Wednesday 25th October 2006

Hello everyone,

It’s been an incredibly busy and hectic term, so I apologise for the lack of communication, although most of you never write to me anyway, so fair’s fair.

My classroom all decorated for Eid

Since the riot in Hawally it’s been a fairly restrained Ramadan, and apart from a huge fight at our school Gurgian night, it’s been quiet but busy. The fight incidentally involved some of the secondary boys, and when the police were called, one of the boys started yelling at one of the cops, who promply bashed him in the chest (yes, that’s right, the policeman knocked around a mouthy teenager, in the school!!).
One of the Arabic staff standing next to me was kind enough to translate the following dialogue, which went:
(teenager): “You can’t touch me you f***ing pigs! My dad’s a general in the army and if you dare f***ing touch me he’ll f***ing have you!!! f***ing pigs!!”

to which the cop replied

“Yeah?? Well MY dad’s the minister of defence and can fire your dad in minutes you snot-nosed little piece of s**t”

At this point it deteriorated into a mud-slinging match basically involving who’s dad was better/more important, and you can pretty much insert your own expletives there!!
In the end they arrested the kid and his mate, and (I’m reliably informed) took him down the station for a beating.

So that was fun.

Soooo looking forward to our next school event! At least we all learned a valuable lesson about coming down to a teenager’s maturity level.

Some of the boys dressed up for the Gurgian festival at school

Awesomely high level of Health and Safety at school…

In other news, term has finished for this week, as it’s Eid (or the end of Ramadan) so Betty, Bryn and I went off to Dubai for three days of highly intensive drinking!!
We succeeded in getting drunk four times in two days, and then spent the third day feeling soooo hungover it was hard to move.

Outside the Irish Village for a slap-up hangover breakfast

Dubai is an amazing city – so unlike Kuwait it was unbelievable! Dubai is modern and new and innovative and flashy and clean and tourist-friendly – pretty much everything that Kuwait isn’t.

So it was incredibly nice and relaxing and we drank real proper wine too!!
Anyhow, now I’m back in Kuwait and term starts again on Saturday, so  it’ll all be fun and games (at least three more members of staff have done runners this week, and the school is pretty much falling apart at the seams with a complete lack of proper management, so wish me luck!!).

That’s it from me, hope you’re all well and good and happy etc.

loads of love
Dubai-lovin’ Maya
xxx

Indoor ski slope inside a shopping mall in Dubai