Introduction to Al Wakrah

We are settling, in our apartment in Al Wakra, Qatar (yes, emphasis on the first syllable: QATar with a sort of soft initial K sound). The apartment is spacious and solid, with good air-conditioning and reliable electricity and fairly reliable water. The school owns the building, so we know all our neighbors automatically, and we leave our door unlocked. We are about 5 miles down the coast from the airport.

Most of the teachers are US or Canadian, with a few Europeans and Middle Easterners in the mix. Most of the students are local Qataris whose parents want them both to learn English and to go to a western university -- or at least one of the several university branches in Qatar. Ours is a private school, owned by one of the family businesses in this suburb of the capital. The country offers its citizens a voucher system which pays parents when their children pass a school year--though our school is too new to qualify for vouchers. Then again, Qatar citizens have the highest per capita income in the world, so they can afford private school tuition.

Part of Vision International School’s cachet rests in the fact that it is managed by ISS, International Schools Services (based in Princeton), thereby enforcing higher standards than most other schools in the area. Our school is determinedly secular, in that religious celebrations and symbols are limited to the Islamic Studies classes. Some of the families are quite conservative, wanting to keep boys and girls separated, and wanting the girls to keep their hair covered. Still, we are glad that they want an American education, with its values of open inquiry,scientific discipline and global perspective. As with most schools, we limit discussion of religion and political topics -- we must be quite careful to avoid any hint of proselytizing, and Palestine is a sore subject.

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