Cliff Notes

As the US careens towards the "fiscal cliff," I thought I would take a brief moment to give you a little insight on how countries in the Middle East balance their budgets.

The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - are all major oil exporters.  And not surprisingly, oil revenues make up a large proportion of their governments' income.

In order for these countries to balance their budgets, they can work through OPEC (the Organization for Petroleum-Exporting Countries) to set the price of oil at a level high enough to balance their budgets.  The list below shows where each of the GCC countries needed to keep the price of oil in 2012 in order to break even on their budgets.

Bahrain  -  $110
Kuwait  -  $60
Oman  -  $90
Qatar  -  $55
Saudi Arabia  -  $85
United Arab Emirates  -  $80

So as you can see, there's no complicated political wrangling in these countries when it comes to putting together a government budget.  The US and the EU countries may have problems ironing out their budgets, but not the countries in the GCC.  The governments here write whatever budget they need or want - then set the price of oil in order to be sure the rest of the world can fund all of their expenditures.  Simple.

[As a final note on all of this, the "shale oil boom" in the US and other countries has the potential to change the shape of global petro-politics, but that won't happen until production increases substantially. And that will take several years.  In the meantime, I would say we should all look for oil prices to remain about where they are now - north of $85 per barrel].

Ask Ali

by Cindy

We have this great resource here that answers all kinds of questions:  Ask Ali.  We mostly see his stuff in the paper but it's common for us to say among our friends, "did you see Ask Ali yesterday, I didn't know that..."  We all enjoy reading the articles and trying to be culturally aware.  If you find that you still have some questions about our life in the UAE, just ask Ali!

Thinking of visiting us and wondering what to wear?  Ask Ali

When we told my in-laws that we were moving to the UAE, my mother-in-law wondered whether there were camel lanes on the road or if everything was in the same lane.  We don't have camels on (or anywhere near!) the road but Ali can tell you about the crazy driving here in the UAE:  Ask Ali

Wondering what a mosque is like?  Ask Ali.

Ali even has his own YouTube videos:  Ask Ali

Still not sure exactly where we live? Ask Ali.

HHSHKMOHD

by Cindy

We recently celebrated the 41st Independence day for the UAE.  It is the equivalent of the 4th of July in America - full pf parades, picnics, fun clothing and the like.  In addition to all of that, I got a cool text from the ruler of Dubai.  I'm wondering how many of you got a text from Obama last 4th of July?!?!?!?!

In English

In Arabic for those who want to try to translate.

One of many reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving

by Cindy

Jeff and I are fortunate to be able to celebrate multiple Thanksgiving dinners each year.  We always have at least one meal with our friends on campus and one meal with our friends from church.  We do get the usual fixins' of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. but sometimes we get a few extras - depending on the culture of those in attendance.  These pictures are from our dinner with our church small group.

We had a beautiful sunset to start our evening.  The tallest building in the world is on the far left of the Dubai skyline and the Dubai Creek golf course in the foreground.

The crew that celebrated Thanksgiving together (only four Americans).

All the usual stuff plus a little Indian, a little Chinese and Papa Johns.  Is that considered Italian?

And the biggest event of the evening...a wedding proposal!

It's No Secret

One of the more common questions that we get from people in America is, "What's it like going to church over there?"  I think our response usually surprises them.  We say that it's a lot like going to church in America - we have contemporary worship, solid preaching, children's and youth programs, and weekly small group meetings.  There are about 500 people that attend our worship service each week.  If you'd like to look at our church website, it's the Redeemer Church of Dubai.  We're a protestant, non-denominational, evangelical congregation.  There are numerous churches in town - including Baptist, Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox churches.

What's different or unexpected, you ask?  Well, first of all, we meet on Fridays, not Sundays.  Friday is the Muslim day of worship, so most businesses and offices close on Fridays, so Friday is the most convenient option for us.  Friday is the day that most churches in Muslim countries meet.

Second, some are surprised to hear that we don't have to hide the fact that we're Christians.  Nobody has to meet in secret - it's all perfectly legal.  Our pastor's visa even lists his occupation as "PASTOR".

Thrid, and related to my comment immediately above, another thing that's different or unexpected is that it is common for the Sheikhs, the (Muslim) rulers of each of the seven Emirates that make up the UAE, to provide land for churches.  The original English-speaking evangelical church in the city meets on land donated by Sheikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai (the website is here).  Sheikh Saud, the ruler of Ras al Khaimah, recently donated land for an evangelical church there.  The Quran teaches tolerance for "people of the book" (that is, Jews and Christians), and so there is no real religious tension in the Emirates - certainly less than in the US or in Western Europe.

Foruth, our church is different from what we experienced in the US because it's so international.  The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said "it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning."  And it's true.  In America, whites worship with whites, Hispanics with Hispanics, African-Americans with African-Americans, and Asians with Asians.  In Dubai, we have Westerners (Americans, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, Dutch,  Germans), as well as Africans (lots of Kenyans, as well as a few Ethiopians and Tanzanians), south Asians (primarily Indians), as well as the east Asians and southeast Asians (primarily Chinese and Filipinos).  There are more Asians at our church than any other group.  We've got elders from each of these groups as well.

