StarBoard Happiness & the Bubble

My Star Board is up and running.  I missed it so.  We had only two days of school this week.  One day was canceled because of the 50th Liberation Day Celebration going too late.  It was a 15 million dollar fireworks show.  I actually did not go because I thought we had school and knew I would be up too late to be ready for school the next day. 

I got my Civil ID, so I am a Kuwaiti Resident!!  I have had migraines for almost two weeks, so if you would like feel free to pray that the doctors find out what is wrong or that they just go away for good.

It rained yesterday and I am beside this giant bubble, I will have to send a picture.  The bubble is the schools creative way to build a new building without calling it a building.  The school is not allowed by law to add new buildings, so the government and the school compromised with this bubble, which to me is really a building.  It has an Olympic size pool in it, and two basketball courts in it.  So, when it rained the students were so excited about rain I had to stop class and let them look at the rain for a minute or two so they could calm down and focus.  I had never seen people so excited about rain, but it is cool how they are excited about the little things. 

Starboard Sadness

Hi everyone.  For all of the teachers out there you will understand my sadness.  If you have a smart board or star board (pretty much the same, different companies), mine is officially down for about a week.  I did not realize how much I was relying on the Star Board for my lessons.  I guess I will go back to the old fashioned way of white boards (funny that is old fashioned and not really chalkboards)

Rain, Rain, Go away... but wait, it's raining in Kuwait

Today is the first time since I have been in Kuwait that it has rained.  We'll see what happens if the roads get really messy or if it is nice.  I saw clouds for the first time since I was here last week and they were beautiful.  The sunset here was also gorgeous last night.  God is awesome.

I am on break now and I have gone to school at least 10 hours thus far, and I will go to school tomorrow.  For me it is nice to get caught up and hopefully get ahead because my first official evaluation is coming up soon.  Please pray for that if you get a chance.

The classroom management is going better, but I still need God's wisdom on what to do.  I have tried many different things, and grade cards come out next week.

My friend Lilia might be having a baby soon, I am so excited.  I can't wait to meet the little guy in December.

That's all I got for now.

Teaching Fun

I think I will post about teaching, since I guess that is why I am here:)  I have three classes with students who also challenge me.  Jesus is putting people in my life to help me.  Last week I wanted to give up after a class, but now I do a participation board and if they talk without permission, or do anything I mark it, and it affects their grade.  I have also called parents and had parent meetings.  It is a step-by-step process, but I know that God will work it out.

I just finished giving my second test.  Now on the 25th we start a five day break called Eid, I think it has something to do with Mohammed.  I am not sure, I just know I get a break.  No big plans, but super excited.  That's all for now folks, as Daffy Duck would say. 

Paintballing in the Desert

I got to go paint-balling for the first time ever, and it was in the desert, how cool is that.  We were 30 miles from the Kuwait / Iraq border and it was straight up desert.  We got to paint ball in bombed out buildings.  There were wires everywhere, and stuff hanging from the ceiling.  I thought it was a really neat experience.  And it really takes a lot of energy to run up and down Dunes without falling, because if you get sand in the gun it jams.  Needless to say I fell running up one to get on the roof of a building and then my gun jammed.  I know you are all shocked to hear I fell:)

I don't think I got anyone, but I got to shoot paint balls, so I was happy.  There were ex-military people also paint-balling and they were pretty intense.  There were 21 teachers who went, and we were not quite as intense as they were (no where near it, ...... at all).

Then we grilled, and don't put paper plates on grills, bad idea......  Just sayin'.  Not sure how I know that.  Then there was dancing there also.  There were no restrooms, you just squatted and peed wherever.  I feel bad for Rach if that is what she had to do in Iraq.  Also, a very nice day in Kuwait.

Night at the British Embassy Orchestra

I had the best night in Kuwait thus far since I have been here last Thursday.  I went to the British Embassy for an orchestra concert.  (You would think I would do stuff at the US Embassy, but you have to know someone and be invited in order to come.  So, I'm not in the in crowd yet...)

I learned a valuable lesson do not bring cameras or cell phones to the British Embassy, they do not let you in if you have them.  Well, I knew not to bring my cell phone, but I did bring my camera, so you have to leave it in your car.  Problem, I took a taxi, and my friend also had a camera who was with me.  So, the guards said there was no where to put the cell phones safely.  But they were going to ask a manager, while I was waiting for the manager they said I could sit, and when I sat I saw a corner of the room with slots for cell phones and cameras, and there were some in there.  So, long story short after about a half hour of waiting they put our cameras in the slots and we could go in.  Praise the Lord.

The orchestra was amazing.  There was also a choir behind them that sang some also.  A lady in the orchestra is writing a musical and they sang two songs from it, and the songs were great.  So, I hope to go see the musical in May.

After the orchestra finished there was drinking and a DJ and dancing.  It was very fun.  Since Kuwait is a "dry" country (if that's what you call it), people were excited to not have homemade alcohol.  There was a 3 drink limit, kind of.  Still, the dancing was fun, and it was an overall great evening.

Kuwaiti Driving

Hello again, and welcome to Sarah Neff's great blogger:)  This has been a long couple of weeks when it comes to teaching.  I fell down 7 stairs at school last week.  I hurt part of my wrist, it is not completely healed yet.  I can sympathize with mom some now with her thumb, because something small can hurt and not seem to get better when you think it should.

