It's beginning to feel a...

little like Christmas. The holiday decorations around Surabaya are a bit over-the-top. I mean, how do you make an equatorial city with no winter give off the Christmas feel? Oh, OK, you decorate the palm trees in Christmas lights and you just thank God for the rainy season!

Our school environment has done a great job ringing in the Christmas holiday. My class was decked out with a Christmas tree, lights, stockings, and kids clad in Santa hats or reindeer headbands. The last week of before the break was inundated with holiday festivities. There were staff parties, cookie decorating get-togethers, Secret Santa, the Elementary Christmas concert, morning caroling by the Koi pond at school, and a holiday assembly.

Here are some photos and videos of our past week.

We'll write more upon our return from Lombok!

Merry Christmas


Xavier reading at the assembly...  (click to see on YouTube)

Anouk's ballet dance... (click to see on YouTube)

The Rainstorm Commeth (click to see on YouTube)

Caroling at the Koi Pond (click to see on YouTube)

Pretty Salma

Our budding actress makes her debut in an African version of "Little Red Riding Hood". The play is called "Pretty Salma" and is the culmination of the Kindergarten's unit on storytelling. Anouk plays Pretty Salma, a little girl who gets tricked by a sly dog after shopping for her grandmother. Listen for the cackling in the background--Xavier was DEFINITELY present!

Mea Culpa

Forgive me family for I have sinned. It's been 50 days since my last blog. No, I didn't shake off the side of an island in some great earthquake or wash away in a great tsunami or even evaporate in a cloud of ash as a volcano spewed around me. My life is not that interesting and thank God my family and I were not affected.

That is not my excuse family.

I must claim over-worked, over-committed, and over-scheduled as my only defense. It feels as if the only moments I have taken out for myself were the mandatory 1-hour-a-week to watch "Project Runway" and the late night hours I would steal away to voraciously read the Hunger Games trilogy. No trips to Bali, no pedicures and massages, no parties, and absolutely NO R&R!

So here I am, at 9:05 p.m. waiting outside in a rockin’ reception room (listening to the Bangles sing “Eternal Flame”) as Rob bravely sits in the dentist’s chair. I just finished editing some papers and putting the finishing touches on my report cards when a great feeling of embarrassment and good ole Catholic guilt came over me. There’s so much to share…

Xavier’s 7th birthday celebration went off without a hitch. His favorite moment was blowing out the candles on a jungle-themed cake that the “Cake Boss” would be hard pressed to whip up in 24 hours (and for only $50);

Rob and Xavi went on a 3 day field trip with the 6th graders to a rural farm community where Xavier had the time of his life despite embarrassing his Papa by stockpiling bread at every meal;

My teaching partner and I took our grade 2 students on a field trip to a local orphanage after discussing how we are all responsible for creating a safe and happy environment for our community. Reliving my student’s generosity (of food, clothes, and toys) and the awe that they had when the realized the conditions that the orphans live in still chokes me up;

The inside of our palace, I mean house, was painted, the shipment arrived, and we (read: Rob) unpacked 68 boxes in 24 hours;

The school fair was remarkable, the likes of which we have not participated in since Kenya! The food was fabulous, the exhibitors were amazing, the games were fantastic, the entertainment was phenomenal (especially Anouk singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” on stage), and the weather was FREAKIN’ HOT!!!!!

I went on a walk through old Surabaya and learned about the old shipping port, the Dutch influence, the old architecture, inadevertantly participated in a Buddhist funeral, walked through the fish market, and rode in my first becak (like a rikshaw).
 
After writing a story about how he couldn’t hear, Xavier received a CT-Scan which led us to a diagnosis of: infected sinus’ and a treatment of: no icy cold drinks;

Anouk is having a rough go. She found out that her boyfriend’s family will be moving to Australia at the end of the year, the librarian won’t let her check out chapter books (we fixed this one), and Mele, the dog, loves Xavier more than her;

Halloween… enough said!

And... though we never got to see a game, the Giants won!

So despite the fact that I’m exhausted and sitting at the dentist’s office at a 9:30 p.m., things feel like their starting to settle down a bit. I’ve got my driver’s license in hand and actually know where I’m going when I zoom around the city. We have hired a nanny to keep watch on the kids (and the house lady who lets the kids walk all over her) and are finding a groove.

