COVID-19 in Qatar

I really had no intention to write about my experience with COVID-19. I mean, the whole world is going through this. Why would anyone care about my perspective? However, several people have made a comment about looking forward to reading my blog post about it. The more I thought about it, I figured I should go ahead and write about it. One, it will be fun (or not) to re-read what I wrote in one, five, ten years from now. Two, most people who are going to read this probably don't know (many) people living in other countries, and it might be beneficial to hear from someone they know about how this pandemic is affecting people all over the world. I will break this up into sections: personal and professional.

Personal
Thanks to social media, I am acutely aware of all the happenings of home. Just like at home (Jasper, Indiana), things in Doha are changing day-by-day. Within about a one week span, pretty much everything closed. As of the date I am writing this, March 22nd, just about the only things left open are banks, pharmacies, grocery stores, and restaurants for take-out or delivery. However, the one major difference I am seeing between Doha and home is the lack of mass-chaos and hoarding here. Grocery shopping is never a fun event for me. It's usually always busy, and I get cart rage very easily. However, people here are not being extra crazy at the stores. I went shopping on March 19th, and this is what the shelves looked like.

We have stocked up on food and all other essentials, so I'm feeling pretty good about things. We are self-isolating as much as possible. It's a little hard to do, though, when all of your friends live in the same apartment building as you.

Professional
Just as a reminder, our work week runs Sunday to Thursday. On Monday the 9th, the government announced, at the end of 6th period (we have an 8-period day) that schools were closed indefinitely. We had been anticipating that something like that would happen, but not during the day. It was chaos for the last two periods of school. We had two days to prepare our lessons for online learning, and our first day of distance education started on Thursday the 12th. All last week, teachers had to go to school. We are doing a modified block schedule, and we are required to Zoom in with students for every class. Today was the first day that we were allowed to work from home. Full dress code for teachers is enforced.

Zooming with my students.

We, obviously, don't know if/when we are going to return to school. Our spring break was scheduled for April 3-18. Thank goodness Zach and I didn't plan on going anywhere for break! And, Ramadan is supposed to start on April 24th. We have a shorter school day during Ramadan. There is speculation that we probably won't go back until after Ramadan (middle of May), but it's purely speculation. For us, the school year ends on June 25th. Our plan has been to go home for summer, but we will have to see what happens before we make any definite plans.

Professional - Teaching
I have to say, I am definitely coming from a place of privilege. I have joined some teacher groups on Facebook, and I am shocked at some of the things teachers back home have to deal with. All of our students in grades 6-12 are required to have a device. We are a 1:1 school. I am very confident in saying that all of our students have internet at home. As a school, we already use Google Classroom on a daily basis. It's been shocking, to me, to see that teachers are struggling with the technology side of distance learning. Believe me, I realize that they are struggling because it is not something they deal with on a regular basis. Not to brag (but I'm pretty proud to say), but I am also a Google Certified Educator. So, I feel extremely fortunate to be where I am during this extremely weird time.

Anyway, that's my update. I know it's not much different than anyone else. But, that's the point. Even though I'm in a different country, I am experiencing similar things to people back home. We are all in this together. Stay safe, everyone!