Free fallin', now I'm free fallin'....Part 1

On Friday night our friend invited us out to her "farm" for an evening of fun.  I put farm in quotes since it's nothing like we imagine as a farm. A farm here is out in the desert and is a place you enjoy in the winter or cool evenings. 

We arrived and her brother and his friends were out with their falcons. Falcons as I wrote about before is a sport that is alive and well here. It's pretty cool to watch.  The guys flew a big kite in the air. Attached to the kite is a fake pigeon that is attached to a small parachute.  They released the falcon and it goes to get the pigeon. It's pretty cool to watch.  He grabs it and then the guys hop in their big 4 wheel drive cars to retrieve the falcon.  At the end, they give the falcon a reward of raw quail meat.  It was really cool to watch. 

Then her brothers friend took us out on a desert drive in his big Land Cruiser...this is really fun but semi scary. You always feel like the car is going to tip over but they handle the car so well....except when we couldn't get out of this little valley area.....he finally got us out but boy was that a thrill. You know that feeling when it's sort of scary while you're doing it but then later you remember how fun it was....yeah. 

The wide open desert is really pretty.  Pictures don't capture the whole scene so well. We tried to get a good Christmas picture but didn't do so well.  We're always so awkward! 

Part 2 coming tomorrow......

For this is Thanksgiving day.....

 

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Last week before Thanksgiving, I made Thanksgiving cut-out cookies. Everyone in Bethlehem always enjoyed decorating them.  This year I decided I would do it again and save some for our friends to decorate when they came for dinner one night.  I was pretty sure that they probably never have decorated Thanksgiving cookies except for maybe Fazila who lived in the States for a while.  

I was SO sure that her husband Saleem NEVER decorated Thanksgiving cookies since he is A) from Afghanistan--no Thanksgiving there & B) he's a man from Afghanistan. Men in Afghanistan don't do much in the department of  cookie decorating!  Fazila has taught Saleem well as she is an American woman and we expect different things from our husband than in certain countries.  Also, our friend Shiny who is from India but grew up here her whole life decorated with us, too.  

It was a fun activity for all of us together.  Next up, Christmas cookies!

Our house is very very very fine house......

 Okay, so I finally have some good pictures of the home.  We're almost there. We still want to buy a few rugs and hang up some more pictures but it's much better now. I should do before and after pictures....that would really show you the change.

 

 Our bedroom is above and below is the guest bedroom.  I have curtains to hang in the guest bedroom but didn't get there yet.

 This is the guest bathroom. 

 Our kitchen which looks drastically different from where we started!  The big cabinet in the middle is hiding our hot water heater. All bathrooms or kitchens have tanks for your hot water.  I wanted to hide ours.

 The entry area.  This goes from the kitchen to the living room. All rooms have doors on them so that you can turn the A/C on in the summer and it stays in that room.

 Our family room.  We have a few more photos to hang.

 The brown sofas are typical for this area.  Most homes have a "Majlis" which is a seating area but usually the sofas are a bit lower to the ground. We got a small set made at a local guy here just over the border in Oman.  We're happy with how it turned out.  We still have a few photos to hang up over the Majlis seating area and we want to get another area rug but have yet to find that.

Lamb Carcass.....

Do we sell lamb carcass like this in a case at home?! 

We just like to show you things that seem just a tad bit different to us but are completely normal to those from other parts of the world.  Maybe we sell it but just don't use the word "carcass" when marketing the item.  All I know is that I'm pretty sure that I don't use that word very often and especially not about the meat I'm getting ready to take home to cook and serve for dinner. But it makes a fun story.....

50 Years!

Last week our hospital celebrated 50 years of service in Al Ain and to the surrounding communities. Pretty cool that our hospital was here even before the UAE was a country and before they had any money. 

We had a couple different parties that we planned but one of them was for our staff.  We had a great time and a good time was had by all...or at least I think! 

We had this really great Arabic band play old arab style music. They did a fabulous job and I wish they had played longer.

We held it at the Palace Museum here in Al Ain which used to be Sheikh Zayed's home (the founder of the country). Sh. Zayed's sons are now the President and Crown Prince. 

We had all sorts of activities for the kids since we were at a museum and didn't want them to run around crazy there. So we had games, clowns, cotton candy and a magician.  

I'll try to post pictures from the other event where we invited local business owners, friends of the hospital and other such folk.

Falconry....

Falconry is a sport that is still alive and active here.  Tourists can take trips out to the desert to see Falcon shows.  The other night we went to the house of a family that raises them for people.  They keep these helmet mask looking things over their eyes when they aren't actually practicing or doing a show.

We hope to see a show this weekend on Friday with a friend who owns a business out in the desert .....I'll let you know how it is.

This is Dale.  He was here visiting from the CURE home office so Trey took him out on a bit of a desert tour. They hung out with the falcons and got to see a show where they release the falcon to go get the live chicken or whatever it is that they do....... and then went driving in the desert with 4 wheel drive vehicles.  

Now, those are things you can't do in the USA....or at least not in the Northeast to my knowledge.    Come on over!

Baby It's Cold Outside....

I know that I update you a lot on the weather here, but it's really such a topic of discussion because right now it is PERFECT!  Seriously, gorgeous.  But look what we found at the store....hats, gloves and scarves.  I don't think that it gets below 60 degrees in the day and maybe a little less at night.....these things are not necessary....except for those folks who need them to travel to cold countries....but still.