2009 Begins at the Edge

January 9, 2009

Aw Yeah, starting off the first weekend of the year with a bang!- At the Edge, of course. Before the Edge, we finally decided to venture to the go-cart racetrack, and BOY have I missed driving! I kept thinking, wow I haven't driven in five months! Five whole months without a steering wheel in hand, cruising down the open (or congested) road! And then I ended up breaking my driving fast with a go-cart in Erbil, speeding around the curves until my hands were numb with cold (which took all of 5 minutes), and then some. Afterward, we had drinks and real pizza and chicken fingers and fries at the adjacent lounge before all eight of us piled into a single taxi, and heaved and hummed our way to the old bar-club on the American compound in Ainkawa full of mercenaries. How we fit 8 into a little cab (9 including the driver!) is beyond me. We had 6 in the back, and 2 in the front, and for bonus points, no one had to sit on the driver's lap and steer for him. We must have put on a shrinking spell on us, or a gorging spell on the car. What is the most number of people you have ever gotten into a taxi with?

Anyhoo, despite my continual insistence that the Edge is just “not my thing”, I had the time of my life once again. Just what is the magic of that place? Oh yes, I've already established, it is my fun colleagues that make the Edge such a fantastically unforgettable experience each time I go. The dancing during the Edge Experience #6 was awesomer than usual because they started off with some good hip-hop remixes before the usual Eighties, Pretenders, Arctic Monkeys, and Abba. And then in the middle of it all, the most adorable black puppy appeared at the window leading to the backyard pool (which is now empty as it is too cold to swim). Awwww...my heart was melting like the Wicked Witch of the West...who apparently, in actuality, was not so wicked. Wickedness is relative, I suppose. Or some wicknessness is really just a case of misunderstanding. 

Oh yes, I've begun reading “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, and I am engrossed in the pages of the book, which fleshes out the previously one-dimensional characters of the witches of Oz. It is no children's book, I've discovered. By no means. Maguire is an excellent, excellent writer, and his imagination is...wicked, really the only wicked part of that book. According to Maguire's reinterpretation of the old Oz story, the Wicked Witch of the West was a major misnomer for a witch who was just seriously misunderstood. Glinda the Good Witch is not all that good, though she's not utterly evil either, and Dorothy isn't the sweet little innocent that her pigtails and pinafore set her up to be. This is why I love books that flesh out the old, venerable myths and fairy tales which tend to be sorrily lacking in character depth and development. (Take the Arabian Nights, for instance. Someone should flesh out those pancake characters! And Dave Barry has already done it with Peter Pan- his series which I would also recommend, along with Maguire's book.)

It's been a busy first week back! I wish I had had a few days off after coming back in order to recuperate and organize my thoughts and get back into the teaching mindset- and most importantly, to blog about my trip around the Mideast. Alas, we had to hit the ground running, and jump right back into teaching the day after I got back. At first it was really hard, but I'm finally getting settled back into the teaching routine and remembering that I actually like my students and enjoy teaching them. What really surprised me was when one day, we were just finishing up a page of the phonics book and moving on to the next page, and little 4-year-old Mina with the coquettish head of curly blonde locks said “Miss Angie, this page?” To myself I was thinking, “Yes Mina, must you ask me for affirmation every single time we go on to a new page? Jesus H...” Aloud, I said “Yes, Mina, good girl!” with bright eyes, a wide smile, and as much genuineness as I could possibly muster. 

Then my assistant who was standing off to the side said suddenly with real enthusiasm in her voice: “Miss Angie, Mina speak English!” Wow, yeah, it was true! Better than my Kurdish assistant, actually! All around me, suddenly I realized that day that all my kids were actually speaking full sentences in English, and it really was a big deal. And then I began to notice the other dramatic changes since their arrival all over again and was amazed all over again. I can't tell you how much I now believe in the importance of sending your kids to kindergarten to be surrounded by peers and to learn. It really opens up their eyes, their personalities, and their minds of course. During that crucial kindergarten year, they go from crying whining selfish babies to actual people who know that other people exist besides their own selves, and the transformation is really amazing to watch unfold before your eyes. If asked to do it again, I would most definitely say no because that stage between babyhood and personhood is much too painful and stressful to withstand year after year. But if, at this point, I were asked to trade my KG class for an older group, I would most definitely say no again. They have become my kids now, and I wouldn't trade them for the world. Nor my 2nd graders for that matter. 

And yet, it is still ever so hard to get up each morning to teach these little rugrats. The snooze button on my phone is fading with wear because I push it an innumerable number of times every morning, sometimes getting up a mere 15 minutes before I have to be at work. The Lizst song I have as my wake-up call will haunt me for the next 20 years, I swear.