So being in church whenever we spend time in America is always good, but a little different - different day, different people, different world outside.  

Voting

by Cindy

I have to admit, I'm glad the election is over.  I'm ready to read about something different in the news and something different on Facebook.  I'm so quick dismiss the election all together that I have to be careful to not miss being thankful that we even had an election at all.  Living outside America through a major election cycle has been a wonderful reminder to me of the freedoms Americans have that many others do not.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all, quite frankly.  Some of the thoughts that are swirling around...

In the same week that America holds the 2012 election, China is being told who their leaders will be.  Their process was summed up well in this article by Bao Pu, "There are no laws -- or even any clear rules -- that govern the selection of leaders, leaving the matter of choosing the top leaders of the most populous nation on earth entirely at the mercy of the Party's forever changing internal logic."

A friend from Africa posted this on Facebook, "Coming from a continent where elections are not always peaceful I have so say the USA is amazing because whether your candidate won or lost your democracy works and people can be gracious in defeat and move on and no one has to resort to guns and violence. This is a very precious thing!"

Or my neighbor who is from Tunisia. They are holding their first elections in June 2013.  It will be her first time to ever vote and she's excited.  She's hopeful that the elections will be fair and honest.  She's worried about who will win.  She's aware that at this point, the process is just as important as the victor.  She watched the American elections closely this year because she longs to see something like that in her home country.

I took a very unscientific poll of my approximately 100 students, asking them if they could vote back in their home country.  About 1/4 to 1/3 of them can vote - India, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Canada and America.  Yes, several of my students are American citizens and a few of them did exercise their right to vote.

As I said, I'm still running this all through my head to draw conclusions but I'll add one more point.  The underlying assumption in all of this is that everyone desires democracy, or the right to vote.  One thought that has been reinforced by living in this part of the world, is that not everyone desires democracy.  There are many people, in various countries, that are perfectly okay with the leaders that are in place, perfectly okay with the fact they don't participate in the process, perfectly okay with the idea of not voting and truly believe that their leaders will always look out for their best interests.  As someone who was educated in America, that is something that is hard to grasp.

In some ways, I think I live the best of both worlds.  I'm thankful for the right to vote and I'm thankful that I live in a country where the rulers are generous and benevolent to those living in the country, even if we had no choice in their leadership.

Name and Shame

by Cindy

Growing up in America with American parents means that Jeff and I grew up in a Guilt/Innocence culture.  It is quite different than the Honor/Shame culture that we have in the UAE.  The worst thing you can do here is shame someone or shame their family name.  To shame someone into doing something is not to "guilt me into it" or "twist my arm" but something totally different.  To shame someone is to insult their name and the name of their family.  While you should never intentionally shame someone, the one thing about shaming is that it works.  And works well.

It all is a bit hard to explain and hard to convey how it permeates everything we do and see but I'll give you two recent examples from our newspaper:

This article talks about the people who have racked up the most traffic fines in the city.  We are talking one person with 12,740 offences which totals to $2.56 M in fees.  The government knows exactly who it is but it would be shameful to put their name or anything about them in the paper.  The paper has simply stated that the person is a VIP.  The other offenders are mentioned by the number of offenses and amount of their fines and specifically, "none of the people has been named."  In addition, they were all said to be "high-profile" and included figures from government institutions."  In America, someone from a government institution who had $2.56M in fines...their name and (a horrible) picture would be plastered across the front page and we would be expecting them to immediately pay up and step down from office.  Here, that would never happen as listing a name in the paper would bring shame to their family and that's simply not acceptable.

With that said, if you really want to push people here, you can 'name and shame' them.  If you take this approach, you had better do it very cautiously   I can't stress this enough.  While I personally support the notion, I was surprised to read this article in the paper where they threatened to 'name and shame.'  Someone was savvy enough to include an intermediate step of only posting a license plate number before actually posting a name.  The fact that no one has had a second offense shows just how bad it would be to bring shame to your name.

Triple Digit Weather

by Cindy

October 27 Update:  I have had to update the number of triple digit days in October - we had another one.

[Note: I have to start this blog with an explanation for our readers who are not familiar with Fahrenheit temperatures. Triple digits refers to anything equal to or greater than 100 F (37 C).]

Being from Texas, we often talk about how hot the summers can get.  After a few years in the UAE, however, a Texas summer is welcome relief from the heat of the UAE.  Lately I've been seeing posts on Facebook about the first snow in Colorado and the cooler, fall weather in parts of Texas.  I'm quite jealous because here in the UAE, it's still hot.  Triple digit hot. And the truth of the matter is that we have crazy humidity during the summer so it feels even hotter.  Here are some of the weather statistics for 2012:

The first day over 100 F was March 29th where we registered 104 F.  We had two days of triple digits in March.

April registered only three days of triple digits.

