My recent adventures

We just got back from an escape from Saudi. We went to Bahrain for the night (which is just a few hours away, over a causeway). Most people from Saudi go there to watch movies, shop, and, drink (if you happen to do that). It is nice to get away, even though it is a middle-eastern country it is a lot more free. Women can wear what they want, so no Abaya, and it just feels different there. Plus, they have MOVIES!!! We went to see "Terminator," not my choice, especially since I haven't seen even one of them. Big surprise, I slept through the entire movie. But, much to the delight of my companions, I talked in my sleep, several times. At one point I turned to Adam and asked him to, "Please turn the volume down." I was afraid we would wake up our downstairs neighbor. He said I asked him several times, he told me I was talking in my sleep and finally I woke up enough to realize that I was sleeping and went back to my dreams. Then, I turned to my neighbor, a friend, and asked him a question, luckily he didn't hear me. Last night at the hotel I kept trying to tell Adam that we had to go (a recurrent dream lately). He said he has to hold me down and tell me that we are home and that we don't have to leave after all, I don't listen to reason, such as I am dreaming, when I am asleep. Oh, what fun!!!

Well, school is out, so who knows what I am going to do for the rest of the summer. Here on the compound, or "The Fortress" as we like to call it, most of the families go home for the summer. In fact, even those without families leave, you see, it is extremely hot here and is just going to get hotter. Lately it has been about 115-120. I don't think it is that bad, but when I walk outside it feels like a nice sauna!

Our swimming pool has chillers, usually they work, but the other day, when they were working, the pool temp was 90 degrees! The next day the thermometer wasn't in the pool, and it was probably about 10 degrees warmer! Oh well, at least it was cooler than the air. Needless to say I have a nice tan, despite my many efforts to avoid it. I don't think they make sunblock strong enough to ward off the piercing rays. Someone at church told me I had a nice tan, I nicely told him that the "tan" on my face as just all of my freckles, they had multiplied until they became one big freckle!

I have been spending hours a day at the pool, you see, I am teaching swimming lessons to the children on the compound. Granted, there are days when I have to count to ten to stop from strangling them because they are incapable of closing their mouths and as soon as they learn something that is all they want to do, show me how well they can do it. They seem to forget that the reason we have "lessons" is so that they can learn NEW things, not play and show off the things that they have figured out how to do. Plus, every time I turn around, especially when I am trying to explain a new skill, they go under water! UGH!!!! Oh, and another favorite, jumping off the side of the pool or board. No matter how many times I tell them to jump on my hand that is stretched out in front of me or the floating arm band in front of the board, they insist on jumping right on me. On my head, my chest, shoulders, legs, wherever they can aim to do the most damage. Down I go, but, to my credit, they do not go under water. I might drown, but they at least will make it to the side of the pool. I have also decided that I have to split the classes up, I can't have two children in the same class that refuse to learn new things, they egg each other on. When I have a scared child with a fearless child, the scared child quickly realizes that what they are learning is not scary at all (like putting their face in the water). So, the next time I teach lessons, things will be a little different. Our swimming pool doesn't have a shallow end where the children can touch, so, to improvise, I bought swimming noodles and the kids have learned to "pretend" to walk on the bottom of the pool and swim around the pool using these noodles. They saved my life!!! OK, enough about swimming.

It looks like I will be working in the school next year, which should be fun. These past few weeks I was assigned to tutor in the math lab. Yes, me, in the math lab, and, to make it even more ironic, ALGEBRA!!! I had to take home the algebra book and the quizzes so that I could learn how to do it all over again. Thank heavens for Adam, and his patience. He had to teach me what to do. And, I felt just like I did in school, so frustrated that I wanted to throw the book across the room. My problem is that I can't see how this all has a practical application! How does some memorized theory help me to do day to day things! I have survived just fine up to now without it! Every time I couldn't figure something out I would come back to, "BUT WHY!!!"