Rochester Couple Living in Dubai
By Martha Slater

Retired educators Art and Kristina Aaronson of Rochester are off on an adventure, living in Dubai for a year. Art was hired by the Ministry of Education to be a principal mentor to a public high school in Dubai.

"It’s a big program, in which the Ministry is trying to improve public United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) schools," Kristina explained in a recent e-mail. "They have hired about 40 principal mentors and about 150 teachers from English speaking countries all over the world to live here and work in the local schools."

Kristina is keeping friends back at home up-to-date in a series of "Dubai Diary" e-mails. On August 30, she noted that "three weeks and four hotels later, I am happy to report that we just moved into an apartment today. This is very fast considering how slow and disorganized things are in the U.A.E."

The Aaronsons felt very lucky to find a beautifully furnished new apartment the very first time they met with a realtor.

"This is not usual and almost everyone in the program with Art has ended up renting unfurnished places and using a furniture allowance to shop for what they need," Kristina explained. "Our building has a large swimming pool, access to the beach, and will have a fitness center in a few weeks. Our apartment is on the 22^nd floor and is quite large, with floor to ceiling picture windows overlooking the famous Palm Island off the coast of Dubai and the Dubai Marina.

The landlord of our apartment is a very wealthy retired CEO and is British. We met him personally because he wanted to meet us before allowing us to rent his apartment. These people are planning on living in Dubai eventually but for now, have gone back to the UK and were happy to find some conservative, middle aged, careful renters such as us."

The Aaronsons are living in south Dubai in a brand new area of high-rise buildings right on the beach. A Pakistani taxi driver told Kristina he had been there for 15 years and remembered that area being an empty desert, with camels roaming around, just 10 years ago. Today, Kristina says it is "a conglomeration of many fancy tall buildings trying to capitalize on a view of the ocean."

Kristina noted that "the experience of living here is totally the opposite in every way from our Vermont life. I walk on a clean white sandy each morning, instead of my Vermont hills and I park in an underground garage and take an elevator up to the 22^nd floor, instead of climbing all the steps up the hill to my Vermont house! I live in air conditioning and stay indoors this time of year much like I stay indoors in Vermont during January and February when it's bitter cold."

Art has found going back to work was an adjustment for him, after having retired and been home all summer.

"The difference here is that he’s not in charge of a school and he’s not putting in his usual 15-hour stressful days as he used to in August and September," Kristina observed. "Instead, he goes to school without a specific job description and has spent these days getting to know everyone. Language is a big hurdle, since all classes are taught in Arabic except English ones, of course. The principal speaks English, as do the language teachers. He says they are good about translating for him when he is in a teacher's meeting."

Art has found the public schools to be a bit dilapidated. He is in the Al Safa Boys School with 350 boys in 10^th,, 11^th and 12^th grade and an all-male staff. He was recently interviewed by a television station, which came to do a story about the Westerners working in public U.A.E. schools, as part of the Al Madares Project. In Art’s school, there are also two young teachers who are teaching English, one from Ireland and one from California, and a school coordinator, who was just hired from Australia, so he is not the only Westerner at this school.

"Life is still a new adventure, discovering new things each day." Kristina wrote. "The program began in Dubai with an orientation and then we were all taken to Abu Dhabi for more orientation. Abu Dhabi was quite a contrast to Dubai and I am quickly coming to the conclusion that there is no place like Dubai.

Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate and also the capital of the U.A.E. It is a lovely, orderly city without sky scrapers and with many wide avenues that are lined with palm trees and even some planted green grass. One is never far from the ocean, so the views are lovely and there is little traffic on the streets. I notice many more foreigners in Dubai and more Arabs and Emiratis in Abu Dhabi."

It is still the very hot season in Dubai, with temperatures over 100 degrees and sunshine every day.

"I have yet to experience a raindrop or even a cloudy day," Kristina marveled. "You just get used to continual blue skies all the time!"

She and Art have found the people there to be friendly, "and everyone seems to speak English with varying accents, depending on where they are from and where they learned English."

"This feels like such a safe place and we continue to be amazed by the cleanliness everywhere and the total lack of poverty," Kristina concluded. "It is certainly the most unique city and country I have ever experienced."

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