My, my, my. I have thought about this post for the past 3 months. It has been a while since my last post (Sept. 2014 I think) and soooooo much has gone on in our lives. Let me start from where I think I left off (should have read previous post- lol), I took the teaching job at the private school here in Al Ain. If you recall, I was orignillay hired with ADEC but had not cleared security so I began to look at other schools. During the first week of school I found out that the pay I was offered was not correct. See, they offer housing but since I didn't need housing (live with Brian and he gets housing) I was told that I could take the housing stipend, well, that is not true. AFTER being here I was told that housing is offered from the government regardless of public or private school so we couldn't "double dip" (although I asked this question several times). Oh well, I already accepted the position and even without the stipend it was still more than the other schools. A week later I get a call from ADEC offering me my original position (which included 4000aed more a month). After prayer and talking with Brian we decided to stay at the private school since I already committed to working with them. Well, after about 4 months I was asked if I wanted to be promoted to department coordinator, which came with 1000aed a month stipend (for real this time- lol). I knew it would require more time, but hey, why not. BIG MISTAKE!!! Teaching at this private school required too much of everything; time, commitment, just plain chaos. I was required to teach 4 different subjects (yes 4), both boys and girls (which are in 2 different buildings), one boys class had 30 students. If you know anything about this country you know that a classroom of more than 20 boys is ridiculous. I had boys hanging out the 2nd floor window, playing with wood boards from a broken bookshelf that had nails in them (I requested they be removed from my room 6x's) AND manage 5 other science teachers (all of whom started after me).
After being there an entire year I decided to resign at the end of the school year. My children were not happy and were not learning at the level I felt they needed. When I informed my HR department they later stated that I would have to pay close to 30000aed ($8000). What the what??? I asked why and was told that I signed a 2 year contract and these are the fees incurred for breaking the contract. I quickly realized that I never signed a contract and therefore should not be held liable for any of the fees they said I owed. They disagreed, that I didn't owe the fees, so I took them to court. While going through the court process I found out that my school is not governed by the local court system, it is owed and governed by the Sheik. Really? It all began to make since though, I was hired and a visa within a week when ADEC could not get me a cleared visa for 6 months, this school has wasta (i.e.-connections). To make an even longer story short, I won, kinda. I didn't have to pay the entire 30000aed, but did have to pay a little less then half. I was happy and separated from that BEAST of a school.
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