The Verows @ UAE!: Come Come...

This week brought about some interesting experiences and adventures.

National Day – the UAE is celebrating their 40^th anniversary. This country goes ALL OUT for the occasion! The two weeks prior to National Day gave us a chance at school to celebrate the country. During the morning assembly (which was have every day) they would highlight various aspects of Emirati life or the Emirates. It was informative and interesting – well – the parts we knew about since it’s mostly in Arabic of course. We saw various dances and performances.

Lots of folks decorate their vehicles and the city was lined with lights and decorations. We heard all sorts of stories and received lots of advice to stay out of the streets on these two nights because the traffic is a nightmare. Did we listen – or course not! When in Rome… We set out on the actual day – National Day – and it was quite interesting. So we get into the outskirts of town center (or centre as they spell it) and the madness starts. It reminded me of when the Houston Rockets won one of their championships and the street were filled with excited fans. Cars lined the streets and the police were even routing traffic on certain streets. Horns echoed from all areas. Many even had air horns and other noise making devices. And do we drive without windows down since the weather was nice and pleasant – not at all! If you have windows down you risk the opportunity to get sprayed with silly string, some shaving cream snow like substance, or even water from a water gun or a fertilizer sprayer. It was cool to be part of the madness and just take pics as we drove around. After an hour or so, it did get old, and then you had to wait another hour to get home. We saw several folks sitting on the top of their vehicles through the moon roof. We even saw one kid who was probably 10 or 11 standing on the side of his Land Cruiser and occasionally would get off to do the traditional gun dance in the median. We did get some interesting looks as we paraded with our Nissan Sunny beeping our way through town too!

Friday was one day we will never forget. We went out in the early evening to take some photos for our Christmas card. We went to this somewhat remote area where there are sand dunes and we knew we could get some good photos. So we trek out through the sand and snap some awesome photos. Then we decided to go on the other side where there were some camels and we assumed this was a small camel farm. As we are taking some photos a truck pulls up and Jennifer asks, “Is this your farm?” The guy says, “Yes, come come!” So of course we have an invitation and we’re ready! So we walk up the hill and he’s waiting for us! The kids were excited to see the camels and other animals. He immediately sits on the top of one of the dunes, tells the kids to sit next to him, and he’s ready for photos! It was almost like seeing Santa! So we all took some photos, and the kids played on the dune like it was a hill at a park or carnival. Then he, never did get his name, takes us over to his camels. There were 10 of them. They were all females and the male, the “stud”, was out front. We pet the camels and the guy just lifted up Cole like he was his own kid and they pet camels together. Caralyn was a little nervous about the camels. So we were in awe of the camels. They were so friendly and Nancy, the largest one, enjoyed getting loved on. After that the kids went straight back to the dune where they rolled down it collecting all kinds of sand all over them! The man asks me if both ladies (Jennifer and Angela) were my wife! I told him no – just Jennifer – and he said why not more. Jennifer told him, “He can’t handle more than me!” He proceeded to tell us that he has 3 wives. And lots of kids. We never did get an actual number, but he showed us a video on his Blackberry of the kids (all probably 15 or 20 of them) playing in the swimming pool. He was telling us that his property (different from the farm) has four villas that all surround the pool area. Guess he’ll be looking for wife #4 since there is an empty villa. After the wife discussion and listening to his advice of how I need to have more wives so I can have more children, he asks us if we want to see a baby lamb. Of course we do! So he sends his worker to go and get it. He brings over the lamb. He tells Cole and Caralyn to go catch it and so we take some photos with the lamb, and then he tells us to take the lamb home. He said, “give it milk, and when it gets bigger..” He then did the motion using the hand as if to cut your neck – to tell us to slaughter the lamb and eat it when it gets big. Can you imagine us pulling up in our complex and letting the lamb out to run around like it was a pet! No way! And Angela was telling us, “You have to take it, you can’t say no!” Uh….no way… We’re not bringing a lamb home to our villa. So we passed on the offer but it was a very nice gesture. Suppose we could have taken it, raised it, and then sold it for some dirhams! And of course Cole was ready to name it Ben Tennison. Go figure!

As we near the end of our trimester – we have finals in high school. And since the kids haven’t been in school for a week, they’ve been studying and they’re ready to finish. The missing school part is like an unspoken rule that you say home and study versus going to school. So it makes for a great time for us to come in for 4 or 5 days before finals to just sit and chill out and decompress!

