(S) Mexico City, Greengates 1987

Greengates School, Mexico City

We made a hasty and undignified return from Colombia to base in Belfast to lick our wounds and consult with my friend DHC as to what the hell to do. I thought of setting up my own school in Ireland but I had to give up that idea when I realized I had not the slightest idea how to go about it. In panic, I went off to Gardner’s again in Belfast to buy my trusted friend “The Times Educational Supplement” I was not disappointed.

“Wanted Urgently! science teacher, Greengates School, Mexico city”

Phoned J.H, recently appointed Deputy Principal of Greengates school.

This was one of my more rigorous phone interviews.

“ Mr. Nixon, can you teach junior science?”

“Yes”

Two weeks later we arrived in Mexico city with Roger (two) and six suitcases.

I should have been suspicious of the short notice. In retrospect, invariably, if a school wants someone at short notice it is a bad sign. It means someone has been sacked suddenly, or they have resigned suddenly or there has been poor planning by the school. In this case I was in an unusual situation. I was  just desperate for a job.

It has always amused me when people comment enviously on my career at all  the interesting places I've lived in as if they were holiday destinations. They imply that I've been selfish. They think I've chosen to go these places as if choosing somewhere to vacation . The fact is that since my marriage, I have nearly always been obliged to work in some far off place for practical reasons such as money, as in Dubai, or suitability for my family, as in the case of Colombia or Australia, or both, as in the case of Brunei. After my marriage, the only time when I have been the primary consideration in a change  has been when I have been forced  to leave a job unexpectedly. We all have our limits as to the amount of stress we can tolerate in a job .Maybe my tolerance for stress is lower than others, but that is my personality and is not something I can change easily, although I  have tried hard to do that with the help of counselors since Brunei. But when people hear my stories they become jealous and think I  have been  on a continuous  holiday for 35 years.

Getting back to Greengates, I was shocked at the unruliness of the rich kids at first. After four weeks the proverbial shit hit the fan when a recalcitrant fourth year girl with a name sounding like ‘Moron’ took a serious dislike to me. I kept telling her to stop talking, take the chewing gum out of her mouth, sit in her seat , do her homework etc. She paid me scant attention so I put her in ‘detention”. Of course she happened to be the Lab assistant’s daughter, and the Lab assistant just happened to have a doctorate and was well connected. She came from a wealthy Mexican family. The upshot of all this was that the mother (the lab assistant in my department) refused to allow Moron to be put in detention! . Enter J.H. ‘mediator’ or ‘mediocre’ depending on your point of view. J.H.’s solution was for Moron not to do the detention.

Not surprisingly, I wasn’t so thrilled with this idea and I mentioned my thoughts to J. H. the (the mediocre). He promptly referred the case to the Principal S, the moral midget.

To my astonishment the Principal announced that she supported her Deputy and the Moron. They then announced that they had taken the trouble to phone my former boss in Colombia,who had now moved to Madrid after being shot at,(see blog entry 'R,Colombia') and that they knew ‘all about’ why I had left Colombia. My former boss in Colombia had for some reason not given me a flattering reference. I was curious -and asked the mediocrity and the moral midget if they knew why I had left Colombia because I was damned if I knew mysef. So, I asked them to tell me what had happened. To my disappointment they weren't able to, or wouldn’t tell me. So, I never did find out. To this day I still don’t really know what happened in Colombia myself. Unfortunately, Jack is dead now so I’ll probably never know. ‘Confusao’ as they say in Portugal.

It was only then that I realized in Mexico city how mean my friend Jack from Colombia really was. I consulted with M as to what to do and we considered a ‘moonlight flight" to UK. The heavy weight of responsibility weighed heavily(not surprisingly) on me and, against my better judgement (please don’t laugh-it was a very serious situation) we decided to stay.

Moron’s mother, the Lab assistant, was eventually sacked many years later by Greengates after causing my friends J.H. and the moral midget (the Principal)a lot of headaches and sleepless nights.

At the end of the year Moron eventually apologized to me but I had already decided to leave Greengates as my reputation had been tarnished by the incident.

Ably supported by my chum NJVR, an eccentric Maths teacher, I survived until Christmas. At the age of thirty six, it was gradually dawning on me that money was important in life and so I applied for a job in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. . Taking NJVR’s advice I followed up the application with a phone call (no fax or E-mail in those days) and I got an interview in London– all paid for!

