"Attention, attention. A fire has been reported in the building. Please standby for further announcement."
Those of us living in Sama Tower have become accustomed to hearing this message quite often, so I didn't think anything of it when I first heard the message around 11:30 pm on Saturday, September 10th. I was talking to my boyfriend on Skype so was awake to hear the announcement in the hallway. But when the automated message kept repeating itself incessantly, I said goodbye to Scott, grabbed my keys and mobile phone, and headed into the hallway. I figured I'd be back home soon...
It turns out that the students and I were some of the first to leave the building. As the evening unfolded, we discovered that evacuation truly was necessary because there was an electrical fire on the 35th floor. Smoke had filled many of the higher floors. As more people filled the parking lot and street behind the building, we commiserated about the heat and humidity. Someone was kind enough to run to the grocery store nearby and buy water bottles to pass out. We told fire drill stories and compared notes on what we brought with us when leaving our apartments. (How did I forget my passport?)
Word traveled by mouth that we wouldn't be allowed back in the building for many hours. It was now about 1:30 AM. Families with kids made arrangements to spend the night at nearby hotels, but we still had hundreds of students milling about. I happened to be chatting with my colleague Beth when the Dean of Students approached us. She was about to send the students to campus, a few blocks away, and asked if we'd be willing to open up the library. We agreed. In a matter of minutes we were walking with the students over to campus. I chatted with a freshman about his year of RV travel to 40 U.S. states with his family.
Beth and I opened the library around 2 AM, and the students filled the space in mere minutes! I've never seen the library so crowded-- over 100 students on the ground floor alone. Many raided our shelves of DVDs to find entertainment to pass the time; others tried to do homework. One student needed to read an ebook, so we offered her the first iPad to circulate at our library. Another student even checked out Kissinger's 600-page hardcover book on China-- for pleasure reading!
Though I was a bit tired and stressed (couldn't remember my email password), I wasn't very worried. I didn't have enough reason to believe that we were in significant danger. It was just very strange to be working at 3 AM in the morning.
The best moment of the night was when the dean of Science entered the library and announced that classes would be canceled the next day. Everyone erupted in a loud cheer! Course-related questions definitely dwindled after that announcement.
By 3:30 AM, we received word that we could return home to Sama Tower. The students cleared out of the library quickly, leaving food trash and misplaced furniture in their wake. A few conscientious students helped us clean up.
I made it home by 4 AM, but it took me a while to calm down enough to fall asleep. I didn't get to sleep until 5 AM, so made it to work by noon the next day-- Sunday, September 11th. (HR sent out a message that we could arrive at work at anytime that day given the unusual experience of the night.)
On this tenth anniversary of 9/11, I can't help but compare my experience with that of ten years ago. A decade ago I was teaching Middle School and High School English in New Hampshire. I was a brand new teacher and not very confident in my role. When the horrible news of the day made its way to our school, I had no idea how to answer the students questions-- Are they going to attack us here? Are we at war? All we could do that day was pray...
The connection between the two days is a tenuous one-- trying to help students in an emergency situation. Abu Dhabi is nearly a polar opposite city to Nashua, NH. Perhaps I'll have some deeper reflections on this comparison in the future. For now, all I can say is that I'm thankful: thankful for safety this year and over the past ten years; thankful for all God has taught me; and thankful for the opportunity to live and work in the Middle East; thankful that I understand Muslim cultures just a little bit more than I used to.
May God grant us peace in our time.
