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

News Brief 4 - Fri Jan 05, 2007 - Celebrating Christmas Here

Fri Jan 05, 2007

Dear Everyone,

I have been asked how we Christians here celebrate Christmas - or if we are even allowed to do it! Well, I'm happy to report that there is freedom of religion for non-Muslims here. Muslims are required to follow Islam but non-Muslims may, circumspectly, practice their own religion as long as they make no effort to convert Muslims.

This past Christmas season, in mid-December, I attended a lovely dinner and musical concert sponsored by the Al Ain Choral Society and held at the Al Ain Intercontinental Hotel. My friend Bonnie is a member of the society and sang in the choir. She gave me a ticket to the event as a Christmas present! The dinner was a traditional turkey dinner with dressing, cranberry sauce, etc, and also included foods traditional to UK Christmas celebrations, such as mince tarts.

At work, I received permission, upon special request to my supervisor, to use comp time to take Christmas day off work even though it was a regular work day. I later found out that the library staff had been planning to give me a party that day but since I wasn't there, they didn't do it. Several of the all-Muslim staff gave me either Christmas cards or gifts or both. All of the staff wished me Merry Christmas. The cleaning lady, who is a Catholic, also gave me a lovely card and gift. I gave her a gift and some money (she makes so very little money that anything extra is really a bonus for her!)

I gave the staff little non-religious Christmas treats that I bought in Dubai. They consisted of tiny Christmas stockings that each had a candy cane and a little marzapan character in them. The characters were a snowman, a Santa, a reindeer, etc. I told the staff that I had *non-religious* Christmas treats for them, that they were welcome to take one or not, as they chose. Everyone took one and they were delighted with the "neat little packages" of traditional American things that they had heard or read about or seen in movies but had never had. I think they are fascinated with customs of other people and places, just as I am.

One of the Egyptian employees told me that in Egypt, Muslims celebrate some of the non-religious customs of Christmas such as lights, giving baked goods as gifts and (I think she said) decorated trees, etc., because they have Christian neighbors and enjoy sharing their special holiday with them.

On Christmas night, I was the guest at a family Christmas Dinner at the home of a colleague. He and his wife have four young children, ages 3-11. It was wonderful to spend part of Christmas Day with children. We had a turkey dinner and **mashed potatoes and gravy** and green bean casserole and other tasty foods. They had a lovely tall artificial Christmas tree that they purchased here and had decorated it completely with ornaments they purchased or made here. Their nativity set was also purchased here.

They gave me two great gifts, one was a box full of homemade cookies and the other was a "bread box" which is actually a clear dome over a wood and tile base! I'd been wishing for a bread box, so it was a perfect gift. They are Americans, from North Carolina, and the husband works for the library and arrived here one week after I did, so I've known them as long as I've been here.

At church services all month we sang Christmas carols. I am the organist and always enjoy playing Christmas carols and hearing them sung. They are one of the most wonderful parts of Christmas for me.

I bought 5 Christmas music CDs at one of the local department stores. They cost 10 Dh each (about $2.70). They were not by groups/artists famous or even known in the US but they included many familiar carols as well as ones new to me. I played them at home and that helped make it seem more like Christmas here in the Arabian Desert!

December 2 is National Day in the UAE, the aniversary date of the official formation of the country. To celebrate this event, practically the entire city is decorated with strings of colored lights, very artistically and attractively placed. The lights go up a few days before National Day and are lighted every night until just before Christmas, then are dark until the night of 26 Dec when they are lighted again until after New Year's Day. The reason they are not lighted on 25 Dec and the few days prior is so that there will be absolutely no way for anyone to claim that they are used to celebrate Christmas! The lights are mostly red, green and yellow (think gold) although a few other colors are occasionally used, so you can imagine what we Christians think of when we see them. :)

Well, that is how I celebrated outward expressions of Christmas this year. The holiday is always wonderful, however, because the true spirit of Christmas is what we carry in our hearts and that cannot be taken from us by anyone or anything except by our own choice. I am grateful for what Christmas commemorates and also for the "social aspects" of it. For me, the holiday has two separate and distinct parts: the religious and most important - remembering and honoring the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ; and the social -also important in a different way and something that binds us to the past and to those with whom we share those traditions.

I hope your Christmas was as special as mine was.

And, to all of you - Happy New Year! I wish you joy, peace, contentment and success in 2007.

