Surpriza Supriza

Saturdays are my favourite day of the week! If you'll recall we have satellite television - livin' large. Channel 265 is TVRi - TV Romania International. Every Saturday from 8pm to 10pm is everyone's favourite feel-good tv show - Surpriza Surpriza. This is a show where they take people with sad stories and give them surprises.

One of today's surprises underlines how Romanian Surpriza Surpriza is. A woman had a sad story of a dead cow. I am told that she wept the words "Whenever I close my eyes I still see it."

They brought out her first surprise. It was a wee little kitten. She started to cry. When they opened door number two to give her, her new cow she nearly died. She wept with great joy and excitement, immediately jumped out of her chair to go and see her new cow. She was excited beyond belief about receiving a cow and a kitten.

In the US people need to be given million dollar houses to show the same level of excitement as this woman had. Its a fun show even though I don't understand a word of it.

It is also fun to watch how far the "dancers" who entertain the crowd during the musical interludes can push decency boundaries. They wear next to nothing as they pretend to dance. Really, to me, it just looks like they are flailing about while three quarters naked, but what do I know?


Cursed

If you recall I was asked to write a test for a class I didn't teach. I wrote the test. The students did poorly.

One of the students wrote something on the last page of his test at the very bottom and signed it. It was written in Arabic so I could not read it. Today I asked someone to translate it for me.

"Dear Doctor. I got an extra point on my first exam. Apply it to this exam. If you don't I will not forgive you even in front of God on judgment day."

Please, please, please put this on my tombstone and make shirts with the same quote!

A week... already?

It is hard for us to believe that another school week has ended. Time moves quickly here. It seems that the weeks end in the blink of an eye but at the same time it seems like we've been here for years.

It was a good week, it was a bad week.

Good
Swell made nice with the TAs again. It turns out that they hate their lives at the school and in Nablus. They don't like not doing anything but they've done nothing for so long that they don't see themselves doing something. They want to become clinicians but they were only trained in theoretical work and have no practical knowledge. Too little too late. They should have told us that at the beginning. During our time here we could have made them into bang-up clinicians. Swell asked if they would want us to help them if we were to come back. They don't think that they'll be back. So the already understaffed school is about to lose two helpers. They were also the ones to teach the glasses fabricating/dispensing class (which I won't do as I have NO skills in that field). It turns out that they have never dispensed a pair of glasses in their lives. So they are teaching something they don't know. Odd.

Bad
One of the TAs mentioned to Swell that she feels that his program is producing too many optometrists. This is something I've been worried about since our arrival. They are increasing class sizes every year. There are only 2 million people in Palestine. They do not need 30 new optometrists every year. If they were to limit class size the students would get a better education and it wouldn't saturate the optometry market. A situation analysis has never been done but needs to be done before they produce hundreds of unemployed optometrists.

The dean of the faculty of optometry is a very, very busy woman. She is married, has two young children, is working toward her law degree, and is on numerous committees, boards, etc. Swell found out that the dean has applied to get a masters in law following her summer graduation. I am uncertain what her future in the faculty of optometry is. Her secretary has been offered a scholarship to go to school in the UK. If she does well on her english test she'll be going there next year. As it stands there may be no-one to teach these kids or do administrative duties next year. I find this very interesting. It was a program that was started simply so the school could have a program. Very little effort has been put into ensuring a good curriculum is developed and that the program is appropriately sized and sustainable.

If you recall I was asked to make up a test for the second years. It was a test on procedures. I made one up that I thought was relatively easy. The average was 58% with a range from 42%-78%. It was predominately multiple choice with a few short answer questions. The types of questions they got wrong were very basic. They did abysmally.

Swell gave the third years a contact lens exam. The low was 7 out of 20 with a high of 19/20. The scores were all over the map. Abysmal.

We had a rough day yesterday trying to decide who's fault this is. Are we really just that bad at teaching? Is the language barrier really just that bad? In Swell's conversation with the TA she learned that all of the students have been very babied in this program. That they can do what they want, when they want. I guess that we've been a little bit different for them.

I wrote yet another email to the dean telling her of these problems. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime we have two weeks of classes left (but Tuesday is a holiday - May Day) and then one week of exams. At some point I'm supposed to give the third years a final practical exam. They will fail. What do you do when they fail and you have no time to make it up? A disaster that we've decided is not our fault. This has been a great experience for a lot of reasons.

