For an expat, it’s surprising just how reluctant some people can be to come visit us here in Abu Dhabi. It took nothing less than the birth of my first son to persuade my mother, who came under duress, convinced she’d spend the entire visit bunkered down in the nursery. (My dad wouldn’t come at all because “someone has to stay and water the grass”.)
Why the hesitation? Despite recent international media attention, the perception amongst some of our friends and family back home is that Abu Dhabi is backwards, dusty, hot, and dangerous. As with most places in the world, you can find elements of truth in this kind of portrayal.
But most of us expats still want the people we love to visit us. For one, we all love a little taste of home. We love to hear the voices of people whose accents we didn’t know we had until we left our native country. We want to hear all those little details about the lives of distant relatives and acquaintances that don’t warrant discussion on an expensive phone call. We want to see how everyone looks in person, without the distortion of the webcam. Best of all, we want them to bring us stuff from home that we didn’t know we valued until we no longer had easy access to it (I’m expecting my mom to bring my preferred cold medicine, Twizzlers, and Lawry’s Season Salt).
More important, though, we love showing our visitors around Abu Dhabi because it reminds us of everything we love about the UAE. You don’t have to live here very long before you stop bothering to pull over every time you see a camel out in the desert. Those beautiful, charming, elegant women in their long floating abayas stop seeming exotic when you’ve seen a hundred of them. The shifting dunes are just piles of sand and the sight of the sun setting behind the Grand Mosque becomes part of the scenery when you see it every day.
But when my parents come later this year, I’ll remember my first days in Abu Dhabi, staring wide-eyed at everyone from the imams in their gold and black robes to the sub-continental workers in their salwar pants and kameez tunics and the stylish Indian ladies in colourful saris. I took photos of the pedestrian crossing Green Man in his khandurah and of the squat potties in the public bathrooms. In those early days, everything—Abu Dhabi, the UAE, the Middle East—was new and exciting and full of wonder.
Even though my mother has been once before, she only saw enough to whet her appetite. This time she’s looking forward to showing my dad all the sights and sounds and smells of this special place. I can hardly wait for them to come – if only to see once again my new home through their sparkling tourists’ eyes.
