Abu Dabi 06.01.2010

This wealthy country; the tennis experience.

Our holiday is nearly at an end and it has been a unique experience. After so long we have become quite familiar with this very foreign country and have mixed feelings about it. Being one of the wealthiest countries in the world it contrasts strongly with South Africa where there is so much poverty.
The Nationals – the Emiratis – make up less than 20% of the population and are looked after from cradle to grave. Sadly but predictably this is resulting in an arrogant, spoilt and lazy generation. There is serious concern that the vast majority of Emiratis are opting for cushy, well paid government jobs and this country is totally dependant on ex-pats to provide both the professional skills and the hard labour in more demanding industries. Heidi and Darrell get a daily paper (an excellent paper I would add) and it enables us to pick up a lot of impressions and opinions. Headline the other day – Emiratis in government jobs are to get a 70% pay rise but ex-pats will get nothing. Such injustices are simply accepted because if you object you can be told to go home. State schools may not accept more than 20% non- Emirati children and even then those families must pay fees to the government. This means that many working folks who have been here for 20+ years and who have basically lost ties with their home countries are in a terribly difficult situation. They have no ‘rights’ and can be told to leave their jobs or the country at any time if their visas have expired or the company does not renew them. The wealthy ex-pats (from SA, UK, NZ etc) are fine - almost. They earn lots of money, live in big comfortable houses, their kids go to the best private schools and everything is hunky dory – until there is a down turn in the economy because they are also visa dependant. Every day, literally, we hear about people on their way home due to companies retrenching or down scaling. Life here is very safe but very insecure for anyone who is not an Emirati.
Did I say safe? Listen to this….
A couple of Emirati boys – 19 years old – had an argument with the family driver - a Pakistani. They attacked him, bashed him unconscious with a block of wood then poured petrol over him and set him alight. After a year in jail the boys have been set free to carry on their lives as if nothing had happened because daddy has paid compensation to the family in Pakistan. So, if you are a rich Emirati feel free to kill anyone who annoys you and you can buy your way out of trouble. If you do the same thing but your family does not have the means to pay compensation you will rot in jail until they do.
How about that for unequal before the law?

Tennis – over to Gerron..
1st Jan 2010. ‘A low key day in preparation for our treat with tickets for the seven of us to go to the AD International Tennis Complex at Zayed Sports City AD, there to watch two matches; one between Federer and Soderling and t’other ‘tween Nadal and Ferrer. Not being a tennis, or sport for that matter, fan or follower I didn’t know what to expect and was a bit put out that I’d not brought a nearly finished book along and like a cat, resigned myself to ‘enduring’ the conditions controlling my life.
Surprise, surprise!! The five hours sped by with unnoticeable discomfort, and boredom didn’t even figure. To be sure it is a bit mindless to sit for so long watching ball-bashers score points by some skill, some luck and some taking advantage of opponent’s mistakes. I’ve no doubt that many spectators enjoyed the spectacle for many telling comments were voiced but, looking at the obvious lack of physical attributes of most spectators I wondered how many actually played tennis or even took part in some fitness regimen; methinks few would quality for minimum fitness levels, myself included. Finished viewing and with a distinct nip in the air we went home for melk-tert and hot cups of tea. Then off to bed for another battery-charge.’
PS Me again, Stephi didn’t make the five hours and Heidi took her home after the first match, won by Soderling. Nadal won the second match, and also the final next day which we didn’t watch.

Pictures: Darrell and boys at tennis; Stephi watching Federer and Sonderling battle it out in the semi final!













Paddling pictures: taken by Darrell on our last excursion between the mangroves. Again it was hard work but lovely.







This will probably be my last blog from AD. We fly out on Wednesday evening and I will have to take off running with an assignment from Heinemanns and teaching at Outreach and St Mary’s.
So – holiday time is all but over and it has been great. Our thanks go to our wonderful AD family – Heidi, Darrell, Alex, Davey and Steph for putting up with us for so long and making us feel so welcome.
South Africa – here we come!!

