Abu Dhabi Journal

Wednesday, June 28, 2000
This will be my last entry in my Abu Dhabi Journal. I hope to include an epilogue at a later date, but it will be on a different computer and probably a different FTP, so I'm not sure how it will work. Though I am technically under contract with the MLI until August 15, vacation starts tomorrow and I won't be returning. Thus, today is actually my last day at the institute. I have cancelled my visa, my telephone, and my internet; I have visited the Shariah Court to bestow "power of attorney" on a friend; I have obtained three original quotations from shipping companies; I have arranged for my freight to be taken by the company this morning, though I will have to make a personal appearance at the company to pay the remaining balance. I also have to return to the phone company at noon to get my clearance certificate. I am still waiting for my LPO (which will enable me to actually get my plane ticket), but I am confident that it will arrive today. And my feet are aware of every step I take today, because I spent several hours walking around town and taking care of various leaving-the-country details.

Monday, June 26, 2000
Being without a car has been a mixed blessing. On the positive side, I don't have to make payments, taxis are cheap, and I've been using my Arabic a lot more. On the other hand though, my family hasn't been going out as much. We don't like entrusting all of us to a strange driver in a strange car without seatbelts.

As I prepare to leave, I have been waxing sentimental about Abu Dhabi. Last night, as I was walking to the store, I heard a beautiful call-to-prayer which caused me to stop and listen until it finished. Some muezzins sound as if they've had too many cigarettes, but this one was very pleasing aesthetically.

Finally was able to cancel my residence visa today, so the administration can request the LPO to pay for my (and my family's) plane ticket. Had to get yet one more form from MLI security, then stop at some obscure office for another signature, then to military security with my colleague (who becomes my sponsor), then to Immigration to cancel all of our visas, then back to military security to get the cancellation papers photocopied, then back to the MLI where I made photocopies of everything and gave the huge wad to the Head of Languages who can now request GHQ to release the money for travel. The whole process was a long time coming, but not really a long time doing, if you know what I mean.

Sunday, June 25, 2000
A few days ago I wrote about a colleague who was being cheated (so I was led to believe) out of a significant amount of his final settlement. In fact, it turns out his own activities were rather unorthodox, and put the administration in an awkward position. Here's what happened, as I now understand it:

Last January, he requested round-trip tickets for himself and his family to go on annual leave. It was somewhat unusual for a teacher to request his tickets before declaring his intention to renew or not to renew; those who decide to end their service receive one-way tickets, whereas those who decide to renew receive round-trip tickets. Nevertheless, the coordinators and administrators shrugged, accepting this request as an early indication of his intent to renew. He was granted his tickets, received his tickets, and used his tickets. But then things started to get murky. (Please do not misunderstand my purpose for writing this; I wish merely to relay the essential facts without delving into the personal matters of my colleague and friend, and do not propose to judge him, his motives, or even the necessity of his actions.) He returned to Abu Dhabi alone, and announced that he would not be renewing his contract. But he had already received a provision which was due only to returning teachers, and consequently owed the institute a significant amount of money (the cost of a plane ticket from the U.S. to Abu Dhabi). Plus, he is technically responsible for purchasing his own final air ticket, since the ticket to which he is entitled has already been used. I found out all of this yesterday.

Saturday, June 24, 2000
Nobody came to our sale! Aaagh! Well, hardly anybody. What are we going to do with all this stuff?! Oh well... something will work out. I think it's the time of year. People are gone, leaving, and thinking about vacation, not wanting to spend their money here. Still, there's time.

At least I got my car taken care of. Took it back to the finance company, and they will find somebody to take over the loan. I was hoping to get a little return on my investment in the car, but it isn't a tragic blow; the money I spent in payments was roughtly equal to that which I would have spent in rental payments. I had to go to the traffic department though, and the guy from the finance company who drove me, though he swore he went there every day, seemed not to know where he was going. But that didn't seem to matter either; he was sent from office to office until he ended up at the same office where he began, and the officer who sent him on the chase was the same one who signed the necessary paper in the end.