I promise things will be better and the next message will be about some great adventure.

I am off to start on my 30 Hail Mary’s now!

Food, glorious food!

Boring...3 on a moped.

September is here, time for me to make my annual contribution to our blog. I know, once a year is pretty pathetic but I’m trying to be exclusive, kind of like a Ferrari, just better looking. So what to write about? The trips we have taken in our new car, the elusive quest to see a family of 6 on a moped, or maybe the crazy bugs we have found in our house this week. All good topics, but very Toyota, I need a Ferrari topic. It came to me as I was cleaning up the charcoal from the barbeque that was knocked over by one of the neighborhood cats: Food, glorious food! So here it is: the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good

Our housekeeper/cook.

Our housekeeper: we really lucked out with her, our little old lady may not be a spring chicken but boy does she know how to cook! We have been spoiled with home cooked meals every day: chicken soup, fresh samosas, noodles, rice, you name it, all followed by freshly cut fruit of course. Unfortunately she’s not around on the weekends so we have to fend for ourselves (I know, life’s rough over here). Lucky for us there are places in the mall that have food-for-money exchange programs and what’s even more amazing is that it costs about 150,000 rupiah to feed a family of four. That translates to about $16, including the tip.

The Bad

BBQ- in :)  Beer-out :(

Our housekeeper: she cooks a great meal and what do you do with good food … you eat it, and if you’re anything like me, you eat too much of it. And what happens when you eat too much of it … you get bigger, and we all know I don’t need to get any bigger; Anouk yes, Papa no. So that is why on Monday I am starting the first annual my-housekeeper-makes-really-good-food-but-I-have-no-self-control-and-it-goes-straight-to-my-hips diet. Can you fire someone for cooking delicious food?

The Ugly

Disgusting durian.

Our housekeeper: just kidding, she’s cute as a button. I just have to say, I don’t usually look at a button and think “wow, that is one cute button”, I would have gone with “cute as a baby tiger”, but that’s just me. Anyway, there are plenty of foods here that fall under the ugly category. There’s durian, the fruit that stinks to high heaven. The smell hits you as soon as you walk into a store that sells it and there’s really no way to describe it. There are the black eggs that are for sale in the supermarket but we’re just too scared to buy.

Awesome... 100 year old eggs.

And then there are the potato chips, oh the potato chips. My theory is that the big-wigs at the top potato chip manufacturers made a bet to see who could come up with the craziest flavor and actually get people to eat it. My two personal favorites are prawn (the chips are actually pink) and salmon teriyaki, clearly two flavors that should not come as potato chips. But it’s working, just like big oil can double gas prices in the summer, so can big potato chip get you to eat the most obnoxiously flavored potato chips, at least they got me to eat them.

So there you have it, job finished. Time to sit back, open a bottle of Bintang, grab some snacks and watch some soccer. Oh how I love thee, pre-diet days! Until next year.
Rob

Another interesting day in Southeast Asia

Xavier has been thrilled about his impending birthday. Prior to the big day he had planned every event that we would participate in (especially since he has to wait 2 weeks until his friends-only birthday party). So when we arrived at Cartoon Kingdom for an hour of jungle fun, we thought things were off to a good start. Once the kids were justifiably dripping of sweat and exhaustion, we decided make our way to activity #2-- Dr. Fish.

Dr. Fish is one of those figures-it-originated-in-Southeast-Asia-activities that is not only common here, but also a must-experience while visiting. Found at the Supermal just minutes from the house, Dr. Fish is a boutique at the mall where you can pay $3 bucks for 15 minutes of incredibly weird fun. Cut into the floor are huge bathtubs filled with reddish log sucker fish. They offer a fish pedicure and nibble off dry, dead, skin from your feet and legs by sucking. Crazy! Putting our feet inside was a bit of a shock for the kids and I. Passers by froze in their paths as we (read: Angela) screamed with a mixture of excitement, fear, and exhilaration. The feeling is nearly inexplicable. A slight feeling of pins and needles as the fish swarm around your feet and suck away. Rob was thrilled with the feeling and, after a few minutes, the kids were relaxed and enjoyed the experience immensely. After our 15 minutes of fish reflexology, we dried our feet and walked away rejuvenated. Our feet looked fresh and felt clean--what a difficult day in Southeast Asia.

