The Incident - Syarra

If you have read The Third Time Hydrant - Erich, you know that I have been wounded and that I can't walk well without pain. I have not been ice skating for quite a few years and I was out of practice. It was getting easier to not lose my balance I was skating to a wall and as I reach it my right leg swung up and hit my other leg taking a chunk out of it. It was gushing blood and it really hurt. In a few minute I was sitting, a cloth was putting pressure on my leg. People keep telling me not to cry as waves of pain were washing over me. We tried to figure out how to get Carver and my dad to know where we were. The people who worked at the ice skating rink said someone would be waiting. Then an ambulance came. Then the driver had to decide which hospital to go to. By this point in time my mom was with me and we were off the ice which we were sitting on (and freezing on) for quite a while. 

The ambulance was terrible I can explain why in two words: speed bumps. I was strapped into a hospital bed laying flat. As we passed over the dreaded speed bumps I could feel the blood rushing through my leg, up then back down. Also as the painful things were passed over by the ambulance it felt like I was upside down. Which to some extent I was. And last of all as we ran over the frightful things waves of pain collapsed upon me.

As I lay in the hospital waiting after we arrived, my leg throbbing in pain, and I was moved to a hospital bed I saw a nurse. She said it was superficial and I would be fine. My mom had to go and give them information. It was confusing to them that we did not have insurance. In the UAE everyone has to have insurance as a requirement. It was not something they could stitch. So no procedures had to be done. 

Carver and my dad arrived and while it wasn't that long it felt like forever to me. At that point we told them what happened. They wanted our passport so my dad and Carver went to get them also they needed to feed the animals so they went back for that as well about half an hour later they came back by this point they had said we could leave and it would be free or we could get admitted to the hospital. I decided that I would like to go and so we went home and I sat for two day spending my time on the couch watching movies. I re-watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies even though I had watched them before. By now it has been five days I can limp around but I can still over do it and it still hurts.

The Third Time Hydrant – Erich

I know you've been expectant. Yes, I did get a picture of a fire hydrant in Al Ain, UAE. Here it is.

Wait, wait, there's a story to this one

It wasn't easy to find a hydrant, by the way. They don't seem to have them in the neighborhoods of Al Ain. I'm not sure how they handle fires and the water needed to fight them. But I did find this one.

However, I didn't take a picture of it when I first saw it. I didn't even take it the second time I passed the hydrant. It wasn't until the third time that took the photo. And why? Well, that's a bit of a story.

You see, we had a bad stretch there for a couple of days. Two hamsters and one turkey that we were caring for died. We were house sitting. We were caring for ducks and chicks and geese (better scurry) and turkeys and guinea fowl and cockatiels. But that's just the birds. There was a tortoise (our reptile). Plus we cared for plenty of mammals, one dog named Orlando, two cats named Mongy and Zaine (not sure on the spelling of either), two hamsters (who so far as I can tell didn't have names), and three rabbits (named Bun Bun, Princess, and Lady Grey.) No, there were no amphibians, but just in case that bums you out there were some fish and some insects we had to care for as well. Yes, beetles, but mainly because their larvae are the food for the fish.

The turkey, it seems, had just reached its time to die. The hamsters, I have no idea what caused their demise.

That was the start of the bad stretch. Next, we went to visit the Hot Springs at the foot of the Jabel Hafeet Mountains which straddle Oman and UAE. But the water was cold! What? I should really say the water was cool. This was a hot desert, so even with just the natural warming of sun and air, there isn't really cold water there. But it was not hot as one might expect.

But on the upside the Jabel Hafeet Mountain is jagged and cool looking. Plus, right? Happy again!

I can just imagine tectonic plates crashing into each other when I see this

We wanted to go hiking up in the mountains, but it turns out, that's not allowed. Oh! Sad again.

Let's go back to happy. We did go to visit the Camel Souk, where they just sell camels. If you want, you can just drive up, buy a camel, load it into the trunk (though it probably won't fit) and drive it home. Or you could ride it.

Have hump, will travel

Now you're wondering what this has to do with a hydrant. Well, it's really about where I saw the hydrant. You see Alrica and Syarra went ice skating. There is a skating rink in the Al Ain Mall. Carver and I didn't want to go skating, so we got groceries and then returned to pick the ladies up. But when we got there, the cupboard was bare. Or at least there were no female Goldsteins to be found.

