Newsletter 14 - Oct 21, 2005

Oct 21, 2005 5:32 AM

Newsletter 14

There has been a long delay since I sent the last

newsletter.  My life has been so overwhelming at work

and with other things I've been doing that I have been

exhausted.  When I get home I have no energy to do

anything that takes effort and I haven't been sleeping

well.  I haven't even been writing newsletters for

about six weeks now.  It's a good thing I have 23 in

all written.  Maybe by the time I get around to

sending #23 I'll be back to writing again.

I have started taking iron tablets, however, and after

a week of that I'm starting to feel less tired all the

time.

I've quit my Arabic conversation class and it was a

good thing because right after that I got a new,

demanding and time-consuming assignment at work.

I hope all is well with all of y'all.

Anyway, here is number 14.  I hope you enjoy it.

Remember, please; there was no Newsletter 13.

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23 July 2005

Note: This entry is made up of miscellanea.

An update. I mentioned in a previous entry that my first electricity/water bill had been billed incorrectly, that proof of my date of residence had been furnished and that a revised amount due had been promised by the following Saturday (first day of the workweek). I didn’t get to their office until a day or so after Saturday, going there directly after work. One of the ladies at Maqam libraries gave me a ride to the office and I arrived there about quarter to five and found only one other customer present. Only two male customer service reps were working and the one who was available, the younger one, didn’t speak English so I had to wait until the other one was free. Once the older man started waited on me, it was touch and go because of his level of English and my lack of practical Arabic but the one thing that I understood was that he needed to see some ID from me. I handed him my university ID card and he asked the non-English speaker to make a photocopy of it. With good intentions, the younger man tried several times to make a photocopy but without success – apparently the usual photocopier (person who does the photocopying) hadn’t come in for the late shift yet. The man waiting on me went over to try to help but to no avail so he returned to continue discussing the bill with me while the younger one continued trying to make a photocopy. Finally he felt he had achieved success, only to realize that the card had been copied in reverse, with black background and white words. He tried three more times but they all turned out the same. Then the photocopier arrived and in a flash he had made a successful photocopy. Then we got down to brass tacks.

The bill had indeed been corrected; instead of 100 dh each for electricity and water, the total bill was something like 72.75 dh for the 24 days I’d been in the flat, leaving me to believe that the base charge is likely 25 dh ($6.79) per month for electricity and 50 dh ($13.59) for water. This in spite of having the air conditioning running all day everyday and my cleaner using quite a bit of water each week to wash all the floors in the flat. The only problem was that the revised bill would only print out in Arabic, I wanted one in English, and neither service rep knew how to get it to print in English. It took bringing in another man with more English from the cashier side of the building and calling in a computer operator from another building to get it straightened out. Finally I got to the cashier and pointed out that my last name was misspelled (naturally my first name was missing an I) but I had to show him my passport to prove that the H they had in my last name needed to be a T. They did change my last name but would not put the I after the C in Patricia because it does not appear that way on my passport. “Everyone tries to change their name so we have to be careful,” was the explanation offered. All the employees were very kind, patient and easygoing, as I was, and eventually we got the situation sorted out and I paid the amount even though the eventual resulting printed bill was in Arabic, except for my name and address, and the number amounts were ones I could read, i.e. in Arabic numerals we use in the US, not the “Indian” ones they use here!

Then I asked if I could catch a taxi out on the road and the cashier wasn’t sure. (I wanted to take one to Al Jimi Mall which I knew was somewhere in the vicinity but wasn’t sure where. I wanted to get some more Arabic food from Volcano, a fast food place in the food court – cheap and delicious!) Then the cashier said, pointing out the glass doors to my right, “But Carrefour is right there and there are always a lot of taxis there.” I felt really stupid then because Carrefour is an anchor store at Al Jimi Mall and when I looked carefully in the direction he was pointing I did indeed see the distinctive shape of the tower at the mall. I thanked him and left. I decided it would be fruitless to get a taxi when I could walk there in 10 minutes, so I started walking and immediately found I was impeded by all the standing water in the parking lot – that was the day it had rained and apparently a lot more rain had fallen there than it had at Maqam campus. I made my way around it cautiously and got to the mall in short order. Unfortunately when I got to Volcano, the only person working didn’t understand English and I became so frustrated trying to communicate (one of the very few times that has happened here) that I left without buying any food.

Now, a word about the use of the word “ladies” here to refer to adult females. I know this term is offensive to many American females, so in case any of my readers feels this way, I include the following information. First, this is the Emiratis’ country and they can use any term they like. Second, the word is not meant or used as an insult. Third, I like the connotation of “lady” over “woman” and will use the following example to illustrate my reason. A number of years ago at my place of employment in the US I worked in a team of four, two males and two females. One day one of the males referred to the other female and me as “ladies.” The other woman, taking offence (where none was meant, I assure you), slugged him hard on the upper arm, exclaiming loudly, “We are NOT ladies.” It was definitely one of those “speak for yourself’ moments!

