Eid ul-Fitr

Eid is coming up next week. It will mean the end of Ramadan. Larry and the girls will go back to normal school and working hours. We will also be able to eat in public again - hurray for that part. The girls will get an entire week off of school. It was supposed to be only 3 days and somehow that grew into 5. Holidays here depend on the moon, not by a schedule set in advance. We had planned to go away to see other Emirates but there are no hotel rooms to be had anywhere in the country. So we will stay home and celebrate as a family and with our neighbors. There is a commuity BBQ on Tuesday. I am sure that will be fun.

For those interested here is more information about Eid. It's pretty interesting.

Eid ul-Fitr often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity", while Fiṭr means "to break the fast" (and can also mean "nature", from the word "fitrah") and so symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period. Eid ul-Fitr is a three day celebration and is called "The Smaller Eid" compared with the Eid ul-Adha that lasts four days and is called "The Greater Eid".

Typically, Muslims will wake up early in the morning and have a small breakfast. Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes (new if possible) and to attend a special Eid prayer that is performed in congregation at mosques or open areas like fields, squares etc. When Muslims finish their fast at the last day (29th or 30th Ramadan), they recite Takbir:

Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر
la ilaha illa Allah لا إله إلا الله
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar الله أكبر الله أكبر
wa li-illahi al-hamd ولله الحمد
God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest,
There is no deity but God
God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
and to God goes all praise

The Takbir is recited after confirmation that the moon of Shawwal is sighted on the eve of the last day of Ramadan. It continues until the start of the Eid prayer. Before the Eid prayer begins, every Muslim who is able must pay Zakat al-fitr,[1] an alms for the month of Ramadan. This equates to about 2 kg of a basic foodstuff (wheat, barley, dates, raisins, etc.), or its cash equivalent, and is typically collected at the mosque. This is distributed to needy local Muslims prior to the start of the Eid prayer. It can be given at any time during the month of Ramadan and is often given early, so the recipient can use it for Eid purchases. This is distinct from Zakat based on wealth, which must be paid to a worthy charity.
The Eid prayer (salah) is followed by the khutbah (sermon) and then a prayer (dua') asking for forgiveness, mercy and help for the plight of Muslims across the world. The khutbah also instructs Muslims as to the rituals of Eid, such as the zakat. It is then customary to embrace the persons sitting on either side of oneself. People will also visit their relatives, friends and acquaintances.
After the prayers, some people will pay visit to the graveyards (ziyarat al-qubur).

Taken from Wikipedia on 25/9/2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Fitr

A couple of new paintings

It's great to have the time to paint again. The first one is live, laugh, love with an Arabic flare. The 2nd one is a study of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Dani and Elle and the 2 neighbor girls have been painting with me too. I will post pictures of their paintings when they are all done.

Iftar Dinner

Tonight we went to the Jumeirah Beach Resort for an Iftar dinner. We wanted to experience some local culture. Iftar is the breaking of the daily Ramadan fast. It is traditional to break the fast by first eating dates with camel's milk. We tried the dates... very sweet but skipped the camel's milk. The iftar tent was beautiful with lots of blues and golds. We all tried a variety of foods. Only Larry liked the lamb (which is very big here). The humus and bread were awesome. All of the desserts were over the top sweet but good none the less. More pictures later after I figure out how to download them from Larry's phone.

The saga of the lawn mower

Right now we have a gardener, its pretty inexpensive. Most everyone has one here. He cuts and waters the grass, but he also does things like waters your pile of cardboard boxes... I won't get on my soap box about common sense again. But anyway, we decided that we could water and cut our grass on our own. Larry and I went to ACE hardware yesterday. Its pretty much the only place here to buy a lawnmower. We spent at least an hour maybe more looking at mowers. Most things here are not priced and properly labeled. It's very common to have a box with a price below that doesn't belong to it. We have a small yard so we just need a small electric mower plus most mowers here are electric. Of course that is complicated. Mowers are sold with different types of plugs. You have to buy adapters that don't fit well. Imagine mowing the lawn and the cord keeps falling out. We also needed to look at extension cords. Maybe it's been too long since I've purchased an extension cord in the US, but it was $45 US minimum for a cord.

Finally after asking several questions of store sales people with no knowledge of the products in the store we finally decide upon on a model. We are sure keep the price in mind because it often changes at the cash register. We get there and it ends up 50Dhs less, that's cool. We're happy we have what we need and it cost a little less.

