Live from Al-Ain

Wow! It's been a while since I wrote on this. I'm trying to make a few changes that I hope you enjoy. All-in-all, life is good. I'm happy that Ramadan is over and that Eid-Al-Fitr has also ended. I'm back at work and we are working normal hours. Today, I had an interesting day. I received a call at 12h43. I was in Al-Ain mall goofing off. One of the "local" teachers I work with, asked me to come over for lunch since he had just finished Juma prayer. I happily accepted, at which point, he stated "[p]lease wait outside the mall for me as I will be there in twelve minutes." He was there in 12 minutes! Lol. Too funny. I went over to his home for a couple of hours and proceeded to talk about a lot of things. We mainly talked about life in his country. He asked me not to reveal his name to anyone during the course of the conversation, so I am respecting that. We were talking about the repressive policies of his government. It was really interesting. He had a lot to say but made it very clear that everything said within that room had to stay in that room. It's interesting because it's a country that the USA and the west generally have good relations with and is yet another example of how these powers have effectively used legerdemain to deceive their own people and only paid lipservice to real reform and democracy when it serves their own interests...aka Iraq. C'est la vie.


We ended up abruptly changing the topic of conversation as he was clearly uncomfortable continuing. Regardless, it was a fantastic time and wonderfully delicious food. I am growing to love Middle Eastern food, with it's spices, vegetables, olive oil, etc. It's extremely healthy, which suits me just fine. Anyway. I am signing off and will post more later.


Cheers,


Richard the Nomad