Road Trip to Oman

The country of Oman borders the UAE and you can get to it's historic and temperate coast in about 5 hours by car. So when I got news from the Sheik in my email that the end of Ramadan this year will be celebrated with a whole week off, we decided to take our first road trip. En route, there is supposedly some unique mountain and desert scenery. We're leaving tomorrow and will be staying at the Shangri-La resort a few miles outside of Muscat, on the Omani coast. It's an historic coastal village with a renowned bazaar and old-time fishing boats. I'm not sure whether we'll be online much since the goal is to get away and relax - so watch for our next news in about a week.

Ramadan

We are in the middle of Ramadan, a one-month religious period of fasting and prayer for Muslims and it's taking its toll on our Christian sensibilities.

For starters, it is illegal to be seen in public consuming anything, including water, chewing gum, tobacco and any form of food between sunrise (around 6:10) and sunset (round 6:30). This might not be so bad if it weren't still over 100 degrees most days. And though it does not apply to children (or pregnant women), most people put their kids on a kiddie fast, which means nothing between meals. For us, this means being very discrete about carrying water with us for the kids. If we are seen to be breaking the rules ourselves, the fine can be upwards of $300. On top of this, most shops are closed from 1pm till 8 or so, so taking care of any business or errands during this month, especially if you are a working person, is almost impossible. At work, hotels and even some of the western shopping centers, there are dedicated govt. approved cafes (tucked out of view) where non-muslims can legally eat lunch and drink water, but they're generally not convenient. So pretty much every other day at work, since the special cafe is two buildings away, my co-workers and I suffer headaches and loss of concentration due to dehydration. Fun huh?

On the flipside, because of shortened school and work schedules, people end up spending a lot more quality time at home, with their families, than they do during the rest of the year. It also means that if you do venture out after your kids' bed time, the streets are bustling, the shopping centers have special booths with decorations and Ramadan sweets and tents are set up for late community buffet meals. We've gone to a couple of these Ramadan dinners, called Iftar, and the food is wonderful, with traditional flat breads, spreads made with eggplant, beans and cream, roasted lamb and a local fish called Hamour, and a great variety of desserts made with dates, pistachios and honey. Philanthropic groups take advantage of the period to collect money since people are concerned about the community. The locals are very proud of their maintenance of this tradition, and if you ask them whether fasting is harmful to their bodies and dispositions, they'll tell you that Allah would not do any of his people permanent harm.

At work, though the students do go home early and supposedly get naps, they are all quite tired. Their family responsibilities during Ramadan during the dark hours are important. They eat together, visit the mosque, go out about town with their parents, and therefore they are not only dehydrated, cranky and hungry, but sleep-deprived too. This combination of teachers with headaches and sleepy students makes it very hard for us to accomplish our goals for the month. The cultural experience is definitely what I was after when I took the job, but it will take the whole month to get the hang of the tradition of Ramadan.

A Week in the Life

Since it was my birthday, I finally had good reason to stop and linger at the pastry counter at the market. Billy and the kids helped me pick out a selection of local pastries, most made with honey, pistachios, fried dough or a delicate combination. As I have the naughty but comforting habit of scrounging for a 9pm snack, you can imagine how excited I was as we ordered the sticky, sweet, nest-shaped pistachio filled tarts and chewy cheese pastry topped with fine sweetened strands of dough. We put a candle into one of the nesty things (see photo) and had a perfectly luscious birthday dessert.

Also this week we took the kids to Dreamland Aquapark, in an Emirate called Umm Al Quwain (two emirates from here). Since it is Ramadan, and most families are resting and praying during the day with shortened work schedules and store hours, this month is a particularly nice time to visit tourist venues, since they're mostly empty. It was about 103 degrees that day, so even Billy and I stayed in the water the entire time - we were there for five hours, and when they closed early, due to Ramadan, the kids were bummed that we couldn't make a second round to all of the attractions, slides, luges, lazy river, vortex dump ride, family raft, volcano pool, large covered 12-pooljacuzzi (not hot but cold) and wave pool. We've promised another trip when it gets a bit cooler.

At work today, I had a student ask an interesting question. Consider that the topic in our coursebook right now is culture shock and that her question actually fit into a much larger discussion. Also consider that this is one of the more fluent students in the class. First she told me she had a question but she did not want to bother me, and she was sorry if it was a question that didn't matter and then explained that she was shy about this question but that her classmates all were curious, (this extremely long and hedging intro made me nervous by the way) she said this: 'I hear that Americans are afraid of mid-east people and is that true and then why do you come here'? I was kind of waiting for this question from someone but I was still surprised when I got it. I took my time and first let the student know that she need not apologize for her question. I'd tell her if the question wasn't appropriate. Then I said that some Americans are afraid of mid-east people because of a history of terrorism that people associate with Islam, which brings to mind the Gulf Region. I continued to say that many more Americans are curious about the mid-east, and have more interest than fear regarding the region, more because I felt that this was a necessary answer, whether it was really true or not. I'd love any of y'all's thoughts on this, since I'm sure it's not the first time I'll get this. Looking forward to your comments.

Arabic, Urdu, or English?

