Firsts

It's hard to believe but after the close of next week, I will have survived my first semester in Egypt. Nearly five months have passed since that almighty first day, which did not prove to be nearly as overwhelming as expected. I had been warned by a few over-dramatic elementary teachers that I would be teaching the worst crop of children the school had ever known. Let it be said, these kids don't hold a candle to the students with whom I dealt in Texas.

I fondly recall my first day of school in Egypt as one with 90 exhausted, starved, squirrely children on my hands. In a stroke of brilliance, an administrator decided day 1 of the 2008-09 school year should correspond with Ramadan day 1. Though I was mired in a state of utter bewilderment as to the 7-day rotating schedule, the exact location of the canteen, or simply the process to request some Bic pens, the question that weighed most heavily on my mind: How will I ever keep their names straight? I have 6 Ahmeds (3 in the same class), 6 Omars (again, 3 in the same class), 3 Karims, 3 Youssefs, 3 Hanas, 2 AbdelAziz and an AbdelHamid, a Rayan and a Rawan (same class, of course)...AND a partridge in a pear tree.