There's something at school that is taking me a while to get used to: the role of matrons. Matrons are ladies who work for the school; they generally do not speak English, they are usually very young, and they are obviously Arab/Muslim. Their job is to sit outside of the majority of classrooms and offices and... wait. Wait for you, the teacher or administrator to need something or need a message to be sent. Because we have matrons, we don't have telephones in our classrooms or a loudspeaker coming from the office. It seems very strange to me, but apparently it's very common in Egypt. So usually when I'm walking down the hallway, I'll see all the matrons sitting outside the rooms practically falling asleep because they're so bored.
I asked an expat who had been here for a while... what do I do if I need a message to be sent right away or have an emergency in my room? You tell the matron. And since they don't speak English very well, you get a student to tell them the message in Arabic. I used a matron the other day for the first time. I was working on covering my bulletin boards in my classroom and didn't know where to find the fabric that goes over them. I asked a fellow expat. She said, "oh honey, you don't do that yourself. You send a matron to get it for you." So I worked up the courage, and asked a matron to get the fabric for me in purple. Luckily, she speaks pretty good English. Did I mention that my classroom is right across from the head principal's office? No pressure there. So I must have the really good matrons by my room. I just hope I'm never too loud with an activity or something to make her mad.
Today we had to get blood drawn for our HIV test to get our work permit. I know, it seems a little extreme to get an HIV test to be able to work here. I thought it would be sketchy ... but the doctor seemed to know what he was doing, haha. The only thing that made me nervous was that he didn't wear gloves when he did it! Isn't that something all doctors do when they're drawing blood? Especially when they're testing the blood for HIV? Maybe the concept of gloves hasn't hit Egypt yet. Furthermore, wouldn't it be discrimination in the US to fire someone for having HIV? I guess I'm not in the US anymore, and hopefully I don't have it!! But how would I know? This is how I freak myself out.
I'm slightly depressed because I realized that I bought Dasani water today and I didn't know that Coca-Cola is the Company of Dasani. For those of you that don't know, I strongly boycott Coke products, and you should too! Coke is pretty much the devil and they have a huge negative impact on indigenous people in Mexico because they're trying to take all the clean water that's left and use it to make more Coke. They're also responsible for a ton of health issues and overall bad things. So I hate them and don't buy any of their products. So now I feel bad for buying Dasani water... but I didn't know!! And I only bought 4 bottles of it... so now I guess I know. Live and learn... and then only buy Nestle Pure Life water.
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