We asked at the place where one rents the skates and learned that part way through the skating, Syarra had taken a spill. The blade of one skate had gone through the other leg, nicking an artery and spewing blood everywhere. She had been taken to Al Ain Hospital in an ambulance.

Fortunately, Google Maps could find this hospital and Carver was a great navigator as I raced (though never exceeding the speed limit) there.

Side note to cut the dramatic tension: In UAE, speed limits are bizarre. If you see a sign that says 80 (meaning 80 kph) the speed limit is actually 100 kph. If you see a sign that says 60, then you can go 80 kph. Apparently, the signs are listed at 20 kph less than the speed you are allowed to go. I don't know why this is. Why not just tell people the actual speed limit? I guess it reinforces the basic math skills of adding twenty. And I'm in favor of reinforcing math skills.

Back to the main story: Carver and I reached the hospital and parked. And I did see the hydrant there, the first one I had seen in UAE. But I didn't take the time to photograph it because I was in a hurry to find my injured daughter.

She's fine. It was a bad wound, but didn't hurt the muscle or bone. She is still walking with a limp because of the pain of the wound, but it is healing.

Anyway, with the running here and there, I didn't get a picture of the hydrant until the third time I passed it, when I knew Syarra was going to be okay.

Want an amazing fact? Emergency care and ambulance rides are free in the UAE. We didn't pay anything for Syarra's medical emergency. Wow!

Lest you feel too bad for us, look at what I did discover at the grocery store.

Compare and contrast: Doughnuts on left vs. doughnuts on right

Apparently what makes a doughnut American style is the stripes.

In the Eye – Erich

If you had to choose a great flavor that kids love, what would it be? Think on that for a moment, I'll get back to it.

We spent two great weeks in Al Ain, a city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate of the United Arab Emirates. It's on the border with Oman.

Al Ain is amazing in that it is a spot where people have lived sedentary lives for much longer than the rest of the nearby area. You see Al Ain is a natural oasis surrounded by desert. The name Al Ain means The Eye or The Spring. If you look at a map of the Arabian Peninsula, you can even imagine one wet area in this location as an eye next to sort of a rhinoceros like nose.

What it is means is that while the rest of the Arabian Peninsula was home to either nomadic herders or coastal fishing villages, in this one spot there was a community of farmers.

We visited the Al Ain Oasis, which is a huge publicly owned date plantation. We learned how the people of the area invented a form of canal irrigation called falaj irrigation. A falaj is the name for one of the canals, and its plural is aflaj. I'm sure the original aflaj were not made of concrete, nor did they have white plastic gates to cut off different branches.

Falaj, not a word we get to say often enough

In addition, the ancient people discovered three tier agriculture. First they planted date palms which grew tall enough to give shade and some relief from the heat. Under that was a layer of fruit plants. And then at the bottom were vegetables.

See it's not all oases!

And though the water and oases are very impressive and life-giving, there is something majestic about the desert itself. And one of the beautiful things in Al Ain is that you are allowed to just drive into the desert and get out of your car and walk around. We enjoyed taking some walks up dunes and runs down them. Some of us who were young and spry even rolled down the dunes. (I was not among their number.)

There is a whole lot of this

And after a hard day of rolling down dunes, why not kick back and enjoy some cream cheese. After all, it's the taste kids prefer!

Oh boy, Mom! Cream cheese!

The Spray Who Loved Me – Erich

One member of our happy traveling band rarely gets mentioned on this blog. That one member is the best at taking life as it comes, rolling with it, and staying unfazed by anything that happens on our trek. You see, Syarra travels with an easygoing, ready for anything, calm, soft, and fearless purple unicorn. Her name is Littlelicorn. (The unicorn's name. Syarra's name is Syarra.) Littlelicorn is more than just a boon companion, she's a pillow too. And a well-traveled one at that.

I'm sure Syarra knows that Littlelicorn loves her. And I now can understand that at a new level, because I learned that there is a fountain that loves me.

Last night we visited the Dubai Fountain. First, it is at the foot of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. And it's not the tallest by just a couple of inches. This one blows away the competition.

Look at me! Tallest in the world!

