RIS National Day Celebrations

The UAE National Day is next week on 2nd December, and we are off school for an extra three days to celebrate it. They certainly don't do anything by half here, there are flags, banners and other decorations EVERYWHERE! People hang huge flags across their villas, decorate the compounds, their houses, their cars etc. Everything is red, green and black - and I love it! The patriotism is so strong here, very joyful and very inspiring.

Today they had National Day celebrations at school, and all the kids were asked to wear the UAE colours to school today for this special day. We managed to find some green, white and black clothes in their wardrobes - and added some accessories that I had bought especially:

They had a special assembly at school this morning, with speeches, traditional dances, Quran reading and much more. Us parents were invited to join the children the last hour of the school day and there was so much going on across the school campus! Horse and camel riding, henna painting, a military band, face painting, sand art, falcons, other sales and crafts and an exhibition of the history of the UAE. Amazing effort!

As we live in the desert, we don't just do pony rides obviously... This camel was very popular during lunch time!

As I said, they don't do anything by half..:

 Lucas and his friend had got some odd-looking "tattoos":

As we left school, so did the camel!