Heritage Day at School

We celebrated Heritage Day at our school this past week.  The back yard area of the school was set up with huts and seating areas to showcase cooking, games, clothing, and other aspects of the UAE culture.  The students came all dressed up and bringing food and other treats.

Before the festivities began....

Welcome to Al Isra'a Cycle 1 School (Grades 1-5)

Sheikh Zayed ("Papa Zayed") 

Traditional Cooking

Quantities of food

My students (Rahaf and Maitha) delivering food to the teachers...

More students (Shamma, Aisha, and Salama) and their food samples

Large huts were set up with displays

Students selecting "halawa" or candy

Dalia shows off her face-painting and henna

Hamda displays her henna

Getting henna

Camel made out of palm fronds

Nursery area

One of my students (Ohoud) with an oud burner (or "medhan").  Oud is a wood that is used as a kind of perfume for men and women.  The oud makes the clothes smell from the smoke.

Some of my lovely girls (Salama, Ghalia, and Salama) with the "Oud" pots

Malak is eating shish-kebob.  I was told they had lamb and camel meat cooking....don't know for sure!  I tried some, but it was very spicy.

Malak and Kholoud show off their M & M eyeglasses

Sara swings 

Wedding display

Fatima shows the traditional face covering or "batoola" that is worn by older women when they are around non-mahram men (or men they are not related to). 

"My Heritage is my Worth"

Writing on the wall mural

Showing our pride...

Pretending to talk on the phone (my camera) to see how my henna looks....

Hatta Fort in the Hajar Mountains

This weekend, for a completely different change of pace, we headed to the mountains.  After the desolate beauty of the Empty Quarter, I was expecting something more lush and vibrant.  The mountains were not it...but the hotel grounds certainly were.

Kim rented a car to drive there.  It was his first experience driving since last November, so he was a little nervous....to put it mildly.  I had the "con" for navigation!  We only had 1 glitch:  the road we were supposed to take was closed due to construction, but there was no sign.  We found out by stopping for gas, where the guy told us to take the next road that cut through.  That road was totally deserted...except for some camels heading the opposite direction from us!

The "oncoming traffic"

Curious little guys

Hatta Fort Round-about

We stayed at the Hatta Fort Hotel.  The rooms were in separate little chalets, quite lovely.  There were 2 pools:  1 for adults, and 1 for children (that's right up your alley, Steph!).

Chalets:  The patios overlooked the mountains, and we ended both evenings with just some quiet time sitting out on the patio

Hotel room
  All the staff were so friendly and nice, it almost felt as if we were back in Sri Lanka!

Adult Pool with Mountain Views

Rock Pool where all the action was

Pool Waterfall....our own massage parlor....

This was our walk up the small hill in front of the hotel.  There was a great breeze and view from the top.  We considered taking a meal up there for the second night.

Garden Chess

Camel Rides through the hotel grounds

First night's sunset

Saw this Friday morning at sunrise.  A husband and wife in Kandoora and Abaya were having their morning walk up the hill, and it just looked so natural to see them there.

This peacock was part of the menagerie on the hotel grounds.  I liked this view of him with the mountains in the background.

This one's trying to impress his lady....

Heather and Cory decide to ride a camel, but the tree was a little close!

Coming back down....hold on!!

Smile for the camera!

Oh, he is a sweetie!

This was right before he burped on me....HOW RUDE!!!

Second night's sunset from the hillside

Father and Daughter

Sunset

Still sunset....We loved sitting around on all the comfy grass!!

On our last day, Cory and Kim decided to drive to the Wadi and do some exploring.  They checked out the Wadi and the Hatta Dam.

Cory and Kim -- heading into the Hatta Pools Wadi

View from the Hatta Dam

This was definitely another relaxing weekend away from school with Heather and Cory.  The total travel time involved was less than 1 1/2 hours from our home!  I had my final "official" observation at school on Sunday, so it was nice to not think about that all weekend.  Looking forward to our next adventure.....