Teaching in Oman

My second day in Muskat, after a hearty breakfast at the Manaf Hotel, Kate and I were driven to the ESL center to meet the Director of the English Department at Al Sharkiya, Dr. Ali Mansouri. He was jovial and friendly, an immigrant from Iraq. We discussed the school, Ibra, where we'd be living, what our jobs would be, then left for a fantastic Indian lunch. 

Kate and I and another 57-year-old at the meeting, Neil from Michigan, took a taxi to the souk and walked along the promenade. Neil's a bit off. He creeps alongside Kate and yakks in her ear the whole time, as if I weren't there. Every sentence is prefaced with “When I was in Russia...” or “Russians are…" or  “When I was teaching in Russia...."  When he started speaking Russian, my eyes rolled back into my head.  But it wasn't just his continual fixation on Russia that was annoying, but each time a car honked, or a person yelled, or a kid screamed, or a door slammed, he would freeze and duck, his neck sinking down into his shoulders like a turtle, his face a mask of horror. And he didn't do it just that day, but every day for the next four months that I knew him.     

Back at the ESL center the following day, Kate and I met with some other teachers - Jackie from South Africa and her husband Tom from Canada, Cynthia, a Floridian, and of course Neil, along with his Russian alter-ego. Sitting at the round table we flogged the placement test with Dr. Mansouri from 10 – 3, going over and over the damned thing and we would have been there for another two hours if I had added my own two cents. Cynthia, our co-ordinator and evidently another authority, but on placement tests, prefaced all her sentences with "I’ve worked here before....,” or “I’ve done these before...." or "This is the way it's done.....” She’s about 42, dyed black hair, pale skin, chubby, with dark eyeliner on her bottom eye rim and I thought she was from the Middle East because she was wearing an abaya, but she was from Florida. 

Of course I love gossip and I learned later from Kate that Cynthia had worked with Jackie in Saudi Arabia. It didn't go well I suppose, because Jackie said she’d had a HUGE fight with Cynthia when they shared a room together in Saudi Arabia for five days and Cynthia locked Jackie in her room for 12 hours and the only way out was with the key that Cynthia had taken. Jackie then mentioned that if she had known Cynthia would be her co-ordinator now in Muskat, she might not have taken the job. In fact, she wouldn't have. 

When we finally got out of the meeting, Neil, a non-smoker, broke down and bought cigarettes because he "almost had a mental breakdown" reformatting the test. He can’t work with others in a small room talking (or shouting in Kate’s case) and several times he turned beet red and grabbed his head as if to stop it from rolling off his shoulders, or sinking into his neck. How long will he last I wonder.  

 Kate now starts being more of a smart ass to Cynthia because she doesn't like her and the more I laugh at her antics, the more she’ll do it probably, just because she’s like that. She’s giving Cynthia a hard time. Just snarky little bits is all. “Don’t touch me please,” as Cynthia pushes her towards the elevator and away from a man who is shouting in the lobby downstairs.  When Cynthia tells her to “wait a minute, I’m not ready to go.” “Yes, I understand, we’re wa-a-a-aiting,” says Kate, with that glitter in her tough eyes. 

Cynthia was also going to butt heads with Jacki, who had also been made a co-ordinator for the English program. But while Jackie was trying to explain something, Cynthia cut her off and said “well I’ve been here before, I’ve done this before.” Jacki left the room and went to the washroom to cry. 

Jackie has just come to Oman from Saudia Arabia so her sentences were prefaced with  “When I was in Saudia Arabia...” and “When I lived in Saudia Arabia...” and “When I was working in Saudia Arabia....” It seems to be something that I’ll have to adjust to for the next few weeks or months because we’ve also got Kate who has just come from Korea. "When I was in Korea...” and “When I was teaching in Korea...” and “The people in Korea...” and “The Koreans...” 

Another day at the office so to speak. Another day of arguing and telling Jacky to “shut up” as per cynthia. It was funny and then of course Neil having his melt down. He complained later to Cynthia that he thought we didn’t treat each other with enough respect. And then Kate wanting to push on, push on, to the point of erasing the text on Dr. Mansouri’s placement test paper in order to push on! It was funny but I kept my lid on. Jacky was angry at Mansouri because she did all that work and then he didn’t like it? Pulllleeeeeze. Spent the afternoon talking with Cynthia and Kate in my room about travel adventures (Turkey, Syria, Egypt, etc) and then Neil came up feeling all “empty inside” because he missed his drinking friends in Russia I suppose. Typed up the damn test and got that together so we can move on and have a day off I suppose. If I hadn’t forced the issue before leaving, in other words, get all the pages together in sequence, it never would have been ready for tomorrow. Who would have done it? Nutty Neil?

I was supposed to meet them all later, but frankly, I didn't know if I could do another hour with the lot. I

wound up begging jet lag and didn’t meet with them, however, I did go down later and spotted Cynthia and Neil in the restaurant having lunch, both of whom whined ad nauseum about their vision of the test, which I frankly didn't care about by this point. Cynthia cried that it wasn't finished and then started raving about Jackie. I closed my ears  because going on as such will only lead to trouble. And she was trouble. So I will steer clear of her and I decide that even with Kate I’ll keep it to a dull roar, although everyday we chuckle over Neil. She said that while she was in the hypermarche he kept following her saying “I need to get a converter” and she helped him get it and then said “go shopping, we’re here to shop," shooing him away cause he was a pest.  

I once mentioned alcohol to Neil and he said to me “do you miss it”? and I turned around and said “I’m an alcoholic” and chuckled. Kate and I believe that while in Russia (whose national sport is alcoholism according to Neil) he fell into the booze and was probably here to dial the drinking down. Perhaps that’s why he’s frazzled. He’s already back on the cigarettes which he gave up when he came here. But you have to have a permit to buy liquor here, which means – Where the hell do I buy a permit for booze?

Another day at ESL center, but it was a day of arguing and telling Jacki to “shut up” via Cynthia. Tempers were rising and Neil was turning red.  He complained to Cynthia that he thought we didn’t treat each other with enough respect. Kate was wanting to push it on, get it done!  Let's go people!  To the point of accidentally erasing the text on Dr. Mansouri’s placement test paper.  It was hilarious, a teleision skit in the making, but I kept a poker face. Jacki was then was angry at Mansouri because she did all that work and then he didn’t like it?  "Puuuuleeeeese!"  She stormed off to the washroom. 

Later I was chatting with Cynthia and Kate in my room about our travel adventures when Neil knocked and came in, complaining he was feeling all “empty inside” because he missed his drinking friends in Russia. He won't last long.