Not-so-Top-Gear

It's two months until we leave the Middle East (probably) and pursue the next step in this International MBA quest: work. Internship searches have been the name of the game for all of us (even the non-student spouses), and one of the other students decided to hop a flight to a job fair opportunity. Jacob and I jumped on the early-morning airport drive so we could get out of Buraimi and explore a little more.

We made our coffee and rushed to get ready and down to the car no later than 5:50AM. That's right. Dave needed to be at the airport in Abu Dhabi by 8AM, so we had an early call time. No worries, though, Jacob and I were excited to see all of a Buraimi sunrise and enjoy the sometimes-even-pleasantly-cool weather of a time when sun doesn't dominate the landscape (oh, and did I mention the van has no A/C? We might have voted for 6AM anyway!).

Anyway, we head over to Dave's and, during a routine U-turn which included driving through a bit of sand, (and let me say here, SAND. It's everywhere. It's unavoidable. People drive more on the sand than they do the road since many of the neighborhoods don't even have pavement and the roads are so inconvenient to use that people choose the bumpy, dying-palm-lined shoulders instead!) we...guess...sink. Like sink. Like quicksand at the back tire of our real-wheel drive nine-passenger van. Positives: we've totally both been stuck before and are sure we can get out. Negatives: sand, so not really the same thing as dirt. 5:55.

 So we're thinking, ok. It's six in the morning! No one will be out at six in the morning!

We were wrong, humdulli'allah, and two different groups of guys (henceforth called shebab) walked down the road and tried gallantly to instruct Jacob in Arabic and helped us push. Negatives: No dice. Buried tire deeper. Positives: Arab hospitality, Arabic practice. 6:15.

Call Dave. Tell him we are stuck. Try other friends for help. Begin to wonder how long it would take even a high-powered flatbed truck to pull our large white van out of the sand. Begin to think exactly how funny we look on the side of the road. AT SIX IN THE MORNING!

Yet another group of determined shebab show up and try to reason through the problem, basically deciding we're not going anywhere right now, so we should all at least hang out and laugh about it. Good attitude, but we're still feeling pretty panicked about getting Dave to the airport when Matthew answers phone and heads our way to pick up Dave and take him to the airport. Great! Positives: Problem solved. Negatives: A long, hot day of standing by the car/walking into town in search of a flatbed truck on prayer day flashes before my eyes. 6:25.

New shebab show up on the scene, but this time, familiar greetings are exchanged. Apparently it's our teacher Hussein's friend's brother (of course, right?) and he remembers Dave. Yay! He walks around the vehicle, sizing up the situation and decides he can help. He walks back to his SUV and pulls out what looks to me like a reinforced laundry line with two hooks. One goes on his car, another on the - barely accessible - part of our car that seems to be designed for just this scenario.

I'm like, ok, Oman's Funniest Home Videos, give it a try. I can see where this is going.

Wrong! In about 10 seconds, the van popped up out of the sand and back onto the pavement. Ma'sha'allah! Everyone is duly impressed, we call off Matthew - who returns to bed - and get on the road. 6:39.

After hauling it to Abu Dhabi, Dave arrives at the airport. 8:19.

So good luck on the search Dave!