Definitions

As I read our comments I thought I should inform all y'all of some definitions of importance when living and working in Palestine:

Closed Checkpoints: When checkpoints are closed you are still free to carry on business as usual within Palestinian borders. It simply means that Palestinians are unable to enter Israel (or if they're lucky it is just much more difficult to enter Israel). Why is this a problem? There is little to no economy in Palestine and many Palestinians work in Israel. Checkpoints closed = no work = no money = well you get the idea.

Curfew: Curfew is when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) impose a population to house arrest. We only had that for 4 days - and it didn't really affect us although there isn't much to do when the bulk of the city's population is confined to their home.

Invasion: Invasion is simply the incursion of the IDF into Palestinian land. An act of war in other parts of the world this is simply a fact of life. The incursion usually (always?) occurs in the middle of the night. They come in, kill some people, grab some others and leave. This happens with amazing frequency. We are so far away from the city center where most invasions occur that we don't hear anything. It was interesting, however, that after the curfew a few months ago that our street was littered with garbage. You could see piles of garbage neatly put in the middle of the street. You could also see areas where that garbage had been lit on fire. It turns out that sometimes the IDF use our street to enter Nablus and some young boys tried to do their part and installed "road blocks". The road blocks didn't accomplish much but I'm sure the young boys were proud of their work.

Well there are some definitions hope they help in future readings!

One of those days

So today was one of those rare good days. Most everything seemed to go well. We had a good day at school - Sundays are a slow day without much to do so that is always good. It was a beautiful day weather-wise. Sunny, hot, no wind. It made walking into our freezing cold house nice. Rather than walking from the cold into the colder it was as if we were in a civilized land where the outdoor weather is hot and the indoor weather is... well... air conditioned. It was a nice trick for our senses.

Not only was the sun shining but we got to go to a small vegetable store where they have quality, fragrant and tasty vegetables. It is so nice to walk into a store with good vegetables rather than the garbage, the half rotten food we were able to buy at our local Kroger (I'll avoid the rant about obesity in the US especially among minorities due to grocery stores stocking expensive and poor quality produce). The smells and colours were inspiring to the senses.

We cooked some of said vegetables (peppers, potatoes, onion, squash, cauliflower and more) simply by putting some olive oil and spices on them and then throwing them in the oven. Very tasty. We paired it with our splurge of the day. We bough ready made breaded chicken. Prepared food yes, but easy and apparently fish. (Didn't I say something recently about how helpful it would be to actually be able to read Arabic - or in the case of this food Russian).

It was a good dinner. It was a good day. All good days must end.

This good day ends with the knowledge that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is cycling up yet again. It ends with the knowledge that Nablus was invaded yet again (early this morning - little did we know) and two young men were killed. (Terrorists? Perhaps. What makes a terrorist? Another rant for another day). It ends with the knowledge that a young woman was killed while peeking out her window. It ends with the knowledge that Hamas doesn't learn and will yet again meet blood with blood - because that will surely solve the problem. It ends with the knowledge that the checkpoints are closed yet again. It ends with the knowledge that while we sleep soundly in our beds tonight there will be people in fear somewhere in Palestine, there will be blood shed through war in the Middle East and Africa. As we sleep in comfort we know that 1.2 billion people still live in extreme poverty, that women will continue to die needlessly in childbirth - often alone, that 40% of the worlds population do not have access to basic sanitation, and one billion people are forced to drink from unsafe water sources.

All good days come to an end. Perhaps tomorrow will be a good day for more of the world's population?

Swell = Crazy?

So I guess you just make do when you live in a country that speaks a language you don't know. Today Swell wanted to know if she was about to purchase beef or lamb meat. We don't really eat either but her parents sent us some seasoning pouches (taco seasoning) and we decided to make pizza with them. This required meat if it was available. She picks up one of the packages gets a determined look in her eye and marches right up to the store owner points at the package of meat and says, loudly and with great emphasis:



Moooo or Baaaaa?





It was truly a sight and sound to behold. The store owner after recovering from the shock of having a western woman make animal noises at him replied: "Ma'am that is lamb meat. Can I interest you in something else?"


Just kidding. He actually said: "Baaaa." and then called a child over to translate the types of meat he had. We settled on chicken and made some yummy chicken taco pizza.

On a completely different topic I want all y'all to peruse the email I received yesterday. What say you to that? We said Ha! Ha! Ha!

"Hello Sheepie

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I will be traveling on Monday for a
week. I am supposed to be giving an exam in Clinical Optometry I for the 2nd
year students on Wednesday 25th April. I did not write the exam, would it be
possible for you to do that on my behalf and give it to the students?
The material..."

See why we laughed?


