Back to enquiry main page

 Letters From a Desert

Well, here I am an eighteen year old teenager sitting by the computer and trying to come up with the best way of describing to you the kind of life that an average teenager leads in the United Arab Emirates has. At the same time, I'm slowly recovering from a bad cold even though it is 30 degrees centrigrade with my air conditioning on at full blast.
In this part of the world we are stuck with only two seasons. the very hot and himid summer, which forces you to spend most of your time indoors in the cool atmosphere provided by our very best friend, the air conditioner. On the other hand we have very pleasant and mild winters, which do not require heaters. During the winters, we experience a couple of heavy rains that are capable of flooding the streets for days. the joy of seeing rain is overcome by traffic jams, which can last for hours.
Let me aboloish your ideas about this side of the world. No, we do not use camels as our primary form of transportation. Bedouins in the middle of the desert might, but even some of them rely upon todays high technology to wander through the desert. With plenty of sunshine, sandy beaches, shopping malls, excellent restaurants, discos there are a wide range of activities in the United Arab Emirates for everyone. We have many cinemas with the latest technology that feature the newest movies around. there are various theme parks and activities such as sand skiing, sailing, ice skating and go-karting. Many teenagers here are extremely conscious about the environment and become members of environmental committees.
Extracts from a letter by Nadia Bouz-Asal from the Al Ma'afira school in the United Arab Emirates written to St Edwards Middle School in 1998.

Hello
My name is Jubin. I come from India. I am in grade 6 and I am 11 years old. The school I study is called Ruwais International School. The climate of the place where I live is very hot and dry. In our class we have 26 students. The United Arab Emirates is mostly a desert country. All of the students in my class come from many parts of the world. Our parents work here, so we study here. It is a newly built city. The streets are well planned. Lawns and gardens are beautifully maintained. Here there is a duck pond and a cattle farm. There is a beautiful beach just a distance of 10 kilometres. At weekends we go fishing and swimming there. Sometimes they conduct barbeque parties on the beach. I like very much the beauty and freshness of this remote city of Ruwaiis in the United Arab Emirates which is located 250 kilometres from Abu Dhabi.
A letter from 'Jubin' to St Edward's Middle School in October 1999