Are you inspired to start-up a blog about your adventures living abroad and working at an international school?
Our 45th blog that we would like to highlight is called “2seetheglobe” Check out the blog entries of this international school educator who works at American International School Bamako in Bamako, Mali.
A few entries that we would like to highlight:
Chapter 18: That’s MALI. With an M. And no AW.
“Bali, not Mali.
A year ago we signed a contract to teach in Mali, an African country that nobody had heard of before. People assumed we said Bali, even though it’s not a country and nowhere near Africa. But it does rhyme.
Or they thought we were heading to Malawi. It was also an obscure African nation, well, until Madonna adopted David Banda and Chifundo there and it was featured on E Entertainment News and in scholarly magazines like People, Us, and Star (whose current cover screams “It’s Demi! Cougar Goes Wild in Mexico: THE SEX WAS VERY LOUD”).
Then people would ask US, “What’s Mali close to?” And we would mention neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mauritania. And they would do that nod-without-actually-understanding-what was just-said thing…”
It is sometimes a challenge for your home country friends and family to completely understand your life abroad, especially if you are living in a country that nobody has even heard of before (or maybe heard of once on a tv news channel maybe). For another interesting article related to this topic, check our our own blog article called “Going home for the holidays: No one cares about your international life!“.
Chapter 29: I’d Rather Get a Root Canal in Mali Than Teach in the U.S.
“Last year, during a severe sugar craving bout, I found an old piece of hard candy in my desk at school. Despite the fact that this red sticky thing was probably manufactured back when Mali became a country in 1960, I still popped it into my mouth. Then it got stuck on my lower molars, and upon disengaging it I also yanked off a crown.
This is not a good situation to be in when you live in a developing country where some
dental work occurs roadside. But lo and behold, I discovered a Lebanese dentist (raised in Senegal) who operated a modern, dental practice in an actual building near our school, and he had a number of our students as patients. So off I went to have him reattach the old crown which I was sure would take ten minutes. Except the old crown was cracked and he needed to make a new one. And then he discovered that a root canal had not been done on that old tooth (thank you crappy Florida dentist).
So long story short, he did the root canal (even finding a 4th root which he said was rare)…”
Having a medical emergency while living abroad can be an international school teacher’s worst nightmare come true. Though most often than not, you will be able to figure out a plan to get your medical situation resolved, the process in doing so will most likely be stressful.
Check out some of our submitted comments regarding health benefits and experiences using the host country health care system in one of our our past surveys called “How is your experience using your health insurance and medical benefits?”
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Want to work for an international school in China like this blogger? Currently, we have 162 international schools listed in this country. 58 have had comments submitted on them. Here are just a few:
Kampala International School (Kampala, Uganda) – 50 Comments
American International School of Lusaka (Lusaka, Zambia) – 45 Comments
The School of St. Jude (Arusha, Tanzania) – 18 Comments
International School of Tanganyika (Dar es salaam, Tanzania) – 143 Comments
Khartoum American School (Khartoum, Sudan) – 23 Comments
Khartoum International Community School (Khartoum, Sudan) – 65 Comments
The International School of Dakar (Dakar, Senegal) – 44 Comments
International School of Seychelles (Victoria, Seychelles) – 18 Comments
TLC International School (Nouakchott, Mauritania) – 43 Comments
American International School of Mozambique (Maputo, Mozambique) – 32 Comments
Saint Andrews International High School (Blantyre, Malawi) – 41 Comments
International School of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya) – 46 Comments
International Community School Addis Ababa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) – 61 Comments
The American School of Yaounde (Yaounde, Cameroon) – 26 Comments
The American School of Kinshasa (Kinshasa, Congo (DRC)) – 59 Comments
Additionally, there are a number of International School Community members who currently live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Check out which ones and where they work here. Feel free to go ahead and contact them with any questions that you might have as well; nice to get first hand information about what it is like to live and work there!
* If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here.
How is the school calendar at your international school? Is there ample vacation time?
The school calendar is important, no doubt about that! It decides how many days of vacation you get, or course. We work hard, tireless hours during the school year, so we indeed deserve some breaks…and so do the kids!
But when working at international schools, the school calendar that you are used to in your home country might look a bit different. If the international school is an American one, then the calendar does resemble a typical American public school one. Likewise for UK schools. For Australian international schools, it could either look the same or follow the more northern hemisphere school calendar depending on their location in the world.
But things get much better in international schools because they normally ALSO celebrate or honor the holidays of the host country as well. Double the holidays for teachers (well not really double)! Of course when your school celebrates the host country holidays that means the costs of travel will be high. Not good on your finances. If your international school celebrates your home country holidays though, then that is awesome because host country nationals won’t also be traveling at that time; meaning travel costs should be lower.
Making a school calendar can be a challenging task for the administration. They need to keep all stake holders pleased. Careful attention needs to be paid to all the different variables that come into play during one year at a school. Otherwise later down the line, once that school year has started, some stakeholders could get upset and confused why things where scheduled and planned the way they were.
It is good to get an idea of what the calendar year will look like for you when considering working at an international school. Then you can get a better insight into what your life will be like that first year there, outside of work.
Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to what kind of budgets international schools offer, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “How is the school calendar? Is there ample vacation time?”
Our veteran international school teachers have submitted a total of 254 comments in this comment topic (June 2016). Here are a few that have been submitted:
“The school has to follow Mexican law as far as contracted school days. It’s either 208 or 210. Honestly, it’s a pretty brutal work year. For 16/17 staff arrives on Aug. 9 and will be done on June 24. No fall break except for a few days at Thanksgiving.” –American School Foundation of Guadalajara (Guadalajara, Mexico) – 59 Comments
“Vacations are decided by the administration and it can vary from year to year.” – Good Shepherd International School (Ooty, India) – 185 Comments
“Point of contention. Clearly we are in a Muslim country so we have to abide by the holidays, but as Ramadan keeps pushing up 2 weeks every year, so does Eid (which usually falls in the first term. But we are in one of those awkward times where Eid is falling the first week of school so that means no break from the start of school until December. There is only one week at xmas this year, because we have to make sure to finish school around the start of Ramadan, it will be too hot to come to school while the kids (majority) will be fasting or they just won’t attend school. We will still have a week in Feb and a week in April. No long weekends here. 3 months off for summer.” – Qatar Academy (Sidra) (Doha, Qatar) – 47 Comments
“The school calendar was reasonable and vacation time was fantastic.” – Suzhou Singapore International School (Suzhou, China) – 47 Comments