Farook Prepares for Umrah, Day 1

Every summer that I've known him, when his children are out of school Farook has gone on Umrah, a trip to Mecca for Islamic pilgrims any time that is not the Hajj. Usually, he disappears without a word for a month or two, but this year he invited me to join him as he prepared. Basically, he will meet a lot of relatives on Umrah, and some relatives who live in Saudi Arabia will put his family up when they go there, so he has to buy presents. Lots of presents. His wife and daughters bought presents for all the females weeks ago, but Farook is just starting on his assigned task of buying presents for all the males, ranging from infants to grandfathers, and possibly great-grandfathers.

So Farook invited me to go with him to Ajman. He wanted to check out the new Chinese Souk in Ajman, and thought I'd also like to see it.

The project started with three mistakes on my part: first, I convinced Farook that public transport is better than driving. He had never used public transport before, and getting Farook into public transport proved more complicated than I imagined. My second mistake was missing my bus from where I live to the station from which the Ajman bus leaves, so I was 30 minutes late. Farook kept SMSing me that he was standing in the blazing Dubai sun, and the temperature was about 47 (or 117 F) in the shade. Of which there wasn't any.

Finally, I arrived and so did the bus to Ajman. The driver kept the front door locked, and only opened the rear door for the passengers to depart. Strangely, the crowd queued around the locked front door (I've seen crowds that pushed to get onto the bus through all the doors, and with such vigour that those on board could not get off).

Then I made my third mistake: I noticed that the driver had unlocked the front door, so I opened it. The driver said no one was allowed to get into the air conditioned bus, but Farook was not having any of this: he demanded to be allowed into the bus and out of the sun. The driver finally pushed Farook out of the bus and locked the door. Then he made his obligatory tour of the bus to pick up any lost or discarded objects and ensure that the bus was tidy before allowing passengers to get on. Finally, he unlocked and opened the front door and we all piled into the bus.

Right after sitting down, Farook got up and went to the manager's office to file a complaint. The manager came out and asked for an Arabic-speaking witness, and took one with him. About ten minutes later, the manager came back out and asked for me. We gathered in the manager's office and the manager and Farook and the Arabic-speaking witness conversed while the poor driver cowered. Neither the driver nor I had any idea what was happening. Finally, it was the scheduled time for the bus to leave, and somehow we all ended up in Ajman at the time we were scheduled to arrive.

In Ajman, we first went to the new China Souk. This is a huge, air conditioned warehouse divided into hundreds of tiny shops. Farook said they were all cheaters trying to gouge the public. Prices were around $15 for shirts and $20 for trousers. Islamic Prayer carpets, another traditional gift, were about $15. So we stormed out and went to another souk.  I think the official name is the Ajman Public Souk, but everyone calls it the Ajman Iranian Souk. This is an open-air market, again with lots of tiny shops, and absolutely no air conditioning. The shirts were about $14, trousers about $19, and prayer rugs about $14. Again we stormed out.

Then we proceeded to the Ajman Dream Sea Discount store, where Farook found a Real Madrid outfit that was a factory reject because it was stained., and he bought it for $1.35. All day, and only a single Real Madrid outfit for one of his nephews who is a Real Madrid fan.

Farook invited me to join him to continue preparations for Umrah the next day, and I agreed.