Anna is going back to School!

Today we went to the British Council to sign Anna up for an English class.

She has decided, after spending a few weeks with us and dealing with anyone from Stuart to cleaners to the volunteers in the Tsunami relief centre that she needs to improve her language skills. So she took the plunge today and went through the enrolment procedure at the British Council for English lessons. There was an oral and a written exam, the first she has taken in 50 years, I think. But she was pleased to find that other people next to her spoke even less English than she does. This will be a big effort, two hours teaching three days a week with homework and tests. She will be fluent in no time, we think.

Apologies For The Recent Silence

Things got hectic after Christmas. Read on...

After our return from the camping trip we heard that a local charity was looking for volunteers to help out with the relief work to aid the tsunami survivors in South-East Asia. I went to help sort donations for a few hours and have barely made it home since. There is a lot of concern here, as so many expats stem from the affected region and have family or friends there.

Dubai Aid City is a Dubai government organisation that liaises with Red Crescent and Unicef. Since the collection centre number has been advertised over New Year donations of clothes, food and medicine have been flooding in. We sort and repack everything and arrange for transport to the Red Crescent warehouses at Jebel Ali port where containers are either shipped or flown out from the local airport.

The collections will be going on till the end of the month, when we hope that the immediate needs will be cared for. It's great to see so many people taking leave from work or coming in the evenings: We had the boy scouts, the Philippines Community centre, workers from the paint factory and local building sites, as well as logistical support from companies lending trucks to move stuff out to Jebel Ali port to cafes donating lunch for the volunteers to the building manager supplying us with bottled water and photocopiers.

Snow!!!!!

Yes, you read right, we had snow.

Well, not here in Dubai, but in Ras al Khaimah about 90km further north, where they have mountains, and there only a light dusting, but it was enough to get the Sheik and his mates to go and have a look at it. This was the first time anyone can remember snow in the UAE, i.e. the first time in at least 40 years. Pictures, such as they are, here.