Just Breathe.

While I should probably compile a list of all the things I genuinely like about Abu Dhabi and the opportunity to live here, there are still SO many things that I dislike, and in some cases absolutely HATE about living here.

Case in point: We have mold. Yep. In our air conditioning unit. We have for a while now and we continue to call the guy who is responsible for getting “guys” who take care of this sort of thing out here to… you know… take care of it. So after months we FINALLY get people out here… the same guys who came to fix our A/C last week and broke it more. (Greaaaat.) Anyway so last week they trashed our bathroom “fixing” the A/C so I wanted to make sure their intention was to clean up after themselves this time. So Stu asked them if they were going to clean it up and they told us they aren’t. “eat ease not our reesponseebility”… So I am picturing this nasty dusty-mold mist blanketing my house, including Kaden’s toys and bedding. We had to talk to our liaison guy who then talked to our watchman, who agreed to follow them around and clean it up himself. Whatever. As long as someone is responsible for the mess, who is not named Sydney (last week we had to clean up dead roaches and roach parts [i.e. legs], mouse poop, and all kinds of dust, dirt, grime, and the muddy shoe prints the guy tracked throughout the house I'd cleaned just days before).

So they start “cleaning”. Not two minutes after they start they deem they are “done” in Kaden’s room. Stu goes in there and says, “No, you’re not done, you haven’t even taken off the panel.” The guy then tells him they are only responsible for cleaning the grills, not inside the ducts. I explain that they are not merely dirty (and that if it were only the grills that needed cleaned, we'd have done it ourselves), there is mold growing inside and cleaning the outside of the grills is not going to take care of the problem inside (which is OBVIOUSLY where the external mold is coming from…). The guy literally laughed in my face and said that he has NEVER had someone ask him to clean inside the ducts. “Haha, how wood I get in dare to clean deez ducts? Haha. (mumble incoherently in not-English language… “clean da ducks, haha)”. So I resist the urge to punch the guy in the face and calmly explain that mold can cause sickness when it is inhaled. I asked him if in his own home he never would have his ducts cleaned… he laughed again, since I am clearly a complete (female) idiot, and told me no. I told him his family was going to die of cancer. He didn’t understand me.

Now, call me crazy for worrying about my son’s future health, but I don’t want to be the mom of the asthmatic cheering in the stands at Chess Club* because I didn’t adequately protect my kid as a baby and now he can’t play football.

So to make myself feel better, I told the guy who couldn’t understand a word I was saying, “This is so third world.” He nodded in ignorance.

While it is frustrating to me, it really makes me wonder what health problems the kids here face from just plain old ignorance. This isn’t 1950, we know more about certain things that will make you sick, that's why there are precautions we can now take to avoid them. Granted, these men are here from __________ (insert poverty-stricken country here) to make a living to send home to their families… I am sure the last thing they are worried about is mold spores and their children’s lungs. I would imagine their bellies take precedent over lungs… survival of the fittest in times and places like these I suppose. It just goes to show that someone like me should really have done this lifestyle before I had a kid! Haha.

You know, I think for my own sanity I’d better start that list about the things I DO like about it here. Stay tuned.

(*There is nothing wrong with Chess Club and my dorky little baby can do that instead of football if he wants... I just don't want to be responsible for it! :))