Rainy Day

Posted by Kanga.

It’s been raining all day. For Pacific Northwesterners (U.S.) who have a plethora of words for describing rain, it has been mostly “sprinkling.” This denotes a very light rain (not as light as “misting”), but lighter than an actual “rain shower.” In Oregon, this rain would definitely not require the use of an umbrella and not even a coat, except for the wimpiest of citizenry.

But, since we, in the U.A.E. have brightly sunny and dry days nearly all year, this precipitation is of note. As I stepped out of the apartment building this morning I saw several book bags abandoned on the porch and three school boys standing out on the sidewalk where they could get (at least a little bit) wet. One was definitely exalting in the water falling from the sky with his head thrown back and his mouth wide open.

I enjoyed walking to the taxi stop near the mall, even though it was barely raining and the ground was nowhere near thoroughly wet, yet. It was also nice to ride in the taxi with the window down and enjoy the cool air rushing in.

I knew immediately that my taxi driver would be extraordinary, because he actually used his turn signal to indicate that he was pulling over to pick me up. Not only that, but he recognized my destination and offered me the choice of two routes to reach it. Wow! He asked me a few questions. Was I a teacher? Where am I from? (He guessed Australia. Surely, I speak better English than that. ) I don’t usually have conversations with taxi drivers. Many have very limited English and then there is the cultural red tape attached to unaccompanied women. Most don’t initiate conversation and neither do I. (Not because I’m snobbish, but because I am a very private, introverted person who really doesn’t want to talk to strangers.) DaddyBird, on the other hand, with his “number one Muslim beard” gets into many a taxi driver conversation.

In other news, this Friday we will be traveling to Instanbul, Turkey. (Finally, after months of not traveling anywhere, we get to live a little “travel channel.”) We will be there for two weeks and will be blogging and sharing lots of pictures.

So, stay tuned.