Kenya Trip: Part 1

Our trip began late thursday night as we headed to the airport at 11:30pm. We signed in made our way to the gate and took off somewhere in the range of 2am. I slept the whole way to Ethiopia. During our layover we located the only airport bar where several of my colleagues took part in an early morning beer. Much need after two months living in a dry country dealing with the stress of back to school. Flight number two went off without a hitch and we landed in Mombasa at 1 on the afternoon. 

Now when we finally got the go ahead on our vacation our main concern was finding a location that was cheap and awesome. This was a problem because everyone was jacking the prices, and flights that were normal $300 round trip, were now closed to $1000. Luckily we came across the flights to Mombasa for fairly cheap. Kenya's awesome, there's beaches and elephants and safaris! What we failed to see while planning and booking it was that Mombasa is actually one of the most dangerous cities in East Africa. Needless to say we didn't spend much time there. We had arranged for car to pick us up and drive us straight to Dianni beach, on the southern part of the coast.  Our drive took us about 2 hours to get to our hostel. One of the most interesting parts of the drive was the barge which ushers people back and forth across the river connect the west and east bank of Mombasa. There are no bridges that connect the sides, just ferries that traverse the 200 foot width. Cars pay a tolls, but pedestrians walk on free. Our driver, Mike, warned us to stay in the car as pick pockets are very common here. 

 

At the hostel we saw to our rooms, and i quickly changed out of my fully covered Kuwait friendly garb into a bathing suit. Very little has felt more liberating in my life. We didn't leave the hostel for the rest on the night. I had called it an early evening because of the hectic week and long flight. Others choose to head out from the poolside bar to some of the others in town. I spent the following day lounging by the pool, others slept off their hangover. I managed to get one of the worst burns I've ever had from a combination of expired sunscreen and sun sensitivity because of the anti-milaria medication. In fact as I write this weeks later (I know, I should have blogged sooner) I'm still slightly red and peeling. 

The next day was overcast, which I was secretly very thankful for. Around noon some of us made our way down to the beach. It was less than a five minute walk down the road. However, we took the matatu (the local public transport) down the road to a restaurant with lounge chairs and food options. The matatu is exactly the same as a dala dala, for those who are familiar with Tanzanian public transport. For everyone else they're basically like a van that drives around picks up people, where you cram into tiny seats and there may or may not be chickens on there. All for the low cost of 10 shillings (about 10 cents). Our matatu did not chicken, which was nice but I had secretly hoped for them so Haley and Joan would get the full experience. 

We spent the afternoon at the beach and as it started to cool off and spit rain we headed back to the hostel. 

The camels of Dianni Beach. These are left over from when arab traders controlled the spice trade in East Africa. Now they provide rides for tourists.  

The road heading back to the hostel.

 That night we headed down to the beach for dinner were we ordered far too much food for the five  of us. It include 2 snappers, 1 lobster, a mountain of rice, potatoes coleslaw and salad. All for about $15.

KENYA!!!

It was finally announced today that we will be getting a week off for Eid break, like every other international school here in Kuwait.

So thanks to skyscanner (its a wonderful website, it promotes the travel junkie in all of us and if you haven't used it yet you should try, its life changing) myself and some other teacher friends have found some last minute deals to Kenya! Which was far more intriguing than some of the other options like Iraq.

So on October 3rd I will be leaving for a week to go to Mombasa and travel beaches and go on safari!  Now, I realize that I may have already been on safari before, but can you really go on too many safaris? The only acceptable answer here is 'no.' Besides that was in Tanzania and in June, this maybe completely different... or equally as awesome.

House of Mirrors

On Saturday I went with a group of teachers to the House of Mirrors in Kuwait. This unusual art museum is a giant installation created by an Italian woman who slowly, over a series of years, transformed her home by constructing mirror mosaics to cover every surface. Lidia al-Qattan came to Kuwait for the dry weather. Married to a Kuwaiti artist, she began to create her own art in the form of mosaics. Inspired to cover up the mess that her daughter had left after she got into enamel paint, it soon spread from the one room throughout her home.  She said that it took 91 tonnes of mirror to create what we there saw today. 

