This entry is a bit delayed from my usual schedule of posts.  I say usual like I’ve been doing this for years but as it turns out today is the 3 month mark.  This means I’ve passed my probationary period! Hurray!  I was never really worried and so its more of a milestone than anything significant.  Well, the banks here will give me a loan now… something I plan on never ever doing.  My mother in-law would be so proud.

A couple weeks ago…  just before UAE National Day actually, it rained here.  I take it that rain like we had is pretty rare.  My colleagues kept telling me that the last time we had rain like this it was over two years ago.  To be fair it wasn’t more than some of the big storms back home.  Yet, as I predicted in this earlier post, the lack of drainage made things super interesting.  The kids went bananas.

The rain filled up every round about and parking lots became giant lakes.  I was glad to see that everyones’ kids, not just mine, made their way outside to do what every kid ought to do in a giant rain storm – get totally soaking wet.  The parking lot in Q block, where the Palmers live incidentally was a fabulous lake – complete with standard issue garbage bins and oily car spots.  Our kids went swimming and for the first time in the UAE came home cold.  A warm shower cured them right away.

The lack of rain here appears to mean that the roof of a building is really more of a shade device and being water repellent is as good as water tight.  I was shocked at the buckets collecting water from leaky roofs in multiple places on campus.  I was more than a little annoyed though when our living room ended up with several gallons of water on the floor.  In our case the water came down the outside of a drain pipe that runs between our home and the neighbours (in the wall) and then found its way through some cracks in the foundation behind our television.  Our giant fleece blanket just happened to be folded up on the floor next to the couch and kindly soaked up the majority of the water… No way that blanket can fit in our little European washing machine though.  Once we have a car we’ll take it off to a laundry someplace.

The maintenance team got to work right away and fixed the leak.  I’m a fan of not having to get up on a leaky roof.  They seem to have fixed the problem… at least for the next couple years when it rains again.