"boss, boss"

while i was living in belize a homeless guy named harry once told me that you can remember anything by saying it five times with your eyes open and then five times with your eyes shut. he was quite a remarkable individual. i am telling you this because in addition to a blog about bangladesh i want it to be a self help blog too.

no not really. i was reminded of harry when i sat down to remember all of my students' names. i do have an alice a grace even a juan. that's about it as far as the familiar names go. for example, sadman, shadman, lubib, lubibur, tashfique, anilla, nazia, nooruddin, kushall......thanks harry for the tip and helping me learn all these names!!! i have class sizes of twelve to twenty-five some of the kids don't speak much english and there are a few that don't speak a lick of it at all. (this always makes teaching much easier...rrright.) it's funny, you would think everyone here spoke english if you were out walking on the streets. people will smile and say, "hello sir, how are you?" i only realized that those were the only words in english most of these people speak when i tried to converse with one individual and they had no idea what i was saying.



also, i am almost convinced that i am in charge of something big. maybe it's the police force or the supermarket or something because everyone.....i mean everyone calls me boss. "boss, boss, money please," boss, food?!" even the guys at work call me boss, "good morning boss, how are you?" actually it's not just me, any foreigner is addressed as boss. i am curious as to where this comes from?! i wonder if sheela will catch on?! kidding my love! ;)

okay so let's write about something interesting.....

my job? maybe not, who knows!?

first of all, i will give you my job description and then the reality of it. i signed a two year contract to work as a pe teacher and the pe coordinator for an international school that follows the IB (http://www.ibo.org/) curriculum. i teach nursery(kaya's age, 3 year olds) to fifth grade and then two high school classes. generally speaking, our school services kids that have parents with some cash flow. we have 80% bangladeshi students and then the rest from all over the place. the staff is quite international! i am one of the few americans here. we have loads of aussies and brits there are some kiwis, canadians, french and the rest bangladeshi. i was quite excited to be working with the aussies. (i have two in my department!)



i love my job right now. i teach some outstanding kids. the PE program is top notch and i have a direct influence in the direction of where it goes. as spiderman's aunt once said, with great power comes great responsibility. (someone famous also said a version of that, but i am sticking with the spiderman side of things.) i do feel a certain amount of pressure to produce and enhance an already stellar program. the side of the job that i consider to be work is the curriculum part. we have to write criterion and various assessments. all that stuff is good, but a lot of work. not complaining one bit, i promise!!



my team as i mentioned before has two aussies, two bangladeshi teachers and six assistants, "the boys." the assistants set up and take down all the equipment for each lesson. every day we write what we want and where we want it.....it's there! each morning i stroll in and they all greet me with, "hi boss." it is so funny. i don't know if i will ever get over it. they work so hard to please not just me, but the other teachers as well. truthfully, i feel a bit spoiled to have them.



our facilities are outstanding. we have a large gymnasium, hard courts that can be adjusted for tennis, basketball, badminton and even football (soccer). then we have a large field where the students do just about everything. including a sport that is very foreign to me....cricket! we also have two "wells" where we conduct elementary school lessons, smaller, but they do the job. finally......we also have a swimming pool!!!! staff is welcome to use it any time we don't have classes going on. i usually get in after school when i complete my runs. i absolutely love having the pool. kaya does too. they strap on those little arm floaties and a waist belt to kayito and he "swims" all over the place! it is quite comical and of course adorable at the same time.



as i write all of this, i realize how lucky i am to be teaching at this school and to have access to such amazing facilities. i do consider this a step in the right direction career wise. i am gaining experience in management/leadership, curriculum development, handling finances for a program, staff development. not to mention i get to live overseas for free and they pay me to do it!!! as much as i love the states...i am not going to find that anywhere. my advice to all you teachers out there.......get the heck out of the states!



well my friends, i must be on my way. kaya wakes up early even on weekends. have a wonderful day and we will try to write more later this weekend. it's Ramadan right now and that has been quite interesting for someone like myself that knows virtually nothing about it.



peace,

chris



sheela's parents are coming soon and we are very excited!!!