Did You Hear About the Allens?: September 2011

I’m a terrible blogger. The amount of information hopping around in my brain is overwhelming! …And it’s only been a few weeks since my last post. Thus, I’ll have to try and focus on one thing at a time in order to update everyone in a fairly coherent fashion.

Let’s begin with the apartment…a story in and of itself….

Shortly after our arrival in Abu Dhabi, Jeremy and I were told that we would be placed in Al Ain, “The oasis of the Abu Dhabi emirate.” Fine by us, we just wanted to know exactly WHERE in Al Ain. Soon, the whole lot of teachers to be shipped to this fine city were loaded into buses and brought to a hotel to wait…wait….wait…… and finally receive keys to our “new” apartments. Some people were lucky. They received keys to their incredible villas in a place called “The Village.” Others were sent to new but lesser known places. The Allens? We were given a key to a flat in Al Falahi…. Not bad, I thought, when I first saw it. A little prison-like with windows that looked out to the other apartment windows an arm’s reach away. So I signed the lease.

We considered ourselves a little bit lucky…we received some furniture with our apartment. But after several drives to Al Ain to drop off newly purchased housewares and one night in the new digs….the stark reality of the situation became clear. We would not last in Al Falahi. The roaches on their own may not have been a problem. Many people live with roaches as roommates and really have no other choice. But when combined with the horrendous sewer smell issuing from every corner of the flat, we knew something had to change.

In we went to the housing office to see the head of housing for all ADEC employees. He was concerned, but flooded by requests from others that had come before us. “Must stay for 3 months, madam. You must give the place a chance.” Luckily, Jeremy met a property owner as we sat in the housing office who just happened to have several apartments available. We went to see one that day and knew we would take it if my employer would allow us to move. Once again, we spoke with the director of housing in Al Ain, this time with all the work already done by us. Our housing director said we could move, but had to wait for my employee number to come (this was almost three weeks ago now….and I STILL have not received my employee number!!).

Once again, we settled in to wait…..wait…..wait….. I came home to our flat in Al Falahi on our first Thursday night in Al Ain…and promptly burst into tears. I walked in to find my husband and daughter playing in the living room, managing to stand the vomit-inducing smell that blanketed the apartment. The saddest part was, they didn’t notice it as much since they had been in the apartment for a while. I couldn’t last any longer there. I called our housing head and amazingly got through to him at 4:00 on a Thursday!! (Others may know what an incredible accomplishment this is - Mr. Adel almost never answers his phone, and ALWAYS tries to leave at 2:00 on Thursdays – the official start of the weekend here). When I broke down to him and explained that our daughter had gotten sick over the smell and we could not last any longer, he finally agreed to let us move. We were ecstatic and left that night!!

Adel – if you ever read this, THANK YOU!!! You saved our family!!!

Following are some pictures of our beautiful new flat as we work to furnish it and make it a home:

Our lovely kitchen....and Dalila!