May registered 27 days of triple digits.  The four that didn't reach triple digits - 98 F, 92 F, 95 F and 96 F.

June registered 26 days of triple digits, the relief came in 98 F, 98 F, 94 F and 96 F.

All 31 days in July, all 31 days in August, and all 30 days in September reached triple digits.  It's October now and we still have triple digits.

I'll help you out and do the math for you:

Total days of Triple Digits:
2 in March
3 in April
27 in May
26 in June
31 in July
31 in Aug
30 Sept
10 in Oct
160  Total days of Triple Digits in 2012 - 43.8% of the year


Consecutive days of Triple Digits:
24 in June (beginning with June 7th)
31 July
31 Aug
30 Sept
9 October
126  Consecutive days of Triple Digits in 2012 - 34% of the year

The hottest day was July 27th at 119 F degrees. Second place is a tie at 117 F on June 22nd and August 5th.

Take 2

Well, here we are again.  Three years later.  In Dubai for our second 1001 nights [on our second three-year contract].

When we left three years ago, we had no idea what to expect.  We were moving halfway around the world to a place we had never even visited.

We've ended up loving it.  We've met people from dozens of different countries - and visited a lot of those countries ourselves.  We've got great jobs, great friends, and a great church.  We have a lot of time to spend with one another, and a lot of time to spend on vacation :).

When we received our contract offer this past year (to renew for another three years), we kind of looked at it, said, "Do we want to do this?", said "Yeah, sure", and that was it.  A day or two later, we were eating dinner and one of us - Cindy, I think - said, "Hey, should we have thought a little longer about that?  I mean it was a huge decision to move over here and we just spent less than 30 seconds deciding to stay."  So we talked, thought, visited with some friends, and tried to make it a hard decision.  But really, it was a slam-dunk.  We feel blessed to be here and we had a hard time thinking of reasons not to stay.

So here we are.  We'll try to get you all a story each week or so over the next year - about life on campus, vacations, the city, people, our church, or whatever comes to mind.  If you have questions, respond to this post on Facebook and let us know what you want us to talk about.  We'll be glad to fill you in.  Thanks for reading.

At DFW about to get on the plane for the next 1001 nights.

House Calls

Car batteries usually only last a year or two here (regardless of how good of a battery you buy).  The heat here is just so intense that batteries wear out quickly.  So Cindy and I were pretty excited when we returned to Sharjah from summer in the US - and found that our car battery still worked. 

Well, after two years of flawless service (and three weeks since we came home from our summer vacation), our car battery died an untimely death this past Friday morning.  We were headed to church, supposed to pick someone up, and were in a little bit of a hurry.  Oh well.  We called a cab, and while we missed our bible study class, we were on time for the service.

So, on Saturday, I needed to get a new battery put in.  A friend at church told me about a guy who makes house calls for such things.  You just ring him up, tell him what kind of car you have and where you're located, and he brings the battery to you.  He replaces it and takes the old one away.  PERFECT!  So I called the 'battery guy' up, and he arrived at my apartment about an hour later.  

You can see that he brought his tools and a buddy.  He's from Bangladesh and has been in the Emirates for about 10 years.  They had this taken care of in about 15 minutes.  Total cost - including battery, delivery, installation, and disposal of the old battery - 680 AED (about $185).  The list price for the battery from the dealership is $187 - and that's if I drive there to have it installed.  There are no "Pep Boys" or "Auto Zone"-type stores here - just the dealerships and then a few small repair places.  So I thought that 680 AED was a pretty good price - especially for a house call.

A Dog's Life

Generally speaking, Muslims don't like dogs.  This is something that a lot of Westerners don't really think about before they move here.  It's not illegal to have a dog in the Emirates, but dogs are always supposed to be on a leash and be muzzled.  [This is good for Cindy and I since we're not really dog people.  But I digress...]. 

Some of the reasons for this were explained in the newspaper this week.  There is a weekly  "Ask Ali" column where people generally write in with cultural questions - and Ali, who is Emirati, provides his insights. 

Ali starts off by mentioning that the general dislike for dogs is not universal and that he even had a dog when he was young.  The average person's attitude towards dogs can be summed up pretty well, though, by noting that people would often say to his father,

 "Do you think your prayers are answered when you keep that dog?"

People would call the dog haram [forbidden].  Ali goes on to mention some of the specific reasons why Muslims do not like dogs. 

[Muslims are]..."afraid that being near a dog will break their ablutions, their Wudu, or bring disease, or that angels will not linger when a dog barks....  [This is] what they have been taught."

Both ablutions and Wudu refer to the ceremonial washing that a Muslim must do before praying.  So essentially, touching a dog would make the Muslim unclean and unable to offer prayers.  Obviously, however, a Muslim could still own a dog, and simply not touch the dog until after praying, and still be ceremonially clean for prayers.

