Eid Al adha is celebrated to give thanks and praise to Allah for providing the sacrifical ram so Ibrahim (Abraham) didn't have to sacrifice his son Isaac. Many Muslims celebrate this by sacrificing a sheep. If they cannot afford a sheep they will sacrifice a goat. This is a 3 day festival, kind of like Christmas. There is gift giving and spending time with family. I guess the main difference is the sacrifice of the sheep! Everyone has the 3 days off, but there are some that have the entire week off.
Another bit aspect of this Eid is the Haj. This is when Muslims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. In Mecca is the Kabba which Muslims walk around 7 times chanting الله أكبر - Allah alakbar (Allah is the greatest) among other things. In addition to walking around the Kabba 7 times they walk between two mountains 7 times. This is to remember what Hagar did when she was in the wilderness with Ishmael. Muslims believe she needed water so she walked between the two mountains 7 times and Allah provided her with water. Haj is one of the 5 pillars (shahadah - professing faith in one God; not 3 like Chritianity Father, Son, and Spirit, Salat - pray 5 times daily, Sawm - fasting during Ramadan, Zakat - giving 2.5 % of your wealth to charity, and Haj) of the Islamic faith. By meeting the 5 pillars you are able to enter heaven.
There's your Islamic lesson for the day.
I went to Dubai and spent the Eid holiday with the Wilson's. I had a good time in Dubai and the surrounding emirates.
الشارقة - Sharjah (although it technically should be pronounced Sharqah)
Friday afternoon we loaded into the SUV and headed out to Sharjah to meet up with Cindy and Craig's small group from church. We were going to have a campfire in the desert. I was looking forward to this since I haven't really been "in" the desert yet. We rendezvoused with the rest of the group at a local gas station and then made our way into the desert. True dune bashing was happening! This would have been fun, but I got sick. I get carsick and all the bouncing and turning made me quite nauseous. I didn't actually throw up, but I certainly felt like it. Even though we stopped a few times to get out and look at the scenery, which was beautiful especially with the sunset, my tummy was still shaky. I didn't even take any pictures:( By the time my tummy settled down enough for me to even think of taking pictures it was way too dark out. I missed the sunset:( I guess that's just an excuse to go back into the desert! Once I wasn't feeling so nauseous I had a good time sitting around the campfire and talking. I even had to wear a sweatshirt!! Some of the group was planning on camping, but we left. I would love to camp in the desert! Maybe next time.
راس الخيمة - Ras Al Khaimah (RAK)
Saturday we took a road trip along the coast of the UAE to RAK. There is not much in RAK except the beach, but it is beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice. The water was a crystal clear greenish blue and it was absolutely beautiful with the sun glistening on the surface. I walked along the beach for a while looking for shells since the beach was littered with them. Most of them were broken creating this white sand. It was pretty amazing. There was white sand and then the typical sand colored sand started. Pretty interesting. Although I didn't find any shells, Sarah and her friend found a sand dollar, a starfish, and a fin. I guess they were looking harder than I was!
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| Differnt colors of the sand |
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| Rocky "beach" at RAK |
أم القيوين - Umm Al Qwain (UAQ)
After our time at the beach in RAK we travelled to UAQ to look for more shells. Cindy and Craig know of a great location to find shells so that's where we went. Unfortunately when we showed up there were tons of Arabic men around and the 4 of us girls just got quite uncomfortable being stared at so we didn't stay all that long. We did look for some shells, but didn't really find anything too interesting. I climbed between two boulders looking in the sand and sponges for anything interesting, but I'm just too tall to see way down in the sand! And my knees can't take squatting so I had to use my toes to move the stuff around. Not a very effective means of finding anything interesting!
دبي - Dubai (no silly abbreviation for this one:)
Monday we had Thanksgiving dinner! It was delicious. We celebrated early because Craig won't be in town, he is leaving for Saudi tomorrow and won't be back until the beginning of Dec. So Cindy and I spent the day in the kitchen preparing. I made the pumpkin pie and helped with the potatoes. I love Cindy's mashed potatoes. She leaves the skin on them so they're not looking like they're supposed to be smooth and then a lump shows up. I know the lumps are going to be there so I don't get grossed out when I eat one! We had all the typical Thanksgiving dishes; turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (don't like these) green beans, cranberry sauce (which I still don't like), corn, and pumpkin pie. Yummy!
While we were waiting for the food to cook Cindy and I went driving around to look at houses. I finally took the pictures of the houses for my dad! Granted these are in Dubai, but you get the idea. They are huge and ugly! We had a blast driving up and down the streets laughing and pointing out the gaudy houses! They just don't know how to do huge tastefully. Check out Facebook for more pictures. |
75 degrees with 53% humidity at 7:50pm. It's wonderful:) I have my windows open! Loving it! 2 day work week then back to Dubai.
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