I was all set to have a quiet evening in bed. All day I was experiencing the symptoms of the flu and my body was signaling for me to curl up into a ball and sleep.
I skipped dinner, downed some type of pill to help guide me down the path of peaceful rest.
So there I was laying in bed, slipping in and out of consciousness when my phone rings.
Khadijah was on the other end.
The conversation went something like this
Her: " You need to get out here now, the ground in front of my apartment just collapsed."
Me: " but I'm in bed, I was sleeping"
Her:"no you have to come see this. Get up"
Me:" but I'm sick."
I finally rolled out of bed, threw on my cardigan over my pajamas and as an extra precaution threw on my scarf to cover my bralessness.
I walked out to a crazy scene. The entire sitting area and lawn as well as part of the parking lot had collapsed into itself. There were people out quickly putting security tape around the area. There was a gigantic black hole where water fountains used to be. Not good.
At first I was not worried, my building wasn't affected. I figured they would have the situation under control and life would be back to normal. Besides, I was simply a spectator on the scene.
My plan was to go back to bed.
However , something I've learned quite quickly here is that few things go as I plan.
Before I knew it all the buildings were being evacuated. There were ambulances, emergency vehicles and some important people from ADEC arriving on the scene.
Picture nearly 300 people standing outside. Some with no possessions and still in their night clothes.
We stood about for nearly 3 hours as they tried to figure out what to do.
Eventually we were told we wouldn't be going to our apartments, we would be going to a hotel for the night.
We couldn't go back in to collect anything, luckily I had snuck in to grab my bag pack with passport and wallet. Some people weren't even lucky enough to put on shoes.
After far too long outside and much crazy talk from folks, the buses arrived to take us to our hotel.
All I can say is thank God. There is always a silver lining. We rolled up to the Yas Viceroy Hotel, a super amazing beyond beautiful hotel on the same grounds as the Formula One race course.
Everything would be taken care of for us, all we had to do was show up. And that we did. We could order room service and just relax.
Of course I have no clothes but who cares. This place is well fancy and best of all FREE!