a grey-eyed girl

Two students came to the office before class today and apologized for their ‘misbehavior’.  I was touched and told them so, but when a camera flashes me at 141km I have to pay the fee and when I returned their quizzes at the end of the first period with points deducted they understood and now it is hoped there will be no repeat.

And I walked to Faez’s tiny garage after twelve yesterday and the Honda was up on the hoist and he told me to come back in an hour.  I told him I’d return after four.  His garage is a 15 minute walk from the grotto, alongside the road that parallels the fence separating Buraimi with Al-Ain.  When I left the garage I passed the Hili border crossing and the line to get out was absurd.  Someone told me today a new governor of Al-Ain was responsible for the completely unnecessary delays.  It goes without saying the new governor may be responding from those above him but I can easily imagine one man with power making havoc on his own accord.  And for what reason?  Look, honey, look what I can create.  Six years ago the ‘art’ on the large roundabout at the old Prisunic supermarket was razed four times for no reason at all.  There was for a few months a nice round fort, similar to the famous Jahili Fort in the city but someone didn’t like it and laborers tore it down.  Then I remember a field of beautiful flowers of all colors and that lasted a season and it was uprooted.  I don’t even remember what is there now.

In any case I returned to the garage and the car was ready.  Faez did a masterful job replacing the door handle on the driver’s side which snapped off two months ago.  He said the brakes were fine and I can only hope come early Wednesday morning when I go to the police station and the old car is inspected it’ll be ok.  The man with a baby blue shalwar kameez and tobacco stained teeth cleaned the engine and said there were some leaks in a few hoses and he tightened and replaced what had to be replaced and he was reluctant to tell me how much I owed him and finally asked for 43 Rials, which is about $110.  That’s how much Canadian mechanics charge per hour for labor alone, I exclaimed knowing he may not have understood which was good I guess. 

Speaking of blue, there is a student of mine who has, not really blue eyes, more grayish, and when we are talking at a professional and public distance I look at them and I am not convinced she is wearing these colored Contac lenses that Dubai’s Chinese like to wear when they unconvincingly say they are from Vietnam.  Lady, the Vietnamese have black eyes just like you Shandong Province gals. 

When the moment is right I will ask this grey eyed girl what’s going on.  I suspect my first question will be ‘where are your grandparents from?’ I am guessing Afghanistan or Iran.  How about Yemen, I don’t know.  But Pakistan is a possibility.  And I could find out from her family name, Pakistani surnames are pretty recognizable and her first name is definitely originally not peninsula native.

There’s a good chance of rain tomorrow, come on rain!  The BBC weather is far more accurate than the local online newspaper’s predictions.  Following the predictions from last week’s forecast a hospital in Muscat closed because it has a tendency to flood when precipitation is heavy.  What a terrible inconvenience it is when an ambulance carrying a man suffering from a heart attack finds a hospital is closed from an inaccurate forecast and reactionary administrators. 

It’s almost time to call it a day.  I can’t remember if took a nap this afternoon.  I plopped down on the uncomfortable two seater turned on the tv and caught the last hour of The Untouchables, what a great flick and everyone of De Niro’s profanities were expunged.  Still it was nice to see some of it.