Our new found Atlanta roots came out today. While we were watching an episode of the West Wing both Swell and I, at the same time, went "Ohhhhh!" just like they do in the ghetto movie theater by our house. You know the people that talk to the screen. "Don't go in there!" etc. It was a nice reminder of what it is like to live in Atlanta. Another reason to go back soon. To watch the people watch the movie. I find it fun - as long as its not a movie I'm dying to see.

Three Weeks and then Another Three Weeks

Tomorrow is day one of the countdown to the end of classes. Three short weeks. 15 school days. 8 Ocular disease lectures (plus one exam), 6 clinical optometry lectures, 3 environmental optometry lectures, 2 clinical optometry labs and one final checkout. Then come finals. Then our time here is done.

We have to ask if we've actually accomplished anything. I have to admit that I really don't think that we have. We have created a semesters worth of notes and taught students more than they would have learned otherwise but I really don't see anyone being able to teach from the materials we've created. They just don't have optometrists trained to the level we have been trained. The third years are missing a good chunk of their education - not our fault. The second years who are very bright and did well in Swell's class will now be left with one educator who is overworked and under prepared and will be unable to spend the appropriate time with each class.

I wrote a letter regarding the third years. I sent it to the dean who sent it to the president of the university. We'll see if anything comes of it. It basically stated that they were severely lacking in their practical abilities. That they were unable to take their book knowledge and apply it to real world situations. Its sad because its not really their fault. They are just playing the hand they were dealt.

After the last day of class we have about a week of finals and then a couple of weeks to tie up our loose ends. Swell really wants to go to Romania earlier but I'm trying to convince her to stay until the end of May so that we can get paid for the entire month of May. I think she's relented. We'll just hang out here for a couple of weeks and put together our notes into a usable resource that will sit on a shelf and get dusty.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for this program to accomplish its objectives. I hope I'm wrong but leaving the entire thing in one person's hands is asking too much. We will stay for two more semesters but we would need to be paid at least twice what we are being paid now. I don't think that is going to happen so it will be back to Atlanta and decisions will need to be made.

Picture Blog

I don't have much to say today. Very sad news coming out of Virginia. I'm no sociologist or psychologist but something is wrong with the American psyche when stuff like this happens with such surprising frequency.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some recent photos with all y'all. No laughing.

The conference at which the clinic was officially opened was also the start of the Palestinian VISION 2020 plan.



After the speeches Swell pulled out her camera and started taking pictures. Once the camera came out the students all wanted their pictures taken. They also pulled out their cell phones and started taking pictures of us.


Swell really liked these girls' dresses. The dresses are actually owned by the school and are used for any special events.


The pretty dresses up close.


They even asked me to participate in the pictures. In this one the girls would actually stand near me. A previous set of girls wouldn't stand anywhere near me. In fact they made sure Swell was standing between me and them. Very funny.


These are the two hardest working people in the whole of An-Najah. The young man cleans everything but the women's bathroom. The woman does that. The young man comes by our office two or three times a day to empty the trash - we really don't produce trash enough to empty 3 times a day but he checks anyway.



We've taken to going for a short walk most afternoons. There is a very small store just about 400 m away from our home. A slightly larger store is about 800 M away. This is a picture of our building taken from near the smaller store.



This is Sheepie Sr. coming home from one of the stores



This is the greatest sight I have ever seen. We saw it after one of our store trips. The coolest use of the coolest car in the world!


A little bit closer.



Sometimes we need water from the stores near our house. Of course the big packages of water are at the far store not at the close store. This is me carrying the water home. I'm soooo strong!









The last photo. Remember I said don't laugh!

Translation Please!

We’ve been to two ribbon cutting ceremonies in the last couple of weeks. They’ve been fun, but at the same time annoying. The first was a couple of Wednesdays ago. It was the opening ceremony for a new, and really cool, technology centre for the blind and visually impaired. Surprisingly the Faculty of Optometry had nothing to do with it but the dean thought it appropriate enough to require all students to attend.

The requirement for all students to attend caused one of Swell’s classes to be canceled, which was the disappointing aspect of this ceremony. The centre itself is fascinating. It has about 5 computers that are specifically designed for use by the low vision and blind. It has a voice box that tells where the curser is. It has a device that will translate printed text into Braille. There is one program that causes pins to rise in a box that will allow the user to read what is on the screen. Another program translates printed text into Braille and then sends it to a Braille printer. They also have the opposite ability – to transfer Braille into written text – so that the student can work on something and then make it legible for the professor. It was a really neat demonstration but was preceded by a very boring 45 minute ceremony. Boring because it was, naturally, in Arabic.