This attitude towards dogs is interesting in light of the fact that the Bedouin who have lived in the deserts of Arabia for centuries have often hunted with Salukis, a particular breed of dog known for its speed (check out the photo of the Salukis racing below).  It's also worth noting that in spite of the general disdain for dogs, it's trendy right now for younger Arab guys to keep Salukis.  It's seen as a way that they're embracing their Bedouin heritage. 

It Pays to Support Your Team

The most popular sport here in the UAE is definitely soccer.  One thing that may surprise you about this is that a lot of fans get paid to go to the matches.  Seriously.

This is how it all started.  Back in the day (like, 10 or 15 years ago), the teams/clubs were primarily owned by families.  And so the team was an extension of the family.  And so just like when a family had you over to their home they would take care of you, when you go to the stadium, the family-owned team feels like they should take care of you.  The going rate for attending a match is about 50 dirhams ($13).  Admission is free.  There are bonuses for cheering, chanting, singing, and clapping.  Drinks and snacks may be included for the most vocal supporters as well.

[disclosure - I had no idea about this until I read about it in the paper today - but I'm definitely intrigued by it all - the full article is here ].

I have thought about checking out some of the local soccer matches just to see what it was like.  Now though, I know I need to be sure I get a fair price for my services.

USA vs UAE

by Cindy

One of the things I was trying to do over the summer months in the USA is keep a mental log of the differences I noticed.  The longer we spend in the UAE, the more normal things become and, in many ways, normal begins to shift to the ways of the UAE instead of the ways of the USA.  Most of the things are subtle and mundane, but part of this blog's purpose is recording the changes and differences.

Some of the differences that I noticed this summer:

• Bread.  Yum.  I had no idea that I missed bread made with yeast but I found that I couldn't get enough when it was served with meals.  Here we mostly have 'flat bread' that's made without yeast.  It's really good but different from what is in America.  I couldn't get enough rolls and biscuits.  Now I can't get enough room in my pants to breathe!
• Water refills.  In the UAE we drink bottled water in restaurants (our tap water is safe to drink but restaurants don't use it) so the unlimited refills of water was a welcome change.  (A side note - water is crazy cheap in the UAE compared to the US.  We pay about $0.33 for a 12 oz bottle of water.)
• Billboards.  We have them but they don't advertise casinos or alcohol and we certainly don't have as many as the US.  Quite frankly, I don't miss them. 
• Gasoline.  We have mentioned before that we have full service in the UAE, it's cheap and the price is fixed for the whole country.  I don't miss having to look around for the cheapest gas.  I certainly don't miss pumping my own gas!
• Plastic cups.  No restaurant here gives away plastic cups.  I miss the convenience of plastic cups.  It's hard to take a drink with you in the car when all you have is glass.  And, milkshakes are hard to make in an ice tea glass!  I meant to snag some plastic from my brother's house but I forgot.  :)
• Cold water.  Weird, I know.  What I noticed in the US was that cold water out of the tap is actually cold.  In the UAE, everything is so hot that you can't get the water cold enough.  When you want a cold shower in the middle of the summer, you often get a warm shower which isn't quite as refreshing.  Jeff can even tell you what golf courses actually cool their water so there is a cold shower.  Those are the courses they prefer to play in the hot weather.
• Swimsuits in public.  Don't miss this one!  I was shocked at how many people wear their swim suit in public, particularly to the grocery store.  Really? 
• Wallets and check books.  For all intents and purposes, we don't have checks in the UAE.  That also means that our wallets don't have places for a check book.  I wrote a few checks this summer and each time I found myself double checking my work to make sure I had filled it our correctly.  Another funny side note is that if you buy a wallet here in the UAE (which was probably made in Europe) it won't hold US dollars!  They are too big for the wallet.  Ask Jeff, he knows.

Home Again - Part 2

by Cindy

When we spend three months away from home we have to plan ahead a bit.  It drives Jeff crazy but I start cleaning out the kitchen about six weeks before we leave.  You know, I start pushing to eat that can of X that I bought on a whim and then never used.  Or I start thinking about finishing off Y out of the freezer that's been there for months.

I suppose the upside is that everything, and I mean everything, gets cleaned out once a year. [Are you reading this mother???].  Ideally we clean the whole kitchen out and then only have to eat out for the last couple of meals before we head off on summer holiday/vacation.

Of course, upon our return, we have to make a major trip to the store to restock our kitchen.  Jeff was gracious enough to do a majority of the restocking this year.  Here is a picture of the goodies we purchased the first day back.  I'm guessing we got about 90% of what we need and we'll be back to the store again in a few days to get the other odds and ends.  And for those of you who know us well, you can find all of the cereal boxes on the right hand side.  I think we have seven or eight different kinds.

For those of you who are curious, we spent 844 dirhams at Carrefour and 636 dirhams at Spinney's.  That's about $403 to get re-stocked. 

Home Again - Part 1

Most people are shocked to hear that we get three months of vacation each year.  If they can suppress their jealousy, they start to ask questions like, "What's it like being gone for three months?"  Or they say, "I can't imagine what it would be like to be gone from home for so long..." 