The afternoon was broken up by some brief shopping at the hardware and grocery store--the smell of durian lingering like a repulsive cloud over my head--thank God I'm not pregnant or I'd never survive in a grocery store here! Xavier quite enjoyed picking out his birthday present as mama spent some quality time negotiating paint colors. We spent the hottest part of the day at home in air conditioned loveliness reading, playing, and Skype-ing loved ones.

At night, we made our way back to the Supermal where Xavier wanted a dinner of pizza and ice cream. Pizza Hut pizza is a very exciting find here. Light and bubbly crust tasting similar to Brooklyn-style pizza is going to make it hard to give up bread again. Yummo! On our way home from the mall, we were on a quest for our frogs on the grass and bats flying through the trees. As we approached our house, we were planning our bath-books-bed routine but the large dark shadow scurrying along the outside wall of our house startled us. I tried to, coyly, ask Rob if that's what a rat. He told me it was and as we got closer to the house I was praying that the rat wouldn't make it's way up our gate and into our garden, but, of course, it did! Once noticed, Anouk immediately (and on cue) began crying. We tried to convince Anouk that his name was Ratatouille and he was a nice rat, but she put us in our place. While keeping one eye on the front wall of our garden to watch for the moving shadow, we unlocked the door of the house. Xavier ran in to unlock the garage door and release our foot-long guard dog who we thought would be desperate for a bathroom break (and who would chase the unwelcome visitor away). But like the lame little puppy that she is, she stood on the porch wagging her tail, totally oblivious of the task we had for her.

Once we were all safely in the house, we began to put away all of our bags of shopping and prepare for bedtime. I went into the kitchen to put the scissors away and freaked out when I turned on the light--a 2-inch long cockroach type bug was chillin' by the stove. I screamed bloody murder and ran out to the living room. Anouk, still crying over the rat freaked at the assumption that there was a rat in our kitchen. I spelled out my findings to Rob and told the kids not to go in there, which, in-turn prompted Xavier to walk right into the kitchen to see what all the hubbub was about. Tossing a towel on the bug, Rob trapped the creature and then pounced like an attacking lion. He came out into the living room to tell me that he hadn't heard a crunch but he thought he got it. He and Xavier went in to check the trap and were pleased to see the cockroachy thing was smashed to smithereens.


After that brief encounter, we all walked upstairs to get the babes (particularly our tiny tearful girl) ready for bed. I jumped in the shower to wash the day's adventure and humidity off me when Rob told me, in no uncertain terms, to not look on the bed. Of course, I freaked out again. Apparently, a millipede had founds its way onto my side of the bed. As I learned this information I screamed at the kids and warned them to evacuate their beds so we could do a bed-check. After our brave and fearless papa pulled off one sheet at a time, our timid family was hysterical with laughter (except Anouk who was hysterical with tears) at the peculiar turn our evening had made. After bed-checks, Xavier decided to keep his sister safe by letting her sleep in his bed.


Rob and I decided to conclude our crazy evening with a good movie, some popcorn, and a double gin and tonic. As I got the movie ready, Rob tossed the popcorn in the microwave. As the microwave pulled the amperage it needed to pop the corn, the circuits blew and we lost power again. With the freaky rat lurking somewhere outside, Rob braved the fuse box out in the garden. What would I do without him?


Xavier's 7th birthday was another interesting day in Southeast Asia and not one soon forgotten!

We’re not in Kansas anymore…

8 of 10 on the first day!

The first week of school was a bit of a blur. The kids are great, Rob’s classes are amazing, the students are engaged (though for me, they’re 2nd graders, so they’re only engaged for about 10 minutes at a time), and the schedule is doable. Thank God it’s over! We both hate the first week—filler activities, pre-assessments, forgetting names, missing yard duties, and everything that comes with first week jitters. But anyway it’s behind us and we ALL made it!