The Burj Khalifa is 828 meters tall. The second place building is the Shanghai Tower (bet you can guess which city it is in) at 632 meters. The design of the Burj Khalifa is interesting. It goes up in an almost conic way, but from some angles seems to have juts one direction and then another. But from another direction it almost looks like an inverted spiral funnel.

Nearby is the Dubai Mall, which is grand, as are many malls. Why do big buildings like to have malls near their base? I mean, that's not universally true, but we have seen it in other places as well. Especially in Asia. The Dubai Mall has some beautiful artwork, including an entire three story structure in one corner called the Waterfall.

How did they get all those silver men to dive at once?

But just outside the mall, stretching to the base of the Burj Khalifa is the Dubai Fountain. It is the largest performing fountain in the world. Each evening, it does a "dance" once every thirty minutes. And we got to see one of those performances.

It doesn't capture the entirety of the spectacle

The engineering involved in the design of those sprayers and spigots is unbelievable. The water can fire upwards easily fifty feet. The sprays can gracefully curve together like synchronized dancers. The spray can switch from a directed flow to a fine mist arcing out in a fan in only moments. It was an incredibly artist display.

And it was all synchronized to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." So not only was I entertained by the fountain, but it was declaring its love, (its eternal love,) for me.

How special do I feel? The world's largest performing fountain just sang about how much it loves me and always will. That's as good as a unicorn, right?

On second thought, there were well over a thousand people at that fountain watching the same show as me. So maybe the lyrics were directed at them as well. That's makes me a bit less of a unique object of affection for a hydrolic system.

Hmm. That's a bit disappointing. But I'm going to remain unfazed by this realization. You know, like Littlelicorn.

When Being Far From Home Really Hits Home – Erich

I apologize for the long title. I apologize more deeply if this post strays toward being maudlin. But as the Man in Black once said to Princess Buttercup, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something."

Before we left the United States for two years, we took a big road trip around the country to visit our family. Of course we wanted to see them before we went away. And we recognized that you never know what might happen in two years. We wanted to see everyone while we knew we had the chance to do so.

Yesterday was the first loss of a family member while we have been abroad. My Aunt Lori died. Aunt Lori was a fun woman. She had attitude, though in her time they might have used a term like spunk, or said she was her own person, or that she wasn't afraid to call it as she saw it. Whichever cliche you prefer, Aunt Lori was undoubtedly positive about life, unafraid of most anything, honest, clever, and at times mischievous. I would say "you would've liked her" to spout another cliche. But not knowing which reader is currently reading this post, I can't say that with 100% certainty. So let me say this. Given that you are a random reader reading this, there is a high probability that you would have liked Aunt Lori.

Her death was not a surprise. Aunt Lori has been sick for some time. And it is probably in many ways for the best. My mother tells me that Aunt Lori has just been less and less herself lately. I think she was ready.

I will miss my aunt. But more, I am sad for my cousins: Aunt Lori's children and grandchildren. And I'm sad for my mom, Aunt Lori's sister. I would very much like to be at the funeral, if not for Aunt Lori than for all of them. But that's not realistic. Even if I could afford the flight from the Middle East to the U.S., it would take too long.

Part of this trip was accepting that there would be just these kinds of limitations. And I do accept it. I will let my mind (and if you posit the existence of a spirit, my spirit) be there with my grieving loved ones.

I don't know what happens to us when we die. A lot of people have been posing and investigating that question for a lot of millennia. It's the kind of question that can never have a definitive answer, except to say that seeking the answer and it's accompanying problem of there being any meaning to life is a big part of what makes us human.

But I know some would say that Aunt Lori is now going on a journey of her own. And this one is further and more exciting than my trip to various nations. If that's true, I think it's beautiful. And Aunt Lori will undoubtedly have the best attitude for the trek. Plus, when she reaches her destination, those already there are in for a lot of good times and hearty laughter.

And if there is no such journey, that's okay too. Because those of us who loved Aunt Lori can remember her, reflect on what she meant to us, the things she taught us, and how she helped to shape us.

Goodbye, Aunt Lori. I know you would have contradicted the Man in Black. Sure, you would have agreed that at times life is pain, but most often it's the opposite. And you would have said it, not because you were selling something, but because that's the kind of person you were.

