Only in Saudi...

In the absence of any real major family news, thought we'd share some little gems from life in Saudi.
Petrol & Diesel Price
While the rest of the world is dealing with supply cuts, rising prices and searching for alternate fuels or methods of transportation. In the land of sand and sun and of course OIL .... We have just experienced, wait for it (and if you're waiting for it in your own country, you might be waiting a very very very very long time !), we just got a 33% price reduction for petrol & diesel ! Petrol per liter now costs 60 Halala and diesel per liter costs 25 Halala. Now you're asking what on earth is a Halala and what value does that convert to ? A Halala is to Riyal as Cents are to Rand/Pound/Dollar etc. The conversion .... 1 Halala = 1.64 South African Cents !!! Now would be a good time for you to fall off your chair in disbelief ! Yes, we ARE paying less than ZAR 1,00 per liter of petrol and less than 45c per liter of diesel !
Beer at school or while driving
In most countries around the world it would be a no-no to be drinking beer while driving, walking through a store and most especially walking through the gate at school or on your way to classes. Not in Saudi ! While walking the girls to their classrooms on Wednesday morning, Andre and I noticed a high-school student walking past the office holding a Holston Beer. It was open, it had been sipped and he was walking to class enjoying it.
Now before everyone starts with "But you said there was no alcohol in Saudi!" Wow how are they for lenient on rules ! This is NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER !!! You see these guys like the taste of beer, they just don't like the alcohol content. So its not an issue seeing a child walking around drinking beer because in fact it's not really a beer in the true sense hehehe. No that's what they drive across the causeway to have any chance they can, Bahrain - The Land of Milk and Honey - when you live in Saudi that is heheheh.
Learning/Teaching a new Language
As most of you know, I work at an American Curriculum school in Saudi. Up until now, all the time I have been working at the school, there have only ever been two South African families, ours being the one. Recently, The Brummers, sadly, left Saudi (although we're holding thumbs they find a way to come back sometime soon), leaving us as the only SA family in the school. Then even more recently, we had a young South African gentleman join our school. This grade six boy seemed friendly, well-behaved, a good, hard-working student. UNTIL ......
I received a phone call at the end of the school day, from my principal. "Could you please come to my office, I need a word translated." So off I went. It seems our nice new addition had been giving some Afrikaans lessons in his free time. And so it was my "pleasure" to have to translate, a phrase which according to these boys, they didn't understand, to my principal. I was prepared for many a word, in fact that week one of our seventh graders - who had been taking these impromptu Afrikaans lesson, used the word VOETSAK in front of me. But my face just about fell on the floor as my principal, in his very American accent asked my to translate "MA-SE-POES". Tell me how you'd have done that ??!?!?!! Mmmmm that was another interesting day in Saudi !

Anyway, less than a month to go of our school year. Andre back home from his travels for a bit. Sharks are on top of the SA Teams Super 14 log :)
Our weekend is done ! Enjoy yours everybody ! Remember to spoil that special Mom in your heart on Sunday ! 'Til the next installment of News from the Bosch Home .... Cheerio !

Student-Led conferences

At our school, we start out the year with a Parent-Teacher conference. Students attend this aswell and part of the conference time is devoted to setting goals for the student to work towards during the school year.
During the school year, work samples are kept aside to form part of a portfolio which is presented in the last month of the school year. This conference is student-led. In other words, parents come in to school to conference with their child not the child's teachers, to reflect (using these work samples) on their growth over the past year. Teachers are present but only to "sign-off" on the goal setting process - as to whether the goals set at the start of the year have been achieved or not.

And so May 4, 2006 was our Student-Led Conference day at Dhahran Elementary Middle School, Saudi Arabia.
The girls and I took a taxi in to school at 7am (can't wait for Andrè to be home next week again). Aimee and Lucy helped mom prepare the PC Lab for the Middle School conferences.
Our MS students create electronic portfolios in tech class with Tracy. Basically a personal website which is accessible anywhere on our campus from our servers. They present them in the lab instead of their classrooms though as the conferences are done in flexi-time and we can have 30 students conferencing at one time in the lab.
8am and off to Wilde Gang for the girls while mom 'played' teacher for a bit. Lucy was scheduled for her conference at 9am, so we headed up to Preschool to be amazed at all she'd done in the year :)

Photo of Lucy conferencing courtesy of Aimee :)


Lucy wasn't as animated this year with her "Bam and then .... happened" or "Voilà and there ..." but she did a great job showing her handwriting samples, math worksheets, coloring and beautiful art projects. Thanks go to Mrs. Sheila Rivers, Mrs. Rima Maalouf, Mrs. Neomy Daniel and Mrs. Jannet Durham - all her teachers.

Lucy with her portfolios - big sister Aimee had to hold the art portfolio for her :)

Lucy standing in front of one of the murals preschool created while doing their theme on transportation and then under the 'planet hats' they used while studying space (Lucy was Jupiter) :)


And then it was off to Aimee's classroom to share her portfolio.
Aimee did a fabulous job ! She has made soooo much progress this year although I could still pick up on some disappointments while she shared her work. Aimee has had a very demanding teacher this year which would normally be fabulous. However even with the help of her meds for her ADHD she has had a hard time in grade one. There were a few times during her conference that I heard "...but I didn't finsh" or "...thats as far as I got". It is a point to remember that these portfolios are not entirely for showing the best pieces but it is meant to be a true sample of the child's accomplishments throughout the year. I made a point then to make a big deal about the good things and gloss over on the disappoinments. All-in-all I tried to made sure that Aimee realised how clever she is and that her mom and dad are so very proud of her !