Things I don’t miss. One thing I definitely do not miss about South Carolina is the cockroach/“Palmetto bug” (I don’t know if there is an actual difference between the two). There is nothing here even remotely like them, at least nothing that I’ve seen so far. I’ve heard there are scorpions around but haven’t seen any of those, either. I assume they are in the desert itself. I have seen a couple of flies, though, but Rebecca says she thinks all the rest are hiding from the heat and will come out in force when the weather cools off. Brian said he saw a giant bee on Jebel Hafeet (Green Mountain) – to the south of Al Ain - over the weekend. It was about two inches long, pale yellow in color with brownish-greenish stripes. He claims he tried to take a picture of it but it wouldn’t stay still long enough! I had tiny ants swarming in two places in my flat when I first moved in but Mary Kay told me to buy some “green boxes” and that would take care of them. I looked in vain for some and had several folks on the lookout for them when finally Bonnie found some for me. They come in a package of two and are small clear green plastic rectangular boxes about three inches long, 1-1/2 inches across and less than ½ inch high with some tiny brownish looking things inside. The boxes come with an adhesive strip covering a small opening in one narrow end. After carefully removing the strip, you place the trap near where then ants seem to be entering the dwelling and wait a day or two. Suddenly – no more ants! The theory is that the ants will be attracted inside the opening and carry off some of the contents to their nest where the colony will dine on it and expire. All I can say is that it really, really works. I haven’t seen a single ant in my flat since a few days after I set the traps.

Cats. There are quite cats a few around and I think most must be feral but there is no way to be sure. A few hang around outside my apartment complex near the “dumpster,” (more about dumpsters below). Several more, including some small kittens, hang out near the dumpster that sits by the road in front of my apartment complex. The cats here look as if they’ve been stretched out – they are elongated in every direction: from base of tail to tip of nose, from base of tail to its tip, from hips to paws. Even the ears seem somewhat longer than is usual back home. They are thin as rails. At first I thought they must be on the verge of starvation but have concluded that although they might be undernourished, they are also of a very thin build. They are all pale in color although they do have distinctive color markings. Maybe it has to do with living in a place where the heat gets so high in the summer. One evening as I went out to walk to Mega Mart or catch a taxi – can’t remember which – there were two almost identical cats draped artistically in identical but mirror-image poses over the two sides of the dumpster on the street in front of my building. It was very picturesque and I wished at the time I’d had my camera with me.

Dumpsters. Speaking of the dumpsters and trash pickup, I’ve never seen a trash pickup taking place but the dumpsters don’t remain full for long. They are similar to, but much smaller than, ones in the US and have rounded rather than sharp corners. Sharon claims they get emptied several times a day. I assume a truck must come by at least periodically because I’ve seen some large items placed out for pick up when I’ve gone out in the morning and no longer there when I come home in the evening, but I’ve never seen a truck. What I have seen, however, are men dressed in bright orange overalls wearing baseball-type hats over cloths that cover their necks in back who carry square plastic bins (like the stacking kind you can buy in Wal-Mart to store things in - they have open weave ends and bottoms) covered on the outside with thick black plastic like kitchen trash bags, held in place with masking tape. Lengths of white rope are tied to two opposite edges of the bins so the bins can be carried over the shoulder of the man, who holds in his other hand a stick with a nail sticking out the end. These men are the street cleaners. They seem cheerful, are very polite and say, “Good Morning,” to me when I walk past them in the mornings. Their job is to use their sticks to stab the trash thrown on the roads and sidewalks and place it in their bins. They also do this with small trash items in the dumpsters. Sometimes some of them sweep the sand from my small side road, which has no sidewalks.

Escalators. These are common features in larger stores and malls and there are three kinds that I’ve seen: the ones that operate like those in the states – continuously moving stairways; ones that look like those in the states but do not move continuously, their movement is triggered by someone stepping onto the threshold just before the first “step” and begin movement by the time one steps onto the first step; and the incline type that are basically moving ramps but with a twist – they are magnetic! In Al Ain Mall there is a big store called Mega Mart (no relation to the Mega Mart near my flat) located on the second level. This store is a hypermart, a large department store that also sells groceries at good prices so a lot of people shop there and leave with heavily laden shopping carts. How to get them to the ground level where there is parking and where one can catch a taxi? Just wheel your shopping cart onto the ramp-like escalator. Their metal wheels are held firmly in place by the magnetic ramp and you and your cart are delivered to the ground floor safely and without great exertion on your part. Last time I shopped there I tried letting go of my cart near the top of the ramp. It did move forward 2-3 inches after I let go but then it held firm all the way to the bottom!

