Salt, sand, camels, and wooden boats

Hi all,

So, I bought a new camera and spent much of the past week driving around blowing off stress and exploring... I went all the way up to Ras Al Khaimah (the North-most emirate bordering Oman), to Umm Al Quwain (a smaller emirate in between Sharjah and R.A.K.), and to the South-East, to the vast desert along the "empty corridor" in Abu Dhabi. I watched the sun both rise and set over sand dunes, I talked to camels, I explored the desert salt-flats... Many, many photos were taken -- far too many to squeeze onto this page-- so I started a flickr account. Check out about a hundred new images at the following address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustythumb/

(I highly recommend looking at the sets on the right of the page so as to avoid brain melt from image overload.)

I am still accepting emails, so drop me a line and let me know what you think... and tell me what's going on over there on the other side of this tiny sandy planet. Enjoy.

-T

Palm trees and polyester

I live where I work: A sprawling campus oasis full of marble and palm trees complete with a full-fledged labor force (Indian and Pakistani) who tend to every little detail. There is A LOT I could say about the whole labor issue, but I am saving that story for a rainy day; a day which hopefully (inshallah: Allah willing) will come soon.

Here are some recent pictures taken from campus:



My introduction to the real lives of UAE Nationals and the people of this region is largely shaped by my daily interactions with my students: Young men and women aged 16-22. (Yes, there are 16 year-olds in college.) They come from a mix of countries including the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and many others that currently slip my mind. They are a good bunch of kids and way more respectful than the students I am accustomed to from Detroit …although perhaps that is not saying much. You may be surprised to learn that the students here in the UAE are an awful lot like the students back in the U.S. They date, they sneak cigarettes during class breaks, their cell phones have ring tones that mimic bad popular music, they drive fancy sports cars, and they are very fashion-savvy.



Of interest to me lately is the fashion of the nationals, especially the contemporary take on the abaya; the black robe worn by women of the Gulf region. But first I need to point out something that might not seem so obvious: Women who wear the abaya and sheyla (head scarf) do not necessarily do so because they are ultra-conservative Muslims, but because it is their national dress and they were raised this way. (That being said, the women from Saudi Arabia wear these garments because, according to their culture, it’s the law, which –while similar—is another story altogether.) Much to the displeasure of many of their parents, the up and coming generation is pushing the envelope in terms of their interpretation of their national dress and how they go about wearing the abaya. For instance, you will see female students being dropped off to school by their fathers (or, yes, their drivers) arriving fully covered in black polyester fabric from head to toe. By the time these students reach the classroom, however, their sheyla will be pushed back on their heads exposing their forehead and their abaya might be flowing open to reveal jeans and a tight t-shirt, complete with the sparkly high-heeled shoes. It’s an awkward situation to take photos of the students, so you just need to trust me on this one.

While traditionally the abaya has been solid black and un-shapely, over the past five years or so designers have been popping up and are making a new business out of selling high-end custom and ultra high-fashion (read: expensive and sometimes form-flattering) abayas throughout the region. Go to any of the big malls in Dubai and you will see a number of these stores, complete with models in their front windows showing off the latest trends.



Often these abayas will be adorned with rhinestones, fringe, and beads, sometimes with the addition of striking patterns, hints of color, and some catchy-yet-subversive details. So far the decoration has primarily been contained to the edge of the head scarf and cuffs, but I have found a few examples that dare to take patterns down the back and even the front. I have even seen a few styles that are “snuggish” in the bosom area. Very risky.



Secretly I have the dream of putting together a fashion show of alternative abayas… Abayas made out of rip-stop and coolmax. Abayas that have grafitti motifs screen-printed across them… I think I had better test the waters before I go too far out on a limb and get myself deported.

This, by the way, is Omran, the salesman who sold me my new abaya this past weekend...

The Eid holiday (celebrating the end of Ramadan) is next week and I plan on driving ALL OVER the UAE taking pictures. Maybe I'll even sport my new digs. Stay tuned.

-T

A late start, but a beginning at last

In the historic part of Sharjah, August 2007.

There is a lot to be said for first impressions...