It was a little hard for us to imagine the first time, but after three summers of three months off, we're getting used to it.  To show you a little of what it's like, the next few posts will be about the kind of things that we came home to.

Exhibit 1:  Our Car.  It's a 2009 Volvo S80.  It's dark gray - not that you can tell that from this picture.  Here is what it looks like after we get back.  You can see that I've wiped off the windows so that it's drivable, but a substantial coat of fine sand covers the car.  We have covered parking outside our villa, but not a garage, so this is one of the things that we come home to.

We were fortunate that we didn't need a new battery after letting the car sit for three months in the heat.  During the summer, the low temperatures are about 90F and the highs are between 110 and 120F.  So it's pretty common to come back to a dead battery.  It's rare for anyone to have a battery last two years (regardless of the quality of the battery).

Also, if one of your tires happens to lose air - and then sits flat for three months - you're going to need a new tire.  Tires here usually only last 3 years (regardless of the warrantied mileage) because of the heat.

Here's a neighbor's car - just so you can see what one looks like untouched for three months.  On the positive side, the sand that you see coating the car doesn't scratch the paint.  This may sound strange (especially to our readers from West Texas), but it's true.  The sand wipes off easily and does not scratch the paint.  I've been told that the sand doesn't scratch because the chemical composition of the sand here makes the grains of sand round - while the chemical composition of the dirt in West Texas makes the grains more like tiny cubes (with relatively sharp edges)  [disclaimer:  this is what I've been told, but I am not a geologist and have no idea if this is true - if you're reading this and you are a geologist, let us know if this is right].

OK - so there's our first example of something we come home to [after three months].  More to come later in the week and early next week.

Texas

by Cindy

Jeff and I are proud Texans, no doubt about it.  We were both born, and for all intents and purposes, raised in Texas.  There are some things that are decidedly Texan and/or Southern that you forget about until you happen upon them.

Summer grilling.  Ribs and corn in this case.  In the UAE they call it BBQ.  In Texas, BBQ is a food and grilling or cooking out is a method of food preparation.

Drinking from a mason jar.

The Ladies restroom/toilet/bathroom/loo/(insert your appropriate term here)

A Texas size taco!  Everything is bigger in Texas!

Where else do you find dish towels talking about how great your state is?

This one surprised me a bit - a Texas plate that supports Obama and we saw it in George Bush's neighborhood in Dallas.

Our summer thus far

by Cindy

I arrived in Dallas on June 6th and have been busy with my nieces since then.  I'm learning about Elmo, dolls and poop.  I have had more conversations about bowel movements than I care to discuss.  Such is life with a 2 1/2 year old, I guess.  Here are some pics of our summer adventures thus far:

Hollis Kate Vowell was born on Jun 18, 2012.

Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jeff with the girls.

Daddy.

Big sister Reagan and baby sister Hollis.

Baby Hollis around three weeks.

Our cool float that my brother and I made for the 4th of July parade.  We pulled it with a golf cart. 

My multi-national niece - I brought her a Jamilla doll and her great aunt brought her a doll from China. 

Going for an afternoon walk around the block.

Going to school - it's just a few blocks away so she rides her tricycle and we take the dog.

I brought two bobble heads for my niece.  We call them Fatima and Mohammed and they show up in the most random places...

Our Summer Home by the Lake

Cindy and I have a new summer place in Dallas.  Cindy's brother finished out his garage apartment for us to spend the summer - and it's fantastic!  It's about a five-minute bike ride to White Rock Lake, which has some nice hike-and-bike trails.  Plus, it's close to a lot of great restaurants, museums, other great stuff to do in the city.  We love our new place (as well as being close to family).  Here are a few photos of our new place.

The Living Area - featuring Brazilian street art
as well as Picasso's Guernica [not the real one, though]. 
We're thinking that maybe we'll get another chair for this space...

The kitchen, with the door to the balcony (and the living area in the background). 
Did I mention we're thrilled to have hardwood floors
after nothing but tile and marble in Dubai? 

The exterior, showing our stairs and balcony. 
It's a little bit like living in a tree house.

The bedroom.

American Summer

by Cindy

Jeff and I have the pleasure of spending the summer in America while my brother and his wife are generous enough to allow us to stay in an apartment in their back yard.  I've been in America for about 10 days now and it is interesting to me the things I'm noticing.  Mostly, I'm overwhelmed by the choices.  We were trying to find a chest of drawers for our apartment so my brother suggested a few stores to try.  My sister in law suggested a few more and before I knew it, the list was to 13 stores.  Really?  "Can't I just go find something at Ikea?"  I laughed out loud when I said that because that's the "Dubai default."  We get everything at Ikea - it's convenient, it's cheap and it's easy.

I've also become used to everything in one place.  In Dubai, everything is at the mall.  In Texas, I get out of the car at the grocery store, get out of the car at Ikea, I get out of the car at Michael's, I get out of the car the next store and on and on.  I  missed this when I arrived in Dubai but I now realize that I've changed my way of thinking.