This morning I get to school and we find out name on this list of where we will be administering the final. And every day you are in a different classroom – and knowing how this place works – there is probably no rhyme or reason as to where you will be and why that room and why those students. There are classrooms set up with rows and even the gym. Luckily, so I’m told, I was in the gym for day 1 of finals. And these first three days are only for 12^th graders too. They set up the gym with 11 rows of desks – 13 in each row. Each desk has a sticker with the kid’s names and in Arabic of course. They come in and sit and are ready. There are also kids from private schools that come here to take the exam too. We pass out the exam at 8:30, and they have 90 minutes to take the exam. After 45 minutes, they can turn their exam in. I’ve heard all sorts of stories about the cheating that goes on and how crazy it can get. But day 1 – didn’t see any cheating. And there were a few kids that had a question, but since everything is in Arabic, it’s not like I can really even help them. As with most things in this country there are no clear directions – and if there were – they’d be in Arabic anyway. So we go to our assigned room that we had to actually ask where the rooms were, and I just stood and waited at the front of my row. I was not sure if they brought their pens, or where the exams were, where the restrooms where and I they could even go to the restroom during the exam. I just waited and luckily some teacher brought me a file folder with some names on the front – again – Arabic of course – and the exams were inside. I just passed them out and one teacher starts to tell me something in Arabic. HELLO?! HUH? So I paused to wait and see what he was telling me, but then two others told me to keep passing out exams. So we pass them out and then I heard something about having them sign the paper. What paper? Where is this paper? Oh – it must be the paper in the folder that is in Arabic….inshallah! I was fortunate that the other teacher who was supervising the row with me took the initiative and he showed me where I was to sign and where they sign. Inshallah if I am alone one day I’ll now know what to do. And the best part of it is after the final they go home. And so around 10 the kids are heading out and by 11 we’re out too! So three weeks of half days! And one week involved no teaching. Can’t complain here! Mafi Mushkila!

So with all the adventures of life here in Al Ain, we get some pretty unique experiences. We’re on the down slope and have 12 days until we get back to American soil for the Holidays! We are VERY excited!

During one of the days where the kids were at home "studying" we had a staff meeting - in Arabic of course - all of it - and then we did some other meeting that just the SSAT folks (they are our "provider" which is like a school specialist who supposedly are there to help the teachers academically and such...) and some English teachers attended. We did learn some very interesting things. This photo is where the idea came for the 40th National Day picture came from. These are the first 7 Sheikh's, one from each Emirate.

Here are some facts we learned:

1) An Emirati gets paid $600 AED ($166 USD) per child per month.

2) If you are in the army or police, you HAVE to marry an Emirati woman - at least for wife #1. They can have up to 4 wives per the Islamic faith. Men get multiple wives for various reasons like wanting more kids, one wife's health might be poor and she needs help, the man might need more sex.

3) Most marriages are sort of arranged - it's like they come reccomended to you. You do not date, and you are not allowed to be alone until you are married. And you sign a contract when you enter a marriage. And the man typically pays for his wife. The wife can do what she wants with the money, like give some to family members and such.

4) The "founding" Sheikh had something like 42 kids.

5) Before the Japanese or someone invented the cultured pearl, pearling was a huge industry off the UAE coast.

So even though we are 8200 miles away from home, Little Elf still managed to find us in the UAE. Little Elf reports back to Santa how the kids behaved. He leaves us a note every morning and he's hanging out in a new place. Cole & Caralyn love Little Elf!

Yesterday for lunch we took two friends to this awesome bakery we like to get pizza and zataar at, and we saw this interesting guy. It's like henna on the hair....Women to use henna to color/highlight their hair.

This headpiece is worn during weddings...Caralyn wore one for National Day at Jennifer's school.

National Day @ Jennifer's school.

Some artowork that some students at my school did.

Loved this photo...got me a tripod to use and learning new things with my camera thanks to an LT at my school who is getting his masters in photography. This is the Etisalat building - that is our phone/internet/cable provider. Lots of buildings were decorated..some nicer than others!

We had ANOTHER parent night - this one was outside in the front area between the doors to the school and the gate. They set up chairs and desks and parents came to get their child's marks (grades). Awkward! And they begged and pleaded for higher marks if they were not as high as they liked. I was lucky enough to not have to deal with that. They always have excuses for why they deserve high marks - sometimes we're talking the kid has say an 80 and they want a 95. "Please teacher, please please teacher," they'll say. It even goes as far as explaining how they are Egyptian and they can't return to Egypt to study and how they need full marks to go to Univeristy and such. I just want to say, "Tell your child to acutally do the work!" And they don't understand why they might have high A's in every other class but English. It doesn't make sense to them. But back to the photo - we started at 6 but the call to prayer occured about 5 minutes before so they did their prayer in the foyer of the school. I love this photo!

This was for their school's National Day festivities!

They loved all the National Day stuff!

So on this morning Cole had the shirt of backwards and Caralyn says, "Cole - the wisemen go on the front!" Hiliarious!

Love the hat! This is an awesome student. We even saw him out on the streets spraying cars and such.

Caralyn (with her henna she got at school) and Miss Emily.

Cole and Miss Sara and some other child who was all up in our business!

Macaroons from a coffee shop - they were VERY good - and free for National Day!

Awesome photo - love the camel and tree in the background...

(this is Angela)

FINALLY - HALLAS - finished all of our paperwork and such and we're all residence here in the UAE!

Love your eyes Jenn! I think she was too excited to see the camels. When there are sand dunes or camels, Jennifer is like the kids at the zoo - they just get so excited! She was so excited when the farm guy said, "come, come!" Jennifer probably would have ventured into the farm anyway...It's awesome to be in a country where they just welcome us in! Love it!

The camel on the far left is Nancy. Who knows what the other names are.

The lamb we were given...and returned!

Here are some photos from the National Day night madness we were out in!

These guys are spraying eachother - I guess to see who will give up first!

I thought this was a good photo- some silly string on the Sunny! It was funny because before they sprayed you they would like check to see if you were okay with them spraying the car. Of course we didn't care! We did get lots of looks - but I think they probably thought it was cool that we were out enjoying the day too!