Our second ribbon cutting ceremony took place last Tuesday right here in the Faculty of Optometry. It required that all classes for the day be canceled. Again, only Swell was affected but she is holding a make-up class as I type this. The plan for this event started out as an open house. The students were making up posters and presentations – I wrote two short, short papers to help one of the students, that were, of course never used. The students were going to use this open house to show off the facilities and to explain what an optometrist is, etc. Well the Dean decided at the very last minute to change the whole purpose of the day. We were completely unaware of what she changed it to. The event was attended by government ministers, university higher-ups as well as some students and interested community members. There was a brief (30 minute?) series of speeches at an auditorium followed by an open house complete with ribbon cutting ceremony. Swell and I just went with the flow - I actually hid in the office because of the enormous crowd in the hall. I hate crowds of people.

On Wednesday a non-optometry student dropped by to ask for an eye exam. I was all: “Whaaat?”. Turns out that our lack of skill in the Arabic language made it so that we missed the official “opening” of the on campus Optometry clinic... that we’re in charge of.

My thoughts on this new development:

1) I do not want to see patients
2) The clinic is not at an operating level yet
3) The students are the ones who should be seeing patients with our supervision
4) The students are NOT anywhere near being able to see patients
5) Thanks for the heads-up

So I shrugged the student off indicating that we weren’t ready to see patients – not good when you’re hoping to get a clinic up and running with good PR NEXT YEAR! See I gave the suggestion that we start seeing patients NEXT YEAR but apparently next year was too far off and this week sounded better. We don’t have all the things we need to do an exam – like exam forms, appointment book, drops, referral list, policy and procedures books, staff to see the patients, etc.

When Swell and I went to talk to the Dean we basically decided that clinic would open soon and that the teaching assistants would no longer be allowed to function solely as paper-weights. They are trained optometrists and they would see the patients with my help. The students will, hopefully, begin to help out in the clinic, with my supervision and the supervision of the TA’s next year.

In the meantime we need to get a clinic organized ASAP and deal with those students/staff who think that we can see them at a moments notice. Nice.

I’ve been recruited to help write an editorial to, hopefully, be published in an Optometric Journal. It is on the same topic I’ve written on in the past. I’m trying to move away from pointing out flaws to developing solutions and writing about them, however, it is an opportunity too attractive to pass up. I wrote my small section and hopefully will have more to do in the near future.

All students failed the practical. It was on retinoscopy, which is taking a light and shining it in a patient’s eyes. With the movement of the light you can determine a patient’s prescription. Useful for infants, children and the developmentally delayed. Also used as a starting point for the “which is better 1 or 2" part.

They did the test on Swell or I. The prescriptions they found ranged from slightly farsighted to very nearsighted. All over the map. It was like watching someone pick up a retinoscope for the first time with no clue how to use it. They blamed everything from the lighting in the room to the lenses they were using. In reality, I think its safe to say they didn’t know what they were doing. Sure they can list the steps on paper but when it comes to actually doing it they have no clue.

Next Sunday is round 2. This time they only need to do one eye and I’ve made it easier for them. I told them today that this is unacceptable. They are still passing the buck. I’ll talk to the dean tomorrow or Tuesday. Their exam went better than the practical but they still got spanked just a little.

Swell’s class is doing much better. Just more motivated. It’s fun.

Financial Update

Just to put your minds at ease. We received a wire transfer in our account yesterday evening. We'll survive.

Edited The Bad, The Good, and the Very Very Ugly ... and the Fraggles... and the Usurper

The Bad

Round 2 of exams are about to begin. Saturday both Swell and I are giving an exam and I am also giving a practical. The students are about to find out that I mean business. This week has been horrendous. Lack of attention. Lack of understandng. Lack of care.

On Saturday they will have 10 minutes to do something that should take about 3. I fully suspect that most of them will fail. This is the practical portion of their clinical procedures class. They are being tested on something we went over near the beginning of the semester but very few of them have taken the time to practice. They strongly hoped that they would just being doing this test on their classmates. It isn’t hard to memorize 12 people’s prescriptions and just pretend to do the testing. They were a little upset when I told them that not only would they be testing Swell or I but that the numbers on the instrument would be covered so they had to go by what they saw not what they thought should be correct. It will be a fun Saturday.

The Good
We got lucky and were given a reprise on the end of school. School was supposed to end on May 5 but due to a late start and the Snow Days we had earlier they have given us another week before finals start. So the last day of class will now be May 10. Both Swell and I have serious doubts that we will get through all of our material but at least we have an extra week to try.