Abu Dhabi 02.01.10

Christmas, New Year and no computer.

The computer, which in this day and age is such an integral part of any household, died just after Christmas. To be fair it was a pretty old computer (what is the ratio- 1 computer year to 10 human years?) but a kind computer fundi friend took it and spent several hours of his well earned leave cleaning it off and fixing it up. It is now a pleasure to use but something has gone wrong with the internet connection. I hope Heidi can fix it because kind fundi friend is back at work so it will be very embarrassing to have to appeal to him again. So – who knows when this will go off.

Christmas in this Muslim country was not very much different from Christmas at home. Christmas Eve we sang carols at home and finished off with Heidi reading ‘The night before Christmas’ At a critical moment in that familiar old Christmas poem (verse?), Stephanie, aged five, interrupted with a serious comment – ‘they DO use a lot of adjectives…’ which rendered us all quite incapable of continuing – to Steph’s surprise – why were the grown-ups giggling so hysterically?
Christmas Day was quiet and lovely – Father Christmas was generous to a fault, the large St Andrew’s Church was packed, the ham was delicious (bought in a sealed off room at a local specially licensed supermarket). Our usual Christmas ice cream hit just the right spot and after such a totally exhausting day we were all ready for an early night!

In this family it never rains but it pours. Having celebrated Christmas, on Friday, enjoyed a boxing day desert picnic on Saturday we woke up to Davey's 8th birthday on Sunday.

His official party will only be in the middle of January when friends are back from holiday so his choice for the actual day was: movie, Burger King and then ten pin bowling. We escaped the movie to enjoy a couple of hours exploring Marian Mall then were spectators at the bowling (which Davey won!)

Picture - see 8 year old with dead dinosaur cake.

New Years Eve we decided against joining a crowd of noisy ex-pats at the Golf Club and settled for another family evening – this time down at the Corniche –the Abu Dhabi waterfront. We paid to go onto a ‘family beach’ which has excellent facilities and tends to keep the riff-raff out. We arrived at about 8 and were surprised to find ourselves about the first people there. So we had free choice of where to sit and under which pagoda. It was another gentle relaxing evening and as midnight struck we were treated to a brilliant fireworks display across the water from Emirates Palace. Davey and Steph were far gone by that time but Alex was wide awake (having taken the precaution of a good sleep in the afternoon) and if fact he only got to bed at nearly 2am when we all decided that enough was enough.

Abu Dhabi 24.12.09

It's a small world and tomorrow is Christmas

Sometimes completely unexpected pleasures come one's way.

A week or so ago I received an email in response to my, rather brief, Christmas letter. It came from a friend from our New Zealand days - Judy Hughes - some of you may remember her. She and Paul are currently with their daughter Suzie and family who recently moved to Dubai. How’s that for coincidence?
Of course a get-together had to be arranged so they came over for lunch earlier this week. It was just great to see them, and all looking so well. Judy is as trim and vivacious as ever and Suzie (last seen as a six year old in NZ ) is now tall and beautiful and mother of two. In the picture you can see the five girls, Heidi, Steph and me with Suzie and Judy (yes - I know they look like sisters but Judy is the little one!).
Judy, if you read this - we really hope to see you again sometime.

Preparations for Christmas seem to be complete.
This afternoon the cake was iced with the help of the three children, presents are wrapped, Christmas dinner is organised and just needs last minute fixing.
In the morning, after checking Santa’s offerings, we will go to church (there are several in this very relaxed Muslim state) then it will be more presents , dinner and then - who knows. Afternoon snooze if I have my say!
We will be thinking of family and friends so far away and drinking a toast to you all.

Boxing day another desert picnic is planned, the 27th is Davey’s 8th birthday (at last he will catch up with Alistair and Liam), then a bit of a breather until New Year.

So - happy Christmas to all and, as Tiny Tim said - God bless you every one.

