Integrating - People of Al Ain

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Special note about Asiyah

So Najd promised Asiyah a bicycle if she promised not to suck her finger for a month. And this determined little girl did it. After years of putting socks on her hand, buying nasty tasting finger elixirs, threats, bribery, she did it! He said bike and that was it. She had two difficult nights, she couldn’t sleep and she was crying. We put a sock on her hand and bought her a pacifier for night and she did it! No more sock, it’s been two weeks! Update: only 7 more days to go!

First days of school

Well first days of school Abdullah came home with stories of at least 3 different children pushing and hitting him. I asked him did he tell the teacher and he said he did and the teacher told the child to stop. Asiyah also complained that a big boy on the bus was hitting her on the head. And a girl stepped on her feet (she later confessed that she accidently stepped on the girl’s feet first). I called the school to lodge my complaint. What I got on the other line was “They just need to get used to the system here.” And “the children are a little rowdy after vacation”. So I know bullying is a problem here and there were other schools that I walked away from when I asked what they do about bullying, and/or behavior issues in the school, and the response was, "Oh the children just need to get used to the system here". What does that mean? They need to get used to being beat up. Move along…But this school was the end of the road. So once I heard the popular catch phrase “they need to get used to the system”. It dawned on me that this is the law of the ghetto. Kill or be killed,. I told the manager. "Fine they will get very used to it, Abdullah has explicit instructions from me to defend himself and his sister". All I got on the other end was, "yes ma’am". My husband proceeded to give Abdullah a speech-1. Tell them to stop it or you are going to hit them back. (Something tells me it won’t work) 2. Tell the teacher (we told them this before and he did tell the teacher remember? She didn’t do anything.) 3. If someone pushes you, you push back nothing harder.(oookaaay) 3. Mom will go to the school and talk to the kids. (WHAT?!!! You really want my son to get a beat down dont ya) finally I interrupted him and said, "Dear this is ghetto stuff, I got this. Abdullah if anyone puts their hand on you or your sister beat the living daylights out of them, and I mean it! Don’t let anyone get away with anything. Don’t worry about getting in trouble". That’s how you gots to be in the ghetto. LOL! So the next Day the kids come home all excited from the bus. They start telling me that the same big kid hit Asiyah on the head. Abdullah told the bus monitor and THE BUS MONITOR HIT THE KID! The child hit Asiyah again, and Abdullah told the bus monitor. The monitor TOLD ABDULLAH TO GO HIT THE KID! (Yeah…G-h-e-t-t-o) so Abdullah went and beat on the kid. Then the kid started hitting other students and the bus monitor let 3 kids beat the boy up. I told my husband about the incident and he said well, that’s the way it is in our countries. Well, alrighty then! Tell ya what though when the kids came home today they said the boy was very nice to them and gave them pumpkin seeds!

We finally got our resident Visas! YaaaaY! I am so glad that is finally over with, the process is very tedious and expensive. The process can be very frustrating dealing with different government bureaucracies, usually the locals have these positions and they really need to show you just how important they are. You have to get all of your documents translated into Arabic: birth certificates, diplomas, certifications, and marriage certificates and they charge you by page. I had to laugh when my husband showed me his translated birth certificate and under religion it said Christian. (Good Job fellas!). After you get your documents translated then you need to bring them along with a gazillion copies, and several passport photos, and your passports to immigration. Then immigration gives you a temporary 60- day resident visa. Now you have to go take a blood test to make sure you do not have any communicable disease such as aids or hepatitis, they also take a head scan or lung scan to make sure you don’t have any long term illness that’s going to costs them an arm and a leg in medical fees. You have to pay for all of this of course, I hear we get reimbursed for some things, we shall see. Then you wait for your passports to be processed for your visas. Now while you’re waiting you would like to do other things such as get an ID or license, but you can’t do anything without a passport and we would like to buy a car since we are leasing one and it is pretty expensive, but you can’t buy a car without a Emirate license. Note: My husband’s visa was processed way before ours he just thought his international license from the states would work to buy a car, Anyways one night we hear a knock on the door it’s the Courier with our passports with the visa, YAAAAAY!!!!!