My proposal for extra funds was received and I promptly got a reply that they thought it was an interesting idea. It wasn’t an immediate acceptance but it wasn’t an immediate no either. They said we would hear back within a couple of weeks. If it turns out to be a no I’ll have to go back to being an optometrist, which I really, really don’t want to do.

The Very, Very Ugly

As most of you know before Swell and I left the ATL we went to our bank and asked what the best way to deposit funds from overseas was. The answer we were told was simple. We’ll provide you with some envelopes and you just mail them in to us with a deposit slip. We mailed cheques well over a month ago and they have yet to be posted to our account. When this pay period came around we asked if they could wire the money this time. They said yes.

As of this morning we have $416 in our account. The mailed cheques are still unaccounted for and the wire has yet to go through. Needless to say we’ve been a little stressed out. Everything for this month has cleared but we really need to get money in our account. The wire is being processed and we’re going to receive a confirmation number today. The accountant is looking into whether or not our cheques were cashed somewhere. If they were not I’m hoping they can just stop payment and wire more money. We should have plenty of money by the time we’re done here but it NEEDS to get to our account. Every one of my three student loan payments is more than $400 a month. YIKES

The Fraggles
We’re happy it’s the weekend. We both have stuff to do but neither of us really wants to do it at school. We’d prefer to do it at home. We’ll sleep lots, look at our bank account every 5 minutes, watch some Fraggle Rock (Swell was recently introduced to the wonderful world of Fraggles and actually enjoys it quite a lot. She doesn’t really care about the Fraggles she just likes to look at Sprocket – the dog. While I watch it all I can think about is how much I hated it growing up but how much my younger brother, Jill, loved it – that and Full House. I laugh because I know that if I could find a Fraggle doll (and I had the money to buy it) Jill wouldn’t say no to it. Even though he’ll be very old this coming Friday. He’s just a big baby in a grown man’s body.)

The Usurper

I am quite upset about missing Easter. I haven’t been at home for Easter in years. The last time I was there I went as a surprise to everyone but my sister. I was waiting for my permanent residency to go through so I wasn’t allowed to travel but just before Easter I got my temporary card so I flew up to see my family. That was probably 4 years ago. I’m upset because not only was I not there but I was replaced. Rather than my family looking at an empty chair crying because I wasn’t there they were looking at the Usurper. She took my chair, she took my turn playing games and I am sure she took MY candy. I demand justice! I will not stand idly by while I am being replaced.

Just because she can sing doesn’t mean that I can be thrown on the Trash Heap (see what I did there I made another reference to Fraggle Rock – remember the Trash Heap? She gives the Fraggles advice. I’m clever aren’t I?).

I will have my revenge! I will win the family from her in August while she is left lonely and has to work! HA!

Edit

So I just got off the phone with our bank. I now know where our pay cheques are... they are somewhere between Decatur, GA and Jerusalem. They mailed them back due to us needing to fill out a "collections form" - whatever that is. They mailed the cheques back a little over a week ago and chose to ignore my note asking them to email us if there was any difficulties with the cheques.

We will beg and plead with the finance guy - who by the way caused Swell to cry today - to cancel payment of those cheques and wire that money in as well. We found out that the money we asked to be wired on April 4 at 8 in the am finally began the at least 5 day process yesterday.

Swell was talking to the finance guy this morning - I was at lecture - and he started to yell at her because we mailed the cheques and we should have talked to him first.

When we got here our options for pay were cash or cash. We kindly requested cheques. They decided that would be ok. No body offered wire service ever! Swell decided to ask just in case. It was then that they said they would do it. The finance guy promised to get back to us at some point in the day to tell us what the transaction number of our transfer was so we could plead with the bank to not let the one cheque we have outstanding to bounce (our money should be in place before this happens) but just in case. By 3 o'clock I had phone twice and he didn't get back to us. He finally did gave us the number and we came home to phone the bank.

The lady - who although living in Atlanta - was very nice and mentioned that if the worst case scenario occurs and we bounce something that we just need to call back and talk to the manger and she will deal with any charges.

I feel bad because I promised Swell this wouldn't happen and it shouldn't have. The money coming in is greater than the money going out - if it would reach home. We did have some unforseen expenses that put us over the top, however. Christmas, Egypt, and South Africa. Oh well. You only live once.