Abu Dhabi 20.12.09

The desert oasis and more paddling

Any self-respecting desert must have an oasis so we went to visit Al Ain, Abu Dhabi’s oasis city on Friday. Al Ain is on the Oman border and half of the town is in Oman (strange, because visitors like us need a visa to go across town!). Its about 140km from AD along a magnificent road which, like the road to Dubai is double carriage, three lanes on each side and fully lit the whole way.
As one approaches Al Ain the most extraordinary mountains, Jebel Hafeet, rear up , over 1000m above sea level & 800m above Al Ain but not mountains as we know them. They are huge heaps of tilted, sedimentary, rock and Heidi and I were looking for adjectives - barren, desolate, bleak - but also very dangerous looking. Chapman’s Peak drive in Cape Town is nothing compared to the (admittedly excellent) road leading to the top. There are precarious rocks just waiting to fall onto the road and really - the warning signboards ‘beware of falling rocks’ are unlikely to help anyone as the rocks come tumbling down. However, we obviously survived to tell the tale.
At the top, surrounded by lush gardens and trees is a 5 star hotel (did they lug all that top soil up that winding road?), Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet, where we were going to have tea. But while we were exploring around and marvelling at the view (barren, desolate, bleak ) the children went to the playground. Wonderful playground with the main jungle gym built in a paddling pool of water about a foot deep . So when we went to collect the kids for tea what we got were three soaking wet and very happy youngsters who had to change into their bathing cossies for the rest of the day as we had not actually thought to bring spare clothes for them! So - no tea!!.
Next stop was picnic lunch at a completely uninspiring park, back down in the foothills named Green Mubazzarah Park, which boasted several enclosed hot springs fed swimming pools. However only one pool was open and this was a children‘s pool - no ladies allowed. Yes really - no ladies allowed in the children‘s pool. So Darrell took the kids in and Stephi (not counted as a lady being only five) was the only girl amongst vast numbers of dads and boys.

By this time I was complaining that I hadn’t yet seen anything even remotely resembling an oasis (palm trees surrounding water as we all know from our childhood literature) so we went to the National Museum. It was far better than the AD Cultural Centre but still sadly short of any sort of information and reading matter. But we were informed that the oasis was next door - and so it was. At last we went into a real, real oasis. The winding single lane roads, all cobbled in good condition, were like a maze and we got completely lost and on either side were these forests of palm trees, The oasis was big - I have no idea of the area covered, but certainly not just a circle of trees around a pool of water. We drove on and on, completely confused and lost but it was wonderful . Eventually a guardian or warden of the oasis (I assume) told us that we would have to leave as it was closing in ten minutes. Somehow we found our way out and were not locked in for the night - and that was our first oasis experience.
The town itself does not really merit the romantic description of ‘oasis town’ as it looked just like Abu Dhabi so we just drove through then and hour and a half later arrived home with three sleeping kids in the back seat. Lovely day out!!
This morning we left the kids with Daisy and the four of us went to paddle amongst the islands. This was one of those outings that is lovely in retrospect but quite tough in the execution (sort of like cycling the 94.7 !!). It was a long paddle across open water, clear up to about 2 meters, to a faraway island; there was a lively breeze and the tide was going out. It was HARD work. On the way over Gerron and I had our own canoes and Darrell and Heidi shared; on the way back, against the wind, Darrell (courageous man that he is), decided that he and I would share. The ± 2km back was a long way - but we made it and, actually, it was super despite the rising wind and the ’deep’ swells (all of 150mm!). Kirsten you would have loved it.
Christmas is coming and, what with all the trimmings and decorations , you wouldn’t think that this is a Muslim state.

