Back to school and some more politics

Today marked the end of my almost three week vacation and my return to school. :( Upon arrival (15 minutes late because of the bus) I learned that school would be let out an hour or so early because our national school counter part is getting out early due to exams. This will last until the end of the month. I have two weeks of real class, in which I have to teach multiplication, one week of review, and then one week of exams.

Does that sound like third grade to you? Sounds like college to me, only I did not even get a "reading week" like a lot of colleges do. Wisconsin got a "reading day" aka half a day. Good thing I am done with college.

In other Egypt news the situation between Israel and Gaza worsens every day. Egypt seems to be taking a lot of heat in the Arab world for it's alleged lack of action. I do not see Egyptians troops becoming involved and there are some valid reasons for keeping the border closed; not wanting foreign troops on their side of the border, not wanting massive amounts of refugees, wanting international assistance in opening the borders, and trying to remain above the constant calls of jihad and martyrdom.

Recently, as of today, it seems Israel had started bombing the tunnels between Rafah and Egypt, damaging property and border crossing stations on the Egyptian side. The tunnels are a major point of contention because Israel believes (and they are probably right ) that Hamas smuggles in a large amount of weapons through the tunnels. But, there are two types of tunnels really. Hamas' tunnels for weapons. Civilian tunnels for every day goods, because when most of the borders in and out of your country are closed things like TVs, baby formula, and electronics can be hard to come by. Egypt wants an international forces present on the Gaza side to help regulate border smuggling, even though they have the military strength and technique to deal with it.

Side note: Unless you are the only son, have no father or have connections most Egyptian men have to serve 13 months in the military after university.

The death toll has reached close to 900 and 3,600 wounded. Israeli troops are on the ground. Still, if the point of this newest war is to stop rockets from launching into Israel that goal is not going to be accomplished by pummeling civilian or Hamas hideouts. Israeli attitudes remains "Hamas will never be the same." While Hamas' attitude remains "as long as there is occupation there will be resistance." Sounds like both sides are still the same.

Egypt is currently brokering peace talks aimed at first establishing a ceasefire. Israel would like to see a US backed guarantee that arms smuggling through the Rafah border will stop. Israel will not stop its attacks until the tunnels are secured. I am interested to see what Obama does with this his first days in office, but hopefully it will be over by the 20th because to many people have died for something that truly cannot be solved with violence.

Again for a good Egyptian news source check out...
www.dailystaregypt.com
They claim to be independent and seem to be.

Fun Day II

While Fun Day II was a total waste of time and not fun at all, there were some good photo ops. Fun Day's at school can sort of be compared to those fundraiser carnivals that most American elementary school students have experienced. I cannot remember the date of Fun Day, but it was a while ago. The pictures are just late :)

Me and Katie with random kids and creepy super skinny Whinnie the Poo.

Obviously kids should be able to buy toy guns at school sponsored events.

Obviously they should be able to play with their guns on bouncy toys advertising Mexican beers. Katie and Paul agree!

Marina, a teacher at the National School, and I check out the goods for sale.

No party is complete without a mustache. Even school parties need them.

School Field Trip

I got to take a field trip with the KG-1s through grade 3! We traveled about 10 minutes to "Plain Air," an estate turned event spot. Ideally I would say use it for a wedding, but they also hosted kids outings with crafts and games. The teachers just got to sit around by the pool, a perfect field trip if you ask me.

Compared with the field trip the upper grades took I lucked out. My colleagues had to chaperone a trip to an amusement park until 7pm and be responsible for a group of kids. I sat around in the sun, ate lunch and gossiped with the teachers. I had a really good time getting to know a few of them as people and not just women who I work with, good people those guys.

The pool area.

First the kids played games in a line, relay type stuff. Also some jumping up and down.

Also some hand raising.

Then we had lunch. Currently pictured is Adam, Amir's younger brother. We spent the lunch hour talking about baby eagle claws. If you are wondering where the baby eagle claws came from the answer is the the tip of a cactus plant. We also wondered where the baby eagles went, the answer to that question was "up there in the sky." Good answer really.

Then we did some crafts. While they were painting their plaster teddy bears I realized not a single kid knew the "Teddy Bear's Picnic" song, how tragic! If anyone reading this knows the words please send them to me and I will have a teddy bear picnic with my third graders.

Yeah crafts!

School shots!

My class!
Youssef, Ziad, Andrew, Amir, Hussein
Farah H, Farah A, Mayar, Habiba and Zeina
Yeah grade three! They got to wear real clothes because it was Fun Day, a fund-raiser for the senior class.

The outside pool, which looks cleaner than it really is. They played house music all day and the "fun" was missing from "fun day," at least for the little ones.

Amir, who is actually American. His mom works at the national school while they live here for a few years. The whole family is awesome, including the first grader Adam.

Mayar in the school cafeteria. The cafeteria only sells junk food, nothing healthy at all. So sad.

Zeina. She is super smart, but very quite.

No worries more school pictures later.