The dust bowl

Kuwait seems hell-bent on beating us down before it spits us out of the country on June 16.  For the past four days, we suffered through the worst of the dust storms, revealing the chinks in our household armor (I am also reading The Hunger Games Trilogy again, hence the reference).  We have found most of the cracks in the window sills which resulted in a good layer of dust that is remarkably hard to clean.  Every morning, the day started off clear enough but quickly the storm obliterated the sun, as a shadow cast over the land.  As the day went on, the winds kicked up and the dust became heavier.  We felt it on our teeth, in our hair, with everything we did.  Gross.  We ordered in because I did not want to expose our food to all the kitchen dust.  One of Russ' colleagues, Jeff, passed out surgical masks to get us through the days.  We woke up regularly through the night.  Students stayed home because of the difficulty in breathing.  Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education never called a "dust day", although other schools took it upon themselves to close. 

So now in our weather forecast wishlist are scorching hot and sunny days - if the sun is shining and 110 outside, chances are that the dust is at a minimum and that is highly preferred.

The students are especially difficult now as well as school comes to an end.  Never in my whole career working with students have I encountered such entitlement and demands..  So far I have been able to hold my ground on saying no to teacher changes, class changes and other whims.  In a few situations, when they did not get what they wanted, their parents came in and we went through the whole ordeal again.  One parent went to the Ministry of Education to say that our school was being unfair to Kuwaitis.  Of course it is unfair - Kuwaitis get special treatment on most things!  Of course, Russ does not have many students now - just a handful of juniors who go into exams tomorrow.  Which is ok, he has more than paid his dues this year.

Everybody is cranky and eager to leave this place.  There are only seven more days of school and four more with students.  I'll have some admin work to do  and we are moving our offices but they will be relatively quiet.

I know that the grass is greener on the other side, that being Dalton.  I can't wait.  We leave for Germany in a week and half and will be back in the Berkshires in two and half weeks.