Hello Gentle Readers
Just over a year ago, Lena, Robert and I set out on our Armenian adventure. After 2 unhappy years in China we set out on what we hoped would be a great new start.
I was starting a fantastic new job. Lena was also starting her new career and for Robert, he had a chance to put the disappointing Chinese experience behind him and make new friends.
Covid had other ideas.
We love this beautiful country. The people are friendly and the food, scenery and culture are hard to beat.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid pandemic and lockdown in Armenia, we, like many teachers around the world, were forced to teach using Zoom online.
At first parents seemed OK with this arrangement. IGCSE and AS level exams were cancelled and Lena and I, along with all our colleagues bent over backwards to ensure our students got the grades they deserved.
By the way these results were released on the 11th of August and after some very unfair grading, the original grades we gave to the students were allowed to stand.
Teachers were praised by the head teacher and by parents for doing a difficult job to a highly proffesional standard.
When school finally finished on the 12th June, the school director predicted a great summer with good prospects for the new school year.
We had signed brand new 2 year contracts based on the positivity that was in the air, unfortunately this positivity disappeared on Tuesday the 4th of August.
Lena and I were told that along with the 7 new staff that had been hired, our contracts would be cancelled, meaning we were out of a job.
We are deeply disappointed, not just that we will be forced to leave Armenia, but also because we feel that more could have been done to at least give some warning that this was a possibility.
We signed new contracts when we could have been looking for new positions elsewhere. We bought stuff for our apartment, which we will now need to sell.
The school informed us that the secondary school can no longer afford some teachers because pupils have been forced to leave.
We love Armenia and we loved our school. We were happy, Robert had lots of friends and now for the 3rd time in 4 years we will have to move again.
I keep saying to Lena that 'I'm Sorry' and she says 'It's not your fault.' I know there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been affected by Covid a lot worse than us. We are healthy and have each other.
'Everything will be OK' I say, 'Things happen for a reason.'
I cannot get angry at a virus, seems like once again China is screwing with us in the worst possible way.
#armenia #covid
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