The weekend was great. Friday night, we ditched out on the First Friday party to celebrate Rob’s birthday at a Dutch restaurant at the Supermal (yes, it should be spelled with 2 “ll’s”, but it’s not!). On our walk home we were nearly scared out of our shorts as we noticed the leaves on the grass moving. After stopping and trying to figure things out, we noticed that the leaves were actually toads out for their evening meal. This motivated the kids to come home and watch “The Princess and the Frog” before bedtime. The frogs have become a great incentive tool as we persuade the kids to walk back up the hill to the Supermal to shop.

Saturday was spent as most Saturdays are spent—errands. We’ve decided, though, that errands are REALLY difficult when: your mobile phones aren’t charged and don’t have credit, you don’t have a car, and you don’t speak Bahasa Indonesian (the local language). First, the phones. Urgh. We bought pay-as-you-go cards because the money is supposed to last a long time and they are really easy to find. Unfortunately, we had been receiving the occasional text messages in Bahasa. No biggie. Except… we must have inadvertently responded to one and now we’ve been bombarded with text messages that has depleted our credit.

250,000 Rp. = $25

Second, we don’t have a car, a driver, or a driver’s license. This is not a big deal except it has limited our range of travel and exploration to the areas we can get to on foot or places that we already know. The first time I got in a car, I hadn’t figured out the exchange rate yet so when the driver told us that we owed him 15,000 Rp. I nearly flipped my lid. But then I realized that it was only about $1.50 and that was after a 10 minute drive. Not bad.

But there’s another problem about not having a car—we end up schlepping a lot of stuff around! After a wonderfully exciting 5 hours at the Supermal, Rob and I decided to reward the kids with the things they had been asking for since Grandma and Grandpa left—bean bags! OK, fine, we can handle bean bags. At the “Bean Bag” store, we noticed that the small, cute, soft and cuddly bean bags were like 1,300,000 Rp. Yes, I said 1 MILLION, 3 HUNDRED THOUSAND Rupiah (though that’s only about $130.00) and the gigantic, easy-to-wash, and not-so-cute bean bags were only 700,000 ($70.00). So, we got 2 mammoth, colossal, and I mean freakin’ HUGE bean bags. At the register, it occurred to Rob and I that they would never fit in a taxi. So, we decided to hoof-it home! Yup, through the packed Supermal, the crazy gringos slogged their big ass “Santa” bean bags. Through the mall, and the traffic, passed the frogs (that we NEEDED to watch), passed the laughing guards who protect our complex, and into our home. We need a car!

The third rather big challenge here is we don’t speak Bahasa Indonesian. All we can say is “thank you” and between the four of us, can probably count to 5. This is OK as we’ve done a great job getting around with broken English, charades, and a lot of business cards. We’ve been able to order dinner, price out a new car, buy a couch, and grocery shop all without knowing more than the cordial Indonesian head bow and “thank you.”

Our lack of Bahasa came to a head after a rather exciting day at school on Monday. Let me detour here for a minute and tell you about the crazy day we had. Tuesday is Indonesian Independence Day and the way the school celebrates is by getting the local and expat staff together in the gym for the “Merdeka” games. “Merdeka” is the Bahasa word for freedom so it’s a great way to commemorate their freedom from the Dutch. In any case, the gym is packed with people all decked out in their red and white clothes to play silly games like: balance the rice basket on your head, tug-of-war, and cross-dressing soccer. It was a hoot to watch and next year we’ll be prepared with tennis shoes and gym shorts. At the end of the event, winners are given huge bags of food and everyone walks away with a goody bag—an SIS tote bag with a traditional Ramadhan dinner. Awesome. But the kids had no idea we’d be going to the “Merdeka” games. I had forgotten about the games when I had promised the kids a trip to the pool. Oops. So, to make up for my tactical error, Rob and I decided to take them to McDonald’s for dinner.

Bubur Ayam Soup?

We need to learn Bahasa. Except for the things we ordered by picture: Xavier and my cheeseburgers, Anouk’s spaghetti, and Rob’s Big Mac, we had no idea what we were getting. The ketchup is substituted with chili sauce, most meals are offered without French fries but with rice, noodle soup and fried chicken drumsticks are on the value meal, and napkins are a commodity. It was definitely a night to remember. Our Indonesian cultural experience ended with a long walk home past the frogs as we counted the bats we saw flying overhead. We read our Indonesian fairytales for kids and called it a night.