There are other subtle differences that I have noticed in the grocery store, on the roads, and talking with people.  But it's really the bigger picture that I have been most acutely aware - my perspective has changed.  Or said differently, I see life through a different lens now.  I'm so thankful for the opportunities that I have been given and the life I live.  My perspective is larger and my life is changed.  I am a truly blessed woman!

This is who I have been spending my days with in America.

Coming Home

We are about to come back to America for our summer vacation - and before you ask us, "When are you planning to move back to the US?" you should look at these two links.  

First, we have an article about the quality of life that we have here in the UAE.  There are things we miss about the US, but there are a lot of things we like about being here, too.  And as long as we can get back to see family (nearly 3 months this summer!), we feel like we've got the best of both worlds.


Second, here is the data that the article I mentioned above is based on.  It's from a study called "Expat Explorer" that was conducted by HSBC, the (UK-based) multinational bank.  You can look at how the various countries around the world compare to one another in terms of how good of an environment they have for life and work.  You can even put in your preferences and see what countries might be a good fit for you!  Enjoy.

Dressing Up

Today, we would like to give you a brief education on how the locals here dress.  The first illustration below shows how the Gulf Arab men dress.  Gulf Arabs include the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Bahrainis, Omanis, Qataris - and of course the Emiratis.  Essentially, their dress consists of the "thobe" or "kandura" or "dishdash," (these words all mean the ankle-length outer garment) and then the headdress, known as the "ghutra" (in other parts of the Arab world, they call this headdress the "keffiyeh"].  Note that each country has slight differences in how their traditional dress is tailored and worn.  After being here a while, it's starting to get easier to tell the different nationalities apart.  [You may want to click on the picture to get it to open up in a separate, larger window].  As with clothes everywhere, these can be bought "off the rack" or can be custom-tailored.  Most Emirati guys seem to have theirs custom-made.

As far as accessories go, it's common to see designer sunglasses in the pocket or hanging from the buttons of the kandura.  Fountain pens are pretty common as well, either in the pocket or hanging from the placket that runs down the front of the garment.  If the kandura has cuffs, cufflinks are worn (most Emirati ones don't, but some of the other Gulf Arabs often have cuffs).  And finally, no kandura is complete unless it is properly accessorized with a designer watch.  Rolex is by far the favorite, although other luxury brands like Patek Philippe, IWC Schaffhausen, Omega, etc. are also worn.

And now, here are some differences in the way the ladies of the region dress.  Most people in the West would say "all Muslim women wear burkas" or "all Arab women wear burkas" or something similar.  Not true.

Gulf Arab women wear what is known as an "abaya" - a black cloak, often elegantly embroidered, and a matching headscarf known as a "shayla".  There are some variations of this, including the "niqab", which is a veil either covering the entire face or having only a horizontal slit for the eyes.  The abaya and shayla are by far the most common, with the niqab (the full veil) being worn by perhaps only 10% of the women one would see here.  And contrary to the "unfashionable" perception many westerners have about the abayas and shaylas, they are actually quite elegant.  In the illustration below, "Khaleeji" is the term for "Gulf Arab". 

Gulf Arab women accessorize with rings, watches, and especially with designer handbags (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Fendi, Hermes, etc.)

Arab women from the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine) wear the attire seen below for important occasions, but more often would wear "western" clothes paired with a headscarf that is often called a "hijab".  Younger Levantine Arabs would be almost completely western in their dress, without even a headscarf.  Most of the young ladies from the Levant who attend our university would not look out of place on a North American campus.

Some of the other women's attire (for Afghans, Turks, and Moroccans) is shown below as well.  We do know a few Turkish women who wear the clothes shown below, but have never seen an Afghan woman in the full body covering.

It's a Small World

26 May 20122
by Cindy
An update on someone who knows someone who lives by someone...

This past weekend we were able to take a student from our university to church with us.  As we were talking she mentioned that she's Palestinian, with family in Jordan and America but she was raised in Saudi although she's an American passport holder.  Her brother currently studies in America, at...University of Texas at Arlington.  Per Google maps, that's exactly 3.6 miles from my mother's house.  We figured out it would take only five roads and three turns from her brother's house to my mother's house.

Later that same day I was at dinner with a big group of people only to find out one of my friends here lived in Arlington while she was in kindergarten and first grade.  While we didn't go to the same elementary, we would have gone to the same junior high and high school and would have been in the same graduating class.  Too bad she moved to Iran after first grade.




18 January 2012
by Cindy
I said I would update/re-post this blog every time we met someone who knows someone we know or  something of that sort.  So here goes...

When Jeff and I were in Lubbock we would annually host The Traveling Team in our home.  This is a group of post-college young adults who travel around to US college campuses mobilizing students to go abroad.  You can read more about there here.  One of ladies who came through our home years ago has since married, had children and now lives in our city with her family!  We are fortunate to get to have dinner with her family from time to time and catch up.  Who knew that a connection from years ago would come full circle!




