desert safari

I've managed to mess up the order of things since I already posted about the final work week.  It's due to a variety of technical issues with my camera, Mac, and PC.  Sigh.  Between the camera not charging properly, then the Mac suddenly deciding its not going to recognize videos, then hosing up the Mac with too many photos (I think?), I've been pulling my hair out.  Technology is great until it's not.

So now I'm going to backtrack a tad and hit on something that I actually really really wanted to do before we came:  the desert safari.  We did this on Saturday of our last full weekend; Oct 6, to be precise.  I had heard about the desert safari (maybe assisted by Sex in the City, Part 2?), so I knew it needed to be on the Must Do list.  In my head, undulating hills of barren sand reflected the fiery setting sun as we gently bobbed along on camels to some isolated Bedoin tent, then we gently disembarked (potentially tangling layers of fabric fluttering in the gentle breeze), reclined on piles of cushions and were fed dates and flatbread by attractive Arab men (or women, for the guys on the team... I'm all about equal opportunity).  The mournful tones of Arabic music would entwine with fruity sheesha smoke and float up to the star-filled heavens.  The 11 of us would laugh and eat as night yawned over the desert and we'd head back to civilization, confident that we'd experienced life as a nomadic desert dweller.

Yeah, ok.  Turns out I have a vivid imagination.  (surprised by that, are you?)

In reality, you'll need to picture about maybe 300+ sweaty and disoriented tourists who arrive in SUVs that have just gone crashing over those undulating desert hills, with sand spewing into the sky.  This, my friends, is dune crashing.  I'll admit, it was super-fun and probably the best part of the safari (I'll post a little video from the back seat in an upcoming blog).  I got a bit of a clue when me and Karen hopped into the back of our SUV and discovered roll bars across the ceiling.  Yeah, ok... what's this??

Falcon - isn't he beautiful?  She?  I didn't really check

Ritesh with falcon - is that falcon saying, "whatchoo lookin' at dude?"

Karen and Kana about to depart on camel

Sheela and Catherine as camel assumes the seated position
their expressions are priceless!

When you arrive at the compound in the desert (a large area with little huts around a central stage, surrounded by a fence of vertical wooden posts like you'd see around a fort), you're greeted by a cacophony of whirring engines, then smacked by the smell of gasoline.  Not my favorite olfactory or auditory environment.   People descend on you to ride ATVs around a little circle outside the fenced area, or get your photo with a falcon.  There were 2 bedraggled camels that gave short rides to the tourists.  I did do a camel ride, but only because I had said from Day 1 that I Will Ride A Camel.  Well, my little vegan heart broke for those two camels because they had to get up, walk 20 paces that-a way, walk 20-paces back and collapse back down again.  Over and over.  On their bony legs with arthritic-looking knobby knees.  And they were muzzled.  And I wasn't wearing some filmy, layered, wafting in the gentle breeze exotic fabric thing, but jeans and a T-shirt.  Talk about killing a fantasy.

But then it started to pick up when we went into the fenced compound.  Inside the little huts were a henna artist and, what the UAE does best, shopping, for all kinds of little trinkets.  A bunch of the guys bought little bottles with sand art for their significant others at home and we looked around the other shops.  There was a separate area with trickling water and sheesha smoking - fine, I guess, if you're into that kind of thing.  I've maintained I have enough problems breathing just as it is.  Several of us girls got our hand painted with henna.  A small group of us also climbed up one particularly large dune to check out the sunset over the desert.  Just beautiful.

Inside the compound, there were long tables on top of patterned carpets.  Large cushions surrounded each table.  You sit on the ground to eat dinner and watch the show, which turned out to be some guys playing some nice exotic mournful music on traditional instruments (don't ask me what, a clarinet-type thing was one of them but at least it sounded like I imagined it would), a belly dancer (man, wish I could do THAT!) and a Sufi dancer (aka Whirling Dervish).  The Sufi dancer won for most bizarrely talented because the guy just spun around for 15 minutes straight, while doing interesting things with the many layers of his costume.  I would have seriously barfed after about 30 seconds and fallen on my face after 45 seconds.  But he just kept spinning, spinning, spinning.  The whole team was talking about him afterwards and for several days later.

