Day 1 at Sabis Unniv

You all would love the fresh veggies here I swear the cukes are real - not cardboard

 

Worked 9am -9pm today but got our econ text here to students. Prepped for 4 hours and taught for 4.

Students are fine but not working hard enough to pass. Their English is terrible and they are not working on it - won't speak in class. Plan big pep talk tomorrow

I am very alive and passionate about the students succeeding. Helping the youth succeed in the mid East while the old men battle it out - their old grudges and hatreds.

As you can see i am pumped up about this.

PS I have been promoted already to >Head of Department (of 2 teachers) Gilaine would say I am nuts - a position with no pay, no authority but much responsibility

 

Voyage to Irbil

Estoy atterisado

Estaba un vuelto de Hell, pero estoy bien ahora.

"Toto, we sure aren't in Kansas anymore"

The minute I stepped on the Jordanian plane in Montreal I left the West. The plane was 100% full and 80% of the women wore burkas, headscarves, etc. several of the men wore big red (hennaed) beards. The guys in front of me watched endless reruns of rituals at the Kabala in Mecca. I thought wow these Jordanians are really devout!   But it turned out that they were all on a Haj to Mecca for the Aiid holy days. The flight to Amman from Montreal following the trip from Vancouver was hell. Small cramped seats, impossible to sleep – but at least 1^st world.

The Amman airport looked beautiful and new as we approached but the minute we stepped through the jet way It could have been Guatemala. No maintenance. The airport had the same vibe as Guatemala but without the real massive activity. Amman has a pop of 2 million and the airport was built for that but without the real activity  - a bit of a false note somehow.

I got to Irbil at 4am on Saturday after 36 hours plus of travel- ouch.

But I got some sleep last night and feel OK today.

Am staying in a townhouse in a compound on outskirts of Irbil. It is OK – Mexican level of quality. But had power outage in early AM. Met 1 of my roommates, the other Biz teacher. He has been teaching “my” courses for 2 weeks as well as his own. I have to coordinate with him to find out what he has covered – We don’t have the economics text book yet, so he has been teaching from the course outline.

Interruption- Just went to the Uni. To meet the dean and get course info. I only have 2 of the textbooks others on backorder, will get photocopies of the next few chapters tomorrow. I will be teaching from 5pm to 9 pm. Approx 25 per class. English will not be strong will need very simple ways to explain. More power outages.

I will break for now and get working on classes for tomorrow  

announcement

Hi Folks

This is a broadcast mailing to let you know that I will be out of the country for at least 1 year. I will be teaching business to undergraduates in Kurdistan. I could not pass up this chance for such an adventure! I will have to give up (at least temporarily) my work on Literacy in the Central Island, the MISTIC Board, and CESO consulting. I will create a blog for the trip and broadcast the address= http://kurdistanventures.blogspot.com/

 I will look forward to re-establishing contact with everyone on my return.

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