Sincerely,
Pat

News Brief 3 - 510 December 2006 - What's Your Secret?

Sun Dec 10, 2006

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're getting into the spirit of the Christmas season and other upcoming holidays. Hopefully you have time to read a News Brief.

This happened shortly after I returned here from my summer vacation in SC. I went to Zayed Central Library one day for a meeting and saw one of the female Reference Assistants who had worked briefly at my library working at the Reference Desk so I stopped to chat.

She's a young Emirati woman who had given birth to her first child a few months before and was still skinny as a rail (grrr...). Naturally I inquired about her baby and she asked about my little granddaughter, Nell, who was born about the same time.

Then she looked at me and asked, "Have you gained weight?" Well that took me aback; it's not a question I would hear in the States even though I have gained quite a bit of weight in the ten years I've been home from my Peace Corps service, but I'm in a different culture here. So I said honestly, "I wasn't trying to, but yes, I have." She passionately inquired, "What's your secret?"

Never, never, never have I been asked that before and I absolutely did not know how to respond. In thinking about it later, I realized she was seriously asking a question she hoped to get an answer to and I could have said, "Eat lots of bread and never exercise," or something like that, but the chance slipped away. I think if I'm ever back at Zayed and see her, I'll tell her my "secret."

Actually, it's kind of nice living in a culture where being "overweight" isn't considered a crime against humanity. :)

Cheers!

Pat

News Brief 2 - 5 Dec 2006 - Hummer: Instrument of Death

Tue Dec 05, 2006

Hello Everyone!

I've had positive responses to my first News Brief and hope that this and future ones will be well received, too.

This week I'm reporting on a tragic accident that took place recently. A young family I have seen at Church meetings in Abu Dhabi had gone to Dubai for the day. They had parked their car in an area where a lot of construction was going on and planned to cross a busy street on foot to get to their destination. Dad and at least one child had crossed the street and Mom and the other(s), including 2-year-old Henry, were waiting their chance to cross. Apparently a car passing near the little boy frightened him and he started to run to his Daddy, on the other side of the street. A speeding Hummer struck Henry, injuring him critically, including a severe head injury. It was a hit-and-run; the Hummer vanished at high speed and has not yet been found.

Henry was in the hospital for about a week with no signs of improvement. Finally, when the medical personnel could detect no brain activity, the grieving parents reluctantly made the decision to remove him from life support and he died almost immediately. The parents are holding up well in spite of their loss, sustained by their faith in God and conviction that because life continues after death, they will see Henry again.

Meanwhile, the police continue to search for the Hummer that struck Henry and of course the driver who was responsbile for the accident. Besides the consequences Americans would expect the guilty person to receive - speeding conviction, manslaughter or a similar charge, etc. - in this culture there is also the requirement to pay Blood Money to the family of the person who was killed. It is quite a huge sum of money and might even be enhanced (but I do not know this for sure, so don't quote me, please!) by the fact that little Henry was the only son in the family, so the driver killed the family's sole male heir. One thing is certain: even wasta (power, influence, clout) cannot spare someone from paying Blood Money and going to prison.

The Blood Money requirement is one interesting aspect of the culture here and one of the things that gives expats like me the opportunity to view life situations from a point of view different than that of our own culture. Such differences enrich my life and give me a perspective I would not have otherwise.

Well, both these News Briefs have included cessation of life; I'll promise something more light-hearted next time.

Until then, best wishes,

Pat

Note: I am adding this to the blog on 9 June 2007 and the Hummer has still not been identified. pf

News Brief 1 - Fri Dec 01, 2006 - The Rich Man and the Mansion

Fri Dec 01, 2006

Hello Everyone!

I hope you don't faint with shock that I'm writing again after such a long delay. This is my first attempt at sending you short, snappy snippets (like the alliteration?) so we'll see how it goes.

This is a true story as it was told to me by a work colleague who has lived here for several years but is not a native.

= = =

A few blocks from my flat is the most glorious home I've ever seen. It's fairly new and the architecture and embellishments are in the traditional Arab style, but the combination of porticos, columns, brickwork, screening, etc., make it a truly lovely sight. A friend who has been here four years but didn't know the story thought the building must be a magnificent library or other prestigious building.