For dinner, there was a buffet and they gave you enormous oblong plates that were more like serving platters.  Everyone filled up on roasted meats (chicken, I think?  obviously I skipped), salads, hummus (because it wouldn't be a meal in the Gulf without hummus) and rice.  Since pretty much every meal I've eaten in the UAE has consisted of hummus and salad, I would have been just fine.  Next,  I toddled over to the meat station (since I was obediently following the line), then when I realized what it was and said "oh, no thank you," 3 different guys started barking "vegetarian, vegetarian" at me and pointed crazily to a table in a dark corner.   Ok, first, it's a little freaky that my refusal of some chicken makes strange men bark the word "vegetarian" at me in the desert.   Second, it's a little weird to have to go by myself to some dark corner apparently allotted to vegetarians.  I don't think I need to tell you that my active imagination came up with all kinds of scenarios in those couple of seconds.  Turns out that on a desert safari, they also have more food for veggies, with maybe 3 different types of curries, in addition to my requisite hummus and salad.  Get OUT!  Vegetarian options in the desert?!?!  Well, this just turned the whole night around for me, letmetellyouwhat!  How is it that in Memphis, I can't go to a restaurant and get more than a wilty pile of barely green head lettuce with 3 strips of carrot, yet in the middle of the DESERT I can get a veggie buffet?  Are you kidding me?  So, I, just like the rest of my team, got an excessively large pile of food that I scarfed down with about 300 of my new closest friends while watching a young woman with jiggly hips.

Afterward, we rode back to Al Ain (little over an hour drive) and I got into a discussion with Felipe about politics and guerillas and life in Colombia.  Super interesting.  He says I'd be at zero risk of getting kidnapped by guerillas and starving in a remote mountain hut for years as the U.S. attempts to negotiate my release.  I wonder how many veggie options they have in Bogota?  #ibmcsc uae

final work week and some football

Our last week of work with the client came very quickly.  It seemed like we just got off and running and boom, it's over.  I was unanimously elected to write our final report for the client (how did that happen??), which kept me busy most of the week.  If you've known me longer than about 5 minutes, you know I love to write and I do it pretty quick.  That was the case with the report as well.  I gave myself an early deadline for getting it done (Wednesday) and spent two intense heads-down days Monday and Tuesday writing.  I only really got stressed about it Tuesday morning, when I felt like I wasn't going to make my deadline.  Much to the consternation of my team, I refused lunch on Tuesday and wrote straight through the whole day so that by the time Tuesday wrapped, it was 80% done.

Wednesday was spent working as a team on our final presentation summarizing our project for the client, then we left early and spent the afternoon working in our meeting room at the hotel.  Felipe spent much of Wednesday reading and editing the report and pointing out to me where I apparently had a blonde moment and didn't finish a sentence or had something out of place.  I was so impressed with this whole thing... Felipe was reading in his second language and giving me excellent and subtle feedback on my writing. Most people who are native English give me very little constructive criticism on my writing!  I was simply amazed at some of the things he pointed out.

Lest you think I went against my goal of having more fun on this trip, I can assure you that my team functioned really efficiently, so we had time to play as well.  On Sunday, Paul (one of the other 2 Americans) invited all of us to his room to watch his alma mater Rutgers play American-style football.  For me, it was fun because he put out an in-room tailgate - including broccoli, which I hadn't eaten in 3 weeks or so and was in major withdrawal - and because I got to sit with a bunch of my team around me as I explained the game to them and talked about the role of football in American life.  As I explained how football dominates university life and the amounts of money involved, it was interesting to watch the reactions.  I don't think there's any equivalent in the rest of the world.  And of course, in the interest of being completely honest, I explained the massive recent scandal at my own alma mater Penn State and the incredible heartbreak all of us associated with the school have had to suffer.  If there is one thing I've gotten out of this trip, it is the solid, impossible-to-ignore understanding that the U.S. does not have all the answers, although we are arrogant enough to think we do.  For every societal issue we point to in other countries, we have just as many, if not more, in ours.  The Penn State situation is just the worst-case example of the cheapening of secondary education by money via football.

Enough of my editorial... on Monday night, I had the distinct honor of getting to watch football again, this time, in the style the entire world loves.  The team went to one of the hotel bars and we all sat at a big table outside in front of a massive screen and watched Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer (really, it's football, since that's what EVERYONE except us calls it).  I sat beside Felipe, who returned the favor of the previous night and explained all kinds of stuff about the game, along with Sheela.  I actually recognized Ronaldo, I'm proud to say - my niece Lyndsey in the UK would be proud.  I was also able to say maybe 2 semi-intelligent sentences about Manchester City, Man United and the UK Premier League, thanks again to Lyndsey and her hubby Mark.  So, I wasn't a total dolt.  It was a great night getting to see a sport that is so important to the rest of the world, explained by amazing people from all different places.  How incredibly powerful to look around the table and see 11 people from 7 countries, drinking, eating and sharing in the fun.  #ibmcsc uae

vblog: meet kanako

Kana is the darling of our team.  She is a sweet, gentle Japanese woman.  When she came, Kana was very shy.  Over the course of four weeks, she blossomed so much:  she came out of her shell, even learning to use sarcasm in English.  I think Kana is incredibly courageous... she had never presented to a client before and by the end of our project, she not only had done that but also went to the local university as a guest speaker.  Kana also talked to me a lot about diet, something I'm interested in.  She and I are going to figure out a way for me to get on a project in Japan so we can go for a cleanse in the mountains together.  Wouldn't that be amazing??  

