The Tale of Nina and Nita

That's me looking through the archway of the remains of

the Bahrain Fort dating back to 2300 BC.  Don't ask me who

the fellow is next to me.  I just remember that he was a 

British friend visiting from Saudi Arabia, which is just 

twelve miles away across the Arabian Gulf.  But I do 

remember that moment and I was thinking to myself ~

Wow what an adventure!

This journey of three years of my life holds many 

happy, exciting and adventurous memories for me.  

I could keep you entertained with many stories about

those days, and I will one day.  But, today I am going to tell

you about my days there as a First Primary teacher at

the Sacred Heart School in Isa Town.

Here are some of my students.  I had 45 of them!  I started out with 43, but 

Sister Giacinto convinced me in her sweet and very persuasive manner, to

take just a couple more.  

The two boys in the front of this picture are Savio on the left and Ismael on

the right.  They were my best students.  Ismael was a handful!  As bright

as a young boy can be and would easily get into trouble if he wasn't kept

busy every single moment.  I learned quickly that I needed to keep these two

challenged and occupied.  When I did, all was well.

Do you see the little blonde haired girl a couple of rows back on the right?

That is Nina.  She was from Finland.  Her dad worked for a construction

company that finished their assignment early and they were waiting

for their visas to come through for their next job.  Nina was one of 

the last minute students that Sister Giacinto persuaded me to accept.

Oh and by the way Sister Giacinto said as she winked at me ~

Nina does not speak English.

How on earth was I expected to teach her without an interpreter?

Sister Giacinto was convinced I could figure it out.  She had faith ;-)

After finding an interpreter to help me communicate with Nina's parents,

we decided that I would take Nina home with me each afternoon.  That way

I could teach Nina to speak English through an immersion method.  She

would follow me around the house and I would teach her the English name

of the rooms, the furniture, etc.  She would have her lunch with me and we

would work for an hour or so.  Then she would nap in my guest room and 

later in the afternoon I would take her to the beach or shopping at the 

grocery store and then drive her home.

She loved it!  And she also loved ….

Charlie my Golden Retriever.  Sorry about the pic, it's blurry.  

I brought Charlie over from NYC.  Here he is in the Arabian Gulf.

He loved to go there to swim and run after sticks I would toss in the

water.  I will write a whole blog post about this wonderful dog.

Nina loved Charlie and he loved her.  I really think that he helped

Nina to learn the language faster.  I would have her repeat phrases to

Charlie and she was always so anxious to say the words and phrases

correctly because she wanted Charlie to understand.  

As our tutoring sessions were progressing nicely, I was suddenly

aware of another little problem in class.  Nina's best friend Nita was

feeling very left out and jealous that Nina was spending so much time 

her teacher.  

Let's go back to the picture of the kids and I will point out Nita to

you ….

Nita is that adorable little girl just to the left of Nina.  Not the one with the

white collar, but the one grinning next to her.  I wish I had a better picture

to show you, but this is all I have.  

Anyway, Nina and Nita were about as different as two little girls could

be.  Nina was blonde, blue eyed and from Finland.  Nita had an olive

complexion and beautiful long black hair.  Nita's parents were from India.

Both girls were as cute as cute can be and they were best friends!

So what is a teacher to do?  Talk to Nita's parents about their daughter

coming home with me every day too.  They said yes.

So each day we would come to my house for the afternoon.  Now that

Nita was learning to speak and understand English, I had to help her

with her reading too.  Nina, Nita and I would sit around the dining room

table and I would help them with their lessons.  Nita decided she was 

a junior teacher and began acting quite professional.  Actually, the

competition between the two stimulated Nina to learn even faster.

The girls would take a nap in the afternoon.  In reality they were

not napping at all, because I could hear their giggles coming from the 

guest room and Charlie was always in on the fun.

I was really sad at the end of the school year when I had to say goodbye

to these darling ones for the summer.  They were all being promoted and

I would have to pass them on to a new teacher the next year.

Nita and her parents got another assignment.  At the far right corner of 

the picture is little Nita wearing the white hat.  She was sad that day

because her best friend had already moved away.  Yet I knew that

Nita was a strong and happy little girl and a new best friend would

come into her life any day.  

When all the kids were loaded onto the bus that day, I did what I 

always did.  I would wait back in my BMW and let the bus get ahead

of me.  Then I would catch up alongside the bus and wave and the

kids in my class would wave too.  Then I would step on the gas

pedal and zip away.  And I knew all my kids would be 

saying ….

There goes our teacher!  She's from California and she is bionic!!!

The kids saw the Bionic Woman reruns on TV and they told 

everyone I was bionic and I was from California.

Of course I am not a Californian ~ but who knows,

maybe I am bionic ;-)

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley