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About Gertrude Dyck |
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 In 1962, nine years before the UAE was born, Canadian nurse Gertrude Dyck went to work in Al Ain’s first hospital.
She lived in the UAE and Oman for more than 43 years, and is the author of “The Oasis, Al Ain Memoirs of ‘Doctora Latifa,’” first published in 1995 and available from Motivate Publishing in Dubai.
In 2002, Gertrude was recognised with two of Canada’s highest honours: the Order of Canada, and a Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.
Gertrude lived in a retirement home in British Columbia, Canada, for several years, until she passed peacefully away on October 17, 2009, after a short illness. She will be missed by her family and a host of friends in United Arab Emirates and around the world. Besides being deeply religious, Gert had a boundless love for the United Arab Emirates and its people. She had hoped to return to the UAE in 2010 for a visit.
Gertrude told me (Susan Macaulay)
about her life in the UAE during several interviews, which took place in 1996. The
series of narratives below is based on those interviews; several more articles remain to be published.
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Arriving In The United Arab Emirates In 1962 |
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From Rome I flew to Beirut.
I met Edith Patterson, a teacher from Toronto, on the plane to Beirut. We had never seen each other, but somehow we managed to meet up and we flew together to Bahrain, which was the closest international airport to Abu Dhabi.
And that was the end of the joy ride. Reality really hit.
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A Roman Adventure On The Way To Abu Dhabi |
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Getting to Abu Dhabi the first time was a real adventure.
A lady at the mission planned the trip for me and bought the ticket,
because I'd never been anywhere, except once to Chicago. That was the
only time I’d ever been on a plane.
So this was my second time ever
flying, and my first time overseas. In fact, it wasn't until I started
my nursing training
that I had ever been to the United States.
A gal at the mission planned the trip for me, and she said to me it
would be wonderful if I could stop in Rome. Why in the world she
wanted me to stop in Rome I don't know. Maybe she herself had always
dreamed of going to Rome, and she thought I might like it too! Anyway,
she said, “while you're going past you can stop in Rome, go on to
Beirut, then Bahrain, and eventually Abu Dhabi.”
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Preparing For A New Life |
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Getting ready to go was a long and involved process. I learned the
specialized nursing skills I would need, prepared mentally and
spiritually (the core of which was learning to trust God completely),
and raised funds for the trip.
There were lots of tasks to do as
well; I bought things, got dresses sown,
packed everything I would need for the next five years, and shipped it
to the place that would become my new home away from home.
Anyone who has ever packed for traveling, even for a short trip, knows
how hard it can be. Imagine packing to go to a place where hardly
any outsiders have visited before, and you have never traveled, and you’re
going for a year or more! Looking back now, I wonder how I managed it
all.
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A New World Opens up for Me |
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By the time I was finished Bible School, I knew I wanted to go somewhere to be a missionary, but I didn't know where. I was going to train to become a teacher, because I felt somehow that was what I was supposed to do. But in my last year of Bible School some or my friends decided to go into nursing, and I thought yes, that's something that I would like.
I had already been exposed to nursing, having worked during the summers in an old folks home and in a small twelve-bed hospital, both of which I really liked. So in 1957, I started my education at the Calgary General hospital to become a registered nurse. Calgary is in Alberta and it was quite far from home for me at the time.
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Endings & Beginnings |
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My Dad closed his store in about 1940, and after that he just ran the Western Grain elevator, the father of the other family in the village ran the Wheat Pool elevator.
I started school the same year my Dad stopped running the store. He had the elevator for awhile, and then he started buying a bit of land. Eventually he acquired quite a lot of land and started growing mostly wheat, along with some barley and oats.
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Childhood Commitment |
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So let’s get back to Canada again – I got a bit ahead of myself talking
about being a missionary and about Ramadan in the “old” days!
As I told you before, my Mom was a committed Christian who prayed and
taught us to pray. My dad wasn't as committed as her, he was brought up
in a different church, the old Mennonite church, and he didn't go to
church except for weddings and funerals. But my mother prayed for all
of us...
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Eid Celebrations |
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 At the end of Ramadan, everyone celebrated Eid Al Fitr.
It was a time of great celebration, spending time with family and friends, and feasting, just as it is now. (Gertrude, at right, in her first Arabic dress and shayla)
I loved the Eid because of all the visiting we did. In the sixties and early seventies, there were only about 2,000 people in the whole Al Ain area, but hundreds would come from all over to visit during the Eid.
The hospital staff, including myself, followed the local customs for
visiting and we were quite strict on protocol, which was that you
visited the highest of the royalty first.
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Ramadan Memories |
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Susan notes: In 1962, nine years before the UAE was born, Canadian nurse the late Gertrude Dyck went to work in Al Ain’s first hospital.
She lived in the UAE and Oman for more than 43 years, and is the author of “The Oasis, Al Ain Memoirs of ‘Doctora Latifa. This is what she told me about her memories of the Holy Month of Ramadan in the 1960s. Read more about Gertrude at these links:
About Gertrude Dyck
and
Gertrude Dyck (Nurse/Missionary/Author).
 From the time I knew that this was where I was coming, there was a lot of planning and preparation. And the first trip to get here was a REAL adventure.
But before I tell you about all that, since it’s Ramadan now, maybe I should tell you a little bit about how this time of the year was for me in those early days... (Left: unidentified hospital staff person on a camel with local people)
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