Kitsch Kristmas

Cindy and I had a great Christmas this year.  We spent Christmas Eve with some friends from campus - at church and then at their place for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner.  On Christmas Day, we opened presents, had a friend over for breakfast, and then headed off to Christmas Dinner.  So far, so good...

Then, for Christmas dinner, we drove out to the city of Hatta - a little over an hour away into the mountains.  We didn't know it yet, but somewhere on that drive we crossed over into the Twilight Zone.  We had a great time with about a dozen friends from campus, but I have to admit that it was a little like celebrating Christmas in a parallel universe.  First of all, the decorations were very Christmas-y and there were a lot of "Merry Christmas" wishes exchanged, but our mountain lodge dinner setting was still in the desert.  Hmmm.  That's odd... 

Then, when Santa came in, he wore the red suit that you would expect, but his coloring gave me the impression that he arrived on a camel from Oman or Yemen, not on a sleigh from the North Pole.  His helpers (carrying bags of gifts) were definitely in Yemeni tribal dress.  They all seemed excited to play the part.  I should have asked them how "elf" translates into Arabic.

The hotel had a choir to lead everyone in a sing-along!  So we sang maybe four traditional carols - led by the Philippino and Pakistani kitchen help and waitstaff.  Great voices, but...wow.

After Santa and the singing, a magician came in to perform for the kids - typical card tricks and sleight-of-had stuff.  And of course he gave out gifts after his tricks.  Did I mention that the magician was a Malaysian Elvis impersonator?

I can't tell you how many times Cindy and I looked at each other and said, "Where ARE we?"

Merry Christmas!

 

Jeff and our colleague Earl helping out the Malaysian Elvis.

The Yemeni Santa - and his helpers to deliver toys to the children.

Kitsch Kristmas Karols

Winter

Here's a short video (just over 4 minutes) from a local guy who wanted to document the cityscapes and landscapes of the United Arab Emirates. We like it and think it does a great job of capturing how beautiful it can be here - especially during the winter.  We hope you enjoy it.

Emirates Winter from Lewis De Mesa on Vimeo.

Dates

by Cindy

Just about the only indigenous plant life in the UAE is the date palm tree.  Dates are to the UAE what chips and salsa are to Texas.  They are everywhere.  We eat them straight off the tree, we serve them to guests when they come into our home, we munch on them when we have a craving for something sweet.  We dip them in chocolate, stuff them with nuts and now...put them in chicken.  Jeff found a great recipe in the paper this week and (rather than suggesting I make it) he made it for dinner while I was out for a run one evening.  Major points for Dr. Baker!

We thought we would pass along the recipe to give you a 'taste' of life in the UAE.



Chicken stuffed with dates
Serves 2

3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1/8 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
8 large dates, pitted and chopped
2 skinless chicken breasts
2 oz. cream cheese
small bunch parsley, leaves picked and chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried parsley)
1/8 cup flaked almonds
salt and black pepper


Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for eight to 10 minutes, until softened and light golden brown.

Increase the heat slightly and add the cumin seeds, followed a minute later by the dates. Stir well, season with salt and black pepper and cook for a further three to four minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, tip the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool.

Using a sharp knife, slice into the side of each chicken breast, to form a pocket.

Beat the cream cheese, parsley and flaked almonds into the cooled date mixture, taste to check the seasoning and spoon into each pocket.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for three minutes on each side, then reduce the heat and continue to cook for a further seven to eight minutes, or until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Remove from the pan and serve with your chosen accompaniments – wild rice works well.

Enjoy!

Happy 40th Birthday to the UAE

by Cindy

We just celebrated the UAE's 40th birthday on December 2nd.  It's hard to believe that the country is only 40 years old but it's true.  I was telling a friend this morning that it serves as a reminder to me that while things are not perfect here, they have come a long way in 40 years.  After all, they only got electricity in the 1960's!

One thing very common here is for the government to do things for the people during / on a holiday.  So Ramadan, Eid and National Day (among others) often are met with big announcements that are intended to bestow blessings on the UAE people.  This year for National day, there were three big announcements:

1) All government workers will get a 35-45% pay raise.  This is after a 70% raise in 2007 and another 70% raise in 2009.  On the surface, this seems like a good thing - who doesn't want a raise, right?  However, one of the issues we have here is that there is already a great disparity between the pay of government jobs and private sector jobs - with government jobs being extremely high-paid.  One of the implications of this is that very few Emiratis want to work in the (relatively low-paid) private sector.  This is a cause of concern for the government (which therefore must employ a huge percentage of the Emirati population).  This is a big issue that the government here will have to wrestle with for some time.

2) The Abu Dhabi government allotted 2,500 plots of land for people to build their house.  The government provides land (for free) to all Emiratis to build a home once they get married.  So 2,500 people on the list for land for a house just got their land.

3) All children of Emirati mothers will now be Emirati citizens when they turn 18.  This is a very big deal.  Very big.  Prior to this announcement citizenship was through the father only.  That is, if you had an Emirati father and non-Emirati mother, congratulations, you're an Emirati citizen.  But if you had a non-Emirati father and an Emirati mother, no dice.  You weren't an Emirati citizen - you could only take the citizenship of your father.  This meant that you were losing out on the opportunity to have government jobs (see #1 above), gifts of land (see #2 above), free university education, free healthcare, etc, etc.  So this change was proclaimed by the papers here as an expansion of women's rights and a real blessing for many.

Hopefully that gives you a sample of life here in the UAE and how the government bestows blessings on its people.

Happy National Day!

The Deep Sea

by Cindy

Jeff and I went deep sea fishing in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf recently.  It was a beautiful morning on the gulf with weather that was not too hot and good company.  The sea was quite choppy and we had a few with sea sickness, myself included, so we didn't catch much at all but it was still a lot of fun.  Here are some shots:

Dawn over the city.  Offshore drilling platforms on the right .

Jeff catching our bait fish.
Our captain is the guy with the white hat.

The sunrise over Sharjah.  It was beautiful.

Jeff catching a tiny barracuda.