Camel Racing!!!

Woah! For the frst two weeks of this year, things were just pretty much getting back into the swing of things. I've been teaching again for not yet one and a half weeks, and I'm already tired. Mostly because I'd forgotten how much energy the Kindergarteners are. We need a new seating plan, and we need a new set of activities...these kids are too smart now! So, that's certainly been keeping me busy.

I haven't been running since before I left. Shame. I have a half marathon (run by 4 girls in a relay) in February, and I'm going to have to get myself in gear...granted it's only 5Km. Hopefully tonight I'll have the energy to go again. I'm still training for that half!

The other thing that has constantly been on my mind is work next year. I have had an interview with a Christian International school in Hong Kong, and today I'm feeling like it's a pretty promising thing to do...yesterday I was thinking I could never do it, and it would be too hard to leave everyone...and I'm so up and down i'm getting dizzy. Who knows what will happen. There are some serious pro's and con's to each for sure. If not, I'd really like to come back home and plant some roots, but maybe in Calgary so i still feel like it's a new place.

Well, this past weekend, a couple of the girls and I decided to go find out what all of this Camel racing is all about. It's certainly not like horse racing, as no one can take bets on another...however, there is donated prize money...and it's BIG! Like, for a small, off season race it'd be about 15oo CAN. So, that's good money, but for a race that's coming up in the fall, the prize is 500 000DHs! That's roughly 150000bucks. Just for having a camel who can run around a track, and what's more, they will also recieve a herd of 50 Brand new cars!

So, it's a pretty big UAE past time, but when we went, it was still off season, so the races were small, and other than the camel owners, there were no other emiraties. But, when we got there, we were greeted by a very kind and helpful man, who worked at the stadium. he told us where to stand so we wouldn't die. you see, there are no bleachers, no stands to speak of. You simply line up along the edge of the track, and wait. The reason you wait is that these tracks are miles long. It takes the camels a full 15 minutes to run the track...it's nothing like our horse tracks. So, you watch them take off from the start! you clap and cheer for your favorite, but because there is no better, you don't have any emotions attached to any of them, and then you wait in the dirt, grab a cup of coffee or tea (which is both Arabic and free - how kind), and then you mosy along to the finish line, where you watch them come in! Hurrah!

The kind and helpful man who told us how not to die did so because behind the fence, on the far side of the fence, there is a road, and on the road (so you and the fence are in the middle), there are tons of cars! All of the vehicles are driven by the owners of the camels. So, they drive along the track and follow their camels around and around. If you get in their way...likely you will die because they are paying attention to their camels, and not to you. We were able to jump into one owners vehicle and he took us around the track so we could watch an entire race. They do happen every 15 minutes, so we saw a ton of starts and finishes. We also met several other expats who were working in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but most were well beyond my years. one guy though, worked for the UN, and I wanted to ask him how he snagged his job, but, his tour left before i could. Shoot.

On top of the camels, are not jockeys like at home. I guess they used to use small children, but when that became to dangerous and OCHS came in (ha ha, just kidding, the UN stepped in is that happened). Since then, instead of small children, they are using remote controlled robot boxes. The boxes are essentially dressed like jockey's, with striped clothing and little hats, and they carry small solid whips. Well, the robot jockey is controlled by the driver who has an ear bud in the camels ear, and yells at him from the drivers seat, and tells the robot jockey to hit the camel and make him faster. I very much enjoyed watching this process, of little robots whacking camels and the stupid camel runs as if it's a real person up there.

Also, camel racing, unlike horse racing, is hillarious even if you don't have a clue about any of it, because camels are NOT graceful animals. They clump clump around up and down, there is nothing smooth. Think of old cartoons where 4 legged animals would trip over their legs. That's what I thought might happen the whole time. It's very risky business - though, i've been told, the camels never do fall over themselves.

After the races, and a check mark of the list of experiences that I'm supposed to complete while I'm here, we went into Al Ain (a near by town) and saw their zoo. It reminded me a lot of Edmonton zoo as far as size and the types of exhibits. They did have different animals though, including my new favorite...a rhino (they are just so much stranger to see in person than otherwise). The day was a huge success.

my next goal is to do kayak down the mangroves....i'll let you know how it goes.

Hey, if you have an in-put into this decision, let me know!

peace.