What an Amazing Teacher

First off, I think it is safe to say if there was a first year teacher award at our school it would be Tara's. She is the Renaissance woman teaching math, science, health and tutoring three students after school. Side note, I have picked up one language arts tutoring gig myself. Don't tell anyone I can't spel.

One Wednesday night Tara's Food and Nutrition class hosted their dinner for the semester. The students picked a Mexican theme and made burritos, Chimichangas, some good guacamole and bean dip, and apple filled tortillas. There would have been churros too, but someone used the tablespoon instead of teaspoon when adding salt. I think I had to call Grandma Gloria with that question a long time ago during a baking adventure when I was home alone. Tara and the kids worked from 2:30pm-9:30pm. The guests (parents and teachers) said the food was wonderful, and I think they meant it.  The students go through quite the transformation.  Few if any had ever cooked and some had never washed a dish in their life at the start of the semester.  In the end, the kids were satisfied with having completed a task that seemed much to large 30 minutes before the parents arrived, and Tara and I were able to reminisce about crazy restaurant life.

We have only two and a half weeks of school left now and are getting more excited by the day for our Ireland trip and coming home.

Here are some pictures from the evening.

Ray stepping in to do a little supervising.  No one lost any fingers.  Good job Ray!

The group from our compound.  Baby Dylan looks tired.

The Crowd of 50 people

A very tired Tara was given flowers from her class for "[making] this semester amazing" as one student wrote on her card.

Bake Sale and Khobar

This week has been kind of busy getting ready for our school's Fine Arts Night. It was an evening devoted to recognizing the arts complete with awards and a "museum" showing off the students' work. Jamie and I aren't directly connected with the arts, but my nutrition class was asked to host a bake sale at it. We chose items to make in class, plus the students had to make something at home to bring in. It was a hit! Combining money from the bake sale and general donations given, the event raised about 1000 SAR ($266) for an organization in Thailand called Freedom Wheelchairs. The organization gives people wheelchairs who needs them, repairs chairs, and helps people lead quality lives in a place where disabled are usually disregarded. I was really proud of my students and all the work they put into the evening. Now we are working on our big end-of-the-semester dinner project where we serve a complete dinner to their parents and teachers.

We also had our last big trip to Khobar. We ended up spending almost the whole day in town running errands and getting items to bring back to the States. It was also our last time at Lulu, the most amazing grocery store ever! It was sad, but we know we'll see it again in August. Plus, its exciting to think that we'll be back in the States in about a month!

Enjoy the pictures!

Tara

Selling items at the bake sale

Doesn't it look yummy?

A Family Reunion in Bahrain

Tara and I had an awesome weekend! Tara and I left one minute before school got out on Wednesday to go to Bahrain to see Seth. We even took Saturday off of work to have a long weekend with my brother. We weren't sure if he was actually going to get his leave approved, but he did. Seth was happy to escape his base in Djibouti, Africa for a few days, and now he only has two months left.

We took Seth out to the Tree of Life, which he thought was neat. There were a ton of workers out there digging big holes for pottery to put in a museum. They showed us some of the pieces they had dug up.

We also spent some time walking the shopping malls and street shops, watching movies, going out to eat, and visiting the Naval base in Bahrain. Ironman II and Clash of the Titans are good movies if you are wondering. The base was pretty cool to see too. Tara and I walked into their commissary and felt like we walked back into the United States. All the products and name brands we haven't seen in 9 months were oddly comforting.

Even though we didn't do very much, it was one of the best weekends we have had since being here. Spending some time with my brother was just what we needed before going into the lat five weeks of school and Saudi Arabia before we come home for a visit.

Enjoy the pictures

Brothers at the Tree of Life

The deep holes the excavators were digging at the Tree of Life

A rousing game of Monopoly . . . Seth won.

The three of us at TGIFridays for our last meal together

Tara snuck this candid picture

Our GPS said the funniest pronunciations for place names. All the "Al" street names were pronounced "Alabama." "Mohammad VI" also turned into "Mohammad Virgin Islands"