Lidia, is an eccentric artist, but is very welcoming as she gives you snacks when you first arrive, and then takes you an a tour of them place. Her home revolves around the idea of the earth and the universe. All of the rooms have themes, from the reception room which is inspired by the sea, the kitchen which looks at the bounty of the earth, or her daughter's old bedroom which looks at astrology. She share with us her fascination of the origin of the universe, and space exploration. 

She took us upstairs where things got a little more "interactive" and delved more experiential art. Not my personal favourite type of art but never the less something as art educator I should always keep an open mind to. First came the game. Hanging from the walls and ceiling were cheap carpet that she had painted. She handed all of us on the tour small tiles which she had painted and on the back attached velcro to. We were to throw the tiles at the carpet and attempt to get the images facing right side up in order to score a point for out team. My team won 2 out of the 3 series. Next we were taken into the art therapy room, where a dark setting, light installations and music were meant to calm you and make you self aware. 

The next room we were taken into was our experience in entering into the universe. She had a dark room where glow in the dark stars surrounded us, and timed to music various lights and images played. You could tell that there was a lot of thought and dedication put into it. And although it wasn't my favourite art installation, after got over the feeling that this is really weird, I did enjoy it. To the point where when she open the door and told us it was time to move on, we all a little slow to leave. Although some of the participants may have been more hesitant to find out what odd art experience we were going to have next. 

She took us down an elevator to her gallery of painting were she made us spin a wheel of chance to see if we could win a prize of one of her jewellery designs. However some people did walk away with some large broaches and earrings. She took us back the reception room where she gave us more drinks and food, and talked about her art and life in Kuwait some more. She was a fascinating woman, but once again confirmed to me that I am no where weird enough to be an artist. 

Understanding 'Haraam' in Art

I'm one month into living in Kuwait, and finished two weeks of teaching here. In that time I've learn new things and had to adapt some of the ways I teach to better this new culture I'm now working with.

One of the new words I've learned is "Haraam" which in a loose translation means sinful. Basically it has to do with anything that goes against Islamic values. Most of them to an outsider make a lot of sense, things like not wasting food, or showing respect to the elders of your family. Somethings although foreign to westerners we're still familiar with like dressing conservatively.

As an art teacher I have a whole list of things that are haraam. My school follows closely Islamic values so, I end up with a larger haraam list than teachers at other international schools. I was already prepared for the no showing of nudes. And as an art teacher, especially working internationally you're already familiar with the sensitivity around nudes, what age is it appropriate to show them at, which students have religions or backgrounds that is may offend. So I was already prepare for the no naked people in art. Which maybe difficult, but still able to work around it. What I wasn't really prepare is the other things on the list. Which includes, but not limited to, displaying religious figures that appear in the Quran. Obviously I wouldn't be showing depictions of Mohammed, because that's against the rules, and there are basically no pictures of him because of this anyways. But other people like, God, Jesus, Moses, David, are all apart of the Quran. So there goes the renaissance. Which I will now teach about using the Mona Lisa.

We also have: art pieces that are political, are Israeli or jewish(sort of), art that talks about the Holocaust, depict Muslims doing bad things, show inappropriate relationships, display drinking or drug use, in any way encourage pigs to be seen as food.

So far I've shown them images of the Lascaux Caves, which in retrospect I'm really hoping that saying that there was humans 17,000 years ago is not against the Quran.... Needless to say as apart of this new adventure in my art teaching career I now need to find art resources that mostly talk about landscapes.

One Month In

Thursday night! 

Two weeks of teaching in Kuwait done, one month here. Its been a little bumpy, but things are starting to get settled. Mind you I did get a new schedule again today... Oh well I go paid today!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was on Friday, which here is the first day of the weekend. So today at the end of class my Grade 12 IB students surprised me with a giant birthday cookie, and sang happy birthday to me in both english and arabic. It was the perfect start to the week.

The Classroom

It took a while, put the classroom is now organized and somewhat working order.

Imagine this, I walk into my class to find boxes of things, shelves, tables, and chairs all just piled in the middle of the room. It took days to get things sorted and as of today the projector finally works!

Completed the first week of school with some success. I'm exhausted and covered in charcoal dust, but now starting to look forward to the year!

