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