Aug 2, 2005 10:46 AM
Newsletter 6 - Learning My Way Around
Hi Everyone!
Here is the 6th newsletter, which brings us into July (just as the month is over!). But I am now having more success accessing my Yahoo email accounts from home so maybe soon I'll be able to bring you up to date.
I hope you enjoy this one.
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June 17
Well it was actually 10 minutes to Midnight (not 11:00) when I finished writing last night. Now it’s Friday, the “Sabbath” and I’m back from our LDS church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) gathering. It’s rather informal since having church services in private homes is not acceptable. There are a few families and single adult members in Al Ain and we get together on Fridays except on the last Friday of the month, when a larger gathering is held in the capital city. It’s a special blessing for me to be able to interact with other members regularly. When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Uzbekistan, there was only one other member in the country that I knew of, another woman PCV, and we lived and worked in different parts of the country so the situation was entirely different.
While preparing my lunch today I thought of my conversation with the plumber yesterday. He’s really quite a card. When I asked him about hot water in the kitchen – there’s no water heater in there as there are in the two big bathrooms – he gestured to the ceiling and said something in his language. I recalled that the manager, during my first visit to the flat, had told me there were water tanks on the roof on the building and Mary Kay had warned me to be careful of the “hot” water because it could be blistering hot, especially in the summer, if the water tanks were on the roof where the sun beat down on them all day. I interpreted the plumber’s comment to mean “having hot water depends on the sun heating the roof water tanks.” Another of his pithy comments was made yesterday as he was leaving my flat after having extracted the small ball from the washer drain pipe. He held the ball up, chuckled, and said, “Chicos!” just before he walked out the door. Surprised, I wondered if I could have conversed with him in Spanish or if that was the only word he knew for “children” in a language other than his own.
More about the water – in this building – the manager had also told me there are water storage tanks under the building and that’s why I need to keep the switch on the kitchen balcony, which I originally thought a non-working light switch, turned on so water could come up from water tanks under the building. Also, occasionally a loud, high-pitched whine will suddenly erupt from either the kitchen balcony area or one side of the back bedroom. This has something to do with the water tanks; possibly it’s the sound of the motor pumping. It’s enough to produce a headache when it happens but fortunately doesn’t last too long – maybe 15 minutes.
When I took my walk to Mega Mart last night, I looked hard at my building and realized it’s actually a 4-plex building. I assumed that the full stair case beside my flat door led up went to another floor of apartments. When I returned from Mega Mart last night, I walked up there. It led to a single, unmarked service door directly above my flat with a bucket and cleaning supplies on the floor outside it. That means I only have the couple I’ve already met living below me and the unmet family living beside me, with common walls only along my bedroom and maybe the master bathroom. I’m not sure who else lives on the floor below.
Today at our church group gathering, some of the Filipino family members came, two women who are sisters, and the two young children of one of them, an 8-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy who are darling and who love to sing loudly. They also love to read! (Warms the cockles of a librarian’s heart.)
The women work at optical shops. The mother of the children, who is vivacious and very talkative, said – after learning where I live, that it is very near their shop and that I don’t have a car – said to just call them when I want to come to the shop and they will come get me! She gave me her business card – she’s an optometrist - and also offered me a ride home from the meeting, just as I was ready to call Omer for a taxi ride home. She wanted to show me where the shop is and to take me home so she would know where to come pick me up if I called her. She wrote her cell phone number on her card and said to call her anytime, for anything and then she delivered me to the door of my building. Before getting out of the car, I commended on her sunglasses which were cool – covering the eyes but with ear pieces that go down at an angle leaving the area open for use of peripheral vision.
We got talking about vision and I told her I have great peripheral vision but it’s uncorrected and causes problems when I look out of my tri-focals and then my side vision. She asked if I’d ever tried __________ (something). I paused, then said, “What is it?” She said it’s a way to correct peripheral vision and that when I came in for a FREE eye exam (their usual charge, apparently), she would see if my vision falls into the category that can use (or benefit from) _________. I’m very curious about and interested to find out more. I should have gotten her to spell it for me so I can research it. I think I’ll call her and ask today.
July 1 (Friday)
I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since the last entry. Last Friday was the day church members get together in Abu Dhabi, the capital, but I didn’t know about it until a member called me on Wednesday afternoon to let me know. They were ready to leave for Abu Dhabi and would be staying over night. I contacted some other members but none were planning to go. I ended up staying at home and holding a 2-1/2 hour devotional instead. I first slept in and afterward spent the day low key – I realized I was exhausted and needed some “down time.”
On Monday this week after work I went to Home Center (a big home furnishings store in the Al Ain Mall) to check out their sale on furniture. Brian Hall, the new library systems person newly arrived from the states, shared a taxi with me as he is furnishing his villa in preparation for his wife and four children coming later this summer.