The way Google celebrated the day

Happy Independence Day Indonesia! It’s been quite a ride already.

FYI—we are all a “Twitter” as our mobile twitter account is all hooked up. You can follow us on a more regular basis by logging on—http://twitter.com/teach4Travel.

The Eagle Has Landed

Entrance of the school

It's just after 4 am and I can hear the faint chant of a nearby mosque from my bedroom. Excitement and sadness is welling up inside me because today my parents leave and I get to meet my students for the first time. It’s orientation day for students at Surabaya International School so my kids are stoked that they get to meet their new teachers and see their classrooms. But today is bittersweet because our amazing support is outta here! Grandma and Grandpa have been awesome as we hit the ground running here in Surabaya. From day 1, Rob and I have participated in loads of shopping sprees, orientation (read: networking) meetings, and lavish lunches in gorgeous, historic hotels or enchanting garden settings and we haven’t worried about the kids once!

Front of the house

WOW! This was the first word uttered from my mouth when we arrived and I think I've repeated it about 1,000 times since we've been here. We have arrived in an amazing world full of green, beauty, buzz, energy, and excitement. It's a city of contrasts, big skyscrapers and 50-floor apartment buildings interspersed with intimate canals and bustling neighborhoods. The landscape reminds us of Kenya everywhere we turn.

Welcome flowers

The dining and living area

The day we arrived was an oddity. A downpour hit Surabaya, the likes of which haven’t been seen in over 50 years. Though we’re on the southern hemisphere and it is winter season, it doesn’t typically rain in the winter, so the rain caused all sorts of havoc (read: traffic). When we finally pulled up to our house we realized that the pictures we had been sent didn’t really tell the whole story. The house is gigantic. The entry way (which was decorated with a gorgeous flower arrangement), living room, and dining room area (which meld together into a great room of sorts) are about the size of our Kuwait apartment…and we haven’t even gotten to the rest of the joint. There is a spacious spare bedroom/office downstairs, an arched staircase that leads upstairs to a landing that will serve as the kids play area and TV room. From there, stem our three bedrooms. Xavier has the smallest of the three rooms but he opted for that one because he wanted a Queen-size bed. Anouk picked a slightly bigger bedroom with a balcony that overlooks the back garden, while Rob and I moved ourselves into our gigantic Master bedroom with en suite. Our balcony overlooks the front garden and, on a clear day, to the volcanoes in the distance. The biggest problem with the house is the size—the ceilings are so high, the rooms are so big, and everything is so lavish that it makes all the furniture look puny. Xavier and Anouk LOVE their new house and are thrilled with their bedrooms. They think we live in a castle.

The Koi pond

The front sign

Day 2 brought the family (not just Rob and I) to school. The kids walked into the foyer of the school, clad in antique Indonesian furniture, art, and fresh flowers from the school’s gardens with gaping mouths. They both sort of squealed with excitement especially when they walked out to the hallway and stopped at the koi pond to get a view of the school’s local pets. A few strides past the pond, they were outside playing on the swings and slides and really enjoying their new playground. The kids are THRILLED with their new school. And as parents, Rob and I couldn’t be happier. The classrooms are nearly twice the size of our rooms in Kuwait and for me… I will only have 10 students. I have cabinets stacked with books and the storage room (between both classrooms contains everything our heart could desire, plus an entire guided reading room just for grade 2). It’s an amazing contrast that excites me both personally and professionally! And then there was the library!!! Who doesn't love an amazing library? The kids took a tour of the library with grandma and were amazed at how many books they can read. It is surely a sight to be seen!

A view of 1/2 the library

Life is good for us here! But it became even better on Sunday after an enchanting brunch at the Shangri-La hotel. My new Principal, Robbie, and his son Harry James, took our family on a brief tour of the Pakuwon Golf Club just minutes from our house. After a brief look around, it was a no-duh that we needed to become members, so we signed up! (For those of you who visited the Corniche with us in Kuwait…it puts that place to shame!) Monday found Rob and I at school trying to get things ready for the year but found the kids at the pool with my parents (and their new pal, Harry James) for nearly 8 hours. By the time we arrived home that afternoon, the kids were three shades darker than we left them that morning and they were zombie-like in front of the TV. So… the grown-ups left the kids with Noryeti, the house lady the school hired to start off our time here, and we went to a wonderful dinner in the clouds (literally). At 6 pm, we arrived at a rooftop restaurant with glass walls and no ceiling. The cool, evening breeze washed over us as we ordered up a few beers and glasses of wine. As we raised our glass to toast, our Superintendent, Larry repeated a phrase that we’ve heard about a dozen times since our arrival, “Well, here’s to another hard day in Southeast Asia.”

