the sun's backside

After covering a grammar point with the students this morning I asked them to complete three exercises in their workbooks.  I saw the boys with their smart aleck phones out so I walked over stealthily and saw they had scanned the answer keys from the teacher’s books which weren’t supposed to be available to students, from the library.  Supposedly.  Ironically only twenty minutes earlier I shared yesterday’s newspaper with them and one story was this case of Indian students taking a math exam and their relatives caught on camera passing notes to them from the windows they crawled as high as four stories to reach,'  '...and a hundred students were arrested for cheating,” mine didn't flinch.  One rather intelligent young man but equally mischievous reminded me how bad the instruction is in the government schools and this work was beyond the majority.  “And cheating openly and ruthlessly is just community service, right, you're just helping each other.”

It is depressing that the administration cannot or is financially reluctant to do anything to stop the rampant, and I’m afraid to say, culturally accepted behavior here.  And then I heard teachers didn’t invigilate their own students in last week’s quiz, …”a row of girls sitting in the back all had their mobiles out working together to answer the questions on the quiz, the teacher doing nothing.”  This is most likely the chapatti that has persuaded me to submit my letter of resignation next month.  It’s bad enough students don’t see the dishonesty in their actions, teachers fan the flame of deceit and indifference.  

No it isn’t indifference for one teacher whose name and origins remain anonymous for now, it’s protecting his job by passing everyone because he assumes (wrongly) his students will like him and he won’t lose his coveted position, coveted because surely no one in their right mind would hire him, how he got the job was probably a case of severe desperation. 

So student cheating is on the rise, teachers cheating is appallingly on the rise, it has become an environment that is poisoning my spirit and I don’t want to be near it anymore. 

And I heard even worst news, maybe it was gossip, no matter, it appalled;  these same teachers are bedding their students, no way!! for higher marks.  I refuse to believe this because it just sounds insane, and you’re asking why I’m putting it here, it’s the kind of refuse that leaves me no choice to move on, job in line or no job in line.  

There's an old saying around here you come with two buckets, one for money and one for bullshite.  And when one of them is full you know it's time to leave.  One of them is definitely full. 

And I’ve watched too much miserable news today, holy cow, how depressing it all is. 

So, how do you feel?  You’re leaving huh?  Any chances you’ll change your mind?  No way.  I’m waiting to hear from the agency and I informed them April 12 is the deadline to submit the letter.  And if you don’t hear from them before then?  WAAAAhoooo, here we go again, well, my dear friend Laxman I can’t give you the kind of money you’d like, sorry buddy.  I have to hold onto what I’ve saved a little longer if nothing comes up but you know what?  I’m kind of relieved.

I have been a much better teacher these last two years and I leave with my head up high.  And I don’t know which direction I’ll go if Salalah says no, but that don't matter right now, I am confident.  Ok, let’s have a cigarette. 

How would you feel if you were in a livable city with a job like this?  It’d make it a lot harder to resign.  I took this job because I knew its climate, albeit hotter than the sun’s backside, was tolerable, shoot, I did Al-Ain for ten years, but border controls has made it a hard place to live, with or without a border pass. 

Another so, an evening comes to an end.  I’ve had the a/c on in the bedroom for the last two nights and a few hours in the afternoon in the living room.  Yesterday I was ironing when a dog sized cockroach flew out of the a/c, mother of pearl, I chased it down with two shoes until I subdued it. 

I look around and know exactly what I’ll take with me and what will be left behind, thankfully mostly everything.  A lot of the clothes I came with no longer fit or are so ratty  I should have extra room for some of the accumulation I haven’t decided on yet, the optimal choice would be to purge everything down to my backpack, but that might be tough.  I did acquire a couple of paperbacks this morning and for the first time in a long time I have enough books I look forward to reading in the next three months.  Good reading indeed.