Now that I have been here for a little over a month, I find that I am already immune to so many of the experiences that I originally found so bizarre and fascinating. I have acclimated to a certain degree: For instance, somehow I have gotten used to the combination of 110 degree weather and with wearing long sleeve shirts and pants... I hardly notice the call to prayer anymore, or the once-striking vocalizations of the Arabic and Urdu dialects; they have become the constant soundtrack to my daily life. (Although, I must admit, as I type this it's noon on Friday and I can hear the Imam give what sounds to be a pretty angry sermon, blaring loudly from speakers on the campus mosque.) I hate to say it, but I am even getting used to seeing the laborers work all day in the hot sun, although –honestly-- it still makes me want to scream injustice. (More on the labor camps later in the future.)

Luckily there is still plenty of opportunity for surprises... Yesterday I opened my office door to find three male students praying on the floor. The funny thing was that they had appropriated one of our drawing still-life props -–a 20” tall white pyramid—as the object towards which they were praying. (In the Muslim faith it is haram (blasphemous) to pray to a human and so a non-representational object is used to avoid mistaken worship; Hence the Kabba in Mecca.)

Because I am here for work and not play, I have not yet found time to explore much of the UAE. What I have seen is an abundance of stupidly large, highly Westernized, glittery malls complete with stores you might find anywhere in the U.S., in addition to a range of European and Asian stores as well as the occasional (well, one) indoor ski slope.



Dunkin Donuts Arab-style and an advertisement for KFC's Iftaar meal. Iftaar, by the way, is the meal that takes place after breaking the fast at sundown during the holy month of Ramadan, which is currently taking place.

While Sharjah is the old-school, conservative little sister Emirate, Dubai is unquestionably the big brother: a swanky metropolis deemed to be the global center of the Middle East. But if you are imagining something that looks like New York or London, then you are completely off track. Apparently, just thirty short years ago, Dubai was just a desert city pimpled with Bedouin settlements, camels, and a shipping port. Today it is still a desert city with a shipping port where the traditional boats (dhows) are still built and used. It is also the land of bumper-to-bumper, car-filled, seven-lane highways lined with buildings that house companies from all over the world. The buildings are a mixture of new and shiny and decrepit, and they say everything you really need to know in order to understand this culture: 1. The façade is everything, and 2. No, there is no infrastructure. More on that another time… To say that a lot of construction is going on would be a major understatement… There are cranes everywhere and buildings appearing daily. The self-proclaimed tallest building in the world –-the Burj Dubai—is currently underway; I guess it passed the height of the former tallest building of the world just the other day… Imagine a black pencil-like structure sticking straight out of the earth with cranes propped on the top moving very much upward, growing, at a steady pace, and that should give you a fairly accurate picture.


My most recent analogy for describing the life-style of Dubai goes like this: It’s like my experience of being on a cruise ship… The sand is like the ocean and the city is like the ship and the people in it are trapped inside and just going from one gluttonous experience to another.

But there is hope for my outlook on Dubai: The other night a few friends and I went to an area of Dubai full of authentic outdoor souqs and a mixture of Pakistani, Indian, and Nepalese shops and cafes. It was amazing. The souqs have store after store selling exotic, quality textiles and there are endless numbers of tailors who are able to produce any type of clothing imaginable. In fact, you can bring these tailors either an existing item of clothing or even a drawing and they will magically reproduce the item within a weeks time. In this part of the world, tailors are all men and they are very well respected, and they are talented and charge way too little for the work they do. I have every intention of taking advantage of this service while I am here.

With the help of an Arabic-speaking friend I did a little shoe bartering, as well as buying a few scarves (sheylas). Compared to the U.S., prices here are silly cheap. I bought a pair of these Pakistani shoes for 50 dirhams, or about $18. and a beautiful silk scarf for about $10.

I wish I had gotten a picture of this, but at around 1AM we stopped at an unmarked hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Ajman (the Emirate NE of Sharjah), which was at the back of some car dealership, where you park in a crowded sand parking lot and they bring THE BEST FALAFEL IN THE WORLD out to you in your car. Apparently, if you slip the waiter an extra 10 dirhams on the sly, he will bring you outlawed treats made of beetle leaves and beetle nuts (which apparently has nothing to do with beetles, but is in fact a tree) and chewing tobacco. I didn’t get to try any, but I hear they give you quite a kick. If I ever find that place again I might just have to give it a try.

More adventures and explorations on the way... Feel free to check back in a few weeks and I just might have had the time to post something new. No promises though. Drop me a line and tell me what you think and what you are up to; I would love to hear from you.