More of the Camel Festival

Leaving Abu Dhabi heading West toward Saudi Arabi you drive for over an hour.  Then you turn South into the Empty Quarter, which seems more like the Empty Ninety Percent.  Again you drive for over an hour and you go through a small town and head even deeper into the Emptiness.  Then, once you've finally arrived in the Total and Complete Emptiness, you come upon the Camel Festival, which includes camel auctions (the most expensive camel was sold for about $ 54 Million US), a camel beauty contest, camel races, and a camel flea market which is a strip of tent shops selling things from fire wood, to a laundry service, to a medical clinic, to camel "bling bling" which includes decorations, saddles, and everything a camel could ever want or need.  We drove into the camel festival, and had to stop at the bathroom for the girls, which turned out to be an out-house with gold plated hardware.  Then we went on to the heart of the camel festival activities where we got a little too adventuresome and got stuck in the sand.  Within ten minutes we had about 10 four wheel drive vehicles and about 30 Emerates surrounding us.  They basically took over the rescue of our vehicle, coming in with tow ropes and four wheel drive vehicles and jumping into the driver's seat to pull the vehicle back out of the sand.  It was an overwhelming surge of help. 

We then went on a photo spree where we took hundreds of camel pictures.  At one point one of the camel herders brought a baby camel up to the side of the car for the girls to pet.  Of course they freaked out when the camel stuck his head through the window.  And Bert wasn't too thrilled when the camel kicked the side of the rental car and left some scratches on it so we would remember him. From there we went kite flying with a kite that was a throw back to an Australian boomerang because it would go straight up in the air and the come straight back down again, aiming at the person who released it (which was me) and after the tenth try at that we realized this wasn't going to work.  From there we went to a make-shift cultural center where we saw Arabian artifacts and souvenirs displayed. 

But our adventure wasn't over.   After the camel festival we drove deeper into the "Emptiness" to areas where there was nothing but nothing.  We became dust bowls of sand, but it was also a different kind of unique beauty that you can't see anywhere else.  And then we headed back to Abu Dhabi for a badly needed shower.  And that was the Camel Day that was ----- POP

the girls playing on the dunes

More Pictures from UAE

don't worry. . . I asked for permission to take this!!

camel crossing sign -- that's a first!!

Camel Festival

Bert & the girls

We had so much fun out in the sand with the camels!!  Bert and Kris drove us to the annual Camel Festival where they show their camels, race and sell camels.  We were amused by the bump sign with a camel tied to it . . . and we got stuck in the sand.   Before we knew it, we had fifteen Emeraties helping us get our car out of the sand.  A local TV station proceeded to film the "westerners" who were stuck in the sand . . . I guess they thought it was "news worthy." 

Christmas

Helen and Rose

Tamirie and her mother Kris



 

making gingerbread house

 

Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve and day with our friends.  We attended a Christmas program at our friends church and got to see Tamirie (their youngest daughter) perform as an angel and we all song Christmas songs and heard the Christmas story from Luke read by their Pastor.  It was so nice and really made us feel like it was in fact Christmas.  When we got home from that we ate a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner -- Kris served rolladen and became Gerhard's favorite person in the world!!  It was a wonderful dinner.

The next morning the girls managed to wait until 9:00 to open their presents and it was so much fun to see their happiness.  After opening one of the gifts, Tamirie threw herself down on the carpet and said "Thank you God  --  thank you God very very much!!"  She was so overjoyed at the gifts.  I will always remember that moment.  So much graditude. 

 

Sightseeing in Abu Dhabi

We had a great day driving around the city.  Here's a few pictures from the day.

Rose

Helen

Tamerie

Abu Dhabi

We are visiting Bert and Kris in Abu Dhabi for Christmas.  Wonderful to see them again and meet their girls > Rose (13), Helen (12) and Tamirie (8).  We had a lovely dinner at a Golf Club where we got to sit outside overlooking the golf course and the water.  The girls were so well mannered, even if they did want to run and play on the golf course instead of sitting with us old people at the table!!  Such a nice atmosphere to be in the middle of a family during Christmas. . . still missing all our kids though.  Wishing we were at home eating Christmas cookies and sitting around the dining table playing games -- next year!!

