...standing out in a crowd

Last night Katherine, Joanne and I took a taxi to downtown Abu Dhabi. We wanted to find the souks (markets) that we had heard about, and hopefully snag a bargain or two on some clothing. Our driver dropped us off and we began walking. (I have never seen so many jewelry stores in my life!) We must have seemed quite the odd trio to the local people--a tall redhead, a petite brunette, and me. We finally found a souk--a series of small shops that sell anything from Levi's to tacky souvenirs (a shiekh and his lady salt and pepper shakers, anyone?!)--but our most pressing concern was our rumbling tummies. We asked shopkeepers along the way to point us in the direction of a restaurant. "Oh Ma'am, too far. You need taxi." I guess we looked too delicate to walk any distance! We kept wandering and looking and finally stumbled upon a delightful little cafe that sold sandwiches and fresh fruit drinks. After taking care of our hunger pangs, we were back out on the street again (in a good way) and made our way back to the souk. As we walked I heard catcalls and comments. It reminded me of being in rural Mexico a few years ago. I had asked my hostess, Candy, if the boys hooting and hollering realized how old I was--I could be their mom! She said it didn't matter--they had never seen a blonde person before, so I was an oddity to them. I was also reminded of our trip to Italy in 2000. Katie was a gangly 13 year old, badly in need of a hair cut. But to Japanese tourists in the Sistene Chapel she was "So pretty! So pretty!" After the previous day's taxi fiasco, we hit the jackpot on the way home. We got into a cab driven by the most delightful man from Nepal. He was college educated, and had worked as an accountant in his home country for 26 years. His job ended, but since he is still under 50 he needed to continue working. For 26 years he sat at a desk, so he decided he wanted to do something totally different. He loves driving a taxi, and is very proud of the fact that he speaks English so well. He had a wonderful sense of humor and kept us laughing the entire ride.

Today we're going to go to Carrefour, a large store (like Walmart on steroids) to get some more groceries and hopefully find an abaya or two. Katherine is so tall that she's having trouble finding floor-length anything.

An email came yesterday letting us know that official business is going to start this week--three days of training. Some folks are getting all worked up about the down time that we've had--they want to know where, what, and when, and they want to know NOW. (We're not in Kansas anymore...)