A Quieter
Call to Prayer.
The Fall of Baghdad
Restores Life in Abu Dhabi.
The Sixth Letter
By Jack G. Vines
DATELINE:
Saturday, April 12, 2003.
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
It has been over a week since I wrote to you last. I enjoyed my vacation. I traveled around the UAE and played on the beach. And I slept until noon each day.
The war is over. Let's hope so. The feeling on the street is interesting here. Externally, at least to my face, Arabs felt that Saddam needed to go. Internally, there was a much larger game at play.
Saddam was supposed to be a hero — just as Osama bin Laden is a hero to most Muslims. The infidel invaders (Americans and the British) must fall to their knees. I noticed one Jordanian male crying as he read the newspaper. Muslims really wanted Saddam to put up a stronger fight. Most did not believe the newspapers' report of the fall of Baghdad. My meager handle on the Arabic language has yet to offer insight into the anti-Western, anti-American sentiment that exists among Muslims, but it is definitely real and ever-present.
The Volume Is Turned Down.
With the crisis nearing an end, the mosques have turned down the volume. During any crisis involving Arab "brothers," or any religious holy days, the mosques crank up the volume on their public loudspeakers. At times I can't sleep past the first call to prayer at about 5 a.m. Alongside the stifled religious sermons, people are returning to the streets, malls, beaches, and other leisure venues. Abu Dhabi is once again alive.
I talked of the shifting sand syndrome in an earlier missive. I experienced this again today. Having just completed nine days holiday, I walked into my office this morning. I had not even made my first cup of coffee when the director entered my office to ask a favor of me.
Tonight I am heading out of Abu Dhabi for three weeks to a temporary location for the purpose of teaching military English to the UAE Special Forces. It seems that these boys need a little English before heading off to Kuwait (and possibly Iraq) on clean-up missions. To get me to accept, they threw in an all-expenses-paid stay at the Hilton and a three-hour work day.
This is the job I have accepted. I make a lot of money, work very little, and do not have to worry about the day-to-day headaches that come with teaching in the USA. I do have to be prepared to roll with the punches — or should I say, to go with to flow of the dune. That damned sand is always shifting.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Mr. Vines is an instructor for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. He has worked in Abu Dhabi since July 2001. Not yet thirty, he has also taught in Japan. We would tell you more about him, but it just wouldn't be prudent.
You can communicate with Mr. Vines by E-mail
through the webmaster at threadspinner@corndancer.com
*This is the logical next step
toward the NEW World Order.
Step Four: *Your verbs tossed into the well of the oasis.
| ©2003 by David Ebenezer Baldwin Bowles |
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