Last night we went to an Iftar dinner (more on that in another post) so we didn't put the mower together. Today Larry goes off to work so I decide to put the mower together. I open the box and take everything out. I see the blades and think that's kinda weird, they don't look like they would actually cut grass. But I keep going thinking it's some cool new way to cut grass. I page thru the manual looking for English (all manuals come in 6-10 languages here). It keeps refering to the scarifer. I wonder what the heck that it is so read more before proceeding. Turns out that we purchased a law aerator. All that... back and forth with sales people, getting prices, checking on cords and adapters... and we bought the wrong damned thing!

So back to the store today. The good news is that a new road just opened up making getting to this store much easier. Hopefully it's still open today.

School Projects

Dani and Elle have started off the school year well with some amazing school projects. Dani had to create a model of a plant cell for science class. She received an A+ on her project - picture below. Elle's class is studying endangered animals. She chose the Tasmanian Devil. Part of the project is to create a visual aid. Since I was painting that day she thought it would be cool to do a painting. She did an awesome job and its an original idea (which gives her extra points).

Fall

Tonight, the family watched a movie together. During the course of the movie, Fall set in and there were scenes of blowing leaves, changing colors, ... Renee spoke up first and said how she will miss the experience of Fall while we are here - the cooling temps, the smell of grapes (Fall is harvest time at her parents), the brilliant colors... Elle chimed in and said, "it is Fall". How surreal, it is still 100+ (111 today) and at the same time it is Fall.

And yes, before anyone starts teasing, yes, this is Larry posting. Makes a grand total of 2 now. It's hard to keep up with Renee, the Postmaster General.

Missing the middle

It seems there is nothing in the middle here. There are high end stores and cheap stores, there are rich people and laborers, there are gourmet restaurants and fast food, etc. Where is Target and Outback Steak House? There are a few middle of the road restaurants here but if you are looking for a steak, well its very expensive only. Of course we are middle class but not really here.

Today I heard about this middle class neighborhood that is being torn down - why... well because you always tear down the middle here and anything not shiny and new. It's an odd place sometimes. There is a wonderful, beautiful veneer on the surface but inside, this is an undeveloped country - or at least operates like one.

I'm not saying its a bad place or anything. Just different than you might expect. I think they need to make a space middle class here. They need lots and lots of laborers for all of the building but what about supporting those buildings once they are complete? People in the middle who can make decisions are needed. It takes too long to always go to the top for a simple day to day decision to be made. That is why it is difficult to accomplish things here.

Happy 40th to me!

I can't believe that I am 40... where the hell did all that time go? It's been a very nice day. Larry was home waiting for me when I got back from working at the school store. Waiting in the entry were all the wonderful cards and gifts from everyone back in CT. You guys are so awesome! And so is my husband for reaching out to everyone. If we were home no doubt we'd be hosting a big party this weekend but he did his best to make it special here. :)

Thanks for the books, trivia cards, jewelry, candy and oh those awesome All Stars! You guys are the best. I really miss you all so much.

Larry picked up the girls from school and they came home with 2 huge, totally awesome masks for me. Later we went out to dinner and then stopped at another branch of the store where they bought the masks to pick up my other present. It was an armillary sphere or something like one. It's a huge globe with the constellations on it. It's an Arabic antique. I love it!

A dishwasher at last!

Hurray we have a dishwasher! We did learn something new too. Dishwashers here take salt, like a water softener. It's needed to make the soap work better. Maybe the water here is hard, not a clue.

P.S. We actually got the dishwasher on the 10th and I wrote about it then but forgot to post it. I found a few other things that I had in draft as well so more posting soon.

Home Sweet Home

I finally got around to taking some photos of the ville with our things all unpacked. It doesn't look half bad!

The living room and dining room are all in one big room. We use that space for living, dining, painting, ironing, laundry drying and my desk.





This is the maid's room that we turned into Larry's office. We were planning on making the space at the top of the stairs into an office but the echo there is too loud for Larry as he often has meeting into the evening with folks from the US.


This is the tiny laundry room.


This is the area at the top of the stairs. We made it into a play area for the girls.

Here is our master bedroom. A bit messy still, but coming along.


Elle's room is the one with a pink wall and one white. Dani's is all blue. I painted them both recently.


And finally the guest room which also houses everything that we can't fit elsewhere.