A New Me

I'm the kind of person who would rather waste a night on the internet than watch television. For the past number of years I've wasted a lot of time on optometry message boards. I began this obsession when I worked at Pacific University. When you are a supervising OD in clinic you actually don't have to do much. Make sure the students are on the right track, help them when they need it, answer questions, promote thought. It is even easier when you are a supervising OD in the Vision Therapy department. We had a few hours before patients started to arrive to go over every case so when the patients were there I really had nothing to do.

So I started to surf the internet. Optometry message boards are a unique beast in a lot of ways. The majority of the people who post on them are very disappointed with their career choice. Many of them adopt an internet persona that is downright rude. They justify this rudeness by proclaiming that they are the epitome of optometry and all optometrists should strive to be like them. These message boards are depressing so I'm trying to stop going to them. They do provide some useful information but for every 1 good thread you have to read through 15 bad ones. I've cut down on the number of threads I read just scanning the titles for what sounds like clinical advice or important information. Even those threads break down quickly into name calling and demeaning language toward those who practice differently than the self-proclaimed optometric gods.

Knowing that if I cut out my reading of optometry threads I would have nothing to read on the internet - well, there is a lot of things to read, I'm talking of readings that require little effort, not papers on AIDS in Africa, etc. - I needed to find a new internet hobby.

E-bay? No. I have no money and E-bay is weird.
Myspace? I have a myspace but I have no friends, besides I feel a little creepy every time I sign in. I am after all 30. (I did make a new myspace because Swell asked me to. It is for Sheepie Jr. check it out if you care)
Facebook? My brother, Jill, invited me to facebook but what a waste of bandwidth that site is.

After trying some of these things out I had a brainstorm! My Ma is well aware of what this brainstorm resulted in as I've been pestering her with emails about it for a few days.

My family is having a reunion of sorts this August. It is the culmination of a lifetime of dreaming for my parents I think. When my two sisters, my brother and I were young we were always saving for a Disneyland vacation. When we returned our pop bottles - it was for the Disney fund. When we put our pennies in a jar it was for the Disney fund. The Disney fund never reached maturity. It was always a pipe dream and I don't think my parents ever really believed we would go. I always dreamed of it but was never disappointed when it didn't happen. We were not the wealthiest of families and a trip for 6 to California would be very difficult to pull off. As kids we never were left wanting. I was able to join ski club in Jr. High and I am sure it was a sacrifice for my parents to spend the few hundred dollars that cost. We went to summer camp every year. If we asked for something we were sure to get it sooner or later - wait maybe that was just me... I am, after all the favourite- perhaps my siblings have a different version of childhood. Perhaps they went through childhood deprived of their deepest desires. I didn't. Maybe all the extra money was spent on me? I'm not complaining. It was the least my parents could do after stealing me away from bowling league when I was 6 or 7.

Anyway. As we kids got older and moved past believing that the Disneyland vacation would ever happen other things happened. Weddings, school, kids for one of us, moves to the south for me and to the north for one of my sisters.

My parents also found that not having four kids to support allowed them to get out and see the world. They came to visit me in Atlanta when I lived there in 2001 (for one of my optometry externships) and fell in love with "Dollywood" when they visited after seeing me in Atlanta. (I guess it didn't hurt that they were stuck for an extra week due to 9/11). Eventually they decided that a cruise was in order and ended up in Florida and the Bahamas and were able to go to Disneyworld and Universal Studios.

My mother survived accidentally getting on Revenge of the Mummy (she gets motion sick and... well Revenge of the Mummy happens to move. My dad laughs about it now but I think he was quite concerned when he realized the err of their ways). My folks were able to get an amazing deal on a time share while in Florida and have made use of it a few times. Once they were able to bring my sister and the good one with them and my dad finally had someone to go on rides with. (My mother on-the-other-hand finally had someone to take my dad off of her hands.)

When I graduated from public health school my Mustard, Pappy, Jill, Swell and I went to Disneyworld and Universal Studios and had an amazing time.

The dream will reach completion this August when all those who have gone before: Mustard, Pappy, Jill, The Good One, JDL, Swell and I are joined by my eldest sister and her three boys.

Eldest sister, BBL, has had a tough 18 months (well lets be honest a tough 5 or 6 years that culminated 18 months ago).

So 11 of us will be in Florida for a week in August. Now this DisneyLAND savings of our youth has taken a drastic turn of events and turned into a week where we will celebrate our family's growth and steadfast love for each other while my parents finally get to provide a Disney trip and see the joy of a Disney vacation in children's eyes (their grandchildren's). We will be in DisneyWORLD rather than DisneyLAND which is an even better vacation. Three boys will get to go on an airplane for the first time and then enjoy the heat, humidity and crowds of Florida in August. It should be a good time.

