Little of this and that

Big trucks have their own road system. If you take a wrong turn and end up on the truck road you get stuck behind slow moving trucks and it is deadly to try to overtake, because there is always a truck coming the other way.

This is the overpass for the truck road.

If you enlarge the photo you might see the camel carer. He stands, sits or lays in the sand to be with the camels. Camels are very expensive. As you can see there is NO shade or other comforts for him.

This is my absolute favourite spot along the road from Abu Dhabi back to Al Ain. This photo just doesn't do the scenery justice. The red sand dunes as so high. After the rain heaps of 4x4 were out driving over the dunes.

I took this photo of camels grazing over the road from my Head of Departments house. She lives on the outskirts of Al Ain on the Abu Dhabi side - right on the edge of the desert. How wonderful to wake up every morning and look out to the sand dunes. (except when we have dust storms ;)

Baby camels are the cutest.

This fellow is the presenter for the 3rd week, he had little English. I would get so tired, on a couple of occassions I felt my eyelids closing. Concentrating when the whole session is presented in Arabic is mentally exhausting. The lady, is the brains behind pulling this training together. I extended my hand to him as a thank you handshake - forgetting the men don't shake hands with women. Some in professional settings will if the woman extends her hand first. I should have known better as all 4 presenters came from a Saudi university.

The first week presenters. The fellow standing next to me, had very good English and received his masters and PhD in the US.

This lady was our 2nd week presenter. She had a little less English then our first week presenters but more then our 3rd week.

I love the way my name is pronounced here - Row - won - dah.

Yesterday was the end of travelling to and from Abu Dhabi every day for phase I of my course. We have training next week every day but at least it will be here in Al Ain, then I think we have a week off then it starts all over again for phase II. I have passed all my tests so far, and give credit to God for the success I am enjoying.

We are thankful for prayers offered by loved ones for our safety. A near miss yesterday (Thursday) as we were driving home from Abu Dhabi, a huge 4x4 changed lanes beside us doing about 170 klm/h.