Happy EID Mubarak...what a week!

Let me begin this post by offering condolences to all the families impacted by the deaths and injuries that occurred at Hajj on last Thursday morning. I know several teachers at my school that had loved ones attending so my hope and prayer is that they are not impacted by this unfortunate event.  This week was a short week as EID was celebrated. EID is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. During this time, Muslims travel to Mecca to become closer to God. Each Muslim is expected to take this trip at least once during their lifetime.

The EID break could not have come at a better time! I feel like I have been going non-stop since I got here. There is so much to do just to get settled and once you complete one task then you have to start the next. When I landed it was all about becoming acclimated and learning my school duties. Then I had to worry about finding housing, which is fun at times, but still very stressful. Once you have housing, then you have to go to a million different places to get services turned on. That is the huge dichotomy in this county. One one hand they are able to build leaning buildings and other beautiful structures and on the other hand, you have to physically go to places to get things done....no online services!!!

Once I got my housing, I had to secure a bed...not furniture...a bed! Those new to administration here understand my plight:) I'm sure there are a few teachers who feel my pain as well. It is sooooo costly initially that all you end up getting are bare essentials. So again it is actually amusing (now) because many of us are living in beautiful accommodations with ZERO furniture. All I had was a bed, a microwave, and cooktop! Moving on up (Jeffersons) with a whole lot of Evans Family (Good Times)!

The next tasks that followed was getting my family here. Again fun, by stressful knowing that Sherrica had to travel by herself. Once they arrived, making sure that we all had enough essentials that we could SURVIVE until payday:)  Again, you have to be here to understand! Then you have to have all of these documents translated and stamped in order to get certain things like a visa for my family and a drivers license. The cost depending on the document can be anywhere from 60 to 215 dirhams. Yes, the international drivers license that you can purchase from Triple A for $15 means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING here. You will need to have your Emirates ID (which is a "waiting" task) and your translated US driver's license and then you have to go to the "DMV" here which is pretty efficient when the computers are working. The day I went I had to come back hours later because of this issue. However, the process is only about 15-20 minutes depending on how busy they are. Oh and your ID must be picked up from the post office, which again is pretty efficient. Remember: THERE IS NO MAIL SYSTEM HERE SO EVERYTHING EITHER NEEDS TO BE PICKED UP OR DELIVERED BY COURIER SERVICE. 

My current task is getting my wife and daughter sponsored. There are a bunch of things that I need to do and I will begin on Monday working through this process. Also, I need to schedule a boarder run in about 2 weeks. I have heard the fines are crazy if you are found to be in the country illegally. Oh and speaking of fines, when we we car shopping a ford, we were forced to illegally park. Why? Well, unlike in the states where car dealerships will be on lots, here in the UAE some are in the middle of downtown with simply a showroom floor, which means there is hardly any parking available. So needless to say, we received a 300 dirham parking ticket. The good thing is that if you pay it in 15 days, it drops to 225 dirhams. The bad thing is that there is no online payment system so you have to go into one of the offices:(

More specifically, this past week has been filled with JOY and shopping! We received our pay on Sunday, which was eight days earlier than we had expected. You should have seen my eyes when I looked down at my phone and saw that I had an SMS from the bank detailing my deposit! I was RICH! Not really, but I wasn't broke anymore. Let me just say that I wanted to explore some different options during this time to get so more money so Sherrica and I would be more comfortable before my pay arrived but she insisted that we would be okay. #RIDEORDIE So the FIRST thing I did was to rent a car. I paid about 1600 dirhams (aed) for a Peugeot 301. It's a little car with absolutely no power, but it gets me from point A to point B and no more daily taxi fares! Even though we rented a car, we began the process of looking for a car to buy in a few months. Sherrica and I, along with some of our friends, visited nearly every dealership here in Abu Dhabi. We went to Ford, Lincoln, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Mitsubishi, GMC, and finally back to Ford. We had been told that it would take three months of verified wages in order to purchase a vehicle. However, this was not the case. Because we work for ADEC (membership has its privileges), FORD was able to sell us a vehicle at a pretty decent rate. I won't say how much cause I don't want you all all up in my business like that:) I will say that depending on the model you had to put down either one or five thousand dirhams.  We ended up purchasing a 2015 Ford Limited Edition Explorer.

Without the rims:)

Due to the process here, it takes about a week to 10 days to actually get the car. Our good friends "The Carters" (Renee and Bobby) also purchased the same vehicle. We both got the same color too:) I think we are spending too much time with them!

Next on the agenda was furniture shopping. We bought the majority of our furniture through Home Centre. They have a partnership with ADEC where you get 25% off of every purchase. Again, membership has its privileges. Had we gotten paid a little sooner, we could have gotten 35% due to the EID holiday sell. You will be able to find great deals leading up to EID. We were able to find a number of things that we liked and it was really easy shopping with Sherrica. We seemed to like the same things, except for a bed. I compromised and let her get the bed that she wanted although it was not my favorite...but I can live with it. Again, due to the EID holiday, which is a religious holiday, many people do not or cannot work and the huge pre-EID sale our furniture will not be delivered and assembled until October 1st. Since we had some time to wait, I decided to paint our apartment.....that is until I realized:
1) how much time it would take and
2) how much I really didn't want to.

So we found a wonderful American man who is living here with his wife and kids. His wife is a teacher for ADEC. If you want his email, you can leave me your email and I will send it to you. He came over and gave us a wonderful price to paint our living room. He stated that he could tell we were just starting out...I guess because we had no furniture! LOL He was a deeply honest, gentle, and religious man and I learned a great deal about what I could expect while living here. He extended a worship opportunity to Sherrica and I and stated that he would invite us over for dinner at some point. His work was AMAZING! He had been a painter in the US for 10 years before the economy went bad. Check out his work although you have to be up close to appreciate it. Oh and the green tape is my doing before I realized I did not want to paint. He did EVERYTHING free hand!!!

This past week was a huge week for me at school as my principal gave me a number of new duties. Some I wanted and others....well..I guess they will be growth opportunities:) Due to the EID break we had a lot of teachers absent or leaving early (that is a whole other post) and I found myself covering classes. Because most of the classed that I was covering were Arabic I ended up taking the students outside. When I took the boys outside, I always heard "Mr. Mr. Can we go play?" When I responded "yes", this is what happens

For some strange reason, the boys always want to play with their shoes off! And look closely. NIKE is making a killing here!

I was also treated this week to Machboos. Machboos is a dish of rice And meat, popular in many Gulf countries and across Saudi Arabia. During a conversation with some of the Arabic teachers, I mentioned that I was expecting more food. One of the ladies immediately stood up and made a call to her housemaid to make me a chicken Machboos dish. Her driver delivered it to the school before dismissal. Yes, both a housemaid and a driver....life is good for most here:)

Chicken Machboos!!!

On another day, a few ladies ordered a variety of things from a restaurant and offered me a plate. Again, it is not well received to say no thank you even if you REALLY don't want what is being offered. I am also learning to smile a lot even when what I have in my mouth is not very appealing:) On this day, I was treated to a variety of items:

There is a cheese dish, a chicken salad dish, a pizza dish, a hotdog dish, and some other dish that I don;t know quite what I was eating:)

On a side note: My wife said I was getting "coffee breath", so now I am brushing after I eat and drink. I will not go into detail here but you will find that dental hygiene is not a priority here for all. 

In celebration of EID, the students also made me a sheep to place on my desk.

Finally, to bring a little normalcy to my life and to celebrate having working appliances, I cooked one of my favorite meals...SHRIMP AND GRITS! IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!!

Until we meet again.....Be Blessed!!!