How It All Began

In June 2005, following a lengthy waiting process after being informed I had been selected for the position, I left my US State of residence for the United Arab Emirates and to work as an academic librarian in the United Arab Emirates University's Libraries Deanship. During my first several months in the UAE as an expat I, wrote several Newsletters which I posted from my email account to family and other individuals who had requested updates on my Arabian experience.

The blog I had planned to create as a preferred forum did not materialize as I became more enmeshed by work requirements, but based on suggestions and requests from Readers, I have decided to create this blog and transfer to it all the Newsletters, and the News Briefs that succeeded the Newsletters, as I had less and less time to devote to the task. Now I just have to figure out how to add all of them!

Enjoy!

Pat (Buveh)

News Brief 10 - 19 April 2007 - The Farewell Party

19 April 2007

The Farewell Party

On Tuesday, I went to my own farewell party in the Dean’s Office at Zayed Central Library. Rebecca [the Collection Development Librarian, a native of Hong Kong] was also an honoree since she will be leaving in about six weeks. The attendees were the Dean, the Dean’s Assistant and secretary, the Assistant Head of Public Services, my supervisor, the Assistant Head of Cataloging, someone from Rebecca’s department, the supervisor of the Maqam Science Library, Rebecca’s replacement [an Emirati male] and a other few people who filtered in and out. We all sat around on the large leather couches and chairs in the office and the Dean officiated. First he said wonderful things about Rebecca, who has been here longer than I, and her accomplishments, then he talked about me and my achievements, then he opened the floor to anyone who wanted to give tributes and most did. Then it was Rebecca’s turn to say her piece, then mine. I included in my remarks my video conference job interview with the Assistant Head of Public Services, who had recruited me, and my supervisor and that on the screen, my supervisor looked huge, like a football linebacker and then my surprise when I arrived I found out he was “regular sized.” He was laughing so hard he could hardly talk but finally managed to say, “You found out he was just a *little* guy.” Actually, that’s true, he is rather small. Fortunately, he has a good sense of humor. I told about the bus trip to Abu Dhabi I took with Rebecca when I saw my first camels and was so excited, I nearly pointed to them and turned to tell everyone on the bus, “Look! Camels!” but realized in the nick of time that they probably wouldn’t be impressed, so I turned to Rebecca and said quietly, “Look! Camels!” They all laughed at that.

Then the Dean presented us with identical gifts, certificates from the university in official padded folders, then a crystal cube with the university logo and our name, then a necklace of tiny gold chain and a charm. He said, “There’s a coffeepot and a camel,” and handed me the camel saying, “I think you like camels.” (I managed to thank him and not grab the camel before Rebecca could say she’d prefer it) and finally, a tiny metal box with an enamel decoration of a camel on the top surface. Then the Assistant Head of Public Services gave us each a small bag with gifts in it. When I opened them later, I found a gorgeous fancy gold ring with (I assume) rhinestones and a watch smathered, but tastefully, with rhinestones surrounding the watch face. Wow! I’ve never had fancier adornments except, possibly my engagement/wedding ring, now long gone.

Finally came eating. There was some great food served buffet-style and we all sat around talking. The Dean asked Rebecca and me some interesting questions like, “Who are easier to get along with, men or women?” And, “What are some of the problems you see here?” To the first, I replied, “Males, but that might be because I have five brothers and only one sister, so I learned early on how to deal with males.” Rebecca claimed to get along equally well with both. Then more people began drifting in and most of us drifted out. I thanked the Dean on my way out, of course.

News Brief 9 - Saw "Pirates," Mystified

Hi Everyone!

I went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" with a friend on Saturday. She had never seen Johnny Depp and felt she needed that experience. I'd seen the first Pirates but not the second one.

When it was over and we were leaving the theatre, we looked around at the other attendees and she commented, "We're definitely in the minority here!" It was true; all but a few of those leaving the theatre were Emirati males wearing white dishdashes and a variety of headwear; the others were a couple of Western men with male children.

Anyway, as I mulled over what we had seen, I remarked, "Well, I didn't get it, if there was anything to get." She laughed and said, "Yes, the plot was a bit vague but maybe you needed to have seen the second one to make sense of this one."

I've since corresponded by email with my children, who have assurred me that seeing #2 is essential to understanding #3. But I don't know if I'll get to see #2 anytime soon, so if anyone would like to send me an explanation of the following, I'd be pleased.