I didn’t have much hope of finding anything since I’d looked there several times before but started looking at their room displays and there, in the bedroom displays, was the couch of my dreams! It’s olive green with velour-ish fabric, very soft and comfortable. It was a “two seater” (love seat); also available was a “three seater" (couch) but no matching chair. I ordered both. Then, fired up, I looked at bedroom displays. There was one I hadn’t seen before in the “adult” area. A set that matched the “child’s” wardrobe I’d bought there earlier. There was a dresser I liked and the nightstand was good too. I ordered one of each. Then I went on to the office furniture and chose a computer desk setup, a bookcase and a chair. That done, I looked in other areas and bought a cool-looking “key rack” with antiqued embossed palm trees in metal on wood, made in India. The hooks are larger and sturdier than any key rack I’ve seen; I’ll use it near the front door for my sunhat and umbrella (i.e., "parasol”).
Now I need curtains and rugs; I’ve measured every window in several ways and all the floor areas in preparation for a blitz of buying. Curtains are more important (for blocking the fierce sun and hopefully lowering the a/c bill) but the rug seller living next door to Sharon will be going on vacation on the 7th so I’d better go see his wares again before then. Brian and also Rebecca, the Collection Development Librarian, are also interested in going.
Yesterday, Thursday (weekend), Rebecca and I took the bus to Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital and also capital of Abu Dhabi Emirate, which Al Ain is part of. The freeway there is amazing. It goes directly across the Arabian Desert but has been designed and constructed flawlessly and beautifully. Date palms are planted at close intervals all down the median. Other types of trees are planted along both sides of the road, in about 20-50 foot-wide swaths the entire way. All the trees and other vegetation are watered by drip irrigation.
I was hard to see the sand dunes beyond the belts of trees but at one time the dunes were high enough and close enough to see. Suddenly, atop one dune, I saw camels! Several, maybe 7-8, large and small, standing, kneeling, lying down. At first I didn’t take it in, then it sank in and I exclaimed to Rebecca, “Camels! I see camels. There!” I pointed. I was so excited I started to turn to the women sitting across from me to tell them and nearly raised my voice to announce it to the entire bus. Just in time I realized that for them, seeing camels is probably a ho-hum experience. (Like saying, “Cows!” when driving through dairy country in the US!) Rebecca just laughed at me and told me she needed to go with me to the camel marked in Al Ain one Friday. The camels we saw seemed to be within an enclosure, a low wire fence, so I think they were part of someone’s personal herd.
Once in Abu Dhabi, I was amazed at all the tall, new, modern buildings after Al Ain’s 4-story maximum-allowed buildings (except the major hotels, which are higher). Our goal was shopping. She wanted to introduce me to two malls: Abu Dhabi Mall and Marina Mall. I was overwhelmed. There were masses of people and the malls were bright, spacious, shining, glittering – you name it. They were each several levels high and stretched on forever. We walked and looked and walked some more. My favorite shops were those with unusual and Arabic or international wares. I saw some intricately quilted or embroidered or woven things that could be used for bedspreads but they were expensive and I resisted, pro temp.
We ate lunch in the Abu Dhabi Mall food court. I had a crepe’, “the Bastille,” with pomegranate juice to drink. Later we took a break and I enjoyed freshly blended kiwi juice. For dinner, in the Marina Mall, in our rush to leave to get to the bus station by 9:00 PM, we stopped at a sandwich shop. I got “chicken teriyaki” on a long, narrow bun w/mayo. I could have had any of several choices of condiments (lettuce, tomatoes, sliced olives, humus, etc., etc.), but declined – to the amazement of the two workers. (I didn’t want to take a chance of those things falling out of my sandwich when I ate it on the bus!). We then headed out of the mall, which is situated on an island in the Arabian/Persian Gulf and looks like a grand hotel as you approach it, and caught a taxi. After a ride so long I was sure we’d miss the bus, we got to the station at 9:10 and the bus was still there (thankfully); we boarded and got seats in the front row (Ladies Only!) just as the ticket seller reached us, having worked his way from the back of the bus.
Within a few minutes a very young-looking man got behind the wheel and we started off, pausing briefly to let a man get off. Rebecca said, “He’s a snack seller – sells drinks and snacks.” Then we were off, Rebecca said we’d be stopping about half-way at a little market for a meal time so I wasn’t too surprised when after almost an hour the bus headed onto a side street and pulled up beside a small dimly lit building with a tiny market or café inside.
Straight ahead was a low white building (possibly pre-fab). All the men on the bus (or at least a lot of men, I didn’t look to see) promptly got off the bus. Some went in the café, others stood about smoking and talking. Someone headed toward the white building. Straight ahead of the bus (and of me – I was in the front row next to the door and had a great view – was the narrow end of the white building, with 2-3 steps leading up to an open room, and on its longer right-hand side, 2-3 more doorways without doors (light was shining from inside). When one man got to the doorway of the one straight ahead, he slid off his sandals, then entered and crossed an open space until he was out of (my) sight. I was curious. Later I realized it was a toilet building!