The New Place

By the time we had got through customs, got the bags and drove to the apartment it was around 10pm. I was brought to my place, was given a quick tour and left for the night. The place is small compared to what I was used to. Of course having your own house kinda spoils you. It was a small one bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen, small bath, little living room and only one cupboard for the whole place. It was a bit of an adjustment. What a normal person would have done at 10 o'clock at night would have been got to bed and sleep. But I instead started to plan how to make this place better. And being true to my roots, I kept thinking "if I could only knock down that wall this place would be so much better!" Unfortunately building owners don't usually appreciate when you do those things,so now I just have to live with the awkward wall. I have developed several ideas on how to fix it, mostly which involves buying a lot of shelves from Ikea.

When it got a little later in the evening I opened up my bags, found what I needed, put sheets on the bed, and try to figure out the air conditioning. It was broken. So when its 42 degrees, this is awful. I didn't get much sleep. I drank a lot of water, took several showers which is when I discovered that the shower door was broken and didn't close. So I flooded my bathroom floor a bit. And just sweat a lot. At 5am the construction on the building next door started, I opened my curtains on the window to see what was going on. Thats when the curtains, rod and all came tumbling down off the wall. Turns out the bracket was broken. They now sit in a pile under the window still waiting for repair.

My place is like a ticking time bomb. I'm never sure what cupboard I'm going to open next and the door fall off. I've now been informed that my apartment used to be owned by a single guy who was a "disaster of a guy"(direct quote) so this is why my place is falling apart and smells like smoke and has questionable stains on most surfaces. We're currently working on these problems. The building manager and me are soon going to be best friends. On the plus side, another woman found what was clogging her drain was used condoms, so at least I didn't have that problem...yet. The joys of living in  single's housing, its like living in University res all over again. Haha

My bedroom. Here you can see the construction next door. My bed is in desperate need of a bed skirt. And I still have one suitcase of clothes that wouldn't fit. Ikea shelves to be put together soon (hopefully) to fix this problem. 

Here you have a view of my living/dinning area.

Here's the kitchen, and the Ikea shelves that have yet to be put together. 

Off To An Interesting Start

As per usual getting to Kuwait was far from easy. We arrived at the airport late, and the flight was over booked. So guess who didn't get on the plane. Me. 

My flight from Frankfurt to Kuwait was still good. I just needed to find away to get another flight that night to Frankfurt. Now I could have waited for an alternative flight in a couple of days and be late for work. Looking back, it wouldn't have been horrible. But showing up for a contract late and missing the first couple of days isn't ideal. So we looked, and called, and I was put on hold for a very long time and found a travel agent who told me and my mom (who was dropping me off) that if we run and change terminals we could possibly get on and Air Canada flight. The guy from Condor airlines I was on the phone with told me to try and get the flight and we can sort out payment after. So we ran through the airport with a trolley full of suitcase, at one point we went the wrong direction and had to double back. I got the check in counter sweaty and out of breath, explained the situation to a woman, she ushered us into the line only to eventually get to the counter to be told we were in the wrong place. So we ran across the terminal with less than an hour and half to the flight. We stood in another line and waited forever as the the ticketing agents seemed to not be doing anything at all. Minutes passed and tried not to panic. 

50 minutes from take off I was finally talking to a ticketing woman, she could get me on the flight for about three thousand dollars. Which is insane, she explained that one way tickets are very expensive to Europe. Well what about round trip tickets? It actually cost me $600 less to have a round trip. I'm not sure how that math works. Paid for my extra luggage, and then carted it to another counter ticket in hand. The woman who gave me my ticket warned me, you only have 5 minutes before that luggage won't make it on the plane. So I ran and got it there with 4 minutes left. Which the baggage lady didn't seem in a rush at all, which of course drove me insane. But she sent them off on their way. I was 95% I would not see them arrive in Kuwait. I then ran with Mom to security were there was the quickest good bye ever, rushed through, ran to my gate, just in time to be one of the last few to board the plane. I was on the flight. I was going to get to Frankfurt. 

