Reconnecting!

Celebrating Jen's Birthday last weekend. She's in pink.  

About 4 or 5 years ago we met this lovely lady in Abu Dhabi. An American teaching in Abu Dhabi, not her first international living experience but her first in the Middle East. We got together weekly, to  share and encourage each other.  She moved to China to teach and we moved to Doha at the same time.  But lo and behold! She moved to Doha about two months ago! So just like no time has passed..we are meeting for coffee every week, or trying to!  It's always fun to spend time with Jen, but my favorite part is usually hearing about her day as a teacher. The stories she shares usually bring us to tears with laughter... which is one of the many ways we all cope over here. :)  

Last week she had some fun ones.  Like how her first graders were doing work with alphabet cards and she had removed the P card...because the illustration was..you guessed it a pig. Wanting to be careful not to offend any of her many diverse students she removed it.  Well, apparently her advanced group would not let it go, "Miss, Miss, we are missing a card. Where is the P??" "Oh maybe it was misplaced..."  "No Miss!  this was just opened! where could it be?? we need to find it!" "No, no, its ok. Just keep working. " "No, Miss! where could it be????" Finally, in a soft whisper she says to the group..It was a pig. And I put it away. OHHHHH . Big eyes everywhere. OK!  And the game continued. Poor, Jen. She was sweating that one.

And the grammar lesson she taught the other day on run on sentences....  And my mom took me to the indoor amusement park and we rode the rollercoaster and we ate lots of food and my mom yelled at me for fighting with my sister and being too loud..."but Miss! why ??? why would my mother be upset with me?? why if I'm too loud? " At the point she lost the whole class. Being loud here is a way of life. I had one friend say that he had yet to be in a restaurant over here where at least one or two kids weren't screaming and running around the tables. Yep. at that point, her lesson was over. She quickly changed her sentence but it was too late. 

She has a boat load of stories. I enjoy every one.  What a blessing for our lives to circle back around together.  Love the stories. Love the laughter!