week long stress....

It's time for another wonderful update.

School got back to the swing of things with a rocky start and a whole lot of chaos...three weeks later chaos is still the name of the game. We are having problems with teachers, problems with parents, problems with world politics, problems with kids...it's pretty exhausting but simple joys make it worth coming back the next day to do the job all over again.

This is the story of my month, other than the weekly routine of teaching, come home, work on the masters, talk to Nick, go to bed, get up and do it all over again, there's really nothing new.

TIB

new year stuff

I was back in school for two days before we got 'Ashura holiday' lasting two days... Logic tends to escape the Muslim world from time to time.

Ashura is the observance of a massacre that occurred 1300 years ago in the desert of Saudi Arabia. Imam Hussain (the grandson of the prophet Mohamed) and his family were traveling from Medina to Mecca and they were killed on the way. Shia Muslim men spend a good amount of time during Ashura beating themselves and mourning Imam Hussain. Today it's the cutting--the men will take swords and cut themselves in mourning.

Certain parts of this culture I will never understand and the more I live here the more I don't think I'll ever fully get it.

TIB