The Reason I Worked 24+ hours

Like last semester I signed up to work for high school examination control. It usually takes from 10am to 3~6pm depending on the amount of work/papers we have. This semester though, is a whole new story...

Everyone probably heard about examination leak that happened midway through the finals. Our job took another curve that day until yesterday, the final day.

Our day starts 8pm. We go to the ministry and stack the exams, collect them in boxes and mount them with iron and stamp them, then head back home at around 12~2am when we finish. Then wake up at 5am, go back to the ministry, take the boxes to our governorate, distribute the exams to each school, wait till 10am, go collect them from the schools and bring them back to examination committee, work on those papers till 6pm, wrap up everything, and head back to the ministry for more exams for the next day (start from the beginning of this paragraph!)

Some people said "Quit". Well it's not that easy. I have signed up for that job with my own will. There's no turning back.

About me getting paid. There's an "extra" payment but it's NOT something worth mentioning. I mean how much would a refinery worker get for that overtime? Probably double his salary. Here though, it's not even a three-digit number. :/

Anyhow... I'm glad now that it's over. It won't prevent me from signing up for it again though we just need to avoid this stupid exam leakage.

Stressed | Part Duex!

Back in January I asked the question

"Is working +12 hours legal?" [link]
A lot of people said it's legal if you're getting paid, which I'm not, and now comes the striking question...

"Is working +24 hours non-stop even legal?"

Note that I'm not getting paid as well.

Sighhh!!

Finally I've finished from the longest working hours of my life, although there's a chance I might get cornered like this again at the end of next semester but the hell with it I don't want to be bothered, I have this short holiday to enjoy.

Someone asked "But you're a teacher, how come you're working +12 hours?". Well, I was assigned to two different jobs regarding high-school first semester exams.

Here's my routine for the past 10 days...

• 05:30AM-07:30AM: *Classified!*


• 07:30AM-09:00AM: The first few days it was a free period then it got loaded with *Classified!!* work.


• 09:00AM-05:00PM: Exams Control.


• 05:00PM-08:00PM: *Classified!!!*


• 08:00PM-11:00PM: *Classified!!!!*

I cannot disclose anything about the "Classified" work but know that we've become labors for the Ministry of Education since they cannot assign none-kuwaitis. That incorporates transportation, weight lifting, mathematical processing, and there's no place for mistakes!

All that and I only had four and a half hours of sleep each day.

*sigh* It's so good to be back to my normal life. *goes to sleep*

Stressed

Is working +12 hours none stop even legal?!

Back after Jan 29th

iTeach #002

School activities & P.E. competitions...

We ended our competitions semester ranking 5th overall (out of +10 schools) which is not so bad since the top three schools had quite a bunch of young athletes.

My boys won three medals in Track & Field (Shot Put: silver, 300m Sprint: bronze, 800m: bronze) and three more medals in Fitness Exercises & Testing (Standing Broad Jump: silver, 50m Sprint: bronze, Crunches: bronze).

Our Gymnastics team had a great chance of winning the competition but seems "wasta" can change the judges scores. My colleague argued with them to no avail and we went out empty handed. I'm sorry for the kids because they did so well yet they didn't win any place.

Knock-out games standings...

Football: Lost in semi final.
Basketball: Lost in semi final.
Handball: Lost second game.
Volleyball: Lost first game.
Table tennis: Lost first game.

iTeach #001

This post starts a new series of blog entries in my blog and it will be about my job as a teacher. Any post tagged with "iTeach" will be related to my job. But first, before I start ranting about it I would like to apologize to intlxpatr for the delay. I really appreciate your concern. I will be posting related stories and updates at least once every month.

Everyday I wake up wondering how I ended up here with this life and this job. I never planned on becoming a teacher neither have imagined myself in this position before I graduated from high school. I know my job is very rewarding but teaching those brats was never for me. Although most times I hate it I'm still 100% dedicated to it, after all it's my job and my source for a living and that's what keeps me going. Still that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed it and its benefits. Let's just say I had more bad days than good days.