December 2011
by Cindy
Even though we live 8,000 miles away from Texas, there never seems to be shortage of people we meet who know someone that we know.  And occasionally, we have a friend in common who is a very good friend of the person we just met.  I've been keeping a running list but I thought I would go ahead and post the list and then each time we someone who knows someone, I will repost.  Meeting all these people certainly makes 8,000 miles seem not too far and helps us to realize that it is a small world after all!

• Our friend Katie who we know from LateNite in Lubbock went to seminary with our pastor and his wife.  When Katie came to visit us, she walked into our church here and said, "hey, I know them!"
• A couple in our small group, Dianne and Kent are very close friends with our friends Marcy and Bob, from Lubbock.
• Our children's pastor is from Snyder, TX.
• There is a gentleman here from Denver City, TX (!) who we run into quite a bit.
• Our pastor and his wife went to college with our friend Emily who we know from Irving, TX
• Our friend Susan, from Lubbock, had a patient at her dental office who is the mother-in-law of a pastor at a church here in Dubai.  We visited the church when we first arrived and the pastor knew our names before we knew his!
• A fellow church member, Laura, went to school at Lubbock Christian University and was in Lubbock at the same time Jeff and I were there.
• One of our elders knows our friend Greg at Asbury Seminary.
• The craziest one of all (to me at least) is our friend Josh.  Josh was here with his friend Todd, who we've known for several years.  It turns out that Josh is the half-brother to my former step-brothers and sisters.  So we're kind-of related.  We didn't figure that one out until after his visit but it is a very small world!

So, if you think about moving away (or your kids or parents tell you they are moving away), don't fret - it is a small world after all.

Pictures

by Cindy

One of the things that is quite different here is that many of our friends do not have family pictures visible in their home.  In our home and offices, we have pictures everywhere so people are always amazed when they come into our living room or see our fridge full of pictures.

In my office at work I have several pictures of family, trips we've taken and other fun things.  The students are always looking at them, wanting to know who is in the picture, where it was taken, etc.  They are curious in the same way an American would be if we saw someone else's pictures but they approach the pictures with much more enthusiasm.  They are especially amazed at my niece Reagan's big blue eyes and everyone with blond hair.

Our local / regional friends here certainly take photos but they would not be put on display for the world to see.  My students have thousands of photos on their phone but they are for personal viewing, not public viewing.  Jeff has a photo of me in his office and he's had a female comment and say, "Arabs don't show off their women."

There are numerous reasons why they don't have pictures out in the open but mostly it is that families here are very private.  Seeing members of the family in pictures is just for the family.  Many of my local friends are on Facebook but they have images rather than photos as their profile picture and just wouldn't post many photos on the internet.  Some of the common questions in America like "how is your family" or "how many kids do you have" or "do you have boys or girls" would be totally inappropriate here.  Information about your family is information for your family.

1001 Nights!

When we started this journey, we didn't quite know what to expect.  We signed a three year contract and started our blog for you to follow along.  We were looking forward to living outside of America, experiencing a different culture, and trying something new.

Our expectations have been exceeded on every possible level.  We love our jobs, we travel all of the time, we see our family more than when we lived in Lubbock, we have amazing friends and a wonderful church.  We are blessed beyond measure and beyond our wildest expectations.

Here's a summary of all that we've seen and done in the past 1001 nights.  We have been to Ireland, Italy, England, Spain, Russia, and the Czech Republic.  We've been to Jordan, Oman, Qatar, and Egypt.  In Africa, we've been to Kenya and Tanzania, and in Asia, Thailand and China.  We've also been to India, and of course, to America.

We've prepared pasta in Tuscany, cooked curry in Thailand, and sampled ham in southern Spain.  We've sipped Jameson in Ireland, sherry in Andalucia, vodka in Russia, and chianti in, well, Chianti.

We've stood atop dunes in the Empty Quarter, climbed Kilimanjaro, explored Yosemite, camped at the "grand canyon" of Arabia, and safaried in Africa.  We've attended a wedding in India and biked the Golden Gate bridge.  We've toured the Collosseum in Rome, wandered through Egyptian temples in Luxor, and hiked to Petra.  We've been to St. Peter's in Rome and St. Basil's in Moscow.

So what did we do on our 1001st night?  We sat at home in Dubai - exhausted and thankful.  But keep reading - because the best part of our adventures thus far is that we've signed up for 1001 more nights!

The Zamboni

Most public spaces here don't have concrete sidewalks.  I think that's partially because the sand here doesn't have the right chemical makeup to be used in concrete - and also because the Arabs have a general dislike for concrete.  It's lowbrow. 

So they use marble.  Everywhere. Acres of it.  In the photo below, you can see the main plaza at our university.  We have six academic buildings on this plaza (two of which you see in the background), and a large administration building (casting a shadow from the left).  I would guess that the plaza is about the size of 3 football fields.  We've also got a fair amount of additional marble around our business and engineering buildings which are located elsewhere.

