Grocery shopping here has proven to be more than a challenge right now. We are temporarily living in an apartment in an area that doesn’t have any large grocery stores so this is how it goes…
Me, Charles, Audrey and Will take the elevator down and walk thru a parking lot, across the street, thru an alley between buildings right up to a very busy street and wait for a cab (while trying to keep the kids from running into the street). Flag one down, load everyone in, no carseats (there is no law here- but i am still uneasy about it). Take a 8 minute cab ride to the grocery store, pay the fare (usually around 8 durhams = just over $2) Go into shopping mall, then go into grocery store.. *they are all built into the malls here. It is SUPER crowded, kids melting down, crying and I am trying to sift thru the labels to figure out what is what… much harder than i imagined. Lots of food i have never heard of or ever seen before.. and i feel like i know quite a bit of food trivia. I have serious sticker shock, not only are the food prices higher, but the durham is 3.65x’s higher than the dollar so, for example if something you normally buy cost $3, it would read 10 Dhs. You also have to take all your produce to a counter in the produce section and the guys there weigh and label your produce before you go to the check out at the register. There are long lines for this – again.. kids crying and fussy. finally just get bare necessities and get out of the super crowded store. Charles is loaded down like a donkey, holding ALL of the grocery bags in his two hands and I am carrying Will and holding hands with Audrey. Walk across the parking lot and get in line for a cab once again. Load up the cab with groceries and drive back to apartment building area.. pay cab fare. Cab drops us off, carry kids and groceries back to the building and up the elevator and finally unload here. what a chore. something i cannot fathom doing by myself. impossible. another factor in all of this is that their food has no preservatives, so the shelf life on milk, bread and produce is max 4 days. It looks like every couple of days we will have to do this. we cannot buy much when we go because we have no way of getting it back to the apartment.. only what charles can carry. this will be MUCH easier when we get a car and even better when we move into our villa since we will live very close to the mall – like it backs right up to the building – and I hear that there is a runner guy that you can call if you forget an item and for a teeny tiny fee he will hop on his bike and go get whatever it is you need… THAT will be so nice!!
here is the website to the grocery store we went to today: http://uae.luluhypermarket.com/
One thing i will never take for granted is the easiness in America.
Abu Dhabi Time
3 comments:
Oh geez Sta- I am imagining this scenario and totally feel sorry for you! At least you know these tasks will be easier when you guys get settled in your home. I am so happy you had a safe trip there and are all together now. You are so tough and strong- I don't know how I would make it through.
Yikes that sounds like a nightmare. I had to walk many blocks to my car and use elevators when I lived in Denver. I was by myself so it was 100x easier than with kids, but I had 2 fold up bags on wheels to help carry the grocery bags walking downtown. They were flimsy and folded up small. Maybe something like that would help???? Good luck with the shopping!
That sounds like way too much effort for groceries! My in-laws live in Morocco, where it is much the same in the way of grocery shopping. I have a little bit of advice, but I don't know it it will be applicable for your situation. My father-in-law bought a small rolling basket that he can load groceries into that will fit comfortably into the backseat of a taxi or into the trunk of one of the tiny taxis. This helps tremendously with getting things too and from the store when using the taxi service. Another thing, most street corners have tiny convenient stores (most of the time, they are actually someone's garage, etc.) and they carry things that you'll never every couple of days like fresh milk, bread, and eggs. Maybe ask around to your neighbors and see if they have one of these nearby. My in-laws are lucky enough to have one across the street from them. You are being so brave with all of this and I just want to remind you that when it all seems too overwhelming, remember that God wouldn't have given you something that you could not handle. He's right there with you, even in the midst of an Islamic country. Don't forget the peace that he offers.
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