Lack of planning

I used to have a sign on my office that said "Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part". I loved that sign.

The funny thing is that people don't really plan or schedule anything here. For example, our school calendar is not set in stone. Yea...you might want to read that sentence again.

Back in October we had a holiday called Eid. On the calendar we only got two days off, but there was much speculation (and hope) that they would give us the rest of the week off. (They didn't.)

Next week we will be celebrating National Day (more about that in another post). Originally we were only given off two days, but last week we were notified that we will have another day off which will give us a 5 day break. Very exciting, but frustrating that we didn't know from the very beginning when we could have planned a mini vacation and got cheaper airfare.

Even more frustrating is our winter break. The calendar said students would have 3 weeks off, but teachers would only have 2 because we would have a week of professional development. Now there are rumors that teachers will have 3 weeks and students will have 4. It sure would be nice to know for sure! We don't know for sure about spring break either.

Many things are told to us at the last minute on a daily basis. Often times I hear an announcement in Arabic and then I'm scrambling around trying to get someone to tell me what it said. Usually it has nothing to do with me, but one time no one told me that the boys were being released at noon instead of 1. I've heard of teachers who didn't know there was a field trip until they showed up to school!

My principal explained it to me this way: in the Muslim religion, they see every day as a gift from Allah and nothing is guaranteed. So, they live for today and not for the future. There's no need to schedule things in advanced because you are not guaranteed tomorrow or next week. I can see their point, but I would much rather know way in advance that something is happening. I have really had to learn to not stress and go with the flow.