In her video, you can see her sense of humor at the end, as well as her kind nature.  We were headed into Al Ain on the bus when we taped and had a really nice day shopping for abayas.  Kana we love you!

vblog: meet felipe

Felipe.  Ah, yes, Felipe.  As you will see when you watch this video, Felipe appears to be a little on the quiet side.  In fact, he had most of us kinda fooled up until about the last week or so.  Then he got more animated (he gets really animated if you get him going, but of course I would never antagonize anyone) and zinged us with some killer one-liners. 

Felipe was on my project team so I worked and hung out with him a ton.  He was my neighbor in the hotel and every single day I could hear the hangers in his closet jangling repeatedly, which made me ponder every morning why this might be.  Maybe it takes a while to pick out a shirt?  He's a sweetheart... he brushes his teeth, calls his mom, calls his sister (for her birthday even!), holds doors, always lets his female teammembers go first, carries our packages.  I told him right at the beginning I was going to send his mom an email to let her know what a great job she did (Felipe's mom:  if you're reading this, great job!  Hope I do half as good with my son!). 

I've had some fascinating discussions with him about Colombia and all of South American politics, geography, people.  He has traveled widely - after our project here ends, he's going to Egypt for a week.  His perspective was invaluable to our project, since he had experience in our topic area.  He was the primary editor of my writing for the final report with excellent feedback, not something too many people give me, which just made me respect him more.  Felipe is awesome, that's all there is to it.  He can dance really well too, but that's a different post.  (Or an instant message?)

Oh, and one other thing.... Felipe claims I'm not remembering the SHAWL situation correctly, and that he didn't start it.  For the record, he so DID start it.  And continued it for 4 weeks.  (ha, Felipe, now try to say you didn't start it.  And it's a scarf.  I win!)

Hola, Mr. Colombia...

vblog: meet sheela

Ok, I've run into some serious technical difficulties so the intro to my Vblog series is currently out of commission.  But, I am undeterred.  The series must go on, fancy intro or not!

Here I'd like to introduce Sheela... she is the epitome of calmness.  I'd like to be supremely calm like Sheela.  She's smooth, controlled, confident - the quintessential IBMer.  And then, somebody makes her giggle.  Oh yes.  When Sheela laughs, the whole world laughs with her... she will laugh and laugh and then it gets to the point that if you even glance at her, she'll fall out again.  I've had many good laughs with Sheela and today I'm proud to say I made her laugh so hard she cried.

She speaks a ridiculous number of languages, which makes her incredibly important to the team's successful maneuvering around the UAE.  (More on that in an upcoming blog.)  I have so enjoyed talking to Sheela about everything:  she's worldly and smart and just a bunch of fun.

So Sheela, if you're reading this, sorry about the lack of intro... you're dah bomb without it!

Without further ado...

more fun in the bathroom

I pushed on the heavy wooden door and into a mass of black fabric flying around.  One woman had removed her abaya, another had taken off just the head scarf and was washing her face at the sink.  Others were milling about, speaking in Arabic.  A small boy toddled underfoot.  I spotted a baby staring at me, so I smiled and started to wave and make faces.  Having now been in the UAE for 3 weeks, I was already comfortable with this common scene in the bathroom:  women washing, possibly in preparation for prayer, and in various stages of abaya removal.  I paused a couple more minutes to coo at the baby, then stepped around the other women to head into a stall.

As I began to close the door, I heard a twitter go through the group.  Simultaneously, I looked up to see an abaya hanging on the back of the door I was closing.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I said.  "I'll get out of your way.  I just had to..."

"No, no.  I get my abaya," the woman said softly and her hand reached around the door and snatched it from the hook.

I closed the door and completed my mission, then washed my hands at the sink.  Even though there were only 4 women and me, the amount of black fabric made it seem like the bathroom was packed with people.  I dried my hands and took two steps into a small foyer area.

"You take picture with my baby," said a young woman.

I was a little confused, assuming she wanted me to take a photo of her group.  I glanced around the upscale foyer area, with a large mirror and wooden detailing on the walls.  

"Oh, sure," I said.

With that, she grabbed the baby from another woman and thrust her toward me.  Instinctively, I reached out.

"Oh my gosh, I haven't done this in a while."  I looked at the small girl, who was probably about 6 months old, and had large brown eyes and brown curls all over her head.  By the time I glanced up, a camera was staring at me and the child.  I smiled.

The little boy, about 18 months old, moved near my leg.

"You want a picture too?" the woman asked him.  He nodded his head and glanced up at me, smiling shyly.

"Oh, sure," and I squatted down, holding the baby in my right hand and putting my left arm around the little boy.  I felt a flash of fear as it occurred to me that if I dropped the baby, she would land on a marble floor.  I'm not sure how many photos they took of me and the children before I stood back up, thanked them, and pulled the door to go back into the hallway.  #ibmcsc uae

where's leo the lobster? #10

Where's Leo the Lobster?

He's looking at pottery from 2500-2000 BC
at Al Ain Museum!