I had a really bad day at school today. Possibly the worst so far. But rather than blog about work when I am so upset, I am going to rant about something different.
People don't realize how many hoops you have to jump through to teach overseas. I've already blogged about the things we had to do before we came here. That was expensive and time consuming enough. But now that we're here, nothing is as easy as it should be. And everything costs money. ADEC doesn't do a good job of guiding you through this process...and the recruiting company that helped us get hired...well they've been absent since I got on the plane. They only sent out a few emails over the summer and those weren't even very helpful. All of the teachers have been relying on Facebook for our information.
When we first got here, we were helped with getting our medical exam and our fingerprints done for our Emirates ID. But now that it's time to sponsor our families, we are on our own. Even things like knowing when to pick up our passports and IDs, how to get utlitilies hooked up, logging in to the ADEC website...all of these things you pretty much have to find out from another teacher who has done it already.
Several of the things we have to do require us to upload things to a portal and then turn in hard copies. They always want a color copy of your passport. They all want passport photos...and apparently several people have been told that the white wasn't bright enough so they had to retake them. Really? It's fine for a passport from the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, but not for an ID here? Then I saw something today where I am going to need a photo with a specific light blue background. Seriously. And today I was also told (past the due date) that I need to provide hard copies and a flash drive with scanned copies of a bunch of documents. What are they going to do with thousands of flash drives? Probably sit them in a box somewhere.
When I went to EMT (English Medium Teacher, which is what all of the English speaking teachers are called even if we don't teach English) Support, I was reminded that we were advised not to bring our families with us. We should've left them at home and brought them over after we'd completed our visa process. In some ways I wish that I had listened, but I know I could not have made it through this without them here. One thing is for sure, it would make it a lot easier to up and leave if I decided to. Now every decision I make is based on the fact that we have sold everything we own, have not had a chance to save money yet, and we have nothing to go back to.
All my coworkers who have been here at least a year already have told me that it will get better. They swear that in December (or February, it just depends on who you talk to) that it will be easier. Right now I'm in the middle of the hoop jumping...well actually I should compare it to something different...it's like I'm trying to navigate across the Atlantic Ocean in the dark with no map...in a canoe.
Prayers appreciated.
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