First day of school!

Ho.Ly. God. Talk about trial by fire...today was something else entirely. Starting off the day sitting in Doha traffic and arriving at school at 6:58 for my 7 am start time was along the lines of a back up at the Salem Witch trials. I walked into my classroom and it was filled with children and parents, some ok, some already crying. An administrator had to come into my classroom and kick out parents who were refusing to leave. So Mr. Abdulkadir was basically my hero today. It was horrible watching all the kids screaming because their parents were leaving, but by 830 almost everyone was quiet except two or three kids sobbing away. Surprise - lulling me into a false sense of safety. Little tricksters. I was blowing bubbles, singing, dancing, charading, etc. Never did I ever think I would mime "I'm a Little Teapot" in front of 25 children who barely understand English. But I did. Along with "Old MacDonald," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and even more frighteningly "Frere Jacques." Where that popped into my head from I have no idea. I walked around the room going "chhchhchhchhhchhhchh" to form a line. Surprisingly they all followed. New favorite activity? Seems to be.

Today by the numbers:
7 children peed their pants
9 children fell asleep at various times
2 children hit me
2 children tried to beat down the door
1 child sustained tears from 9:30 until he left at 2:10
1 child laid on the floor the entire day
1 child vomited. Twice.

The vomiter...Atilla. Karmic punishment? Perhaps.

From 1:30 on there were 40 minutes of uninterrupted screaming. Actual screaming. Not tears, not whimpers, not crying. Screaming. "Mama! Baba!" I had to stand in front of the door so that Atilla and his right hand man could not open the door and escape (as was tried). At one point I looked up and 23 of the 25 children in the class were screaming. I almost laughed. Then I almost cried. I tried singing at this point...epic fail. I think it made some of them scream louder.

Then came the disaster of dismissal. I'll set the scene: 23 children are still screeching "Mama! Baba!" in decibels heard only by the desert bats and about 50 parents, drivers, and nannies are lining up outside listening to my out of control horde. So at 2:10 I take my chair (which I realize I will never sit in except these five minutes of insanity per day) and put it in front of the door. I open the door and have to put my chair in front of the door with my legs up against the bookshelves across from me so the children can not just escape into the crowd of parents in the hall. I still lost two underneath the seat. They will not best me tomorrow. Personal goal. After I walked back from dropping the last five (still screaming) children to the late room, I actually felt physically ill. Too bad I won't be able to buy a bottle of wine until November.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day.