The Grand Photo Spot – Erich

I was compelled to take this picture. One might argue it was optional, but I would disagree with that assertion.

This is a grand photo

Those men in the photo, I don't know who they were. They were just passing by. And no, they did not compel me to take the picture.

The building is the Museum of Islamic Art here in Doha, Qatar. It's a very impressive museum. Their collections are varied, extensive, and some of it quite old. I was looking at parchments from the 10th century. (Yes, I recognize that there are older parchments in existence, like the Ahmes Papyrus in the British Museum. Though technically that's papyrus, not parchment. Just sayin'.) The building itself is gorgeous with fascinating architecture and tons of details in the decor.

But this isn't even the best angle from which to get a picture of the museum.

So why was I compelled to take this picture? Because right where I was standing when I took it, on the ground under my feet was this:

X marks the spot, where X is a variable denoting whatever that animal is

Yes, I was standing at The Grand Photo Spot. To be honest, I'm not sure to which grand photo it refers. Perhaps I was facing the wrong direction, though I spun about and didn't find a picture from this location that I thought was better. (Of course, what do I know.) I'm not even sure what that animal is. A cat? With antelope like legs? Maybe a fancy prancey cat? But what's with that nose?

The thing is this: Doha really is a great place for grand photos. The buildings are magnificent in their height, design, color, and architecture. The skyline is a sight to behold. It's just you see a lot of those views at places that are not labeled as "The Grand Photo Spot."

The Doha skyline

I wonder if there is a spiral staircase in this mosque

Doha is not a huge tourist destination, probably because it has very few tourist sites. It more or less has two: the Museum of Islamic Art, which I mentioned, and the Souq Waqif.

A view from a souq

A souq (or souk) as we learned in Morocco is a marketplace where there are many stands and shops lined on narrow streets. The Souq Waqif in Doha has the distinction of being the oldest continuously used souq in the world. There has been a souq on this location for about 2000 years. Of course, the buildings have been renovated in that time. In 2004, Qatar decided to do a major renovation, keeping the old style of the buildings, but putting in modern construction so they would stay standing. In addition new art and fountains were installed at the outskirts.

Like a well, but the bucket pours water in. So an unwell!

The souq has plenty of shops selling spices, clothing in the Arabian style, draperies and other linens, and birds. In the main souq, you see lots of pet shops and outside of them are tons of cages with small birds in them. But if you go one block to the west of the main souq, you reach the Falcon Souq.

Falconry is huge in Qatar. Many people own and train falcons. And you can see shops with falcons and all of their accessories. This is their main business.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any good pictures of the falcons. I'm not sure if they would like that, and I didn't want to see who would win between the bird of prey and me.

Though the falcons probably would have let me take their pictures if someone has just labeled one point on the ground in the souq as The Grand Photo Spot.

The Viewa from Phewa – Erich

In Pokhara there is a large lake called Phewa Lake, or on some maps Fewa Lake. The English spelling has apparently not been fully agreed upon. We walked down to the lake to enjoy some boating.

We got the red and green one

At the boathouse we rented a boat for a half day. These are traditional wooden boats with wooden paddles. Rowing was a good upper body workout. Those paddles are much heavier than the aluminum and plastic ones we are used to. But everyone got their turns with the work.

A face of intense work

Happier with the rowing, but an unusual grip

Look at those bulging muscles! (Hey, just pretend for my sake, all right.)

In the middle of Phewa Lake is a small island on which is the Barahi Temple.

Barahi Temple Island as we approached

The faithful can take a short ferry ride out to pray at the temple. We boated right around the island and got views of the temple from the water.

Closer view as we rowed past

On the south shore is the World Peace Pagoda, way up high on a hill.

It's way up there

And to the north is the inspiring photo you see on all of the postcards. It is the snow-capped peaks of the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. Here is a classic picture taken from Phewa Lake that I found on the web.

Postcard perfect picture

But here is the reality of it, the picture I took.

Not gonna see this on the postcard

We couldn't see the Himalayan peaks. The culture here is to burn your trash, and there is always so much smoke in the air, one can't even see that far. It's a shame because Nepal is a gorgeous country. If only the pollution weren't getting in the way of seeing it.

Still it was a fun day on the lake. Well, maybe not for my arm muscles.