Camel Farm:

There is a camel farm right next store to Hili Complex I never knew it was there. (Pictures) My friend Vickie told me to take a walk with her so she could show it to me. So just before Maghrib she, I, and the kids walked to the camel farm it is only about five minutes walking if that. Well we enjoyed seeing the camels close up and the sun began to set. Right near the camel farm there is an Oasis, fenced off land full of palm trees, as soon as the sun dips below the horizon the birds start flying out of the trees.....I tell vickie I think those birds ARE BATS, No way she says...then we see them dipping and flying batty OMG!!!!!!!!!!! those are bats....run!!!!!Now I see bats everywhere!

Funny story:

My husband spent 2 days trying to get his license, he found a car he wanted to buy and I will spare you the details about how that long process goes, but he needed to get his emirate I.D. and license right away. Day 1 he goes to the licensing department. The clerk there tells him “Sorry I can’t do your license today the machine is down, come back tomorrow. Its ok its better for you to do it tomorrow. My husband said all he could do was laugh. He didn’t realize that it was better for him to do it tomorrow he thought he needed it TODAY! So he goes the next day, takes a number waits in line, he is number 390 and they are on 217. Finally! They call 390 he goes up to the clerk and she tells him they are not making licenses today machine still down, come back in the evening. I guess all DMV’s are the same they suck! He goes in the evening and the guy (an Indian) tells him “I can’t do it until I see all your necessary documents.” my husband says, someone looked at them and copied them already, I just need the license”. The guy says,” No, I have to see them”. So my husband tells me he gave him the papers and the guy starts reading...page number one, looking very stern and intense. He nods his head, signaling that that page seems to be in order. At this point my husband said he had to do everything in his power not to bust out laughing because the pages were upside down! The man moved on to page 2., still upside down. He hands them back to my husband and gives him the ok. My husband finally got his license, cool thing is they give it to you right there. We finally bought a car! The dealership was very nice to work with the banks have their offices right inside. They have Islamic financing, where the bank buys the car and then sells it too you at a higher price, rather than do interest. And it is really physically done that way. Also the Registry was right in the dealership so once we finally got the car they registered it right there and gave us the plates and we were good to go. Now that that’s over we can go have some fun, maybe on the vacation.

Trip to the pharmacy

We went to the pharmacy to get the brace for my ankle. I was sitting trying the brace on and across from me was a display of lipsticks, so while one clerk went off to get me another size brace I picked up one of the lipstick tubes to check it out and the clerk that remained for me says, “ You like dis ma’am, You buy?” I reply jokingly, “I am in Emirates I think I need to like it “She says, “Yes, ma’am, they use lots of products it’s very good for you, I have anti-wrinkle cream and face whitening powder its good for you ma’am. Thank God the other clerk returns with my brace because I didn’t know how to take that comment. I was thinking did this lady just insult me? Very funny!

There is so much to do for free here which is really amazing. All the parks are free. The shows at the mall are free. They were running a circus on ice show at Al Ain Mall during the National Day celebrations (Pictures)

Vacations are a crazy time for me and I am usually very apprehensive because me and my husband usually end up in a argument because we both have different ideas of what a vacation should be and usually I end up feeling like I am brought along for the ride to watch him enjoy his vacation. So this vacation didn’t start any differently, we did however manage to spend some time seeing some great things. That I will be posting soon in a new blog…stay tuned!

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Photos

Abdullah & Asiyah going to school
in their Gym clothes

Comments

[jennifer]

lol
Assalam Alakium, I am still laughing at your blog...thank you I needed it today! Love you , Miss you! Jennifer

[naima]

I would love to see this :)

[naima]

LOL what is she doing?

[naima]

nice, what are looking up at?

[naima]

LOL Abdullah you look goofy Asiyah looks sweet :) I miss you <3

[naima]

awwww :)

[Naima]

my babies, mah babies!

[naima]

beautiful :)

[naima]

so handsome :)