Sights.....

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I've been wondering what next to write about.  Things are pretty quiet around the hotel, now.  It became quite festive on Friday, the first day of Eid.  Many, many families came to the hotel to hang out by the pool and to enjoy great meals and visits to the mall. 

Abu Dhabi Mall is attached to the Beach Rotana Hotel.  We don't even have to go outside to get to it.  It's quite large.  The mall has a big food court, and a co-op, where we shop for food and necessaries.  The co-op has almost anything you might want.  It's a market and a department store all wrapped into one place.  And of course there are beautiful jewelry stores, and shoe stores, and many of the top name brand stores.  Most of us LT's don't shop at many of the stores because they are a bit out of our price range.  There are also furniture stores and a movie theatre.

Tonight, we finally made it to the far end of the mall.  There is a store with an item that many of us have wanted to find.  During one of our first days of orientation one of our speakers showed us photos that she took when she first arrived in Abu Dhabi five years ago.  One of the photos was of a camel resting while riding in the back of a pickup truck.  Another photo was of a lamp.  This was not just any ordinary lamp. It was a lamp of a horse.  It wasn't just a horse lamp, it was a life size horse lamp. Yep.  You got it. It really is real horse size.  We found it tonight.  Can you believe it's still there?  Five years later, that horse lamp is still there.  Go figure.

I haven't personally seen a camel in the back of a pickup truck, but I have seen three goats riding in the back of a truck.  I did hear a story today.  It's not a good story, but it's a story worth recording.  I did get the story second hand so please forgive me if I get any of the facts confused.  Apparently, some people went on a road trip yesterday. They went to one of the cities further away.  On the way home, the driver and the passengers spotted a camel along the road.  It was the first camel they've all seen.  So, the driver decided to circle back to get another look. 

It was not a good sight to see.  Once they arrived back at the camel sighting scene, all of the traffic was backed up.  The camel had been hit by a car and killed.  And, I can't confirm it, but I believe there may have been a fatality, too, in the ensuing  vehicle pile up.  Like I said, it's not a good story.  But, it's a story.  In Michigan, it's common to see deer carcasses alongside the road.  A deer can really mess up a car, but a camel?  I hope to avoid camels and cars.

Back to the mall.  Things were much livelier at the mall the last few days.  I avoided the mall Friday night, but it was busy.  It was packed with people and entertainers, and children ran to and fro.  The children carried balloons and met up with adults who gave them candy and money! 

Over the weekend, I did see drummers and dancers.  The dancers were men dressed in their long, loose white robes called kandooras with ghutras on their heads.  I think most of them had red and white checked ghutras.  The square ghutra is folded in half like a triangle and held in place with a black cord called an ogal, on top.  According to Ali, a local celebrity, the cords used to be used to tie a camel's legs together so it wouldn't run off.  Now, the ogal helps to keep the scarf in place. 

It's interesting to me to watch the young Emirati men as they wear their ghutras.  The fold is placed toward the front of their head. I don't know the answer to this question, but I often wonder if the ghutra is starched?  Many of the men wear white ghutras.  I have seen them carefully and oh so tenderly run their fingers across the folded edge of the material, as if they are shaping it to gently flow upwards like a small brim.  It reminds me of the good ol' boys I've seen back home shaping the bill of their baseball caps, coaxing just the right curve to get just the right fit.

I also am fascinated by the way the men mess with the long flowing tail of the ghutra.  I'm certain there must be a name for the part of the scarf that hangs down their back but I don't know it.  I've watched the men who have been invited to speak to us fold and flip and toss the sides of the ghutra back behind their shoulders.  An animated speaker may toss a side back and then repeatedly continue to do so as they move about.   Others will  layer first one side and then the other, carefully, gently as if to prevent wrinkles.  It must be a learned technique, because I have seen some ghutras slip back to hang down, and I've seen others stay in place, stacked just so and piled behind the head and off the neck.  I've yet to see a wrinkled ghutra.

And, oh my goodness, the abayas!  An abaya is the long black robe that the Emirati women wear.  I've seen very basic black plain abayas, and I've seen very beautiful elaborate abayas.  The ornate gowns can be adorned with sequins and jewels and laces and crystals, sometimes with black accents and sometimes with striking blazing blue, or pink, or silver or gold accents.  Lovely.  They wear a scarf on their heads called a sheila.  These also can be plain or elaborate. 

I don't get how they drape them to make them stay in place.  When we toured the Grand Mosque we were given abayas and sheilas to wear.  Some girls helped us with the sheila to wrap it around our heads. I was terrified that the security guards were going to whisk me right out of that mosque because I could not keep that slippery piece of film on my head.  My hair popped out and poked out.  I twisted and twitched the material to keep my hair covered.  I folded and adjusted and pulled it forward and layered and loosened and tightened and tucked all to no avail.  I finally settled on just holding the topmost edge and pulling it forward over my forehead.  So, there I stood, or sat looking like I was tipping my hat to passersby. I'm certain I missed most of the interesting information because of my preoccupation with keeping that sheila in place.   And Michelle, she looked so serene in her sheila.  It stayed so snug against her skull, no hair peeked out from her perfectly framed face.  Since that experience, I have noticed some women have a decorative pin, almost like a hat pin that keeps everything in place.  I'm not certain how I would get along with a sheila and a pin.  I hope to avoid sheilas and pins.