I'm still teaching in the same middle-school I used to teach in last year. After a hectic year between Kheitan and Jeleeb Al-Sheyokh in Farwaniya governorate I got transferred to yet another dirty sink in Qurain, Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate.

This school has good facilities, good administration, good P.E. section, and great P.E. colleagues. But the only downside of this school is its relatively high percentage of bad ill mannered students, or to be more precise, the 3agad students. They say "Education starts at home" and since most of those are never home after school till late midnight it's easy to distinguish the educated polite students from the rude ones. Nothing is perfect I guess.

Currently teaching 6th and 8th grade, and also supervising 9th grade. It's a hard task though luckily I have a reduced schedule which suits me well. I also got assigned for another side job after school that has nothing to do with students and it's very rewarding money-wise. That should keep me busy for the end of the year and hopefully I can start cutting out on my very unhealthy shisha addiction since I get home very exhausted.

That's about all for my first iTeach blog entry.

Good bye Jeleeb Sheyokh, you won't be missed.

Last week school's over and I'm out of Jeleeb Sheyokh for good starting next semester (fingers crossed) so here's the ultimate "I HATE JELEEB SHEYOKH" post.

I will show you the trash yard (a.k.a. school) I've been working in for over 6 months. The school has been under construction for the whole time I've been there so that is the actual work environment.

PE fields (soccer/basketball/handball)


Another view...


And another...


School hall/PE hall.


Another view...


And another...


PE section corridor.


Another veiw.


Classes corridor.

-------------Funny--------------



Teachers attendance book.
All PE teachers were late that day, including myself. :P


One of my classes name list. I have no idea how they can live with these names. Funny thing is, Mr. Crazy here is one of the most polite students in the school.
To those who can't read arabic: One of the names is pronounced "Turkey Crazy".


Related topic: [link]

Welcome to Jeleeb Al-Sheyokh

This is what happens when you teach in a school of juveniles.

Yesterday morning I went to work to see that our P.E. section had been robbed. The robbers broke the lock, torn our papers, damaged one desk, and stole some stuff like an air-pump, water boiler, 2 desk drawers and our tea's saffron! Yes. Saffron. Imagine THAT!!

Anyhow, our principal called 777 and one guy came to investigate the crime scene where he took pictures and finger prints.

There were two funny parts in the story:-

1. They've left a note. [link]
   For those who don't understand arabic, it says
   "No to studying; Yes to sneaking out"


2. Looks like one of them couldn't help some kind of internal pressure so he had to leave his "territory mark" in our bathroom, skid marks where ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' PLACE! It's utterly disgusting otherwise I would've posted a picture for you peeps.

Well, that's day 9 in my new school and it sure doesn't look promising. Dealing with junior scum of Kuwait has't been a real pleasure so far. I don't blame it on anything other than this outrageous year.

Enough of 2006

I've been very depressed the past weekend for many reasons; I've lost a friend, feeling my injury's getting back on my right hand, and been having troubles at work. This year just doesn't want to pass peacefully.

My friend, Fawaz Al-Jarki, was the youngest among us. He graduated from high school last year and had been accepted in a military scholarship in UK's air force for pilot rank. Unfortunately he had to pass that scholarship due to medical issues to stay here in Kuwait and continue at KUNIV just to wait for his fate to come.

The day my friend passed away I was playing football and the ball hit my hand and dislocated my thumb. Nothing serious except that I'm feeling the pain of my old injury getting back at me.

Last Wednesday our school principal called for me to tell me that I have been transferred to one of the worst schools in Kuwait at Jeleeb Al-Sheyokh and there's nothing I can do about it. Jeleeb Al-Sheyokh as in the ultimate shYt hole in Kuwait where there's no trace of modern life or even Kuwaiti citizens. I've been trying to reach out to anyone possible to avoid this transfer but it looks like it will happen whether I like it or not.

So there, enough of 2006 because this year is by far the worst year ever and it seems like it's lasting for ever.