You can also see here one of the maintenance staff here at the university driving what looks like a small Zamboni.  He's actually cleaning the fine layer of dust from the top of the marble (note the "clean" marble in the foreground and the slightly dusty marble in the background).  They run this machine about once per week.

Boomtown

This past week, CNN had an article on its website about urban sprawl - and how it's happening all around the globe.  The article has some great photos with it, including a photo of how Dubai has changed in the last 10 years.  Click on this link - and then drag the line in the center of the photo back and forth to see how the city grew from 200,000 to 1.2 million in 10 years.

[We live in the bottom right corner of the photo - there's a green strip just above the word "colour" that shows University City, where the American University of Sharjah is located].  This green strip is visible in both the 2000 and 2010 photos.

Re-Introduction to Cold Weather

by Cindy

On the advice of our friends who have been in the UAE for a long time, we try to to take a cold weather trip each year.  In the UAE the coldest it gets is 50's F and that's just in the pre-dawn mornings for a couple of weeks.  So, if you want real-deal cold weather, you have to leave town.  Last year Jeff and I headed to Prague for cold weather and this year we headed to Russia.  Mind you - Russia in the first week of April, not Russia in December.  We are not fools!  We enjoyed cold, gray mornings, cool crisp mornings and snowy mornings so we were thankful for the variations in weather in just our eight days in the country.  It is funny how quickly one forgets what cold weather is like. Here are some of my reminders:

• Shaving your legs in cold weather is futile.
• Layers are the key.
• Layers - be the death of me!
• One forgets that the long johns go on first, the socks last, over the long johns.
• Don't get dressed too quickly or too soon or else you start to sweat before you leave your room.
• You drink a lot less in cold weather because you don't want to peel all of the layers off and going to the bathroom means going inside where you will sweat because of so many clothes. 
• You cannot put on enough lotion in cold weather.  (One hotel did have some nice body butter but it was hardly enough!)
• There is no dignified way to wipe your runny nose.
• Snow really is magical.

We did have a wonderful time and I enjoyed getting out the winter clothes, even if for just a week.  I think at the end of the day, I'm a warm weather girl. 

Top MIS researcher

by Cindy

I'm a very proud wife these days.  Jeff has been named a top 100 MIS researcher in the world.  Or as they say it, "Individual productivity rankings also indicated that Baker and Al-Natour are among the top 100 most prolific researchers publishing in the top four journals."

Here is the article as published on our university website:  Top 100 Researcher

Jeff has worked hard over the past several years and plans to take a bit of a break from research this summer.  His new goal - single digit handicap.  We'll be in America all summer so if you golf, let him know, he'll need some play dates.

Juices

by Cindy


Fruit juices are really popular over here.  You can get passion fruit, guava, cranberry and kiwi, litchi, youngberry, pomegranate and lime, lime and mint (my favorite), watermelon, mango, pineapple, kiwi, strawberry and the list goes on and on.  You always have to be careful because often times they mix LOTS of sugar with the juice but you can ask for the sugar on the side.  When you do that, you get pure liquid sugar in a coffee-creamer-like-container and you can add the sugar yourself.  Here I had a lemon juice, tart and tangy just like you put a straw into the side of a lemon, and then I added the amount of sugar I wanted.  Instead of coffee and cream - it's juice and sugar.

High Tea on the Dubai Creek

by Cindy

My Friend Chris and I wanted to get together and try something new in Dubai.  She's always up for an adventure and she's good at finding new things to do.  This time around, we chose High Tea while cruising the creek.  I'm sure Jeff was breathing a sigh of relief that he got a pass on this tea.

Glass top boat with tables set for tea.

Front top of boat for lounging around while cruising.

Chris with our yummy food.

More Tunisian Treats

by Cindy

Some more goodies from my Tunisian neighbor and her mother.  I gave them some cream cheese brownies in return.

Sweets - the one on the left is chocolate and butter crackers.  Jeff and I think it tastes a bit like graham crackers.  The one on the left tastes like a chocolate swirled pound cake.  Both were really yummy.

I have no idea what this is called and it had everything in it - tuna, eggs, beets, carrots, potatoes, green beans, olives, cheese, peas and I can't remember what else.

Again, no idea what this is called but in America we would call it a spinach quiche with tuna.  It was really good and made for a very filling breakfast.

I love being able to share food with my neighbor and get to experience some real-deal Tunisian food.  I think I'm going to have to start sharing some Tex-Mex foods with her!

Mushy Peas

by Cindy


Every once in awhile we get a craving for fish and chips.  For our American readers who aren't familiar with cuisine "across the pond" in the UK, fish and chips = fried fish and french fries.

Fish and chips often come with mushy peas or Brussels sprouts - neither of which are worth eating.  You can get some great chocolate from Brussels but the sprouts are not so great.

This latest dish of fish and chips came with mushy peas.  Mushy peas are just what you imagine - mushed-up green peas.  Unfortunately, there's nothing extra to keep them from tasting like peas.  We were dining with someone from Texas who thought Jeff had received a side of guacamole with his fish and chips....  Not exactly.