When I landed in Frankfurt the fun wasn't over, there were terminal changes, than getting the boarding pass for my flight to Kuwait, then traveling in the complete opposite direction to get to my gate. I had twenty minutes to spare before boarding, which is when I met some of the other new teachers at my school. When we went to get on the plane, you had to go through this automated gate, which felt like a cattle call. Turns out they had scales in the floor. So when you rolled over it with your carry on it could tell if it was over weight. Note to self always carry luggage. So obviously mine was over weight, because thats how I pack. So after the flashing lights and beeping had subsided, a representative told me that my one carry on had to be checked. I was impressed, but he noted that it would be free of charge, so he took the bag, gave me a sticker tag and sent me down to the plane. There's another lost suitcase. I was pretty sure I was now going to show up in Kuwait and have only my laptop bag. 

Now here's the thing about carry ons, you put important things in them, like documents you need to get into a country. Of course I had my passport with me, but there was also a series of colourfully stamped pages that went along with my visa, which would let me into the country. So when I got to customs in Kuwait it hit me. I was short a very important piece of paper. So I explained it to the customs agent who looked at me like I was an idiot, and proceeded to be passed of to a series of customs officers as I was escorted to retrieve my bag from the carousel and then escorted back in order to officially enter the country. I picked up the rest of my bags- which all arrived! 

Landed in Kuwait with all my luggage!

Off I Go!

Tonight I fly out to Kuwait to start my new teaching contract. There I'll be teaching High School girls Art! I will also be joining my wonderful sister and her family in Kuwait City (different schools and apartments of course).

So the bags are packed (60 pounds each), the ticket printed, the passport is there with the new obtained visa.

Like usual when I land in a new country I may not have internet for awhile, but for now just assume no news is good.

The suitcases. They may have been rolled out to the car on a dolly.... Which does go against my motto of only pack what you can carry. But this seemed easier. 

Other Things I've Been Up To

All the Hoits got together for the first time in 9 years. It was much over do, and it was a lot of fun. 

I hang out at the lake a lot. But rarely in the lake, its too cold for that. What is with this summer weather? I'm not a fan of this drop to 10 degrees at night. Its supposed to be July after all! 

I've started doing art again. However I'm still unsure where the location is of half of my paints. This is what happens when you decide to store all your stuff in your parent's basement and then go travel the world. 

Other stuff includes, seeing friends and family. I haven't seen as many as I hoped, it turns out not all careers get the summer off, weird. Also my lack of owning a car does not help. But the friends that I have seen its been great to see them. 

Shopping. I'm basically replacing my entire teaching wardrobe because almost everything I own is too scandalous for new school. They don't embrace showing off shoulders and knees the same way that my school in Philippines did. So I'm on the hunt for long skirts and tunic type shirts that won't make me look like I'm wearing a bag. If you find some, let me know. Also there's the standard stock piling of my own personal Shoppers Drugmart. Anyone who's lived aboard knows that sometime you just want Buckley's cold medicine, or have a huge need for anti-frizz curl defining hair products. 

Getting all of my favourite foods. Good quality beef, we have it. Real milk, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, fresh berries, Kawartha Dairy ice cream, good cheese, orange juice and bacon. Every time I walk into a grocery store it makes me so happy, and I'm overwhelmed by the choices. Luckily Kuwait should be slight better than Subic Bay, except when it comes to pork products, thats banned. 

Ottawa

I visited our nation's capital. This was all in the attempt to obtain my work visa for the coming school year. Yet another joy of international teaching. So I cashed in some of my airmiles for a hotel downtown. Which turned out to be super fancy. And I'm definitely become a hotel snob, because despite its luxurious spa bathroom and huge king size bed I was kinda disappointed by the lack off pillow menu and daily free water. Oh well, I didn't really pay for it. 

I was in Ottawa for about 2 and half days, most of which was spent running around from the Kuwait embassy to various government buildings getting things signed, authenticated and finally submitted. The people at the embassy were super helpful and on my last night there I got a message while I was at a play that my visa was ready for pick up. So following the conclusion of 'The Book of Mormon' I  made my way at 11pm to pick up my passport from the Kuwait embassy. Just your average friday evening in Ottawa. 

Upon further inspection the next day it appears that I was mistaken issued the wrong visa, this issue has yet to be sorted out. On the bright side I can get into the country. Now its only once, for two months. But we'll figure that out later. 