Abu Dhabi 17.12.09

OUT AND ABOUT IN ABU DHABI
Yesterday Gerron and I, encouraged by Heidi, decided to be adventurous.
After dropping the kids at school Heidi took us through town to the end of another little island at the end of the main island of AD (all connected by bridges). It's a wonderful spot because one can look across the water and get a wide vista view of the town. Impressive also is the flag pole, according to Heidi the highest in the world!
The picture taken of us by Heidi shows, in the background Marina Mall topped by the high tower which has a revolving restaurant where we had dinner a couple of nights ago. The second picture shows the lights of Abu Dhabi taken from the top of the tower.
Drop off was outside the Heritage Centre which is a little museum devoted to early AD ie before the 1960's! We enjoyed walking around and were there for about an hour before the busloads of tourists (about eight in all) arrived. Most of them were folks of our vintage enjoying their visit to AD but to us (feeling rather superior) they really seemed like sheep. They descended en masse on the 'souks' which we had foolishly decided to leave until the end of our visit and the crowds were so impossible that we gave up and set off on our long walk across AD.
We walked back to the bridge, across the bridge, past the Emirates Palace then went back, U shaped to walk along the waterfront. Walking along the beautifully paved paths, near the wide (man-made) beach, through roadside parkland one would never, never believe that this was just desert only a few years ago. I wanted to walk in the water to cool the feet but there were palm frond fences or barricades going right down to the water and entry to those sections of beach were through gates or turnstyles. We thought that maybe they belonged to hotels which line the waterfront but Heidi told us later that they are 'family beaches' accessible only to women and children and men accompanying them. No single men or groups of men or male teenagers allowed! How nice - like the trains in Dubai!! Anyway there were plenty of open beaches at which one could paddle in the water.
At about 1pm we decided that the time had come to test the AD public transport system so we crossed the wide, busy roads separating the Corniche area from the town and eventually managed to find a bus stop that would supply a bus that would take us in the right direction (we weren't too panicked as we knew that if the worst came to the worst we could always get a taxi!). We climbed onto the bus with all the locals and popped our fare into the money box at the entrance - all of Dhs1 (R2) each. Now there's value for money and rather made up for the Dhs60 spent on two glasses of mango juice and one bottle of water earlier on! I cannot comment that the bus was quick but it did get us across town and we hopped off at what we thought was a suitable spot. At this point we could have easily caught a taxi (there are plenty) or phoned Heidi but no - we would walk. Crossing the roads was traumatic - the town is full of mad drivers and the roads are not at all geared for pedestrians. But we didn't get squashed and were very excited when we spotted some familiar landmarks. What we hadn't realised was how far it would be to home - turned out we walked 5km from bus to home. Add that to about 10km walked earlier in the day so these two late middle-agers walked about 15km. Feet very sore when we arrived after a very satisfying and interesting day.
Tomorrow (Friday) we are planning (I say that advisedly - with the Bergesens nothing is certain!) To go to the oasis town of Al Ain, a couple of hours into the desert.

Abu Dhabi 15.12.2009

Life isn’t all fun and games.
Going on holiday is always a bit stressful in that it means leaving family and friends behind and SA is not a safe place. Roland and Caron were attacked in their driveway several months ago and the other night my brother and his wife were attacked at their home. Now we have just heard that a friend and his wife were violently attacked in their home. Thank goodness they are OK. One just wonders, desperately what can be done to overcome this culture of violence and crime. There are so many contributing factors, poverty, anger , the broken families, the whole history of SA. We can say ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ but so far all solutions tried have not broken the cycle of crime. So, here in safe Abu Dhabi I worry and worry about our people at home.
Those of you who don’t live in SA probably wonder why we stay. Well there are many reasons but for me its - family, friends (these are treasured more and more as one gets older) , finances but also - it is a wonderful country with so many wonderful people. I love living in SA but hate the fact that there is always a bit of fear in everything we do. Most, naturally not all, of the criminals are black people but at the same time the ‘badies’ are such a minority. Most of our people are so lovable - warm hearted, kind and full of laughter in spite of all the poverty and their difficult lives. Teaching the disadvantaged black youngsters at St Mary’s Outreach and Mitzvah makes me realise what potential there is and also how difficult many of their lives are. So we all battle on - the rich and the poor, the privileged and the sadly underprivileged. The worry and the fear cannot and must not spoil our joy in living.

