Our Travels

This week we had Alex's sister visit us for four days. It was a bit short but it was nevertheless lovely to have Francesca up here for a few days. We didn't get to do much because on the second day of her visit due to freak weather, it rained heavily and there was flooding all over Muscat. There was a major accident on the highway not to mention many smaller ones. Cars were washed away from car parks and when we drove Alex to work the roads were flooded and we saw a new landcruiser in the middle of a wadi about to be submerged under the water. On our way back, the landcruiser had dissappeared totally and there was another car nearby suffering the same fate. I still can't understand how they ended up there when the road was ok to drive on. I think they might have sped up and didn't turn the bend in time. The cars were empty otherwise. There were also stories being reported of acts of heroism around town of people risking their safety to help others. It's nice to read...

Alex looking fly in his uniform.

Dear Family & friends, Due to unforseen circumstances we now have to rearrange some parts of our trip. We'll still be in Hong Kong for a week before heading to Wellington, NZ on April 3rd. We're going back to Auckland on April 10th for Alex to return to Muscat for work and I continue on to Samoa to see my family. We hope to catch up with whoever's available of family and friends in New Zealand and Samoa. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Today I did seven hours of teaching which is a bit much. I'm new to the teaching world but I find it interesting how I am treated like I've been teaching for years. I'm not sure what to make of it. I feel maybe they are putting a lot of trust in the new teachers OR I am really supposed to know the ropes and just get on with it. Anyway its late now and I'm covering for a teacher who left the country without notice. I don't mind at all as it keeps me current before our long holiday and it gives me some extra $$ for the trip too. This Friday Alex's sister arrives from New Zealand to stay with us for a few days. So I have a very good reason to cut down my hours so I can show her around Muscat before we leave for Samoa. . OK I really don't have time to blog but I just had to. On the week-end we went to a Ghanaian Ball here in Muscat to celebrate their 50th year of Independence. It was really nice mingling with people from all over Africa. We went with our Kenyan ...

How I love the week-ends these days. I've just finished teaching the evening classes today. We had the final test today and the students were complaining that the test was hard though scanning their answers they were quite capable of answering all the questions. And then of course I have the other lot who just want to get the answers from their mates. What we call cheating they call helping each other!!! It's strange but its a different culture where being competitive is not really in their vocabulary. They would rather help the next person who's having difficulty. I think its great in other aspects but in the classroom it's a headache. Last week another teacher found out that her students were sharing answers via bluetooth on their mobiles during tests. ouch! I just disallow phones, talking and copying. Though they abide by the rules you can still catch some with their necks stretched over their mates' shoulders. I threaten to subtract marks and then I get one apol...