Then I noticed one youngish man in western clothes – dark pants, blue long-sleeved shirt with sleeves partially rolled up. He walked over to the white building on its long side and stood in the area between two sets of steps and about three feet from the wall, facing it. Then I noticed, dimly because it was dark outside, that apparently two prayer carpets were there, side by side in the space between the sets of steps and he stood at the end of one of them. A few times, he slowly made a partial bow, with arms straight at sides, face downward, then knelt on the rug and bent forward until his face touched the carpet, then in a smooth flowing movement, got to his feet again and stood again as before. He repeated this routine several times.
As he was doing this, an elderly man came out of the doorway beyond the carpets and went to stand facing the other rug. He wore a long white robe and a short white turban and had a longish untrimmed beard. He stood straight up, with bowed head and hands together near his chest. He stood like that for quite a while. He might have lowered his hands to his side a few times. Meanwhile the younger man went through several repetitions of his prayer. Then the older man knelt down on the rug and put his face down on it. About this time the younger man finished, put his shoes back on and walked toward the bus, boarded, and sat down in the driver’s seat. It was not until then that I realized he was our driver!
He beeped the bus’s horn and all the men (except one) started boarding. That man, purchase in hand from the market, suddenly dashed to the toilets and went inside. The elderly man finished his prayer and hurried, with a limp, back to the bus. The driver, having gotten his important business finished – his prayer – was anxious to leave and beeped the horn several more times and flashed the headlights into the open doorway to the toilets, where the one man had gone. Finally the man exited, boarded and the bus took off.
I fell asleep at some point during that last hour and when I woke up we were just passing a sign for Maqam (the area in Al Ain where the UAEU girl’s campus is located) and I realized we were back in Al Ain. Rebecca had suggested that I get off at the stop near the Rotana Hotel, which is near my flat but before we got there, a woman with two very small children walked to the front of the bus and held an urgent conversation with the driver, who pulled the bus over and let them out. I thought it was their stop but Rebecca said, “The little boy needs to use the bathroom.” Sure enough, they walked across the sidewalk to the sand and he pulled down his little pants and crouched down. He must have been about 3 – and the little girl was maybe 1-1/2. Rebecca was giggling, I smiled, Rebecca kept looking at the driver. When I looked at him, he had his hands tented in front of his mouth. I couldn’t tell if he was stifling a smile or what. Then the three got back aboard and we headed into town.
As we approached the Rotana, I leaned forward and said to the driver in English, “May I get off near the Rotana, please?” The driver turned to me with a dazzling smile and said in excellent English (he’d been speaking Arabic all along), “But of course, Madame." When he pulled over at the bus stop and stopped, I started to exit after thanking Rebecca and telling her good night. The driver said, “Good night, Madame. Thank you. Have a good evening.” I replied politely and was left with a warm feeling for the kind, gentle and hospitable ways of people here.
I quickly caught a taxi to my flat (only 2.5 dh) and entered my flat thankfully with tired and aching feet but feeling good about my day.
Today, Friday, I caught a taxi to a member’s home for a gathering with church members to see how much it would cost but the driver and I miscommunicated at the Twam Roundabout and we ended up instead at the nearby Medical University and had to drive quite a ways on the grounds before we could turn around and get out onto the roundabout again. Finally we got there and swung around it and turned down the right street and I then I was able to give directions the rest of the way.
While there, I was given a “housewarming” gift of two starts from a philodendron plant. Now I have my first plants! I mentioned my desire to grow cherry tomatoes on my balcony. Someone suggested contacting the university’s Agricultural Experiment station. I mentioned to a woman who had come into the library this week who talked to me about her interest in starting a children’s library in Al Ain. I thought that getting her with the person one member knows who is interested in the same thing would be good. Hopefully I can help them make the connection.
At work this past week, Ali Abdulla, head of library public services and my immediate superior, was off work (I had no warning that this was to be) so I wasn’t able to make progress on getting myself to Maqam campus. But Fatima, current supervisor there, came to my temporary office at Zayed Central Library and asked me what I planned to do at Maqam libraries! She said she was very willing to learn anything I could teach her. I told her I needed to talk to Ali first and mentioned that I didn’t yet know how they did things at Maqam libraries so I didn’t know if what I had in mind was different. She agreed that talking to Ali was good and said the three of us should also meet (something I have on my suggested agenda). I think he’ll be back at work tomorrow so maybe some progress will be made. (Later, Brian told me Ali was moving this week so who knows how long all this will take to accomplish.)
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