A very important man with a lot of wasta (power, influence, clout) and wealth had an official wife and three "unofficial" wives. That is how it was explained to me. Islam allows men to have up to four legal wives but apparently this man's three were more on the order of concubines. He felt himself to be "above the law." When his station in life allowed him to do so, he arranged for the magnificent building I've described above to be built on a huge tract of land that he enclosed with a thick, high wall. The building was to be a house for his official wife and her children. I believe there were other houses built on the grounds for the unofficial wives and their children.

One of his children by an unofficial wife was an unmarried young adult female who worked for the university, where she created chaos because of her haughty and extravagant ways. After a number of years, the department she worked in managed to get her transferred to another department on a different campus, where she still works and still creates chaos.

Meanwhile, the magnificent house continued to rise and awed everyone who saw it. Finally it was completed. Within a few days, the man died. His official wife inherited everything, so she and her children were well provided for. The unofficial wives and their children, however, were left unsupported and shamed. The daughter who worked for the university lost much of her prestige since it had been based on the wasta of her father and she was somewhat humbled by her demotion of status.

And so, the house stands today, admired by those who pass it, as I do coming and going every work day, but to me it is also a symbol of greed and pride.

If there are morals to this story, I suppose they would include: "You can't take it with you," "Don't rest on someone else's glory; make something of yourself," and "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

= = = =

Hope you enjoyed News Brief 1!

Pat

Beautiful, Beautiful Camels!

Saudi tribe holds camel beauty pageant

By Andrew Hammond Fri Apr 27, 9:23 AM ET

The legs are long, the eyes are big, the bodies curvaceous.

Contestants in this Saudi-style beauty pageant have all the features you might expect anywhere else in the world, but with one crucial difference -- the competitors are camels.

This week, the Qahtani tribe of western Saudi Arabia has been welcoming entrants to its Mazayen al-Ibl competition, a parade of the "most beautiful camels" in the desolate desert region of Guwei'iyya, 120 km (75 miles) west of Riyadh.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," jokes Walid, moderator of the competition's Web site. "Here we have Miss Camel."

While tremendous oil wealth has brought rapid modernization to the desert state of Saudi Arabia, the camel remains celebrated as a symbol of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of Bedouin Arabs.

Throughout history camels have served multiple purposes as food, friend, transport and war machine. They were key to the Arab conquests of the Middle East and North Africa nearly 1,400 years ago that brought Islam to the world.

Camels are also big business in a country where strict Islamic laws and tribal customs would make it impossible for women to take part in their own beauty contest.

Delicate females or strapping males who attract the right attention during this week's show could sell for a million or more riyals. Sponsors have provided 10 million riyals ($2.7 million) for the contest, cash that also covers the 72 sports utility vehicles to be will be awarded as prizes.

"Bedouin Arabs are intimately connected to camels and they want to preserve this heritage. The importance of this competition is that it helps preserve the pure-breds," said Sheikh Omair, one of the tribe's leaders,

"We have more than 250 owners taking part and more than 1,500 camels," he said inside a huge tent where the final awards ceremony takes place.

RESTLESS BEAUTY QUEENS

Over at the camel pen, the contestants are getting restless as the desert wind howls and whips up swirls of sand in the hot afternoon sun.

Amid a large crowd of Bedouin who have gathered to watch, the head of the judging committee emerges to venture into an enclosure with some two dozen angry braying camels.

Camel-drivers sing songs of praise to their prized possessions as they try to calm the animals down.

"Beautiful, beautiful!" the judge mutters quietly to himself, inspecting the group. Finalists have been decorated with silver bands and body covers.

"The nose should be long and droop down, that's more beautiful," explains Sultan al-Qahtani, one of the organizers. "The ears should stand back, and the neck should be long. The hump should be high, but slightly to the back."

The camels are divided into four categories according to breed -- the black majaheem, white maghateer, dark brown shi'l and the sufur, which are beige with black shoulders. Arabic famously has over 40 terms for different types of camel.

Some females have harnesses strapped around their genitalia to thwart any efforts by the males to mount them. One repeat offender called Marjaa has been moved away.

"This one would fetch a million!" says Hamad al-Sudani, a camel-driver, admiring the heavy stud, or fahl.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070427/od_nm/saudi_camels_beauty_odd_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AulbuawPVlm2ed75lO5dlYQZ.3QA

Accessed 30 April 2007’ 6:02 am