that there were “no tears today!” which would be the first time that’s happened on a first day of school since moving to Abu Dhabi. Congrats to my girl.
Each elementary grade has their own color and since no parents are allowed on campus there are elaborate systems for pickup as well. We (my department) assigned families numbered stickers for cars and badges for walkers that correspond to kids. Guards spot the numbers and message it via walkie talkie to another guard who inputs the data which is then projected to the classroom computer. Then the kid is released and matched with their parent. I was impressed by how seamlessly things went today.
And so year 5 in Abu Dhabi begins. I’m content with where we are and I’m happy to have a bit of normalcy in our lives with school starting up again, even if it’s not normal. The entire world is all a bit NQR at this point and comparatively, UAE isn’t looking so crazy this week.