Now here is where my new internet hobby comes in. Did you know that there are many message boards devoted to all things Disneyworld, Universal Studios? I'm not talking about message boards celebrating Disney movies but just talking about Disneyworld rides, food, etc.

I've been lurking these boards finding out that there are actually hints on how to best enjoy your Florida vacation. I've been reading these crazy but lovable people write in agonizing detail how great their trip was only to finish their last post and start a new thread about planning their next trip - which is still months away! It is fun reading and if anyone has an internet persona on these boards it is one of exceptional kindness rather than the exceptional arrogance on optometry boards.

I've never looked forward to a vacation before - I get excited about them as they happen. I think that because of where we are now and the meaning that I am reading into this vacation I'm actually very looking forward to it already. Only 4 months to go... I think I'm turning into one of those people whose stories I've been reading!

Surprised

So this will be a meandering post. It will consist of a few stories, seemingly unrelated, but with skill and daring I will bring them all together in a climactic paragraph (or 10) that will shed light on this momentous, yet disappointing tale.

It all started on Sunday - our first day of school this week. I had a group of third year students walk into our office and announce that they were to do a school vision screening later that day.

If you will recall optometry in most parts of the world (I think everywhere but the US and Canada) is an undergraduate degree. Some countries offer a masters degree above the Bachelor but for the most part it is a B.Sc. This is the case here in Palestine. Our students go through a four year program. First year is mostly basic sciences and then optometry curriculum is added in a little bit at a time. So these third years are a little over a year away from graduating with a degree in optometry. After they graduate they are required to pass a licensing exam and then they can go out into the world and Optometrize to their hearts content.

We have a couple of girls who are called "Teaching Assistants". They were trained in Jordan (in what we think is a four year program but may have been a two year program). We were never really told what their roles in the school are. It appears to me that they fill the very necessary role of keeping chairs firmly planted to the ground. They do a good job of it. I have yet to see a chair float to the ceiling with them around. They do a good job of sitting in them. We have tried to make use of them. Asking them to come to our lectures and labs - to help - but also to hear the way we do things so if students have questions they can answer them from our perspective. They have come to a few lectures and labs but generally leave after a few minutes. I've heard through the grapevine that they disagree with how we are teaching things.

If you go on the An-Najah website you will see that this optometry program is designed to bring "advanced optometry" to the region. I'm not sure what "advanced optometry" is but I take it to read that the school hopes to introduce professionals who are trained to do more than simply refract (find eyeglass/contact lens prescriptions). In the literature on the schools website it specifically states that what is holding this development back is a lack of trained educators - i.e. those optometrist trained in Jordan are not qualified to teach the type of optometry that is being introduced to Palestine.

Last Wednesday in my Environmental Optometry class (basically a class about the visual system in work/school/recreation and how optometrists should be involved in ocular protection from work/sport injuries, electromagnetic radiation. Also includes driving/flying vision and vision screenings) I was talking about what a screening entails. We listed tests and talked about whether or not they were necessary for screenings. We talked about why to do screenings and where to do screenings. It was a good class but we didn't finish. We were too finish this Wednesday.

Throughout this semester I've come to the slow, yet startling realization, that I overestimated what my students know. I just learned that a series of tests I assumed (yes, I know assumed) they were taught were actually never taught and simply didn't have a place in the curriculum (not because they weren't important but due to oversight). These tests are known as Entrance Skills. (Visual Acuity - you know 20/20 stuff. Cover Test - to see if you have an eye turn (among other things). Pupil testing, Near Point of Convergence - to see how well you turn your eyes together and more). These are the most basic of optometric tests. We were taught them the first month of OD school.

It surprised me when on Sunday four students mentioned that they were going to a school to do a screening today. I mentioned to them that: i) They didn't know how to do most of the tests - we were going to learn them on Monday (today). ii) They didn't have any equipment (They said they would take the school equipment. I said "No, the second year class has lab today.") iii) They didn't have a professional to go with them iv) They didn't have a recording form and v) They didn't KNOW HOW TO DO THE TESTS.

They said; "No problem, we thought you could show us now and we'll get one of the teaching assistants to go with us."

Swell immediately jumped out of her chair and phoned our dean (she is not there on Sundays). The students at the same time realized the silliness of their plan and my lack of enthusiasm and postponed the screening by a week. The Dean didn't seem overly concerned but agreed that it would be best to postpone (although she was unaware of the whole plan).