The Shangri-La Hotel

I apologize for not writing more than this, but we are currently in a house with no internet and when we are at school, with internet, we are more focused on working and preparing for our start on Monday.

Give us a couple weeks to get in the groove and we should be able to send emails, Skype, or talk on the phone. Until then… we hope all is well and if you think I’m exaggerating—my parents will be home by Monday, so you can ask them yourselves!

We are happy and we feel really blessed to start another “hard” day in Southeast Asia!

Ready to go swimming?

Our kids are experienced travelers. They have racked up something like 100,000 miles in their short little lives, but every once in a while, jet lag REALLY affects them! The day we arrived in California (after a lovely 3-week jaunt to Belgium), we came into a typically frenetic Fagundes home. Within minutes of walking in the door, our little foursome was greeted by a table full of people and food. It was good to be home! By the time mid-afternoon approached, the number of visitors totaled 8 and we were just getting started. Unfortunately, our bodies were starting to feel the strain of 15-hours of travel. So... Uncle Dommie, Auntie Anna, and the beautiful Baby Katya decided to take Xavier and Anouk for a little excursion to the pool. The video that follows (or use this link) is the comedic banter between Uncle Dommie and two TIRED babies!

Summer Starts in Belgium

Listening to Shakira's song, "It's Time for Africa" still brings a tear to my eye. The sounds of the drums, the Swahili, and the echos of Africa race through me and make my heart beat a bit quicker. I remember the night I left Kenya--I felt as if the floor had dropped out from under me. Leaving Kuwait was not the same. Rob and I pumped fists and giggled like kids as the wheels lifted from the tarmac-- "It's OVER!" I thought to myself with great satisfaction. Though we made a few great friends... Kuwait was just not the place for us and, great friends or not, it would NEVER be our home.

That chapter of our lives behind us, we move on to our brief but exciting summer. Starting in a chilly Belgium, we have been wearing smiles nonstop. The kids spent the first week bundled up in sweaters and hats while helping their Bomma and Bompa tend to the garden. The fresh lettuce, potatoes, carrots, scallions, and peas have filled our bellies and our brains as the kids have learned SO much about farming. Who woulda thought my "city" kids would be interested in digging for potatoes. And that my baby girl, to be precise, would yank up her skirt and get her hands dirty amongst the worms and the bugs!

While the kids have spent a lot of time with their Bomma and Bompa, Rob and I have spent a lot of quality (read: alone) time walking to downtown Geel, enjoying beers and mojitos at the market square, and window shopping in preparation for the July 1st sales! What a luxury teacher summers can be!

A brief holiday to Disney Paris, dinners with friends, and celebrations of 40th wedding anniversaries behind us... it's time to move on. We leave Belgium for the good 'ole USA in time for an overload of Americana on July 4th.

So far, so good! Summer is the peaceful reprieve we've needed! Our souls are uplifted and we're ready for our next adventure.

Our new digs

Day 2 of my school week has been hot, humid, and without water. I forgot my water bottle 2 days in a row. With another blasted headache I thought today would be ruined for sure. But... during lunch, I closed my door and went online to check out my email account at my new school. And miraculously... my headache disappeared. Yup, like magic. Poof. Gone! 3 emails from our new Superintendent were better than Excedrin Migraine. Pictures of our new house in Surabaya wiped away any issues I was having. It looks as if we'll have more than enough space for visitors. Hope to see you there!

Paying It Forward

Now that the dust has settled (both literally and figuratively), I have time to sit back and reflect on the events of the last month...

