Sigh of Relief

Here since August 2, this cultural and professional and family ride has been challenging (making my diva students work), rocky (watching new colleagues not pass their probationary year), rewarding (getting to understand the veil /watching students learn to enjoy reading), exhausting (blogging, working, reading to my children and exercising all while attempting to make friends, and connecting from time to time with my husband), confusing (traffic circles, over and over again / road signs in Arabic / Urdu-speaking taxi drivers), shocking (falcons and tigers for pets, and yes, some local men do have multiple wives) and exciting (brunch in the world's only 7 star hotel).

And I am pleased to say, look at me - after all this, they're keeping me - I have passed my probationary period! Big deal, you say? Yes, in fact, it is. With the economic situation as it is, and thousands of work visas being cancelled every month, and the newly jobless having only 30 days to pack up, sell their stuff and abandon their unsalable cars at the airport, anyone who has their contract renewed or confirmed can exercise their bragging rights. And thus shall I.

Somehow we have figured out how to make it all work, the new schools for the kids, a nanny helping with all aspects of our domestic life (lunch boxes, dirty laundry and Sri Lankan meals), Billy commuting long hours through Dubai traffic and often missing kids' bedtime, and my navigating through my first year working full-time since Brady's birth in 2000. We're doing it. The kids are happy most days. We have a big and comfortable home, albeit sandy and remote. And my employer sees fit to let me stay on for year 2 of my 3-year contract. Lucky me.