The singing at the beginning of the movie; nine pieces of eight (is that a play on words?), Pirate King; all the other pirate leaders, Claypso, Will's father.

I can definitely say that it was action packed!

My next News Brief will come soon and be about the latest wedding I attended - it was guarded by soldiers!

Best wishes,
Pat

News Brief 8 - Sand in My Ears

Dear Everyone:

Learning to deal with and accommodate various conditions related to weather and geography is one of the opportunities and challenges of living in a new place. Weather has been a major player here in Al Ain during March and it, combined with the geography, made for some surprises and adjustments.

One event was a vigorous wind storm. The wind blew constantly and with gusto. Of course that meant a sand storm because we are in a desert surrounded by sand, including lovely high sand dunes. The wind picks up sand and takes it along for the ride wherever it is going, usually directly across Al Ain.

The library’s cleaner couldn’t keep up with the sand that came in through cracks and crevices and ended up on book shelves, books, desks, the floor – everywhere. More sand was swept into the library every time the front door opened because, as fate would have it, the front door is directly in the path of the wind, which obligingly enters along with library patrons, bringing the sand with it.

During the first day, the wind was so intense that I was glad I wear glasses because it helped protect my eyes from the assault as I walked directly into the wind to get from the library to my car at the end of the work day. It was a relief to get home and inside my flat to be away from the battering. It wasn’t until the next morning when I was getting ready for work that I realized an unexpected side effect of the storm. Sand was in my ears! Since I don’t routinely wash my ears at night, I didn’t discover it sooner. But now I know I need either to add washing my ears to my nightly routine or – even better – when I get inside from an onslaught of wind and sand – wash my face AND my ears!

The days of wind were followed by three days of pouring rain. I mean, I live in a desert because I prefer to encounter rain only a few times a year and only in hour-long (max) storms at a time. (Let it fall and get it over with quick is my motto for rain!) I was having my weekly phone conversation with my daughter’s family when I happened to look out the majlis window toward the courtyard. It was dark so I couldn’t see anything until suddenly a huge explosion of light seemed to rise from the courtyard heading skyward. My first brief thought was that here had been an explosion and then there was an earthshaking boom, a pause, and then more shaking as the heavens opened and dumped rain on Al Ain. The rainfall lasted three days.

On the morning after the rain ceased, I had to drive to the university’s Human Resources office. I’d been there only one time since it had moved to new quarters and then I had gone by taxi, so I wasn’t sure exactly how to get there. I was driving around near the place trying to find the road I needed and ended up, much like Noah’s Ark, plowing through massive pools of standing water on the roadways. At times, the car sent up huge sprays of water if I went more than a few kilometers per hour while at other times it nearly floated. I reached HR without major incident, although much of the parking lot was also covered by deep standing water. I chose a drier route when I left.

Yesterday was a mini-repeat of the above weather pattern. A little-sister version of the wind storm took place until about 3:00 PM, followed by a brief lull and then bam! the rain started to fall. It sounded loud and clear on the roof of the library, right during an intense discussion between some of the staff and me. Since rain always cheers up the Nationals and non-Western expats, it provided a nice little distraction before we went back to the discussion.

And so it was. Wind, rain, sand and explosive thunder and lightning, all right here in the Arabian Desert.

I will say this in closing. I’ll take this kind of occasional weather any day over the snow storms that have plagued much of the US over the winter!

Enjoy whatever weather you’ve chosen to live in!

Pat

News Brief 7 - Betrothal (Not Mine!)

Dear Everyone,

This will provide an insight into the customs and traditions among at least one “family” in the UAE.

A young Emirati woman I know who is college educated and employed full-time in a professional position had her fourth child, a boy, a few months ago. Within the last two weeks, her sister had a baby girl. When I saw her recently, I asked about her baby and her sister’s new baby.

She smiled and produced photos of the two babies together. Her baby was wearing a traditional dishdash (robe that most Emirati males use for daily wear). Although the babies were side by side in the photo, the baby boy was slightly to the front and placed so that neither baby could see the other’s face.

She told me that it had been decided that these two babies will marry when they are old enough. The explanation was that there are so few Emiratis in this country and so many expats from numerous countries living here, the Emiratis had an obligation to do what they could to “build up” their people.

We were interrupted before I could make (delicate) further inquiries but I hope to pursue the conversation in the future and learn if the consideration of birth defects, etc., among offspring of first cousin marriages came into the decision.

I learn something new almost every day I’m here. It keeps life interesting and exciting.