Larry is in Hartford

Larry made a last minute trip to Hartford. He is working on a big proposal so he needed to be in CT for a planning meeting. We thought about everyone coming, but decided it was too early for the girls. Elle has made some solid progress with making some new friends and getting used to school here. We didn't want to jeopardize that. We sent Larry home with a list of things to buy and bring from home. He will be back on my birthday... the big 40 coming up.

Unpacking, unpacking

Three solid days of unpacking and we are done! The villa looks great and feels much more like home. We spent about 3 hours trying to put together my old desk in a space that was just to small for it. We finally gave up because we just couldn't reconfigure it to make it fit. So we went shopping instead. We found a very nice desk at a store called The One. We also stopped at a rug shop and bought a gorgeous but expensive rug. It all looks great in the villa. I will take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Our container is finally here!

HURRAY!!! Our container finally came today. The moving company called late Monday afternoon saying that our container had cleared customs and they could deliver it in the morning. I had my doubts but by 10am they were unloading. A crew of about 10 Indian and Arabic men unloaded our cargo and unboxed the furniture. They were all gone by 2pm.

Dani was home sick today so she watched, but Elle was at school. She was excited when she got home. She started unpacking her room right away. Dani did a few boxes but she wasn't feeling up to doing too much. Even the cat, Osiris was excited to see our things in the villa. He pranced around all evening meowing and rubbing against us.

Larry and I worked all day and evening unpacking. We still have a lot to go, but we made a huge dent today.

Pull-tab cans

I've tried to do some research out of curiosity but could find no answers.... most of the soda and beer cans here are the old pull-tabs vs the newer stay-tabs (that were instituted in the early 80's in most places in the world). We are guessing that beverage companies here purchased old equipment vs this being a customer preference. It is a bit annoying to see the tabs on the beach and places like that.

Life lessons in an elevator

I went to the mall today to go to the Etisalat counter to complain that Elle's cell phone is still not working (after making at least 7 phone calls over the past 5 days). Of course there is a sign on their computer that says "System Down, Closed." I ask if they know when the system will be up or if they can help me. I get one response "No." So off to do other things because I've learned there is no sense in asking more questions. I come back about 45 minutes later and there is a LONG line and still the same signs. I am holding heavy bags and I need to get home becuase the dish washer man says he is going ot be at our villa at 1pm.

I get in the lift (elevator) to head to the car park (parking garage). There is a little Indian (I think but not entirely sure) man in the lift holding the door open for me. He tells me that I need a tolley (shopping cart). I shrug and say "Good exercise" while I raise and lower my bags of groceries. He say "English?" I contemplate what he means. I respond, "American." His eyes get big. He says "Oh you lucky! You go, you take me with you. I go there my whole life will change."

I thought about the exchange while drivng home to meet the dishwasher man that at 2:30pm still has not shown up. We are very lucky to be born in America. We could have been born in India, grow up with no education, and work in the blazing hot sun every day for pennies a day.

This is the kind of thing that we moved here to learn. I hope that Dani and Elle will take this kind of thing to heart. They are American girls who have FAR more choices that most girls in the world and they have lavish things like cell phones. But still I want the darned cell phone to work so you know this lavish American will be back at the cell phone counter tomorrow asking them to fix it. :)

Cell phones for the goonies

Ok so we broke down and bought the girls each a cell phone. With the traffic as bad as it is here we decided that the girls really needed phones. There will be times when we can see the school but we just can't get there so at least now we can contact them. DAA is huge, not like our lovely, little Braeburn that we miss so much. At Braeburn we could just call and let someone know (not that traffic was ever an issue there). I can't imagine calling DAA and saying, hey, I'm stuck could you tell my kid who is one of 1200 to just hang on for a few more.

And update on the girls

Thanks so much to everyone's well wishes for Elle. I am happy to report that she is doing MUCH better. She still doesn't LOVE school, but she doesn't hate it either. It took a lot of love and a little tough love to get her to this point... "Sweetie, we are not moving back for 2 years so you are going to have to get past this." We have a play date scheduled for Thursday after school with her little friend Olivia. That might do her some good as well.

Dani is still doing great. She has several friends and loves her classes. Her leg has healed very well and she not longer has to have it bandaged. She will likely have a faint scar from the burn, but otherwise she will be good as new.

