UAE Day at GEMS - November 25,2009

This day was a very exciting day at school. First off it was the last day of school before our week off, and it ended up being this huge party at school. We dressed up in the traditional dress (dish dash for the boys and abiya for the girls). I had to get help for my head scarf.

There was an assembly first thing in the morning. Every grade had a part to play. Patrick's grade sang a song in Arabic. Samantha's kindergarden classes each wore a different colour of the UAE flag and then they sat in the right order. Some of the older classes performed a tradional dance, a wedding and a fashion show. My grade 2's talked about the 7 Emirates and then did a little cheer.


Afterwards each grade got a chance outside to visit all the different stations. They had falcon's there (I got to hold one- they are so beautiful), horse rides, face painting (Patrick got the flag on his cheek), tradional pancake making, henna painting and someone was writing out your name in Arabic. I got the kids names done, I am hoping I can get the teacher to do Wayne's and mine later.

This is Samantha getting her henna on her hand, middle one is of Samantha and her friend Zeena, and the final one is both Samantha and I with our hands done with the heena. It was really neat to do. The longer you leave it on to dry the darker it becomes. At first it is very orange in colour but eventually goes to a brown colour.

They had a huge lunch for everyone, with all the traditional foods - hummos, falafels, tahini, grilled meat, rice, wraps, salads with tomatoe and cucumbers, looked like some kind of cabbage roll, and many other things I didn't know about. The deserts were like a trifle served in a chocolate bowl. Everything was very good, and there was so much of it.