Enjoy your day,

Pat

News Brief 6 - Wed Feb 07, 2007 - A Car With a History

Wed Feb 07, 2007

Hello to Everyone!

Well, we had a high of 91 degrees today and the sun shone hot and bright. This, in spite of the fact that the predicted high was 87 and we were supposed to have rain – a 60% chance of precipitation. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be only a high of 78 degrees and a 20% chance of rain. Either it will happen and we’ll all catch colds or it won’t happen. We’ll see!

I’m now the owner of a Mercedes car. A friend left here about a week and a half ago to take a teaching position at a university in Japan and I, rather reluctantly, decided to become a dual car owner by buying her car. I own a wonderful green Saturn in the US , currently being driven and cared for by my son-in-law, and now I have a charcoal colored Mercedes in the UAE. It’s definitely nice not to have to wait for a taxi to come along in order to get transport to and from the university or elsewhere but not so nice to deal with the wild traffic, especially at the roundabouts. Trade-off!

In this country, owning a Mercedes is simply run-of-the-mill. There are BMWs and Mercedes’ and Pugeots and Land Rovers and who knows what else everywhere. But, there is a story attached to my car. It had an owner before my friend bought it. Here is how she came to own it.

When she first came to the UAE 4-1/2 years ago, she wasn’t interested in buying a car – it wasn’t her favorite thing to walk from the gate (taxi drivers can’t drive onto the closed women’s campus because they are males) to her office every day for an academic year, but she did it until summer came and she taught summer school. After walking the distance in 110+ degree weather for three months, she gave in and bought a car. She went to a Mercedes dealership in Sharjah Emirate that she had heard good things about. They imported used Mercedes cars from Japan that had been checked by certified Mercedes mechanics, and sold them with a warranty. It was her favorite color, blue, and she really liked it.

Meanwhile, beginning from the time she came to the UAE, she had had a regular taxi driver who drove her to and from the campus every day and she got to know him fairly well and he came to think of her as a mother figure. Typically, he was Pakistani and had lived here, driving taxis, for many years. He had finally been able to buy his own car that he used rather like a private for-hire limousine. Taxis here are owned by Emiratis and the drivers are employees of the car’s owner and must pay the owner a certain (probably rather high) percentage of all fares.

Anyway, the time came that the driver’s own car was in for repairs or damaged or something and he had previously committed to drive someone to the airport in Dubai , so he asked my friend if he could borrow her car. She knew he was a safe driver and he had driven her long distances in it and was familiar with it, so she agreed. Well, unfortunately, somewhere near Dubai , someone else crashed into the car and it was totaled (the driver was not injured, fortunately) and my friend never saw her car again.

The driver, in typical non-Western male fashion, took charge of the situation. He did whatever was necessary to get the insurance money for the car, found a car that was owned by a man he knew who had not driven it much and had let it sit quite a long time, bought it - all this without my friend's knowledge - and proudly presented it to my friend. Needless to say, she went into shock! When he pointed out its finest features, she was not appeased: it had leather seats (she *hates* leather seats), it has a full sun roof (as if she would ever be able to use it here in the middle of the *desert*!), etc. Realizing there was nothing she could do about it because it was a done deal, she said nothing and tried to overcome her frustration.

Somewhere along the line, she said something to him about when she eventually sold the car, she would give him part of the purchase price. He interpreted that as meaning that she would *sell* the car to him!

Meanwhile, after I came - long after the incident happened - I had used his driving services in his for-hire car but we ended up having some sharp differences and I took revenge by deleting his mobile phone number from my own mobile so I wouldn’t ever be tempted to call him for a ride again, no matter how desperate I was.

When he learned that my friend was getting ready to leave, he told her his car was on its last wheel and the timing was right to get her car and asked her when she would sell it to him. I can just imagine his feelings when she told him she had never promised that and was selling it to *me* (of all people!). However, according to what she *had* promised, she gave him part of the money I paid for the car and he has to be satisfied with that.

And so, I am the owner of a car with a history. I just have to hope that he never sees my car parked somewhere sometime and decides to take revenge!

Enough of that! Tomorrow is the last work day before the new semester begins. It will be the last quiet day in the library for several months to come. I’ve been letting the staff take it a bit easy in preparation for the onslaught to come. Pray for us, please!

Best to all,

Pat

News Brief 5 - Mon Jan 15, 2007 = Fighting a Cold

Mon Jan 15, 2007

Dear Everyone:

I have been fighting a cold for the past week. Today is my second (and last) sick day from work because of it. Except for a cold I caught in South Carolina in 2002, I hadn't had a cold for years and years, until last winter year here in the UAE. It was a doozy! So when this one started creeping up on me, I fought back!