While in Ottawa I also had the chance to go to some of my favourite spots. One of those being the National Gallery. As an art teacher and a sorta artist I always love making it to galleries every chance I get. It always gives me new inspiration for myself and the classroom. While there I also found a great book on Contemporary female artist from the Middle East. Perfect for my students. And brings my grand total of text books that I'm bringing to Kuwait to too many. I'm hoping that I can negotiate with the baggage counter guy that as a 115 lbs woman I should be allowed a couple of extra pounds because I'm under the assumed 160 lbs weight of each passenger. And hopefully he'll overlook the fact that my suitcases are going to be over weight. In my experience it works about 75% of the time. 

 Also while in Ottawa I was able to see the annual military performance on parliament hill "Fortissimo". Various military bands from the various branches of the Canadian forces perform musical numbers ranging from classical numbers to the Jackson 5 to the Game of Thrones theme song, all along with artillery fire just to make it extra exciting.

I was told about earlier in the day as I walk past parliament hill on my way to one of my many government building stops. It started at 7:30pm so that evening I got take sushi brought my book and got the hill at 7 in order to insure a good seat. When I got there it seemed like everyone else in Ottawa had this same idea. 6:30 may have been a better choice. I was resigned to the standing area unfortunately. However, it was a great show and it left me feeling very patriotic. Once it ended at 9:30, it was only half an hour until the light show started, I stuck around, and luckily several people left the bleachers, giving me a chance to get a seat. Following my evening I was filled with a great since of Canadian pride, so I did what any Canadian would do and headed down to the ByWard  market (quickly to try and avoid the large line) and got my self a Beaver Tail. It was delicious and there needs to be more of these around.

I also explored the ByWard market, did some serious shopping, saw the musical 'The Book of Mormon' (it was hilarious), and had dinner with an old friend from high school who was in the area. After my 2 nights in Ottawa I headed back to the lake, for some serious family time. 

Pottery "Camp"

Next year I will be teaching a course in Ceramics. In the past couple of years I've done clay work with  students, however because the school didn't have a kiln or a wheel we did only hand building using air dry clay. Now at my new school in Kuwait I'll have access to kilns, wheels, there's a whole studio set up for this. Which is exciting.

However I realized that I hadn't been on a wheel in about 7 years. So to freshen up on my skills I signed up for a week long intensive pottery course at Flemming College in Haliburton. My sister referred to it as "Camp". Unfortunately it was a little less exciting than camp and far more challenging. I had completely forgotten how hard it is to throw.

The entire time you throw on a wheel you are trying to force a ball of clay into the centre of the wheel into a small area. Meanwhile, the force of the spinning wheel is forcing the clay out and off. So what might be a 1 pound ball of clay actually requires around 20 pounds of pressure to keep it where you need it. Once the clay is centred it's stable and you can then begin to pull the clay up into various forms and vessels.

The hardest part for me has always been centring because I'm small and weak. To make centring easier you need to lock your body and arms in place by bracing your elbows against your body. Because of my size and how wheels are designed my arms are too far from your body, so it actually requires more physical strength for me. Which is where the I'm weak part comes in.

Well I struggled. And I was by far the bottom of the class. But the end of the 6 days I had managed to create some bowls and plates in the end a gravy bowl. I was very soar, but very proud of myself.

The load form the final kiln fire.

Now most of the impressive stuff is from my fellow classmates. But the white plates with the green/black edges are mine. 

Back in Canada

So I've been back in Canada for a little over 3 weeks now. It's felt cold. I've spent a lot of my time visiting friends, family and just hanging out at the lake wearing far too many layers. I have just under a month left here in Canada before a leave for Kuwait, there's been a lot of running around trying to fit everything in before I go. One thing for sure is that not everything will get done, but hopefully my work visa is one of the things that does!

Off To The Beaches

Gili Island, Lombok, Indonesia 

Trying out paddle boarding

There are no motorized vechiles on the island, if you can't walk, you take a horse cart.

A little reminder of home

Unloading building material from a ship, aka, rock

Off to our snorkelling adventure. Our glass bottom boat may have hit coral and abandoned us in the water, but we survived to join another boat. Saw coral, a ship wreck and most importantly sea turtles!