Today, Monday, I taught the Entrance Skills/Vision Screening tests. I had one of the teaching assistants come to the class/lab to make sure she knew what to do when she was supervising the students. I had a set of notes and started on the first topic; case history. They were taught this a lot last year. They knew nothing. I spent 25 minutes on it when I had planned on 5. I had them conduct a case history on a partner. I looked at their recording. They didn't do a thing I told them to. They simply wrote down: "Blurry vision" when I specifically and multiple times told them whenever a patient tells you something you must ask further questions (I told them an acronym to remember 6 questions) they ignored me. They understand they simply ignore me. I then told them that they arranged this screening and needed to be ready for it. They said that they were working with children who couldn't answer the questions. I stood there in disbelief. They just don't get it. We're not solely working on one screening this is their future profession, in addition I am sure a child no matter how old can tell you if his/her vision is blurry in the distance or at near. I admit I yelled a little bit.

I continued on and covered 1/3 of what I wanted. In fact for part of the practicing I had them stand in two rows facing each other. Half of them were the patient the other half the optometrist. I told them exactly what to do at what time to do it. It was like teaching kindergarten kids. This is something that Swell was taught to do in 5 minutes when she was in undergrad so that she could help on a vision camp in Romania. It is not difficult. I'm not even asking them to understand why the results happen just how to do the test and record the results. I asked if they would be able to do this test on Sunday with a child who had never had the test done before. They said they only wanted to do Visual acuity at this screening. I said: "Why? The teacher could do that." It is not worth my time or theirs to have them go and do something so simple. There is no reward from a public health standpoint or from an educational standpoint. They see themselves as the refracting opticians that already exist here.

I broke for a 30 minute lunch. I told them I would start at 12:15 exactly. I began the lecture at 12:16 to 3 of 13 students. The others arrived 10 minutes later. I then told them that the diagram I drew on the board would be on the test. No one copied it down. (the three on time had already copied it down. The others....?)

The UNLICENSED teaching assitant of course left after 15 minutes of the first session and never returned. I have no idea if she knows what to do but the screening on Sunday will be a nightmare. Good thing I won't be there. I'll finish the other 2/3 of entrance skills tomorrow and Friday - further delyaing other classes. These students will not be ready to graduate next year. They will not. They don't listen and they don't care. It's disappointing. The second years - they are a different story.

See I think I tied it all together. If not. Boo hoo.

End of a long weekend

In order to break up the boredom of three days at home we went for a short walk today. Not too far from our home is a tiny store that sells essentials. We walked over there and bought some eggs to make brownies. It wasn't much of a walk - maybe 5 minutes - but it was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

It is still quite cold in our home although the weather is very pleasant outside. We have school tomorrow and about 8 weeks of classes left. We've been away from home for 11 weeks so this is about the half way point of our time away - reminder, after leaving Palestine we'll be in Romania for about 1 month. We're starting to miss the little things about being at home - restaurants, our little community, being able to go where we want when we want but we're really not missing work.

When we leave here at the end of May the faculty of optometry will again have one faculty member to teach all optometry related classes. An optometrist who graduated from Jordan is being sent somewhere in the UK (I don't remember where) to get a Master's degree. He will complete that degree at the end of next summer (i.e the end of summer 2008). He will then return to teach at An-Najah. We, as I've said before, hope to be able to spend two more semesters here to cover the transition.

We've had some questions about what the funds I'm trying to raise so I'll give some details on that now. We're not trying to raise funds from individuals. It would take far too many individuals to support us and it doesn't leave a lasting legacy at the school. Instead it was my bright idea to contact two Non-Governmental Organizations to ask them for money. The first has a fellowship program through which we hope to get at least two round trip flights to North America for each of us for the next year. We then hope for a second set of round trip flights for the following year so that we could come for a couple/three weeks to aid the new educator(s).

The second organization will be a harder sale. I'm basically asking them to hire both of us as full time staff. In my proposal it states that we would begin working for them in July but would remain in North America for July and August where we would be doing lecture/course/research preparation. We would then come back here for Sept. - December. We would go home for 4 or 5 weeks over Christmas and then come back for the spring semester next academic year. I think we would then go to Romania again and come back here for a couple of weeks in September of 2008 to help the new educator(s) before returning home to start our lives. I'm not really sure if the organizations will buy into this proposal but without additional funding we will go home and stay home. We'll see.

I really have nothing to say as we've just been sitting around working/wasting time. We heard a lot of gunshots yesterday but I think people were just firing into the air because of the holiday. Silly if you ask me.