Our admin staff informed me that my leave has been approved, but with one stipulation; I have to come back to the country to cancel my visa and collect my final pay. (Let the reader understand: we already have a documented mechanism for transfering sponsorship and appointing power of attorney for collection of unpaid monies, but the staff seemed quite unaware of it.) We discussed it for a while, they wondering how I could take care of these matters without coming back, and I finally said, "No problem. I have one colleague who will be my sponsor, and another who will collect my final salary." They seemed quite intrigued by the idea -- things may work out yet.

Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Today we're having a big "Moving Sale," so the last several afternoons have been occupied with dragging all of our marketable worldly goods into the living room. I'm looking forward to it, but I'll be very glad when it is over.

Our "Head of Languages" told me yesterday that he was expecting arrival today (yesterday) of the official confirmation that my leave dates were approved. If so, I'll be able to cancel my visa, which is a necessary step in checking-out of the country. If not, I'll keep waiting until... Saturday? in-sha'-Allah.

Monday, June 19, 2000
I have reserved a U-Haul van to transport our stuff from San Francisco to Modesto, even though I don't yet have official permission to leave. An American friend asked me, very logically, if I wasn't acting prematurely to reserve a van when I wasn't totally sure if I would be arriving, and I responded with the following explanation:

Your question about jumping the gun regarding van reservation is completely logical from your (and my) Western/American perspective; steps should be taken one-at-a-time, and we don't start number 2 before number 1 is finished. But we also require a process to be completed in a timely fashion, so that there is enough TIME to follow all the steps in sequence.

In contrast, the UAE is a country in which people routinely make multiple flight reservations for various days around the time of a projected holiday because, while they may know that they will have some days off, the exact vacation dates might not be announced until the day before they take effect. This is a major headache for travel agents of course, but such is life.

I am fairly confident that I will be granted my leave, but I can't predict when that official permission will come through, and if I wait until it does before I start making plans for our arrival in CA in less than two weeks, I may find myself with a lot of stuff sitting in a warehouse and no way to transport it. Therefore, as a responsible American consumer, I make my reservation in advance.

Sunday, June 18, 2000
Happy Father's Day!
Last night was surprisingly relaxing in spite of our current turmoil, I don't know why.

We went to the Bateen Co-op. It's one of our favorites. Elisha needed some kid-type recreation, so I splurged and let him ride three rides. He skipped the "Happy Birthday" train this time and went straight for the "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang" motorcycle. Next, he opted for a second motorcycle, then back to the first. I hope this isn't forshadowing, unless he becomes an avid bicyclist.

On the way home, I marveled at the abundance of trees lining the road and separating the lanes. I wish I knew more about botany so I could at least identify some of these plants. Hope they're drought-resistant, and wish Modesto would put as much effort into "greening" the major streets.

Spent the evening working on an article which is scheduled for publication later this year. The article is a write-up of my conference presentation on META tags. Made good progress, and should be finished this week.

Saturday, June 17, 2000
I am sooo tired today. Had some fun over the long weekend, took Elisha to the club. But mostly I packed, wondered where I was going to find a job back in California, and wondered whether my employer would let me depart as scheduled. I'm very tired.

Tuesday, June 13, 2000
Surprisingly, no holiday (or rather, period of mourning) was declared for the death two days ago of President Hafez Al-Assad of Syria. As ruthless, and even tyrannical, as he is known to have been, sometimes razing entire towns when factious parties were known to have been harbored within, he maintained a stable country while much of the region was in turmoil, and successfully prevented a civil war such as the one which ravaged neighboring Lebanon for a generation.

However, tomorrow will be a holiday for Mawlid Al-Nabi, the birthday of the prophet. It will be nice to have a 3-day weekend.

We went to the Officers' Club last night, so Elisha got to play with other boys and girls. He wanted to play at a park on the Corniche, but frankly, as sensitive to heat as he is, the weather was too hot. Fortunately, the Children's Village at the OC stayed open later than usual, so he had a good evening of physical exertion and social interaction. After 45 minutes of running around wildly, he sat down in front of his shoes and panted, "See camel?" He was ready to go upstairs to the majlis tent to play on the wooden camel and eat some dates.

Abu Dhabi seems very much like home. It feels strange to be leaving the Emirates.

Monday, June 12, 2000
A new and unexpected complication has been thrown into my vacation/moving preparations. That is, in addition to the headache of processing out of the country, the military also has ancient rules which are applied to us, even though they don't apply to us. For example, I had to find a sponsor among my colleagues, who would be responsible to the Signal Corps for any military equipment I don't return. But most English teachers don't routinely use walkie-talkies, jeeps, or firearms. Nevertheless, I had to find someone to sign for me. But the complication of which I now write is considerably more serious in nature, because it potentially affects my final payment, and one of my colleagues has already been cheated out of a full month's salary.

The situation is this: according to our contract, we are allowed 45 days' paid annual leave. For those of use who are not renewing our contract, the only practical time for taking this leave is at the end of the contract period. But according to our vaguely-worded military contract, we, as military personnel, are not allowed to take our annual leave at the end of our term of service. Now, this is not necessarily a problem for most UAE military personnel, because they are from this region. My Jordanian office-mate, for instance, went on leave last week, and drove with his family back to Jordan. And when he decides to end his service in the UAE, he will drive home. But my situation is different: I'm from California, and like all MLI teachers, entitled to an annual plane ticket (on horrid KLM/Northwest Airlines). But since I'm not renewing my contract, the ticket will only be one-way.

Here's the rub: according to the rules, I'm not allowed to take my 45 days at the end of my contract. But had I taken it earlier and flown out of the country, I would have had 1) no return flight, and 2) no flight at the end of my service. I could have taken my vacation in the country, I suppose, but it's too late now. And besides, the main attraction of having such a vacation is that a teacher can travel out of the country and spend time with family and friends in his country of origin. Under the official guidelines, and in my circumstances, the altenatives are either a) give up the entire leave and stay at work through mid-August, or b) terminate my contract early so I can leave as planned, and so forfeit a month's salary, and receive a mere 25% remuneration for accumulated days of leave. Hopefully it won't come to any of these unpleasant options. The Commander has sent a letter officially requesting permission for my to take leave at the end of my contract. But it hasn't officially been granted yet, and until it is, I am in limbo.

Sunday, June 11, 2000
Packing, trying to sell the car, trying not to stress-out. Our Head of Languages asked me who told me I could take my leave at the end of my contract. I wasn't sure how to answer; nobody told me I couldn't, and when I submitted the request, I had no reason to suppose there would be any problem. But he had to send a written request to his superiors requesting official permission for me to leave on July 1, rather than staying in the country through the official end of my contract, which is August 15. Quite a difference; especially since the latter would involve losing vacation days.

Wednesday, June 7, 2000
Since we're leaving the country, I need to sell my car. And since I don't have extensive knowledge about the accepted value of a relatively new car after a year and a half of depriciation, I called the dealer to inquire about the blue book value, or something like that. But instead of giving me an objectively-derived figure based on statistical derivations, they looked at it and made me an offer of what they would pay me, in order to buy it and resell to someone else. I was glad to know that they would buy it, but the discussion didn't really help very much as I try to establish a price.

Tuesday, June 6, 2000
One of my colleagues came over to look at my flat. He and his wife, who is expecting a child, are looking for a different flat. That is a tricky task here, because unlike apartments in the U.S., it is not the landlord's job to tidy-up after a tenant has left. Maybe that's why my employer only likes to secure newly-built accomodations for the staff -- they know it will start out relatively clean.
I went to Continent last night for yet another 44" metal box. It takes 30 minutes to drive there from my flat, but I like the trip. They are having a special promotion on chocolate Easter eggs, even though Easter is long past. But that's common; Easter candy, Christmas decorations, even Halloween treats can sometimes be found at the various grocery stores here in Abu Dhabi. The items might not have been available in time for the celebration, but they arrived eventually.