Rose, Bert, Kris, Tamerie & Helen Schmid

 

The Eyes

I have realized that eyes are very important here.  When I go to the grocery store here, I always try to go through the same check out so I can get to know the checker.  I recognize her by her eyes, since that's the only thing I can see on her.  I never know if she smiles at me -- and when I say "good morning -- how are you?"  She grunts something.  I'm guessing by her eyes that she is in her 20's.  Interesting.   Gerhard and I took a taxi to the Outback Restaurant tonight.  We had an outstanding meal and then went to some shops we saw -- an old "souk" area where we found some intersting shops.  I bought a few things -- several decorative boxes made from camel bone.  A leather camel and a little Aldadin's lantern.  Fun.  Here's me ready to get the taxi. 

Gerhard and I worked on sugar cookies together.  We are going to a potluck at the branch for Christmas.  I made rolladin too.  They asked us to bring traditional Christmas food -- our German dish is the food I look forward to the most at Christmas.  Yum yum!!

Exploring

We were trying to come up with something to do on our "Saturday" or day off.  After realizing that most of what we would want to see, we can't see in a few hours, we decided to take a taxi over the the "huge mall".  Which is funny because we are not "walk around the mall" kind of people.  And here we live over a mall.  But anyway, it is hard to walk too much outdoors in a black robe (abaya), so we decided to go to this mall just to get some exercise and to be out among the people.  Gerhard was excited to hear it had a home store -- you know, a place that sells tools.  So we walked around that.  The biggest difference was in all the outdoor furniture.  Huge wicker couches and even beds with netting.  I had never seen anything like it.  So tempting to take pictures but was have already been approached by "mall security" about taking pictures . . . so we didn't go there! 

I was looking at some shirts -- wanted to purchase something cooler to wear.  I picked out two tops and asked the clerk where the fitting rooms were -- they don't do that here.  I asked him how I would know if they fit.  He said, "you just buy them and if they don't fit, you bring them back and get a cash refund."  Simple enough except if you have to get a taxi just to get there . . . whatever!! 

I took this picture for Natasha -- one of her favorite stores.  Did you ever see it in Arabic??  We walked around Ikea and ate there too.  Then we took a taxi to the cornishe area (sea wall).  We walked around there and took some pictures.  I will post just a few.

Funny Differences

There are so many things that are different about life here.  Many I will not write about on the internet but here's a funny one.  I was making veggie soup the other day and took a potatoe out of the bag and pulled this out -- huge thing, more like three potatoes grown together.  My friend here in the complex said they are often like that.  Also, I have to wash them very good -- they are very sandy.  Which makes sense but I didn't know you could grow potatoes in the sand.  The skin is very, very thin -- just washes right off.  They look different but taste the same.


 It's been fun to cook here just to see if things turn out.  We had some of Gerhard's team members from work over for dinner.  I decided to make my "Oma" rolls.  I always make them at home using my Kitchen Aide -- it has a break hook and makes the job of kneading dough much easier.  So I made these rolls the "old fashioned" way -- kneading them by hand.  Actually, they turned out lighter and fluffier than usual.  Here's a picture of the guys that had to eat them!

Gerhard's thoughts

One of the things that I found interesting was the price of gas, about 40 cents a gallon which is about 1/10 the price in the US.  Another thing that's interesting is that almost everything is new.  There's very little that's old.  It was either recently built or is still being built.  For example they recently finished a tall high-rise building that is totally "green" using all solar energy.  We live on top of a shopping mall which includes a Wal-Mart type store directly underneath us.  The mall is bigger than any mall we have (a lot bigger) and it's getting an addition built on to it which is half again as big.  It has five floors.  The top floor is an amusement park and the bottom floor is a cultural center.   We live in a two story hotel on top of the mall complete with swimming pool.  Where I work is in a compound and there are lots of compounds here, which is like a walled-in community where they set their own rules and standards.  They have stores, post-offices, recreation centers, and one compound has an ice-skating rink.  Most foreigners live in the compounds because the clothing restrictions are generally relaxed.  Anyway, it's all interesting, fun, and good.

 

I made it to Damman so my Saudi Arabian experience begins!  I left home at 8:00AM on Thursday, November 29th and arrived at 10:00PM on Friday night.  I flew from Sacramento to Atlanta to Amsterdam and then to Damman.  The hardest part of the whole journey was going through customs in Saudi.  I stood in line for almost two hours.  Crazy.  I don't know why any country would want that process to be so inefficient and arduous since that is the first impression foreigners have of their country.  But I am here safe and it was so great to see Gerhard.  The furnished 2-bedroom apartment we have is situated over a mall, so there is plenty of places I can go to walk around.  Gerhard took me on a little tour of the mall, we ate at Burger King (sorry Chelsey), and did some grocery shopping.  I need to bake a birthday cake for Gerhard tomorrow since he is turning 64!!