I was just about to work on my latest pondering from our sand-road villa about Language, and Rosie sidled up to say, 'Can we go back to Grandma's house now? And play with my cousin Toby?' So perhaps first I ought to address the homesickness and the guilt you feel about dragging your kids away from the familiar, their own schools, their pals since birth, and of course, from a quick plane ride to Grandma's. Though we're settling in well, the kids are all enrolled at the Australian school, and Billy's been busy networking, there is a clear void left by Grandma and all the TLC the kids got while spending a big chunk of their summer with her. Grandma and Grandpa and the doting aunties Janell & Sarah, as well as Uncle Bern and his dogs in Colorado, our fake but FUN Aunties Jill and Ann in Chicago, and of course our best Colorado pals the Bieners made our transition here easier for sure. But at the same time it became even more difficult as we had to say goodbye to such an awesome and supportive American village. Thanks guys!

Now on to the topic at hand: Language. The language situation in the UAE is my current challenge, and so far I've figured out this much: I need to learn Urdu. With Arabic as the native language and English as the language of commerce you'd think that being American would give me an edge. But it doesn't mean a whole lot when an Urdu-speaking taxi driver from India, who's only been here 13 days picks you up, and can't figure out where it is you want to go. It also doesn't help when the Pakistani Urdu speaker who has come to put together your Ikea furniture tries to tell you he'll come back and finish the job another day. So I've learned to say How are You in Urdu - maybe this will help.

Because the locals here are a minority, (Emiratis make up less than 25 percent of the total population), and because cheap foreign labor from poor countries makes up another 25 percent, the language most often spoken is indeed English. This makes the prospect of learning Arabic for me and Billy quite hard, as anyone we'd want to practice with will either not be a speaker of Arabic in the first place, or simply be unwilling to tolerate our attempts at Arabic. So in the mean time, I'm relying on Arabic lessons from Brady. He studies Arabic every day in school and comes home with tricky Arabic body part games. As you might imagine, he gets a great thrill when I actually get it wrong.

So for those of you planning to visit here, you need not have any anxiety about speaking the language. You will certainly get by with your English, but picking up an Urdu phrase book might not be a bad idea.

On the Job Front

After three weeks of orientation and training and one full week of teaching, I am finally ready to write about my job. I got exactly the type of assignment I was hoping for but was told I probably would not get during my first year. Here's the lo-down:

The Institution
Sharjah Women's College is a division of the Higher Colleges for Technology (HCT), which was founded 20 years ago. HCT is the biggest institution of Higher Learning in the UAE. We have sixteen campuses, mens and womens, around the Emirates, with six major degree programs: Education, Business, IT, Health Sciences, Engineering and Graphic Arts. Degrees are offered at the Diploma level (like an American Associates Degree), Bachelor's level, and soon there will be Masters programs available. Currently, only Emirati students are admitted and student fees are paid by the government.

The Campus
Our campus is located in University City, a giant well groomed desert village where four major Universities and several smaller institutes have taken up residence. Imagine large white stucco-colored domed buildings surrounded by wide marble plazas with palms and fountains. The Women's college, Men's College and shared Sports complex probably span five kilometers. The Women's College has about 8 buildings, mostly connected by covered walkways as shelter from the sun.

The Job
I teach English to groups of 18-20 students who are doing Business and IT degrees. These gals have already taken one year of English-only intensive courses, so they're able to converse casually and write paragraph-level papers in English. The goal seem s to be vocational and commercial English, aiming towards work-placement. The huge influx of foreigners has got the locals wanting a more prominent place in commerce, thus a push for 'Emiratization' of the work force, and the education of any willing college-aged student, with a focus on fluency in English.

Students
Most of my students are 19 or 20 years old and from large Muslim families (7-9 kids)
The dress code for students requires the abaya, a simple black robe typical of locals around town, with 'decent' clothes underneath. There is not any head-cover requirement, so the students' choice of cover varies. I teach a total of 38 students between my classes and two of them choose to be totally veiled. Two others choose no head cover at all. These two gals are usually sporting Converse brand shoes and blue jeans under their abayas, and make no effort to conceal what they're wearing under the uniform. The rest cover all but their faces or have a little bit of hair (often highlight streaked) peaking out.

My Colleagues
A third of my colleagues have been here for more than three years, another third are in their first three-year contract, and about a third just started like I did. Americans are a small minority among the faculty. The countries represented are Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Hungary, Scotland, Ireland, England, Canada (lots of them), Columbia, Sudan, Egypt, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I have a spacious sunny cubicle (will post photo later) and my cube faces the work space of Aysen (from Turkey), Scott (from Scotland) and Nikki (from England).

More to come later:

Facilities and Resources

Campus Rules

Classroom Anecdotes

Work Ethic

Calendar

Teaching During Ramadan

Billy & Rosie Have Arrived

Since Billy and Rosie got here two nights ago (I can't say how happy this makes me to have us all under one grand roof again), we've been to the Choral Beach Resort Club in Sharjah and the Gold Souk & Textile Souk in Dubai.

Expats living in Sharjah join the beach clubs at waterfront hotels, where bikinis are de rigeur, and you don't need to worry about funny looks from the mostly local male bathers at the public beaches.

The Dubai Souks are grand bazaars where hundreds of stallkeepers maintain tiny store fronts to sell their wares.

Enjoy the pictures, and I'll send along more details at a later point. Working by day and getting to know the area by night is seriously tiring..