Monday, June 5, 2000
As I continue the extremely tedious process of filling-out job applications in preparation for our return to the U.S., I am accutely aware of the progressive nature of the application process here in the UAE. Some institutes have electronic applications on-line, so I can fill-in the info at my computer, and press "send." Finished! Or if the institution is not quite so modern, there will simply be an application form which I must download in Word, fill-out on my computer, and send as an e-mail attachment. If a school is truly lagging behind the times, there will merely be an e-mail address to which I must send a CV as an attachment, or perhaps send and receive faxed or e-mailed messages. I have found nothing so modern in my U.S. job search.

Saturday, June 3, 2000
This weekend was a mostly unpleasant blurr, taken up primarily with packing. I dislike packing and moving, and will do almost anything to avoid it. Not that I mind traveling, mind you; I love traveling, and will gladly pack a suitcase at the drop of a hat. But the cumbersome project of carefully loading household goods into trunks is time-consuming and tedious. Not to mention the expense of buying additional shipping containers. Ugh.
One of the difficulties of moving from here, is that companies with whom you must deal are closed during the afternoon. In other words, they are open while I am at work and unable to call them, and by the time I get home, they are closed for the afternoon. Sometimes they open again in the evening for a couple of hours, but it's largely hit-and-miss, and I have to hit, and I don't have time for misses. I know that everything will get done eventually, but I wish I could enjoy the process. Is it my personality? Do I have a bad attitude? I'm glad Suzanne is a lot better at this stuff than I am.

Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Okay, here's what he said:

"Thanks for your response. I have to tell you that both as a native speaker of Arabic and as an Arabic as a Foreign Language instructor I reject the notion of unintelligibility. That there are acute differences in forms of Arabic, no doubt. That there might be some vocabulary which is unintelligible, also no doubt. However, I believe it is an issue of perception more than anything else. The best metaphor to use here is that of the half full/half empty glass. I, (and many instructors of AFL who teach dialects as well), see it as a half full proposition.

Also, I think in instances of "native communications" it has to do with the level of competence in Arabic. And I really do not mean educated Arabic so much as I mean how Arabic functions. Whether one has an MA or not is not good measure of things. The state of Arabic education in the Arab World these days is quite disheartening. I have seen "nightmares" walking under the guise of MAs and PhDs. But may be that is world phenomenon. Yet, again, I think the issue is a speaker's willingness to use vocabulary which is not too localized. Once that hurdle is crossed communication occurs. By the way, those who have good grounding in Arabic, often can make out meaning of localized terms because they can "backtrack" them to "original" or older/classical Arabic.

Is it a spud or is it potatoes!

I hope I made thesis clearer. I do thank you for taking the time to respond. It is good to engage in some dialogue."

I went to a presentation discussing a new satellite broadcasting over the Middle East and North Africa. It's called "SAT-7," and the programming is designed to service the Arabic-speaking Christian communities in the various countries. I know nearly nothing about this type of technology, but the presenter explained that each program can be dubbed over in several dialects at once, so the viewer can simply tune-in to whichever language variety he understands best.

Tuesday, May 30, 2000
I subscribe to the Foreign Language Teaching Forum, an internet listserve, and there has been some recent discussion about the most widely-spoken languages in the world. I submitted the following post:

"I find it interesting to note the disparity among the 3 "top" language lists we've seen, particularly in regard to Arabic. As I recall, one of the lists places it at #5, another at #6, and SIL doesn't place it at all until about #11 because the SIL divides it into its major dialects. I have no argument with SIL's reason for so subdividing the language, but it brings up an important issue when discussing how widely-spoken a language is: should we treat variant dialects as separate languages? If so, the English language might be placed somewhat lower on the charts. But if not, mutually unintelligible spoken forms, such as Moroccan Arabic and Kuwaiti Arabic, are treated as if they were identical. And if we try to rationalize a continuum, in which mutually-intelligible adjacent communities are said to speak the same language even though communicative ability diminishes progressively with distance, we would have to group Italian, French, and Spanish as a single language, which the speakers (not to mention the language teachers) might not appreciate. As one linguist has said, 'A language is a dialect with an army.'"

"I agree very much with your assessment of the situation. Placement of Arabic in some order is a political act more than a linguistic one. I do disagree however that Kuwaiti Arabic and Moroccan Arabic arer mutually unintelligible forms. That statement in itself is also a political thesis. Variation does not and should not imply unintelligibility. If one cannot understand some peculiar words, or some contexts, it does not mean unintelligibility. Otherwise, then, as you said, English becomes many languages instead of one. Good to apply the same standard."

"My description of Kuwaiti and Moroccan Arabic(s) as mutually unintelligible is not based on my personal opinion, but on the testimony of native Arabic speakers. While I was in Kuwait, during a discussion of dialectic forms, I asked a Kuwaiti man if he could understand a Moroccan speaking Moroccan dialect. Without hesitation, he answered, 'No.'

And this situation is common; a Palestinian man told me of his attempt to introduce himself to a Moroccan traveler: 'I tried speaking to him in Modern Standard Arabic. I tried speaking to him in Egyptian dialect. He spoke to me only in his native dialect, and I could not understand a single word he said. That man did not give a d___ about communicating with me.'

You can even take geographically closer dialects. One of my colleagues, an Egyptian man with an MA in progress, and who was hired as a bilingual adviser here in the UAE, explained to me that he needed an Arabic-Arabic translator for his first month in Abu Dhabi because he could not understand what his Emirati supervisors were saying to him!"

I look forward to hearing his comments.

Monday, May 29, 2000
It was so humid this morning, you could distinctly see a cloud hanging low over the city. But it wasn't a rain cloud, it was pure humidity.

We went to the co-op in Bateen this evening, and Elisha rode a couple of the rides in front, which improved his cranky disposition considerably. (He decided not to take a nap this afternoon.) He rode on the train, which played "Happy Birthday" to a Latin beat, while the girl next to him rode a car which played the melody from "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang"

Sunday, May 28, 2000
I bought a huge, 44" metal trunk yesterday. It almost didn't fit in my car, and I have a large car. I got it to help ship our musical instruments. Packing an oud is extremely awkward -- lightweight, but large. Maybe I should invest in a modern, flat variety. Elisha thought the metal trunk itself was a musical instrument, and proceeded to beat on it with gusto. The resonant poundings reverberated through the house until we made him stop.

Saturday, May 27, 2000
Went to Continent last night, looked at large boxes for shipping. Found a large metal box for 100 dirhams (about $30), but it wouldn't fit in our car. There wasn't much I could do, with three people plus a tricycle in the car. I will return by myself today and try lowering the seat. There must be some way to get this trunk home!

Monday, May 22, 2000
Today was the day. I officially announced my intention not to renew my contract. This is not a reflection on the MLI, which is a great institute with a great faculty. I'm kind of walking around in a daze, and my daze will get dazier as I begin the check-out procedures (soon).

Sunday, May 21, 2000
"You gwoppa, Daddy!" (translation: 'You're welcome, daddy!') We went to the club yesterday, and Elisha had a grand time running and playing in the Children's Village. The staff turned on the TV, and we let him watch a few minutes of old Disney cartoons. When the three little pigs started singing, "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" Elisha sat still as long as he could (not very long), but finally had to jump up and dance around the room. None of the other children left their seats. Do I have a normal child?

I'm so nervous, I can hardly move my fingers. I have to sign to to renew my contract, and there are several factors making it a very difficult decision. I've waited until the last possible minute, and I have to lay it on the line very soon.

Why learn Arabic? For the typical citizen of this country, and while English is a valuable utilitarian language, Arabic remains the official language, the language of friendship and trust. This is true here in the UAE, as well as in:

Did I forget any?
 

Saturday, May 20, 2000
Events have taken a quick and unexpected turn. We're "planning" to transfer to the MLI's new "sister" institute in Al-Ain, a move we had never seriously considered until very recently. I've given a verbal commitment, and I have to put it in writing tomorrow afternoon. Still time to muse, but not much!

See earlier entry