So until now I have always lived in one central location. My entire life I have lived within 30 minutes of Nacogdoches. I grew up in the small town of Cushing, TX, then I married my hubby and we lived in San Augustine, TX, and then finally we moved to the small town of Alto, TX (what we refer to as home) to split the driving distance in half for me while I worked in Grapeland, TX. So for 35.5 years, I have lived in East Texas. It is all I knew. The people, the way of life, the roads, the backroads, the scenery....all of which is our HOME. Then June of 2013, we made a giant leap across the ocean, to the other side of the world, to the Middle East..... Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Man, what a difference! But yet at the same time there are similarities. This move allowed me to see that there are things that we all have taken for granted over the years, as well as there are things that I thought I knew that have been proven false.
So let's do some comparisons about a few things....
1) The location of course.... USA to the Middle East
2) The climate....doesn't really get cold here, cool but not cold.
Majority of the time is REALLY humid here, even more
humid than East Texas!
3) The people...although the USA is considered the "melting
pot of the world", I would have to say that term can no longer
represent the USA only. There are people from all over the
world living here! (UK, Australia, India, Lebanon, Russia,
Norway, France, Canada, USA, Saudi Arabia, Afirca,
Germany, Japan, N. Korea, S. Korea, China, etc....) Multi-
Cultural all the time, every day!
4) The scenery...from East Texas pine trees, green pastures,
and cows to palm date trees, sand, and camels. (now granted
the camels are not everywhere, but you can see them at times
as you drive past the desert areas.)
5) The fashion...from boots and jeans to shorts, dresses, and flip
flops the majority of the time. No real "cold" protective
clothing needed other than a light jacket for the chilly
breezes and evenings during the "winter" months. As well as
you will see more people wearing their native dress, such as
head coverings (and this is more than just a Middle Eastern
thing...it is really a religion thing, which happens to be in
more than just the Middle East...just an FYI), long robes,
turbans, etc... Now in the Emirati culture, as well as in other
Arabic nations, the robe for the women is called a sheyla
(pronounced shay-lah) and the head covering is called an
abaya (pronounced uh-by-yah). For the men the robe is called
a dish-dash or dish-dasha and the head covering is called a
keffiyeh. When they travel, both men and women, adopt the
fashion/styles that you and I are familiar with wearing every
day.
6) The driving...GEEZ LOUISE! This one is a big difference
and irritation...LOL! We drive on the same side of the road
as in the USA but courteous driving is a rarity! It is a rat race
for sure... The people that cause the traffic issues are those
that come from countries that really do not have
traffic laws/rules and those that feel like they are more
important or that there destination is more important than
anyone else that is on the road. So for example, they will
make a one lane on-ramp into a two and sometimes 3 lane
road...UGH!!!! They will create lanes out of the shoulders
of the road! They are not driving in the dirt. The shoulders
are just very wide and they think that it there for over flow on
a regular basis... so irritating! This causes more traffic jams,
accidents, and frustrations. They honk for multiple
reasons...while back home we honk to prevent something or
to say HI as we pass a friend's home..LOL! Here they honk
to get in front of you, to cut in behind you, to get your
attention when the light turns green and you haven't
responded in.5 seconds of the light changing, to express their
irritation, or just because they want to make sure that their
horn is still working...LOL! They will even fly up behind
you flashing their lights to let you know that they are going
faster than you and you should move over... Makes me so
irritated, so sometimes my stubborn side keeps me rooted
where I am, and I say "go around why don't ya!" LOL!!!
(Can you tell this is one of my biggest frustrations? LOL)
7) No daylight savings here...When the USA falls back and
springs forward, the time here in the Middle East remains
constant. Why? I really don't know, that is just how it is.
8) The language....The majority of people speak English, but it
is a very difficult form of English to understand sometimes.
All of the different accents make things hard to understand.
The other languages do not use all of the words that we use in
the English language so they do not always understand the
use of certain words. It also makes us hard for them to
understand what we are saying to them. For example, I
might say, "I do not know." which is then translated and
repeated/used by other language speaking groups as "I am
not knowing." OR I might say, "We are going to the store
later." which is then translated for their use to "going to store
later". You will also hear these words a lot..."No problem",
this seems to be the standard answer for everything...LOL!
9) Timing of how things process/or take place...In the USA,
we receive assignments or jobs and we are taught to do them
in fast, timely manner. We jump on the task and get it done.
Here it is at a snail's pace at times. They do not get in a
hurry to do anything in regards to processing paper
work/forms or to deliver things. The favorite saying by the
Emirates is "In Shallah", which means "God willing". The
use of this phrase in this culture means that if God wants it to
be done, it will get done.....eventually, and if it doesn't get
done then it must not have been God's will. I am all about
God's will, and as I Christian I understand that his timing is
not always our timing BUT that does not mean that He is
giving us an excuse to just lay back on our heels....He gave us
a brain to make plans and to complete tasks. So this thought
process that they practice here can be extremely frustrating at
times.
10) The religion.... Here the religion of the land is Islam
(Muslim), which of course is not our religious choice. We
are Christian. The Islamic faith recognizes only 3 religions
as being TRUE religions...Jewish, Christian, and Islam. The
reason they recognize these 3 is because each one follows
only the one God. (Now are there some differences in the
religions of course there are, but the main point I am making
is that Christianity is recognized as a TRUE religion of GOD
by people of the Muslim faith.) We are free to worship God
here and we even have a church to worship in. The Sheikh of
the UAE granted the Christian churches the right to worship
here in the UAE. He even granted land and buildings for the
purpose of a church and meeting places. The only thing that
they do not want any faiths, including their own Muslim
followers, to go out in public and preach or do "mission"
work to bring people into their faiths. This does not mean
that I can not talk with others about it because I can, but it
has to be done in a respectful manner. I can't stand on the
street corner with a sign shouting Bible verses and sermons.
BUT we can wear t-shirts with Christian logos and with
verses!! Main point...the religions are different but we CAN
go to church freely here. Thank God!!
Each year some of the schools in the UAE celebrate International Day. This is a day of recognition of all the different cultures and countries that are represented here in the United Arab Emirates. The schools make a full day out of it by having a parade of students wearing their countries colors and waving their flag. They then have a huge area set up with food booths that are manned by the parents for each culture/country that chooses to set up a booth. Cultural performances are also on the schedule for the day. Some are performed by students, some by parents, and some by outside groups.
I was fortunate to have only had to work for half of the day, so I was able to join my boys at their school for these festivites. I missed the majority of the parade but I got there in time to see the best part!! (FYI--Best part for me just because I am from the USA!).... I arrived in time to see the last country represented in the parade...the United States of America! The parade began with the UAE group and ended with the USA group. They were the first country represented due to the fact that we are currently living in that country, so it was the respectful thing to do. What I found interesting and cool, was that the only national anthems played were for the UAE and for the USA. When the group of students representing America stepped up to be announced, the crowd roared with cheers and pride! It was awesome!! The group was the largest but then became even larger as the high school students that had been sitting in the crowd swarmed the field and joined the middle school and elementary students, chanting "USA! USA! USA!" You could feel the pride of the Americans! (Another really cool aspect of the kids representing America was that not only were they exhibiting pride in their country but also many were wearing things that represented their particular state!...My boys were definitely showing their TEXAS PRIDE!!)
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