Dad will have to watch the video and go through the actual portfolios when he gets back next week.
Aimee and Lucy went back to Wilde Gang for the remainder of the day while mom went back to be a part of her students' presentations to their parents. Thankfully this year I could witness huge growth in my students from their efforts last year and we had a very successful presentation of our electronic portfolios to our MS parents !

It's Friday now and we're having a tv, jammies & junkfood day :) In recognition of our efforts to prepare for these conferences hehehe
Just one month left of school - WOW !

Charnè hope you had a very special day on the 3rd and little Jaden is not keeping you too busy :)
Aunty Elaine, hope you have a wonderful 60th birthday celebration, miss you all and wish we were there to share it !
Cheers for now everybody, have a good one, check back next week again for the latest in our lives hehehe :)
xxx

Just a quick catchup...

Okay so it's the weekend - well the end of ours and the start of everyone else's. Andrè left for Rabigh (Red Sea side of Saudi, North of Jeddah) this week and will be there for a few weeks working at the Aramco refinery there.
This means he will miss the girls' Student-Led Conferences on Thursday :( This is always such a great event when all our students present their portfolios to their parents. Will hopefully video each of them - Lucy was such a hoot last year !
Andrè being away also impacted my going to Greece for the Student Study Trip which left Thursday for 8 days or should I say it impacted me not going :( well along with delays in visa for me etc. Always the next one though - we're finalising the itinery for our South Africa/Swaziland Student trip planned for October 2006 :)
Our weekend was a quiet one, girls and I just relaxed at home. Weather is heating up nicely, bit like summer at home so not too bad yet. Thats what planning is all about though - most everyone leaves for July/August which are typically the hottest months.
Which brings me to ...
Just 6 weeks of school left .... so much to do and the time just seems to be flying by - obviously this is a good and a bad thing hehehe
Good for the upcoming holiday and seeing family and friends, bad for all the stress of projects that need doing before the end.
Oh well thats it from me then for this posting, Survivor 12 Panama is on and I'll have to report back to Andrè :( he's really suffereing having no internet or western tv even to fall back on in the evenings :(
I even had to complete his Fantasy League Rugby Team over the phone heheh will surely have to do a blow by blow of the Sharks games until he gets back too :( hope I do our team justice :)
Cheerio for now everybody, catch the updates here again next week xoxox

Sandy

After spening weeks and weeks at long rehearsals both during the week and weekends, finally this whole week Aimee has been playing her part in the Grade 3-8 school production of Annie Junior. Aimee was only in two scenes, non-speaking, as Sandy, Annie's stray dog :) But after saying that, Andre and Lucy saw the last show on Wednesday night and were two of the proudest family members in the audience I am sure. Tracy was doing the lighting for the show and so got to have her proud moments a while back :) We're all glad it's over and we got to celebrate the end of late performances and long rehearsals by sleeping in Thursday morning :) and of course Aimee's idea of sleeping in was .... before 7am !!

Adoring fans brought flowers for the little actress

Final number - Tomorrow

Photo time, Aimee and her co-stars pose together on stage.
Muhammad Azhar - Oliver Warbucks, Patille Madaghjian - Annie, PJ Cruz - Rooster, Giana Sareyeddine - Miss Hannigan, Tanis Sayegh - Lilly and Jude Al-Aswad - Grace.

Sandy and her sister :)

And then off to McDonalds for a celebratory ice-cream and some dinner for Mom and Dad :)

And Aimee turns Seven !

On Friday the 31st of March, Aimee Julia Bosch turned a whopping seven years old :)
Becoming quite the young lady as we can see, a little skinny melinks - and not so little either, next to her little sister :o !Knowing that we were heading off in the morning across the bridge, we did cake and singing the night before.31st March - The most considerate child that she is, she even waited a good half an hour for Mom and Dad to get up so she could open presents hehehe (we had left her gifts in the lounge for her to find and she came and whispered thankyou and then still waited - wow, know I wouldn't have !).After presents, it was off to Bahrain for a quick visit to Gèant and then to the rugby club for Dad to run touch Bahrain vs. Sharja. Good day was had by all, Aimee sat and listened to Mom explain a bit of the game but was soon off to go and play in the sand with Lucy. They returned just in time to see one of the visiting players break his leg badly in a tackle eeewwwww ! Thankfully it was near the end of the game and once he was cleared off and on his way to hospital there was only minutes before the final whistle was blown. Dad showered and we were off to tackle the drive across the causeway. Big thanks to Santa for the dvd player we got for Christmas, the girls got to watch Nanny McPhee on the way home, which Mom and Dad thoroughly appreciated :D .
Back home, Aimee and Mom then TRIED out their new rollerblades, much to the amusement of Dad, Lucy and even some neighbours :o( !
All in all though, it was a fabulous day, all tired out girls were off to bed early - good thing too cos it was back to school in the morning after our Spring Break.