Rob’s letter copied below with his permission is an illustration of how so many South Africans live and survive :

"The sequence of events – as far as I can remember -was as follows:
On Tuesday evening 8th December, at 9pm we went out to the stables to give the horses teff and carrots. All of the dogs had been inside with us. All of the dogs came outside, but only ET came to the stables with us. We went back inside and put Digby to bed in the scullery. We went to bed. About an hour later, we heard Digby barking, and we went downstairs. He had pooed all over the scullery floor. We realised that he had been poisoned. We put him outside while Astrid cleaned the said floor. We couldn’t find him. I phoned the emergency vet. Eventually I found him lying in a flower bed near the pond. We put him in the car and rushed him to the vet.
We left him there and went home. The other dogs seemed to be fine. We put them in the scullery, and went to bed. When we went down in the morning, JJ was lying in a pool of blood. He couldn’t move. We rushed him to the same vet, but he died while we were there. Digby survived until Friday morning, but the vet couldn’t do any more for him. I went and said goodbye to him, and he was euthanased on Friday. The cruelty to our dogs really upsets us.
We were expecting a visit, but they took us by surprise when we went out to the stables at 9pm on Thursday 10th December. Three of them came at us from the far end of the stables when we switched on the light. One had a balaclava on his head, so we wouldn’t recognise him. One had a pistol which he pointed at Astrid’s head. We both prayed, which helped us to keep calm. They wanted to take our rings, but Astrid refused, and I couldn’t get mine off. They kept on demanding guns and money. They were the same evildoers who poisoned the dogs. I asked one this and he said “Yes.”
In the meantime, ET was our real heroine. She barked at them, but they did not shoot her. She then ran to the boundary fence, and barked and barked and barked.
They tied my hands in front of me, and escorted us inside. We went into Astrid’s study, and she gave them some money. They kept on demanding guns and money. We told them that we don’t have guns. They emptied drawers. They demanded to know where the safe was. We took them down to the safe and opened it. They emptied the safe, which only had documents such as passports, wills etc in it.
They took us up to our bedroom, and wanted Astrid’s jewellery. They found her jewellery box, and took all her jewellery. My wallet was lying on the bed. They emptied it, took the money, but left my credit cards, driver’s licence, etc. They also took 2 of my old watches. They emptied my gym bag, and put all of our old shoes in it. They took my cellphone.
At this stage, the phone above the bed rang. One guy picked it up, and put it back on the cradle. It rang again, and he let it ring. We think that they panicked at this stage, and they pushed us into the en suite bathroom. They locked the door, and left the house. Astrid heard them going down the steps.
I opened the bathroom window, and we both screamed to the neighbours to contact the police. The neighbours had already activated the walkie talkie radio system, and called the flying squad and ADT.
They called back to us. The next thing we knew, a neighbour’s son-in-law, who is a policeman, came in fully armed, and released us from the bathroom.
We were both most impressed with the police reaction. The flying squad came, very quickly, in force. ADT also came. A number of our neighbours also came. They put their lives on the line for us that night. The policeman who does the fingerprints also came. Two people, who live down the road, Keith and his son Scott, slept in our lounge that night. Neither of us slept much that night.
At about 9.15 p.m., Charles Farrell, who is a tenant in a flat over the road, heard that there was a problem here. He somehow connected me with a member of the homecell, Cathy Greaves, and he phoned her. She phoned the other members of the homecell, and they started praying.
They were praying for us while the robbery was taking place. This is amazing, and we are convinced that the prayer had a very positive impact on the outcome.
Another member of the church lives in Potgieter Road. She phoned Gavin Lock, one of the ministers. He did not hesitate,and came immediately. He spent at least 2 hours with us, which helped tremendously.
We refuse to let these people dictate to us, in respect to the way in which we live, as this would be giving in to satan.
We went to the homecell Christmas function on Friday night. This also helped a lot, as we told many people what had happened. We are trained trauma counsellors. This also helped, as we knew not to antagonise them in any way.
Also, Astrid sang in the Symphony Choir Christmas concert at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton City, on Saturday night."

