Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Moving Camels

The longer I stay here in Dubai, the more appalled I am at the ways of the society. I don't mean the way the women dress in all black from head to toe, or the way that men hold hands (as friends) here. I don't mean the fact that I don't live in a Democracy and women don't really have a say over who they are, what they do or who they marry...

I'm referring to the little crazy things that go on here. Like camels in the bed of a pick-up truck.

I grew up in a little tiny town in Texas where it's pretty common to see people coming home from the grocery store on their tractors. Not too abnormal for me...husband goes to work in the cotton field, wife calls husband on his cell while he's in the cotton field because she forgot butter, toilet paper or tampons; husband then has to "run" to the grocery store on his way home from the cotton field on his tractor. Seems pretty normal to me.

But camels in the back of a pick up truck?? A WHOLE CAMEL? What exact situation warrants this? Was there a camel emergency and the driver had no other way to transport the poor awkward thing but to shove it in the bed of his truck? It wasn't even a big truck like the ones we have in Texas with 19 extra wheels on it. It was just your average Toyata sized truck...very normal sized 4 x 4, but with a full size camel in the back.

The poor thing looked like its legs had been turned into giant noodles that were then wrapped and contorted around him so as to fit his abnormally sized and designed body into an equally abnormally small sized box.

Add to that the 140 or so km per hour that the driver was going and you really have the makings of something special.

Ahhh, Dubai.....oh, how I love thee.