On Thursday, I had arranged to take most of the day off work using comp time to go to Dubai with my friend Bonnie. We visited Zayed University 's new campus outside Dubai - it has to be seen to be believed! - and then headed for the Dragon Mart before ending up at Global Village to enjoy the Dubai Shopping Festival. The Dragon Mart is a large Chinese shopping mall built in the shape of a long, sinuous dragon. Inside each section are rows of small shops selling a wide variety of goods from China . Side by side you can find a toy store, a car parts shop, a pearl outlet, an exercise equipment dealer, etc.

As I coughed my way around the Mart, Bonnie encouraged me to get some Chinese cough medicine. "I've never had bad luck with Chinese medicine," she proclaimed. She ought to know; she's worked in China twice, the first time in the 1980's, one of the first Americans to work behind the Bamboo Curtain, and she had her two-year-old daughter with her at the time!

So we went into a medicine shop and were gawking at products with labels written in Chinese. Finally I asked a shop employee what he had for coughs and he went directly to a shelf near the back and plucked up a red box. I found myself looking at Nin Jiom (brand) Pei Pa Koa. One panel of the box was written in English. The ingredients include: Tendrileaf Fritilary Bulb, Loqat Leaf, Fourleaf ladybell Root, Indian Bread, Pummelo Peel, Platycodon root, Prepared Pinellia Tuber, Chinese Magnoliavine Fruit, Snakegourd Seed, Common Coltsfoot Flower, Thinleaf Milkwort root, Bitter Apricot Seed, Fresh ginger, Liquroice root, Almond Extract, Menthol, Honey, Maltose, Syrup. That's when Bonnie proclaimed that she had never had bad luck with Chinese medicine. So I sprung for the 27 Dhs it cost and took it with me.

Later, back at the ranch, my flat that is, I took my first 1-tablespoon dose of Pei Pa Koa before hitting the sack at 1 AM. It should be taken 1 tablespoon three times a day. I took it, according to directions, it a total of 5 more times, by which time the cough was gone and the chest congestion had vanished!

Meanwhile, before the cough had gone and I was miserable with other symptoms, I was huddled in bed under numerous covers trying to get warm, especially on the back of my neck and on my throat where I was convinced I needed something hot, but the hot water bottle was just too big and altogether the wrong shape for the job. Then I remembered the Rice Sockies that my daughter's children have.

Rice Sockies are homemade. My grandchildren’s are made from their Daddy's old (and laundered!) mid-calf length socks, all soft and stretchy from wear, about 1/2 to 2/3-filled with uncooked rice and tied in a knot at the open end to keep the rice inside. Place one of these in the microwave oven for 1-3 minutes, depending on the age of the intended user, and the result is a nice, warm-to-hot comforting thing to place almost anywhere an ailing body needs it. My grandchildren especially like to use theirs on tummies to ease tummy aches.

Well, there I was, thinking longingly of Rice Sockies when it filtered through my cold-befogged mind that I had a bag of rice in my kitchen cupboard and a pair of lightweight, stretchy sockies (complements of Lufthansa Airlines) in my dresser drawer. I wobbled to the dresser, extracted the socks and then made my way to the kitchen, where I used a small drinking glass to transfer the rice into the socks. After I'd tied the open ends, each sockie went into the mic for 3 minutes - we're talking major heat need here! Then, back to the bed, and under the covers with one rice sockie behind my neck and the other across my throat. Nirvana!

To soothe my sore throat and generally attack the cold, I ate lemons and drank a hot drink made solely from salted cut lemons heated in water - and ate soda crackers to keep the citric acid from eating my stomach lining! Usually if I feel a cold coming on, just eating a couple of lemons does it. This time, I had to branch out to cough syrup and rice sockies!

I was soon over the chills and aching throat, and when the cough syrup knocked out the coughing, I was well on the way to mending.

Total cost out of pocket: 27 Dh ($7.34) for cough syrup and 2.5 Dh (70-cents) for lemons. And I still have half a bottle of Pei Pa Koa left! Next winter, a cold won’t have a chance!

I hope you are healthier this winter than I have been. I'm well now, though, and will head back to work tomorrow.

In case you're interested, you can go online to www.ninjiom.com and read up on Pei Pa Koa and the company that makes it.

Good health to all!

Pat