Abu Dhabi 12.12.09

Carols in the desert and kayaking in the mangroves.
The weather didn’t really clear. We set out for the designated spot for the carols - 60km into the desert (tar road all the way!) under ominous cloud and sure enough just as we were all settled and the braai fires were lit the rain started. All twenty drops of it. A few far thinking people produced raincoats and umbrellas but we just did the standard Joburg thing and ignored it, assuming it would soon go away. Which it did. Even so it was quite cold with a bit of a wind (it is after all mid-winter) and we were glad of fleeces and blankets. The evening was really lovely ; there were lots of people and we were in a group of Heidi’s friends - two couples , both the men pilots with Etihad Airline. The crowd obviously included Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans and probably some Americans and Europeans. And apart from the different terrain and the smaller number of people it was reminiscent of the carol services at Botanic Gardens. However the twenty raindrops didn’t quite add up to what Carl always and rather rudely described as the annual washout!! Darrell braaied the wors (yes - it seems that South Africans manage to source wors no matter where in the world they are!) and we had wors rolls with tomato sauce - just like home! The singing, it must be admitted, was not up to the standard of the Botanic Gardens services with the Welsh choir in the lead but it was very pleasant with Gerron in full and excellent voice and the rest of the crowd mumbling along, .
The weather still didn’t look good this morning (they get rain only about five times a year, so why now??).Nothing daunted, the men loaded three kayaks onto the roof of Darrell’s 4x4, we called Daisy to keep an eye on the kids during our absence, and off we went to chosen launching spot. When we arrived the rain started again but after all the trouble of getting the kayaks onto the roof there was no way that we would not take to the water. Off we went, with Heidi and I sharing one kayak and for nearly two hours we paddled amongst the mangroves. From the beach it just looks like one big ‘island’ of mangroves. But in actual fact it is many clumps of trees, some very big , some very small and with channels and tunnels between them. The rain started again once we were water borne but we just ignored it. Heidi and I were not the most successful team, in fact we were a bit of a disaster and we kept paddling into the mangroves, partly because we laughed so much each time we lost control of where we were going. Some of the passages that Darrell (skipper in charge of the fleet) were very narrow and filled with obstacles. Gerron took to it like a duck to water (only because I was scared of falling off my broad-bottomed pseudo-surfboard!) and we two girls struggled along enjoying the amazing beauty of the mangrove swamp. After over an hour of going hither and thither we were convinced that we would never find the shore but we took another turn and there it was. By that time we were freezing with sore bottoms so were actually rather glad to step ashore and head for home. But what a lovely morning outing and Kirsten you will be surprised to hear that I did not actually fall into the water. Several close shaves but we always managed to right ourselves in time. Next time say H&D we will go to a beach instead of a mangrove inlet an paddle across to the islands. Next time I do hope we choose a sunny day! Bad news is that my trusty little canon camera got wet and is currently an ex-camera. I am hoping that it will recover when it dries out.

Gerron: Cars!
We all visited The Emirates National Auto Museum, a.k.a. The Rainbow Sheikh’s Car Museum, at a point, literally in the desert (where else?), some 45 kilom-itters (that thanks to those who, from ignorance or just plain cussedness mispronounce kms.) due south of AD where the 200, or so, motor vehicles are housed under a mock-pyramid. An impressive array with a variety of vehicles that should appeal to most visitors who grew up during the 30s (1930s not 1830s) and are still able to derive some ooh/aah pleasure thereby. Exhibits are, generally, in excellent nick but my gripe is lack of tyre-inflation maintenance and the unkempt condition of a circa 1927, or earlier, Chrysler and a Dodge; unacceptable for any museum but more so for one that is attempting to demonstrate the alleged opulence of it’s claimed “dedicated collector”.