I was also in a bit of a fender bender, thing.  Praise God no one was hurt.  Driving in Kuwait is crazy.  If you think you have seen crazy, then Kuwait will still shock you.  Everyone is in a hurry to get no where.  It is all a big giant game of chicken.  It is very selfish driving.  I will have to try and get a video sometime of me in the car (a video in traffic and a video on the highway).  Both would be shocking.  The speed is excessive for some because if you are a Kuwait citizen nothing happens if you get a ticket.  So, I have never seen so many fatal accidents in my life.  I may have seen a dead body on an ambulance the other day, but I am not sure, either way I can't get the image out of my head. 

So, back to the fender bender thing.  I was in a taxi going to the US Embassy to vote.  We were in the left lane, which happened to be the fourth lane.  This other taxi came off the exit and went diagonal across all four lanes and right in front of us and we were going about 65 mph.  So, my taxi driver slams on the brakes, but still collision. It was weird watching it from the passenger seat.  There was no way around the accident so I braced my hand against the dash, but praise God I had my seat belt on, because most taxis do not have seat belts.  So, both cars banged up a little, but Jesus kept us all safe.  Sorry saying God now is weird because when you hear it in Kuwait, you know they mean Allah, and I definitely do not. 

Dunes Crawl

Me again here:)

Friday night we did something called a Dunes crawl.  The 3 buildings the teachers live in are called the dunes.  We went to about 20 different apartments.  We stayed at each one where at each one there were appetizers, food, and "refreshments".  So by about 8:30 we had been crawling for about 4 and a half hours.  It was a social event that ended up being very fun.

Saturday I went to school to get ready for my math chapter 3 and I need to pick up tickets for the British Embassy event.  It is called night at the proms.  I am not going to the black tie one.  That one is on Wednesday.  It is an orchestra concert.  It should be really fun.

I am using Skype a lot, which is helping with the homesickness.  My sister in laws sister is getting married today and I am missing the wedding and Josiah is the ring bearer.  I can't wait to see pictures.  I forget my Skype name, but I will post it after I look it up.  If anyone would like to e-mail me it is neff_sarah@hotmail.com.  Where I live there are not road names or anything where mail could get to me, and sending stuff to the school should only be for important stuff.  So, e-mail is good.  I am working on getting better about facebook.

God is good.  Homesickness is less.  Feel free to pray I continue to adjust well and I can be light to the people of Kuwait.  I love the church services here because you can tell we don't get the Christian interaction we get back home, and when it comes time to praise it is amazing singing the songs.  I love it.  This is all for now:)

Church Time

Hello again,

On Friday I went to church.  This is the same church as in Kuwait city, just closer to me.  Kind of like Worship at Winebrenner, an extension of the main church.  There are a lot more Americans and Canadians at this one.  The other one has more people from India.  I may start and join an Alpha group, I will have to pray on that one since it is a Saturday night kind of late.  Since we have school Sunday I like my sleep.  Actually I like my sleep all of the time.  8 hours is my friend.  I bought a mattress topper. My mattress is so much softer now.  PTL.

The service was really good.  The pastor talked about difficult people.  He let us know that "where there is light there are bugs"  He pretended to be an annoying bug in peoples ears. It was funny.  Then he reminded us we are called to be the salt and what........... oh yeah the light to the world.  So where there is light there are bugs.  He challenged us to find a difficult person in our life and bring them to church next week.

I challenge you all to do the same:)  We'll all have to see how it goes.

Is Sarah Canadian?....

Hello to All:)

It has been a week or so since I last posted. Much has happened since then.  This past Monday I went to the Canadians in Kuwait Thanksgiving dinner.  It brought back all of my memories of my favorite thanksgivings in Kuwait.  Oh wait, I'm not from Kuwait what is going on here:)  The Canadians are awesome and so they let anyone join.  It was really fun.  I got to dress up.  The food was fancy.  They had a raffle.  I will post pictures soon.  I met some people from Europe.  I didn't actually meet too many Canadians, which I thought was funny.  The American embassy in Kuwait does not seem to put on a lot of functions.

On Wednesday I went to a cultural event where this lady sang.  It was kind of like scat meets opera.  Do, do, do, do, do let it beeeeeeee, let it beeee was one of the songs.  Well kind of.  The taxi ride there was interesting.  We got lost as usual.  It makes me very stressed out when I am lost.  God needs to work on me about  that.

On Thursday we went to my superintendents house for an early Halloween party.  We had appetizers and we got to talk.  The view of the Persian gulf from her place is amazing.

Exercising Fun

I have started exercising twice a week by doing a class at school.  The trainer pushes us to the limit, but hopefully in a couple weeks I might be able to do a pushup:)  Maybe.... 3 friends and I met a guy who showed us his college, proposed to my friend (he has one wife already - he is from egypt - he says he is allowed to have four wives)  He says he has four "friendlies", I guess it is his term for girlfriend.  So we constantly make jokes now about having "friendlies".  He also informed us that viagra can keep four "friendlies" happy.  He gave us a ride home, and when I looked to the left, the fast lane cars were passing us, when I looked to the right, the slow lane cars were passing us, when I looked behind, the middle lane cars were passing us.  It was an adventure.

I am starting an alpha class soon.  Praying I will meet some more Christian friends.  Progress reports come out this week.  I am learning a lot and God is good.

Starting a Great Blog:)

Today is 9-23-12.  I am attempting at creating a blog.  An update thus far.  I teach 6 Pre-Algebra grade 8 classes.  One class is entirely boys.  Today I had a glee party with a few friends here.  We can download it the day after it shows in the U.S.  She is a professional chef and teacher, the lady whose apartment we went to to watch glee.  She made us pasta and it had asparagus and I liked it.

I will continue posting more.  I will try once a week, more if I am motivated and have good stories:)