Compounds in Abu Dhabi
It’s that time of year when western expats living in Abu Dhabi are making the decision on whether they should stay or go. June sees a natural end in the expat year as schools finish and 90% of wives and children escape the excessive summer heat and depart Abu Dhabi for greener pastures during the…
“Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver…” Reads the synopsis on the back of the book I’ve just started for my book club on Tuesday night. The Help, hit the shelves with a bang and shortly after made it…
Isolation, boredom and borderline insanity are all associated by-products of expats wives and moreover expat young mothers. Being a natural organizer and also keen to determine whether my one year old is anti-social or just naughty, I decided to start a playgroup, every Wednesday morning for mum’s and toddlers,” bring a toy and one to…
The raising of children is ultimately left to the expat wives in the Middle East. As the men working thirteen and fourteen hour days and six days a week, the role of the woman /wife is predominantly child-rearing. The option to escape the shackles of domesticity for an evening with girls is rare, as the…
On the approach of the anniversary of my departure from Ireland nearly two years ago, I look back on my initial attitude to emigration. I did draw a few lines in the sand at the time and while I stand firmly behind the principle of same, I would like to highlight that these projections were…
“Non-Muslim Section” the sign read. Being non-Muslim and human, I just had to take a look behind the beaded streamers at the rear of the local supermarket. Coming from the fairly stringent Muslim society of Doha, the slightly more liberal laws of Abu Dhabi were welcome. Since arrival in Abu Dhabi four weeks ago, it…
Coming from Doha, entering Abu Dhabi I feel like Dorothy clicking her red heeled shoes to change life from black and white to colour. The landscape is a lot greener a nice change from the monotonous beige of dusty Doha. Choice of accommodation for expats across the Middle East falls into three categories, a stand-alone…
Life was just settling into a comfortable monotony in Doha, we had emigrated and said goodbye to Ireland nearly two years ago, and it has taken that length of time to find a rhythm to my new life in Qatar. Uprooting from Ireland and setting up temporary home in the Middle East was a massive…
thereluctantemigrant 