The morning of January 14th was a cold, gloomy one in Kuwait. I had woken up about 3 am to the sounds of construction across the street. I made myself a cup of coffee and was mesmerized by coverage of the earthquake in Haiti that occurred just two days before. As I sat and watched the stories, I was shocked at myself. Even though we just finished a unit on the Earth and the rock cycle, I hadn't brought the current event into my classroom. But today, would be different. As I continued to listen to the TV with one ear, I scoured student-friendly websites for a child-centered article about the Haitian earthquake. Thanks to a few student newspapers, I was able to get a few pieces of news for my kids to read.

On this cold, quiet day, my students entered the classroom, a newspaper article on each student's desk and a pointed question on the board... "What can you do to help TODAY?" After reading the articles, my kids opened up their writing journals and reflected on the question. By 8:30 that morning journal entries were written, read, discussed, and my kids had begun a fundraising campaign. Some groups were working on posters, others were creating informational handouts for families, some were reworking our classroom website to share information and include Haiti-donation links, while others made money collection bins.

As the lunch bell rang at 12:30, my first group were grabbing their money collection bins and making their way to the canteen to collect money for the Haitian victims. At their evening play, my kids were on a collection crusade and pressured everyone to open up their wallet and give! By the end of day 1, my students had collected over 125 KD (just over $430). It was surreal.

As the next week arrived, I wondered how the families at our school would take to donating. I had heard that a lot of Kuwaiti corporations would not donate because the beneficiaries were not Muslim. I hoped that this would not be the case. And it certainly was not! The money came pouring in. From parents, coming by our classroom with 20 KD notes ($70), to students offering their lunch money, from envelopes full of $100 bills, to little tikes who offered everything in their "piggy" bank. The generosity was amazing!

By the end of our 2-week collection, my students had motivated the school to action and collected over 3330 KD ($11,500). The Elementary students had collected over 1600 KD, asked the ownership to donate and were greeted with a 1000 KD contribution, and the Middle school and High School students raised the balance. My students were amazed at how much they could raise, but didn't understand the significance until they were given the opportunity to pass the money on to the Red Crescent.

On Tuesday, February 19th, Mr. Mohammed, the International Relations Officer for the Kuwait Red Crescent came to our classroom to collect our generous donation. With my Principal, the school owner, other teachers, and media representatives in toe, my students listened as Mr. Mohammed educated them about the Red Crescent. The students were true inquirers as they asked questions about when and how the money would make it to Haiti, what other good things the Red Crescent has done, and how else they could help. At the end of the presentation, the kids and I had an open-discussion about the days events. My students were shocked that the event was attended by the owner of the school AND the media. But what they were most impressed about was how proud the adults were. One of my students said, "Ms. Angela, all we did was raise some money. Why are all of you [grown-ups] so impressed?" I didn't have a chance to answer. One of my boys, Philo, chimed in. He said that it wasn't just the grown-ups that were proud of us. But he was proud of us. He said that earlier in the year we learned about Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King, Jr.--people who saw injustice and who spoke up to defend others. He said to everyone--we are like those people. "We were one small voice, but when we got together, we made change happen."

I truly have an amazing class this year!

to read the full article as it appeared in the newspaper... click here!

And the winner is...

Surabaya, Indonesia.

Surabaya is the capital city of East Java and the 2nd largest city in Indonesia. It is known as the "City of Heroes" because of it's importance during the Indonesian National Revolution from the Netherlands in 1945.

We are really excited about this opportunity for a variety of reasons... here are some of the perks to life in Indonesia:

• Rob will get to work in a 1-1 laptop integration program. (All students in grades 6-12 get a school laptop to use in their wireless school.)
• Angela will get to teach grade 2 or 3.
• Xavier and Anouk will spend 1/2 of their PE classes in the school's Olympic-size swimming pool.
• The school facility is new, modern, and spacious.
• We'll get a house with a garden, grass, and trees (maybe even a house with a pool!).
• The kids can get a dog.
• We'll be a 50 minute flight from Bali.

Surabaya will be a great place for our family. There's a nice work hard, play hard attitude at the school and this is a welcome change for all of us. We will be in a culturally stimulating environment living on one of Indonesia's 17,500 islands. Yes, we'll remain in a Muslim country, but we'll be living in a place that's also been inspired by Indian culture as well as the Buddhist and Hindu religions. We'll have the opportunity to see fabulous new art, culture, landscapes, and animal life: volcanoes, rain forests, orangutans, tigers, and Komodo dragons, just to name a few.

