Things Emirati

We asked our
students to talk for 3 minutes about an item connected with Emirati culture. In the pictures you'll see a burka, the mask worn by many Emirati grandmas when they're out in the streets, a traditional coffee pot with coffee beans and the saffron and cardamom used to spice their coffee, a sweet fried food with sesame flavor called Ghemat, traditional clothes for men called 'Bisht', as well as a lady's housedress and a child's 'dressup' clothes, the process of applying henna (to me), an incense burner with some very expensive wood incense from India, as well as the noseplugs worn by pearl fishers with the tiny pearls someone's grandfather found himself. In fact, before oil was discovered, the main livelihoods here were pearl diving and date cultivation.

Though we thought the gals were tired of this year's theme of 'Proudly Emirati', they (and I) really enjoyed the project, especially since the usual 'no food' rules could be broken for the sake of an educational project.