I stubbornly wake before each days sunrise. Atop every mosque, conveniently located on every corner, is a loud speaker that bellows the long swinging moan of Tarzan with a tooth ache. Its the first prayer of the day followed by four more prayers; noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. The waking prayer prompts believers to give thanks to Allah (God) for his guidance and provisions and reminds me how much I do not get along with God before sunrise. Jamie's up for school, I drift back to sleep.
Through everyday conversation with customer service, I'm embarressed to constantly have to say, "What?" I'm sorry can you repeat that? Ok, one more time please, slower." Accents can often be thick, quick, and hard to understand. If I need assistance, Hussin, our security guard, has always been helpful. He will call anyone for me but insist I talk to them. I think he does this so he can laugh at me because inevitably I give the phone back and he giggles and translates. I can't imagine what my Georgia draw sounds like to others.
Because of hot days, the culture here is to be outside at sundown. Families picnic till 11pm, parks are filled with people, restaurants are booming, dinners start at 8pm. Night time is busy and loud everyday of the school week. We went to our first movie here (Fast Furious part X1) it's 11:30pm the mall is wall to wall people and kids. We sat next to two, two yr olds - not our own. Everyone talked the entire movie and teens up front were trying to see who could talk the loudest. In a Bizarre change, people clapped and cheered the entire movie. Subtitles - Spanish, Arabic, and Jamie saw a movie with French, and Arabic.
I walked through LuLu' grocery and heard "something" by the Beatles, played ten times in a row. Usually its just instrumental music. I did hear Amazing Grace instrumental. I wanted to sing out loud! Amir, our maintenance friend had Justin Beiber as a ring tone. It went off and I smirked. I got the feeling he didn't care. Ok then. I did get to see a belly dance on a desert safari. I don't remember what the music sounded like.
My favorite UAE sound is the car horn. The horn has a universal message.
The Tap: hello! Are you paying attention?
The Punch: what are you gonna do?
The Press: what the freak are you thinking!?
Ive learned that i must predict the traffic light and start moving a millisecond before the light change if I want to avoid three or more honking at me.
But the horn brings value to our lives. Value: When you have a problem with someone, we are to address it directly to that person. We are honest about how we feel followed by Grace.
A transgression occurs, we express our disapproval, we forget and move on. Occasionally, we do get those signals crossed. "Dad, is he honking at you?" "You honking at me, who's he honking at?" But ultimately, we feel better removing the frustration off our shoulder. We address it loud, then we forgive and forget. What a great lesson of sound. - Jeff
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