Abu Dhabi 26.11.2009

The foot is much better and the crutches have been discarded. Getting the crutches was a tale in itself. There are no easy-to-find street addresses in AD. We asked at the local pharmacy but - no crutches. Try another pharmacy. So we did. And we did. At some stage I suggested the obvious - let our fingers do the walking... But no - yellow pages do not have street addresses. Eventually one pharmacy mentioned that there was a medical supplies company on the airport road. Loo...oong road - no number. So we drove along and after a couple of false stops we hit the jackpot. No - they didn't hire crutches but we could buy at Dhs 165 (R330). Worth every penny for Heidi.

But no happy ending for the trailer story. Darrell wants a trailer to carry kayaks, bikes etc. There is a big board 'City Trailers' quite near home so this promised to be a fairly simple exercise. Calling in there we were told that - no we must go to the shop which is in the industrial area, Mussafah. All we had was a phone number. No address. We headed for Mussafah (Heidi's car is automatic so she only needed her right foot). Take the offramp, turn right at second traffic light, then left , then right at the Etisalet building then we would see the shop. We drove and drove. Several times H communicated with the trailer man whose heavily accented English was almost indeciferable. Several times we redid the required route trying different variables (eg try left instead of right) but nowhere could we find 'City Trailers'. Darrell is still trailerless! Yellow pages are no use so not sure what the next step will be.

Yesterday was a special day in the UAE - the 38th anniversary of the establishment of the state. The childrens' school (more about that another day) decided to turn it into a national/international day in honour of all the nationalities represented at the school. The boys wore springbok jerseys and took plates of biltong (yes - available at a nearby shop!) . Happily for them only the other SA children wanted to eat the biltong so they scored very nicely. Steph wore a pink T-shirt with a cute elephant saying 'SA babes love to boogie' matched up with a spare Springbok cap. She took a plate of Zoo biscuits (brought from SA - you can't get them here) and Nutty Crunches. I gather those were more popular than the biltong! We made three SA flags for the kids to wave in the procession. Then Gerron, Heidi and I stayed to watch after dropping the kids. Great march past of about 1100 kids, all ages. The UAE contingent came first (as was their right as the host nation) then were followed by the African contingent (almost 100% white kids!!!). Davey was in the front row, very important, Alex hidden somewhere in the middle and Steph waving enthusiastically and smiling broadly as she walked past. We all cheered and clapped. The whole procession took quite a while with contingents literally from all over the world. I think S America was the smallest group. Europe probably the biggest. We met more of Heidi's friends (Brits, SA, Oz and NZ) then headed for home, Heidi to rest the ankle and us to be dropped at the great mosque.



This mosque, built and financed by the late Sheik can only be described as magnificent, amazing, out of this world. Built mainly in white marble, it must closely rival the Taj Mahal. I had to wear an abaya and sheila (head cover - see picture) which was very uncomfortable as the sheila was of the most flimsy material and would NOT stay in place. It bothered me the whole time we were there and I was very pleased to be rid of it when we left. Imagine wearing an outfit like that all the time.

We were taken on a guided tour by a guide who really loved his mosque and the Islam religion. The Mosque was started in 1996 and is now 97% finished. The building is actually finished and just the ground, wall and gates are still to be completed. The artistry that went onto the mosque is absolutely fantastic (I'm going to run out of adjectives soon!), the materials, the workmanship
everything of the absolute best - it really has to be seen to be believed. They used craftsmen from all over the world but mainly Greece and most of the marble came from Greece. I just can't tell you how lovely it is. Two things that interested me on a mundane level were: the huge outdoor area (see photo of Gerron standing there) was marble paved by a white stone that does not absorb heat so it was cool underfoot (we had to take our shoes off) but the coloured marble inlays were warm to hot depending on the deepness of the colour and how close they were to black. I wonder if the white marble was special (as we were told) or if any white marble would reflect all the heat and stay cool? The other interesting and clever thing was the lighting of the (definitely OTT) chandeliers. We were wondering how they could change all those lightbulbs when necessary but it turns out that the sparkley little lights are from optical fibres which are fed from the top by a series of windows. So clever.

Tour was free, so was the loan of the clothing. If the intention was to impress the infidels - well - I have to confess that they succeeded. But how close was our friendly guide to his Taliban brothers? No political or controversial questions came up but I do feel that Christianity could do with some of the discipline imposed on the Muslims. To get a really sour taste in your mouth log onto the attachments to Kirsten's blog http://www.vanderriet.blogspot.com/ about Muslim influence around the world.