The Long Version of the Week Ending Aug. 31, by Angie Brady

This past week has provided me with some new adventures....firstly driving...oh boy! Christina went out with me and acted as navigator while I did the driving. Firstly, it gave me some experience behind the wheel in this place of crazy drivers...by the way, the number one cause of death in this area is car accidents...scary! Secondly, it gave Christina a break from trying to navigate while driving. I have a problem of trying to read street names like Sheik Mojid Bin Sawr Al Qasimi Street or Abdulla Bin Salim Al Sabah Street or Sheik Saleem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi Street. Then...these names are on round-a-bout signs along with the Arabic writing with other names that are telling you which way to go. Most intersections are round-a-bouts and not real turns. It's a real challenge. Christina & I have driven around round-a-bouts several times just to try to get on the correct roads. The day that I took Brady & Liam to school for their assessments I drove by myself. I was very pleased that I arrived at the school with just one minimal problem. Going home, however, was another story. I thought I would do some grocery shopping for Christina. After leaving the grocery store, I spent 2 hours trying to find my way home. I knew I was close several times. Finally Christina arrived home and talked me through it on the cell phone.

The shopping here is unbelievable. High end stores from European and American countries have a big presence. We went to the Mall of the Emirates....the famous giant mall on Sat. It was big and beautiful. I loved all of the shops that carried clothes and items from the Mideast. I feel like I need to be listening to Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Adventure while writing about this.

This is where the famous indoor ski area is located. It was an unbelievable sight to see people skiing and tubing in an indoor arena. Christina & Billy & the kids will celebrate Brady's birthday there in the next week. He will be 8 tomorrow.

There were also water fountains spurting from the ground dancing to synchronized music. The boys played in water fountains until a security guard came to scold us for breaking the rules that we were unaware of. We were scolded but did not cause an international incident.

When we left the Mall of the Emirates we were lucky to secure a wonderful Indian taxi driver who was willing and happy to take us on a tour to see the Jumeirah Palm Island, the 8th Wonder of the World (island shaped like a palm tree); the Burj Al Arab (The world's tallest and most luxurious hotel)...the first 7 star hotel. We also saw the construction project of the tallest building in the world to be completed in 2010. Another taller building is being planned to begin construction in 2010. Dubai is truly a cosmopolitan city. People from everywhere in the world work and visit here. The taxi driver pointed out that the skyline of the city was not in existence 3 years ago. EVERYTHING is new! The architecture is very modern. We drove along the road along the Gulf through Dubai to Sharjah. These emerits are side by side but getting from one to another can be a very long haul during rush hour.

We attended mass at a Catholic Church in Sharjah. The congregation was almost all Indian with other people probably from Asia & the Philippines. There were only 2 other Anglo's besides us in the full church. People arrived early and said the rosary before mass. The whole altar area & most of the church was white marble. It was beautiful and bright. Most of the songs were familiar and the mass was sung by the priest, which does not happen very often anymore in the US accept for very special occasions. The people sang heartily...a pleasure for me. The Indian women had beautiful traditional dresses of many colors. As I said before in an earlier entry, the women are of great interest to me. Of the men, I have yet to gain any understanding except that they come from a different planet when they get behind the wheel.

The wealth here is another aspect of this area that is really amazing. The families, average 7.7 persons per household, and have servants, not usually one but possibly many. There are nannies and house keepers...some acting as both. There could be a few nannies in homes depending how many children are in the home. I see the nannies everywhere we go. They are generally with the children trailing behind their mother. I don't see much joy in their faces and feel like they are sad. They work hard and are away from their homeland and really have tough jobs caring for these children. The guide book stated that abuse of these house helpers sometimes exists but there is no recourse for them. The advice is that they work harder to get along with their employers. The country is now working on human rights issues. I really don't know much about that yet.

Enough for now.