A traditional Emirati dance lines up two rows of men opposite of each other (obviously you can't see the opposite row in this picture) and they chant. They also tap and wave a walking stick. I took a video of this with my iPhone to give you a sense of what it is like but I held the phone in the wrong way and the video is upside down. Oops.
The marching band played and the main sound came from bagpipes. I wonder when bagpipes came to this country. I've asked and so far nobody's been able to answer.
Different booths displayed various parts of the historical culture of the Emirates. Decades ago fishing and pearl diving were the main sources of income for Dubai. Here my guide is explaining the fishing...
...and here he is showing the basket the divers would wear around their necks as they'd dive for clams to collect pearls.
The other Arab countries had clubs with booths representing their country. Here is one of my more humorous former students Hussein working to set up the Egyptian booth.
And here I am with two of my favorite former students. Abdulkarim on the left and Khaled on the right. Abdulkarim is the guy who helped me
buy my kandura for National Day last December. I purposefully did not crop this picture so you could get a sense of the crowd. See any women? I don't know that I'll ever get used to that but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.
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