We're considering a Spring Break trip out there to scope, begin our orientation, and help the kids begin our transition. We shall see what the purse strings can swing!

We're very excited and hope you'll come to visit!

What I did at school today

Dear Family,
Today at school was the best day because I got to watch 2 videos called "Moppie and Annie." They are characters to teach kids about the computer. They taught the whole class adding and subtracting. They even teach us about spelling and details. They are computer geniuses. Today at Arabic class, I had a new kid from my class come in and join us. Her name is Jenna. She wasn't in AFL last week. She even was so good at Arabic but she had a very hard time getting stickers like Harry, Renee, Maguire, Pavlo, and me! She is the fastest learner in our class. Every time I come back from Arabic we are always late for recess. At Religion class, me and Maguire got two and three happy faces because we were doing so good that we can earn a GOTCHA pencil. At Religion class we were learning about Japan and we made the information into a very genius book. But now we are learning about Mexico. I had the best lunch ever because I had a turkey sandwich. Today in math we learned about 1/2 and then we matched the 1/2. Ms. Mariam told us to make 1/2 homework for our parents and I did. For inquiry class we studied the community helpers. But we studied about two communities: Africa and Kuwait. After we did inquiry, it was time for closing circle and I always copy Harry, but today, I forgot what he said so I didn't copy him today. When we came outside to go home, Maria was already there to pick us up. Maria brought me 2 chocolate cookies, bananas, and nectarines but don't tell my mama and papa. Anouk had the banana and Harry had the nectarine. I just ate my cookie. We like to share our snack.
Love,

Xavier

I went to school today and I played. I played with puppets in Ms. Maha's classroom when I was done with my work. I traced only a helicopter picture during art. And trees. Then, I said, "Good Morning Moo" and then we did calendar. Moo is a stuffed animal doneky that lives in our classroom. Moo is fun because he has eyes and special ears that bend. After we did the calendar, we did groups. I am in the green group and I started with my tire. Ms. Eva (my teacher) told me to draw a tire because she told us to. Then we had lunch and a cucumber sandwich. It was the best sandwich ever. After I ate my sandwich and the cupcake that Maria made me. It was full of bananas and apples. It was yummy. Then our class did "I Wonder." That means we ask questions about things that move. I asked the question about a buggy. My teacher said that a buggy goes from place to place. And then we did center time. I played in the music center. I put on headphones and I listened to music. I heard the song, "It Must be Santa." Then there was Arabic class with Ms. Nina. I am on the letter that makes the "h" sound like "Hamad." After Arabic I had recess and I played with my friends, Sheka and Leia. We played monsters and it was fun, not scary. Then we read a story. After the story we went home. After school I was playing on the playground a big boy hit me on the head. Maria told him to "STOP!!!!" She said, "Don't climb on the roof of the house or I'll tell Mrs. Angela." And then the boy went to the big playground. We played with Harry after school. He's in Xavier's class. Harry will come over to our house on Tuesday. The End.

Love,
Anouk

Interview Jitters

Nobody likes an interview. It's not a skill we practice very often. Actually, it's only really a skill that we use when we're in need of a new job, so I hypothesize that that is part of the problem with interviews. You're jittery because you want to shine and you need a job! So it's kind of a "no duh" that Rob had this look on his face before we had our initial Skype interview with our first prospect. Once the "phone" rang and we were head-to-head with our interview, I began to think that this whole Skype thing was the way to go. It was cool to come home from work, change your bottoms from tights and skirts to jeans and slippers, and then sit comfortably in the security of your own home to conduct, what could amount to be, one of the biggest changes in your life--a job interview.

Anyway... I don't want to talk too much about it here, this is kind of the public domain and all, but I'll tell you--Rob and I are excited. We are thrilled, not only to have the first interview under our belt, but we are even more ecstatic to know they want to conduct 2nd interviews with us.

Wish us luck. With the Bangkok fair complete, our job pool (we search based on Tech Teacher positions available) leaves us only 11 schools in 8 different countries: Oman, China (Shanghai and Beijing), Israel, Morocco, Indonesia (Bali and Suribaya), Jordan, Qatar, and Vietnam.

Anything sound interesting to you?