Friday, February 5, 2010

Next stop…KFC…Kuwaiti Fried Chicken

Earlier this week the ominous reports began to filter in—there might be a snowstorm this week in the kingdom.

I have lived in places that get snow forever, but here in the desert it does take on a quasi-mystical quality to ponder the onset of snow. Our headmaster announced that meteorologists had confirmed there was a chance for snow. Would school be cancelled?

It seemed strange that snow would visit us, much less disrupt the rhythm and flow of a boarding school where on most nights 75% of the students are boarders.

But the prospect of snow creates mania. However—that mania is hardly indigenous to Jordan! When I lived in North Carolina, certain kinds of cloud formations sent my southern brethren and sistern to the local grocery stores—they had seen the “bread and milk sky” (say that please with the proper southern accent it requires!) and they needed to load up the provisions of bread and milk for the duration of winter! The first year I taught in North Carolina school was cancelled for a week in January, 1987 due to a snow storm. Most days you could find everyone at the mall killing time until it was “safe” enough to traverse the roads back to school.

On Wednesday—the morning of what might be the storm of the century—students started yelling in the halls around 10:00 that school was cancelled for the following day. Oh, the excitement of it all!

Then as lunch started many of the students who live in various parts of Jordan were whisked away to be sent home in school vans to get them home before the storm hit.

(We are a fully functioning boarding school—our own little community, albeit monastery-like…)

As lunch began, I recognized the “Henny Penny” mood as rumors coursed through that school was cancelled the following day, and maybe indefinitely (!!). Our headmaster announced that a plan would be pronounced shortly. Soon however, some of the staff went from table-to-table canvassing students as to what their plans were. Their plans? What was the school plan? Was everyone going home? Several Saudi students said they were flying home until winter was over. They were calling the airlines!

Oh, the sky is falling!

Hackley was not immune to such mania either. The bus companies practically control the educational system and on days when it was feared that snow might come that night, bus companies sometimes announced early dismissals to get students home, and the mania would start sometimes as early as 10:00. I actually went around the halls occasionally on those days, yelling out and warning to Henny Penny. Why not—it was fun to add to the cacophony.

I went to Lubna’s office and we checked online the best weather service for Jordan. It said that there was a 30% chance of snow that evening.

30%
!

Oh my…Henny Penny has found a safe home.

The official word finally came. Students could leave at 6:30 on buses but any boarder needed to call home and check with a Student Life Office dean about the permission. We braced ourselves (actually I did less bracing, I was going to be in class) for the onslaught of maybe 200 calls in the next hour or so to manage.

I managed to teach my remaining class, although students checked the skies every few minutes in case a missile of snow dropped to earth.

When 6:30 came Henny Penny had packed her suitcase and some students had suitcases that looked more appropriate for Spring Break than a night at home (followed by a weekend). The official word was students would be notified if school was cancelled. Yes, Henny Penny, school was not yet cancelled, just precautions being made. If school was not cancelled everyone would have to be back on a bus at 7:00 a.m. the following day to come back and have that scheduled day of classes.

At 6:30 it was cold—maybe 40 degrees. My, my, Henny Penny, your feathers would be mighty chilly in such temperatures.

The decision to be made was—would there be school the following day? Would it be prudent to go home for the evening in Amman, just to come back very early the following morning? Some students figured—come on, it’s a boarding school, we live here, there will be school!

So a hardy group stayed on campus. By the way, one of my Mohammad students stopped and asked if I was going to stay in Amman. I asked why—I lived here at the monastery, errr, on the campus. He thought it might be more fun for me to get a hotel room in Amman for the storm.

At dinner there was that mood that prevails on snow days. You know—you shouldn’t do anything you normally would do. If you should practice the cello, work some math problems, read your novel for English, learn some German artist names for Art History, of course you don’t do any of those things—it’s a snow day! (Remember, not yet officially!) So you linger at dinner longer and have one of those inane conversations you have on snow days. Conversations that are not about business, or have an agenda, or are on your To Do List.

I joined a table and we discussed how businesses in the Arab world often change well-known American business names but are not really a franchise of the American business. So, in lazy snow day fashion, you go around and share your findings. I shared the grocery store named “Biggly Wiggly” modeled on the American store, “Piggly Wiggly.” Abdullah shared that there is a coffee shop named “Stars and Bucks,” another shared that a hamburger place called “Softee’s” is purloined from the American “Hardee’s,” and so on. My favorite contribution was a student who had lived in Kuwait and told of the chicken place there with the familiar KFC in big, bold neon lights, and then the actual name in smaller print, Kuwaiti Fried Chicken. Ha!

The following morning I got up about 6 to get ready for school. I looked outside and the ground was bone dry and the sun was just starting to emerge from its battle with the moon. Oh well. So much for Henny Penny and her mania. It was time to get ready.

After my shower I noticed a message on the cell phone. An SMS had gone out to the KA community—“Due to inclement weather, classes will be cancelled today, Thursday, February 4.” Henny Penny won!

Of course only 80 students had remained on campus anyway. We have 100 full boarders. That means that not only did the five-day boarders get outta Dodge the night before, 20% of the seven-day boarders had hightailed it away too! I guess the powers that be wisely figured you can’t fight the Henny Penny madness! No school! I feel for those administrative decisions—you cannot win (unless your last name is Penny).

As you might imagine, it was a beautiful day—it was sunny for much of the day, and almost no precipitation at all! But lest I think this is a Jordan Phenomenon—I remember a day at Hackley when a hurricane was forecast and people worried about the roads and the drainage problems of the parkways, and school was cancelled the day before. Ahhh…it turned out to be one of the most perfect sunny days in the Hudson Valley in my memory!

About 8:30 Ghassan called me and asked if we should have class. Really? He said about a dozen art historians were on campus. Let’s have class! Why not?! I sent out an email offering to have a class, but no one should feel obligated to show up. (I made jokes about the frostbite one might incur, and don’t forget to shake the snow off your boots as you came into class…why not mock the Lack of Snow Day a little.) I emphasized that no one should feel punished to come to the class, or feel punished to have to miss the class. (Abdullah emailed back and said the only one being punished was me!)

So at 11:00 I convened a class about the complexities of 16th century Antwerp. We discussed the world’s first stock exchange, the mad rush of ships in the harbor, the cabal of world trade in the “Wall Street” district, and the Flemish-Protestant chafing under Catholic Spain. We analyzed 9 art works by Pieter Brueghel, the first two being winter landscapes!

Fourteen young men and one young woman came to this extra class. They braved the “storm of the century” and bucked the trend of not doing anything important on a Snow Day. It was really just like any other day in this school, a reminder of how blessed I am to have a group of students who show up and profess interest and mine their curiosity.

Right now…a new morning…and another sunny day!

No comments: