An unexpected visit

Early Intervention Centre, HCT teacher on the left with large brown bag over her arm.

Head of the Centre and a little fellow from there. All the disabilities are lumped into the same facility. I just tell myself when they know better they will do better. The country has come ahead in huge strides even acknowledging disabilities. Now they are doing something about it.

A shop that caught my eye.

26 October 2009
Well it has been a couple of weeks. Matthew had been granted an extra day for the last Eid holiday so was required to work on the Saturday. The college hired a bus to take everyone to Dubai. It was an all day affair. That was the day Matthew got to shake the hand of the Sheik. J No photos of the occasion sorry.
I have been volunteering at the Deaf unit. I am accepted fairly well by staff and students. Class starts at 8.15 and school finishes at 1pm. I now have a timetable for the Sunday and Monday that I go. I assist in English, Science and Arabic classes. Every classroom has a red and green flashing light. It is the green light that flashes when the bell is sounded for end of class. I hope I’m not there the day the Red on flashes. I don’t know what I would do. A couple of times I have had to hail a taxi to get home. The cheapest are the gold and white, but they don’t have seatbelts and smell of Indian labourers. So if possible I try to hail the Silver cabs. A little dearer, but their meters work, they have seatbelts, the drivers speak better English and smell cleaner. One driver one day smelt like Brut. Reminded me of Nathan and Bradley.
I heard recently of an Indian restaurant being shut down after an entire family died of food poisoning. Luckily Timothy is coming to work in the environmental field or there would be a whole lot more closed down.
Matthew is getting great at finding his way around. When we were first here he kept hearing about Russell Kymer. Being new he didn’t think to ask who the fellow was but thought he would discover at a later date. So recently he had to make a work related trip to Russell Kymer. So he had to ask directions of how to get there. It was then he discovered Russell Kymer isn’t actually a person but a place, Ras Al-Khaimah.
We have found our Soy milk here. Sanitarium, exports to the Middle East.
The mornings are so very pleasant with the cool desert breeze coming across. So beautiful to go for a morning walk.
A couple of Fridays ago I drove around the block. A big step for me but Friday is the best day to start. Then I braved it out on to the main drag down to the big roundabout at Twam hospital. Then home. A good start anyway.
I was asked by one of the teachers at the college to accompany her and her students for a couple of days on excursion. The first day a Sunday, we attended workshops at the Early Intervention Centre. A well resourced and fairly modern facility. The students were great and so well behaved sitting to lectures ALL DAY. At least for them it was in Arabic. But the lunch was Yummo! The little desserts were just as delicious. Such a variety but some way too sweet. My favourite was a small short sweet pastry filled with a custard, topped with a chocolate disk and garnished with a sliver of pineapple. Yeah that was the yummiest.
So this past week was shaping up as the most boring report as I have been so very sick. I just slept, and drank water and slept for 3 days. By the 3rd day I had a small bowl of cereal. I knew I would be alright if I just kept up my fluids. Which I did religiously. Coughing, headaches, tired all I could do was sleep. If I sat up for ½ an hour I needed to sleep for 2hrs to regain some strength. It all started on the Monday the 2nd day of my excursion to the Music therapy workshop. By Friday I had eaten a couple of meals of cereal, and a cup of soup. I wanted to go to church so off we went. Then I came home and slept for 4hrs. Sat was Matthew’s birthday. I hadn’t gone out to buy him anything. He gives me an allowance every week that is my money, so I said, “Go buy yourself a couple of spiffy ties, that is what I was going to get you and take it out of my allowance.” I was happy with the 2 he bought. Then he came home to do the cleaning. I couldn’t even drink the whole glass of celebration fizzy he had bought and been saving for 3wks. So that was going to be the end of my weeks report. That is until yesterday.
A lady at work suggested Matthew take me to the hospital. I was feeling so awful; I didn’t even put up a fight. A trip to the hospital is a story in and of it’s self.
We found the Oasis Hospital thanks to the trusty GPS. I couldn’t walk in Entrance A = That was Mens only, Matthew couldn’t come in Entrance C cos that was Womens only. I asked at the counter if my husband could come in and she pointed to another door marked Entrance B Families. He waited with me for about an hour bought me a drink then left me to go back to work to finish some stuff off. I would call him when I was done. I was called for a preliminary exam with the nurse so my BP was elevated slightly compared for my usual. (Dr Kym info for you because you are the only one that cares about my BP stats– 128/80). J I was asked if I had any preference for Drs. Nope, Just one that speaks English. Then sent back to the waiting room where there were so many little babies.
A housemaid caught my attention. While the mother sat, the housemaid rocked and nursed the tiny sick little figure. Not sure I could do that. Finally, I was called into see the DR.
A requested chest x-ray and then a dose of something in the nebulizer. I saw my chest x-ray and knew all the snow on the bottom of my 2 lungs probably wasn’t normal. Back to the exam room and with the curtain drawn had the nebulizer. I turned it off myself then 30-40mins later I woke up aware that there was now a fellow on the other side of the curatain coughing and an Indian fellow interpreting for the dr. He had been complaining on headache, high temperature and cough for 10 days. I was up and out of that room quick smart. I didn’t want to get anything else. So I asked the Sister if I had been forgotten and seemingly guess what – I was. They had me wait in another Drs room and finally was seen by a different dr. He agreed with the first attending and explained that my lungs are only functioning at 2/3. There was no oxygen getting to the lower part of my lungs.
What a blessing to have health cover as part of Matthew’s employment package because including the medication I came home with all up cost about 500dhs. The nebulizer treatment alone was 90dhs. So for Dr Kym and my mum, I came home with, 2 bottles of cough syrup, to take 4 times a day for 2wks. 1 weeks supply of Clarinaise tablets to be taken at bed time, for 1 week. 1 box of Panadol to be taken prn. Lastly but not the least of my medication list was a Pulmicort puffer with instructions to take 2 puffs bd. I looked at the pile of medication on the counter and said, “Crickey, it will either kill me or cure me. “ The Pharmacist laughed and said, “It won’t kill you it will cure you.” Thank goodness I thought to myself.
So that was about 5hrs of the day spent at the hospital. To go to xray, I had to walk through the mens section out the back door through an alley way to the back where the xray clinic was. As I walked out I thought to myself, “Crickey which was back?” Luckily a nurse had taken me half was to xray, then on my way back another nurse or whatever they were saw my expression and took me back to the consult area. Phew, talk about a tender mercy.
So what was going to be a very dull 2nd week report turned out to be quite eventful. I am so glad I went to the hosp, I hadn’t realized how sick I was. Matthew is at a work meeting in Dubai today and then Abu Dhabi tomorrow.
Timothy arrives this Friday night and I am getting very excited to have him here , and share these experiences with family. I better go and have a rest.
Until we meet again. God Bless
Love RG, Aunty Rhonda, Mum etc, etc

Famous Deaf Man

A shop in one of the malls here. One of my little sisters name is Nona, so I had to take a photo.










One morning on our walk the moon was still up.









Can you see the difference? Look at the gutter.









Here is the new carport. At the end of the street is a chicken farm. Notice the drive way.

School students on my right. Tall fellow on my left then beside him the Famous Deaf Sportsman, Hamad. He was here to have his photo taken for another newspaper article. All are other students.

9 September 2009
I learnt some things this week I thought I would share. I learnt it is nice to wear slightly damp underwear. If you have never tried it, I suggest when it gets over 40º try it. It is really pleasant.

We pay to have our Sunday and work shirts washed and pressed down the road at the little laundry. When Matthew went in last week and asked how much – the man said 10 - 5. It seemed he had no comprehension of 10+5 = 15. The math would be 15dhs ÷ 5 shirts = 3dhs or $1 each.

Oh, another funny toilet story. The upstairs toilet wouldn’t flush, The flush button wouldn’t work. So, eventually the plumber arrived. Now you have to understand they do things differently here. Instead of pulling the $15 part out and replacing it they spent 3hrs trying to repair it then finally one fellow went to the truck and bought up a tiny piece replaced the other and finished. Done.

On one of my morning walks I came across 4 goats and 1 sheep in a pen. Very sad to see as they lay just on dirt. No grass, and I don’t remember seeing a water container but instead the water was pouring out of a hose onto the dirt. I had to remind myself, a few years ago the Bedouins may not have even had water to share with the animals. There is a meat Eid soon so many people are now buying the young animals for their feast. I want to find out more about this Eid.

I also learnt a saying this week that goes like this, “Keep the promise”. I loved it, and another one I am fond of is, “very much”. Eg. ‘very much happy’, or ‘ very much thankful.’

Here is really isn’t what you know at all but WHO you know. It is called wasta. Of course the more important the person you know the greater your wasta. To have good wasta means you never have to pay speeding fines etc.

I have put up photos before of soccer fields I have seen that are just bare dirt with a goal post or something at the end. So on my evening walk I came across a soccer field I had never seen before, either in Doha or here. This field has flood lighting, lush green grass watered by big sprinklers and a high fence. So there in is the difference. If you are Emirati or from somewhere else.

Oh, I have to ask – Is there anything better than eating dates?? Yes, drinking them… I found a date syrup. Oh brother, it is delicious. Very sweet though almost like treacle. I poured it on top of a cake for dessert with a side of ice cream. Wicked actually, but oh so yummy.

Now to the most wonderful experience of the week. On the Wednesday Matthew had a meeting with a most dynamic lady here working in the special needs program of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. She was driving to the Special Needs School that afternoon and offered to take me to meet people. I had an opportunity to visit the Deaf school here. I met the Head of the whole school and then the head of the Deaf (unit). There are 28 students in the Deaf unit and a total of about 200 students in the whole school. The Head of the Deaf unit presented me with the latest edition of the Arabic sign language dictionary with CDRom, and I was granted permission to return tomorrow (Thursday).

I arrived at 8am. It is on the same school campus with all students with other disabilities as well. When I walked to the Deaf wing the first thing that was almost overpowering was the smell of Detol disinfectant. In the school there are children with Down’s Syndrome, children in wheelchairs, blind children with children with intellectual impairment, and ASD. The classes for deaf children go from grade 2 to grade 9. The grade 2 & 4 classes are the only ones in grades the other classrooms are subject classrooms. The subjects are, English, Islamic studies, Arabic, Science, Math, and Geography. In the yr 7 class some young men are growing beards. I thought to myself, ‘It is not up to me to criticize because when you know better, you do better.’ Up until recently these young people were kept out of sight even in the home, and certainly out of the view of society. I had a lovely exchange in one classroom with some students. I spoke to them in Auslan using some gestures and some mime. The teacher that was there with them told me later the students had understood me.

To top it off at the end of the day – class finished at 11am only started at 8am, The young men - some who seemed easily 17-19yrs, were gathered around 2 Male visitors. I learnt that one fellow was indeed a famous Deaf man. He had gone to America and was educated there. I racked my brain to remember some American Sign Language (finger spelling). I had never learned it, I have only seen a sheet of paper with the alphabet on it. Laurence at work has used it on a couple of occasions. I was so slow but he was very patient as we communicated. He was there to have his photo taken for the latest newspaper article on the Deaf Sports groups he has been responsible for organizing.

I had planned to stand out on the footpath to hail a taxi to get home. But one of the teachers organized for one of the Indian worker fellows to stand in the sun and had the taxi driver, drive in the grounds for me. I gave the Indian worker the directions to my place as best I could and he interpreted. This taxi was a white and gold. They are a little cheaper than the silver taxi. But I had been told and it turned out to be correct, there is no seat belt in the back and it smells of labourers.

I didn’t have him drive me right home but to the shops at the corner. I needed to do a little bit of walking anyway. The fare meter showed 2.50 dhs when I got in the taxi and 7.50 at the shops. I gave him 10dhs and let him keep the change. So 10dhs only equals about $3. I am returning on Mon, Tues, and Wed this week. It may lead to paid work if not I still have the opportunity to learn Arabic and Arabic Sign Language. I am thrilled for this opportunity and thankful to my wonderful Arabic teacher back home who tried so hard to help me learn and remember. But, as I hear words now, they are familiar.

I now have my passport back and am classed here as a resident. So I am planning to visit my dear friend in Qatar about the end of November. Until next time, God be with you ‘till we meet again.
Love RhondaG

Some photos

The ceiling tiles removed to reveal the air conditioning pipes.











Matthew posting off mail at the ONLY PO in town.





























This is a burial mound. The carvings above the opening are very old. If you look through the opening, you can just make out the mound inside.










This burial mound is protedted by a large fence all the way around. There were some diggings in the compound but couldn't get a good photo.












Beautiful huge fountain at the front of the park. Does it remind anyone of a fountain in any movies?


















A photo of the most delicious dates EVER. I placed my mobile phone beside the basket to show the size of the dates. Oh, they are simply the BEST. Really sweet. Just YUMMY!!! I think they would be way too expensive in Australia. But if you ever see some, buy a couple and try them. Matthew's Admin Assistant brought them in for us off her own tree. How kind is that. She had heard me say the day before how much I loved them.



Friday 2 October 2009
Firstly with prayers answered we were kept safe on the roads again. On a 3 lane roundabout the car on the inside lane cut right in front of Matthew to exit. I don't know if there are road rules here. If there are, there's an awful lot of people that don't know them or at least don't observe them.
Matthew bought a TV got it home and tried for a few hours to set it up. Difficult task when everything is written in Chinese. Oh wish Samuel had been here that night. Nothing is ever simple, so a return trip to Carefour and instructed to bring the whole thing back tomorrow night after 9.30 when a fellow would be here that could reconfigure the settings. After a bit of a to-do at the entry with the security guard, a worker came collected the tv and it was all over and fixed in 10mins
Matthew’s college, well it’s not Matthew’s really but that is where he works, has a charity it supports every year for Ramadan. This year they were collecting money for the Rehabilitation Cent. I offered to take a tin. I collected 300dhs. I only did our street and up at the shops. There are some people that don’t get out of the car to go into the grocery shop, they sit in the car and toot the car horn. Someone comes out – gets the order and brings it out. So when someone tooted I would go to the car window and greet them with a ‘Salam’ and extend the can to them. I met some lovely people in the neighbourhood. One house I walked into there was a young boy that had a pet cockatoo. The wealthiest person on the street gave nothing and the poorest gave all she had in the kitchen 8dhs (less than $3).
I had my blood test, chest x-ray and eye test this week. In conversation I asked the lady drawing the blood, what they test for, HIV, STDs, and hepatitis. Do you ever find some, “Yes, 2 every week with HIV, some with STDs, and hepatitis is the most common.” “What happens to these people?” “They get sent back to their country of origin.”
Oh I must have forgotten to tell everyone that I recently had to do a border run. I needed to go over the Oman border to have my passport stamped for another 30 day visitor visa. Matthew had forgotten to bring his passport because we hadn’t planned to do that on this day. So we pulled up at the border, I think I mentioned the NZ angels that had me go with them in their car across and back. It was at the border with the NZ couple that I had to pay for the Visa. Now the problem was that they don’t accept cash. So I had to take Matthew’s card and sign his signature. Now I know my kids had forged mine a few times in their school life but I have never forged anyones. So I was scared out of my brain. I signed and they never even looked.
Matthew now has a wonderful young Admin Assistant. Thursday – Yesterday, she brought in a basket of yellow dates. The best dates EVER. OH, so delicious. Date season is almost over so now have to wait another 8mths.
The speed limit here is 120. No we don’t do that or at least I don’t let Matthew when I’m in the car. But some cars fly past. Apparently cars here have a speed alarm so if you are going over the speed limit, it sounds. So the people in the cars that go scooting past must be deaf, stupid or they pulled the wiring out.
We had a lovely dinner with our neighbours from the complex last night. We really are blessed to have good neighbours. God Bless until we meet again. Love RG, Mum, Aunty Rhonda etc, etc