Dust Devil

I think I am using the right term.... yesterday on the way home from school the girls and I saw the coolest thing. It was like a small tornado of dust. We saw it jump the school wall and papers started flying way up into the air, then it jumped the wall again and headed for the street. I assume the wind was only strong enough to lift dust and paper because we didn't see rocks or anything big flying through the air. It was a very interesting site indeed. We need to keep a camera in the car for such occasions. Here is a picture of one that I found on the internet.

Under dressed

I wish that I could take a picture of this... I find myself cracking up every day while waiting for Elle to come down to the school lobby. Many woman dress to the 9's, strappy stiletto heels and sequins and crap. At least not all woman dress that way so I don't feel completely out of place. If I come home like that, please my friends give me a fashion intervention!

More patience...

Yes more patience - bought the dishwasher, it got delivered on time (I was impressed!) but still waiting on installation. He dude was supposed to come yesterday, he's still a no show.

I ordered cable last week and was told 3 days for installation. Well today a little Indian man shows up and says "No Evision in your villa." "Yes, that's right, you are here to install." "No, no Evision here." After a few back and forths I finally come understand that cable has not been run to our complex so if we want it we have to go the satelite route which is a completely different company. Oh good times. Yes that means at least another week or more before we have TV.

Welch's - Here in Dubai - Who Knew?

My new favorite grocery store, LuLu, carries none other than Welch's Grape Jelly... Ohio grapes half-way around the world. Needless to say we were pretty phyched about the find!

A weekend away

We needed a break from the empty villa so we went away for the weekend to a hotel that's only a few blocks away. We stayed at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Its a beautiful hotel with free access to Wild Wadi world (water park). We didn't arrive until around 7:30pm on Thursday evening. We went straight to the pool. Almost no one was at the pool so it was like we had the whole thing to ourselves. Larry and I quickly found the pool bar, hurray for beer! On a side note our liquor license is still in process so its been a while since we've had any. Then we had a late dinner at 10pm - we're learning to be international and eat late.

On Friday we got up early and ate at the ENORMOUS international buffet. It was about $40 per head but oh so good. We'll go back sometime for a special treat. Then off to Wild Wadi world for the day. Since we had been there once before the girls knew the park well and they could go off on their own while Larry and I sat in the chilled water wave pool. We had another late night dinner again that night.

On Saturday we hung out in bed and watched TV. Then finally went down to get some breakfast then went to Wild Wadi again. It was a great weekend. Below are some pictures.

Easy does it...

Thanks for all of the well wishes. Keep sending us your good thoughts. Elle moped around yesterday and a some today. She still isn't liking school. Things aren't getting better but they aren't gotting much worse either. She seems to understand that we can't got back to West Hartford and that she has to change from within to get through this rough spot. We are hopeful for better days in the next 2 weeks. Hopefully by then our container will arrive (wishful thinking, but hey I can wish, right?) which should help somewhat.

Ramadan Kareem - Happy Ramadan

A little about Ramadan (taken from Wikipedia) - Ramadan Arabic: رمضان, Ramaḍān) is a Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, believed to be the month in which the Qur'an was revealed to Angel Gabriel, who later revealed it to the Prophet Muhammad. It is the Islamic month of fasting sawm), in which participating Muslims do not eat or drink anything from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the person patience and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer even more prayer than usual. In Ramadan Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance into the future, ask for help in refrain from everyday evils and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.

During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam and to avoid obscene and irreligious sights and sounds. Sexual thoughts and activities during fasting hours are also forbidden. Purity of both thought and action is important. The fast is intended to be an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God Almighty. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. Properly observing the fast is supposed to induce a comfortable feeling of peace and calm. It also allows Muslims to practice self-discipline, sacrifice, and sympathy for those who are less fortunate. It is also intended to make Muslims more generous and charitable.

Experiencing Ramadan is a bit interesting here. For Muslims there is no eating, drinking or intimacy during day light hours for an entire month. For non-Muslims there is still no eating or drinking in public, nor loud or live music, singing or dancing. You can't even chew gum in your car or take a quick drink of water while walking on the hot beach. Kids and pregnant women are exempt from the rule but it is still frowned upon. Work and school hours are also reduced. The girls go into school an hour later and are let out and hour earlier. Of course they like that part! Larry's office is working from 8:30-2:30. They are required by law to let their Muslim employees go after 6 hours of work. He of course continues to work regular hours but mostly at home after 3 or so.