The biggest shock I’ve had since I’ve been here happened on an escalator and no, it wasn’t an electric shock. Rebecca and I were in one of the huge malls in Dubai taking a down escalator. At the bottom, I looked down to be sure I stepped off at the right moment and there on the exit platform in large letters (but upside down to me) was the word, Schindler. (1) Although Schindler escalators and elevators are quite common in the US, including at the main library of the Richland County Public Library system in Columbia, SC, where I worked fairly often as a substitute, I never thought I’d see one here. (2) I never expected to see my maiden name at all in the UAE, let alone boldly emblazoned at the tops and bottoms of escalators!

Shebab. No, it’s nothing edible! It is apparently the Arabic word for male teenagers. In Al Ain the shebab visit malls and other places in small groups. Whether they are friends, brothers or other relatives I have no way of knowing. They are dressed in the traditional dress of the country, in white robes (the dishdash) with either white or red-and-white checked head scarfs that leave the face uncovered and hang down on both sides of the head and partway down the back and are circled on the crown of the head with double black agal (ropes), sometimes having the loose ends hanging down at one side or the back. Sometimes the two sides of the scarf are tucked back (to the outside, not the inside) or even twisted to form a kind of thick rope at the back. Anyway, the shebab are never noisy or obnoxious but they are noticeable, walking or sitting in groups and obviously thinking, as do macho American male teens, that they are the greatest things in the world. One trend I’ve noticed here and in the two big cities Abu Dhabi and Dubai and which causes me to wonder if it is causing parents sleepless nights, is that occasionally one of the shebab wears an American-style baseball cap instead of the traditional head covering. It is always worn with the bill in the front and is always spotlessly clean and obviously deeply treasured.

Dishdash. A word about the dishdash, the white robe worn by the National (Emirati) men here: they are made of thick cotton-like fabric, often heavily starched, are spotlessly clean and almost never wrinkled in any way, no matter how long the wearer has been sitting, had bent elbows or whatever. When some walk, or stride, their stiff robes make a very definite swish-pop sound. I think the latter might be a sign of importance but will have to make more observations to be sure.

Car washes. It is illegal in the UAE to have a dirty car. Period. I don’t know what the penalty is for having a dirty car but I do know that I have rarely seen one and when I have it is usually right after a sand storm when there has been no choice. Commercial car washes are located in conjunction with the state-supported gas stations; here in Al Ain most are ADNOC FOD (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company For Distribution) stations. Also there are other car wash services. At the shopping malls can be found men with hand carts, similar to those seen in US beauty shops holding rollers, brushes, etc., that hold a tub of sudsy water, cloths and various other car washing supplies. The men push the carts around in the indoor parking areas (and maybe outside, too), and offer to wash your car for you for a few dirhams while you shop. I’ve seen many cars being washed as I walk through the parking lot. And then there is the at-work service. Brian, who arrived here from the US a week after I did, has already purchased a vehicle – a bright red van – in anticipation of the arrival of his wife and four children next week. He takes advantage of the service offered by members of the library cleaning crew who will wash your car at work three times a week, inside and outside, for 80 dh ($20) per month! You can’t beat that with a stick! It is a way for the workers, all expats from Southeast Asia earning low salaries but much better than possible in their home countries, to make a few extra dirhams.

Phone Calls. Etisilat, the national monopoly phone company offers a variety of services including landline and mobile (cell) phone, Internet dial-up, Internet DSL, and television cable. They can do anything they want since they are a monopoly. For example, it costs more to make “mixed” phone calls (landline to mobile or visa versa) than “direct” calls (mobile to mobile, or landline to landline). According to their website, the company is not obligated to distinguish on their monthly bills whether charges are for mobile or landline nor itemize or distinguish between National and international calls or even to itemize long distance calls. I don’t know if they do any of those since my only bill so far has been for 2 dh (54 cents – that will never happen again; it was for the one or two calls I made after getting the service and then a few weeks later buying a phone to use it on).

I have “prepaid” mobile service, whereby Etisilat gave me a SIM card to put into my mobile phone which, among other things, has value for making phone calls and I can add to this value in two ways. 1) By purchasing a phone card which has a “hidden number” on it that you reveal by scratching off the black strip covering it and then dial that number in to the phone company. 2) By adding value to it using ATM-type machines conveniently located in shopping malls and other places as well as in the Etisilat office itself. 3) (I think) adding value online through their website. One can also have a prepaid landline but I have chosen to have a “post paid” land line which I will be billed for monthly (a monthly fee plus a charge for each call made!). A word about the phone cards. They are very attractive and always feature a beautiful or interesting cultural scene or picture on the front and have the hidden number, dialing instructions, etc., on the back. They are the same kind I used when I first got here to make phone calls from any phone, just as we do in the US. Some people collect these cards, I was told by Mary Kay so I have started doing that myself because of the cultural value.