The interview lasted fifteen minutes with I.W. the Principal of a new school “the Rashid school for Boys” set up by Sheik Maktoum the crown Prince of the Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. . After another of the most perfunctory of interviews I knew I’d got the position as Head of Biology and Careers, even though he said he had to ‘consult’ his colleagues beforehand. In the interview I.W. didn’t waste the opportunity to ridicule my previous position in Colombia.

“I see you’ve been a Deputy Principal at some 'Mickey Mouse' school in Colombia” said I. W.

"Yes - ha! ha!," said I self-deprecatingly because I desperately wanted the job in Dubai. ('Anything you say I.W.') He was really thinking that being Deputy Sheriff in Colombia was was nothing compared to what he was offering me in Dubai.

Little did either of us know that within one year of the interview I.W. himself would be sacked from Dubai, run out of town with a handsome sum in a brown envelope to keep him quiet, and in an astonishing coincidence, be appointed to take up the position of Principal at the same ‘Mickey Mouse’ school in Cali, Colombia! . I.W. only lasted eighteen months as Sheriff before he was devoured by the gentle coffee morning ladies of the school’s ‘Junta Directiva’.

But I am getting ahead of myself, I still haven’t finished with Greengates yet. I have to mention the G Phurphy affair. One day I was walking across the across quadrangle when I heard a sonic boom. It turned out to be a sonic belch from G Phurphy a slobbish Yanky teenager. We happened to be passing some new parents who were being shown around the school at the time. The parents heard the whole thing and looked embarrassed at me. I dashed over to remonstrate with Gerry and reported the incident to J.H. (the mediocre).The latter didn’t think it was serious and wouldn’t give Gerry a detention. He made him write an essay on manners which he did ‘tongue in cheek’ and hence deriding yours truly for taking it seriously. J.H., mediocrity that he was, thought it was all very funny. I don’t know whether the parents put their children in the school or not.

And then there was Patricia who sulked all year in my form class because I wouldn’t flirt with her. One day, she claimed the dog had eaten her biology homework and vomited it up. In her report I said that she didn’t always do her homework.The Principal, S, the moral midget and J.H. joined forces to ask me to change the report saying I was victimizing Patricia. I refused of course. In the end they gave me a good reference to get rid of me.

They didn’t mention the ‘Prick of the week’ club’s meetings which I attended. We would sit around and tell stories of the most outrageous things that had happened in school during the week. I am convinced there was an informer which explains why I was hounded out of the place for making unreasonable demands upon the Moron, Patricia and the slob, Gerry Phurphy.

Socially, we had a very good time in Mexico of course. We met Maria's friends of ther family "Los vargas many times as they lived in Mexico City. We also went to visit Maria's Mum at Christmas. I met amd made made good friends with NJVR who was very supportive during my struggles in the school. There were also parties and drives and tours around the picturesque parts of Mexico. we particularly enjoyed going to a place about three hours from Mexico City in Michoacan called Jungapeo. There was a spa -a beautiful place. We also had a visit from D.H.C.at the end of the year. On one particular day we went to the pyramid of Teotihuacan and as we were travelling there I did a 'U' turn in an illegal place. Having been in Mexico for the year but I didn't think much of it. As luck would have it a policeman caught me me and pulled us over. He insisted we would have to go to the station to pay the fine but I knew he wanted a bribe. I had no money but David obliged by showing the policeman all his foreign currency in his wallet and the policeman price kept going up! We eventually got rid of him. I don't think David was terribly impressed by this incident or of Mexico in general.

I flew to back to school in Mexico (February 1987)) a little nervous, but pretty confident that I had done well in this interview . Sure enough, about one week later in the middle of a science class, a telegram arrived offering me a position in Dubai starting in August 1987.

Arrival in Dubai 1987

We left Greengates in Mexico  with some misgivings. We spent the summer of 1987 at home and I remember playing golf with my brother Roger and saying to him that I was hopeful we would stay for five years in Dubai and make plenty of money. He hoped so too and he advised me to take out life insurance and other such things. I was very upbeat about Dubai. It was to be a brand new school, international students, boarding, International Baccalaureate, great money and living conditions. A wonderful climate too. It was almost too good to be true. And indeed that turned out to be the case