Hello! How are you? (Electric Light Orchestra)

With my students in Doha, Qatar.

Kayf haluk?

I often find myself being reminded of my time in the Middle East as an educational advisor.

Whenever anyone asks me, "How are you?" on a zoom call, I invariably find myself replying in Arabic without thinking.

'Alhamdulillah' (Al-harm-du-lill-la) is a phrase taught to me by my Qatari friends. Their translation of it was - By the grace of God, I am well. 

Is there a better response to "How are you?" than that?

When colleagues find out about my time in Qatar (and then the UAE) they are curious about my experiences. All I can say is that it was a genuinely life-changing three years for me (and Jacky) because I was working with a great collection of people in a vastly different environment.

I loved many things about their way of life, and I was often in awe watching the kind of relationships the male teachers had with the boys in my school. 

My colleagues often talk about having good relationships with students, but I didn't really know what that truly meant until I watched the men at Ali bin Abi Taleb school in Al Foah (just outside Al Ain in the UAE).

There were zero behaviour issues at that school while I was there, but a lot of laughs and a whole lot of care and compassion.

It was an extraordinary experience and I feel incredibly privileged to have been a part of that world for a while. A few of my colleagues in OneSchool Global know what I'm talking about.

I often think about them all - what are they up to? How are they and their families? What happened to them next? 

Love and peace - Wozza