Hi all,
Yesterday as I was sitting at a stop light waiting for it to turn green, a man rode by on a very old bicycle and on the back of the bicycle he had strapped a lawn mower. I'm not sure how you can even accomplish such a thing but he had. I could only imagine he was off to his next job of taking care of someones lawn for mere penny's. He had on flip flops, long pants, long sleeve shirt, and some cloth wrapped around his head and was just sweating profusely. Remember it is still well over a 100* here and the humidity is still getting up around 70% on some days. You still can't go outside without immediately starting to sweat and that's just standing, now imagine riding a bicycle with a lawn mower strapped to the back of your bike.
I thought to myself how blessed and lucky we all are and I do mean everyone reading this blog. Sure we might have a bad day now and then or a bad year. Money might be tight or you might have complaints about a little man in a little office but when it comes right down to it one of our biggest gifts we ever got in life and no one really ever thinks about it because it was given to us before we were ever born is to be born in the United States. A country where girls/women are valued and educated. A place where if you work hard you can accomplish so much, no matter your background or station in life. Seeing this man on the bike, working so hard, really made me appreciate everything that I have as an individual, as a family and as a country.
Another thing we have learned is that people are really all the same. We might have different religious views, speak different languages but at the end of the day most of us just want a good life for our children, food on the table and a roof over our heads. (And all our children like the crust cut off their sandwiches, even over here to!)
Just like the man riding the bike, I'm sure he was just trying to provide for his family. And that's the other crazy part imagine your husband, wife, mother having to leave the US to earn a living. Not being able to see him or her more than once a year. I can't even imagine not being able to see my husband or girls for one week. There are so many people here that have done just that and come to a country with very little laws in place to protect them from being taken advantage of...like the woman we met who came to Dubai from the Philippines to work for a cleaning company. They provided her a way to get here but once she was here paid her much less than what was promised, worked her 6 days a week, 15 hours a day and then let her go after about 3 months with no way to get back to her home country.
So lets give a moment of thanks for all of our blessings in our lives and I will say a prayer for the man with the lawn mower on the back of his bike that God give him the strength to get through another day.
Love,
Jennifer
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Gas Man
Hi all,
Well here I am again writing about this crazy place called Dubai. I told Rich that I was going to write something positive next post but this story just has to be told.
So we have been living for about 3 weeks with no gas in our apartment. Our stove/oven has one electric burner on it and the oven is electric as well, so that is how I've been cooking since we got here. I finally decided that now that I've got the kids settled in school, I am going to take on the job of getting the gas turned on. Now in Kansas City, and I'm sure most places around the US you would pretty much just make a phone call to your local gas company, maybe put down a credit card or even a credit card deposit and your gas would be switched on and you'd be in business..simple. Well here, not so much...
The securtiy guard downstairs gave me a "how to sheet" with the steps listed to get the gas turned on. 1st step, make a deposit of 1250 AED (dirhams), about $350 to M/s Nekheels bank account located at HSBC bank. Nekheel is the big developer in Dubai, they built the Palm Jumeirah we are living on. So I head to the closest HSBC bank and after waiting in line I am told that this bank was only a service center and to make this deposit I would have to go to an actual branch. He tells me where that is and I head to Jebel Ali, about 20 minutes down the freeway. I get to the Jebel Ali branch and it is crazy busy, which I can understand since the "service" centers don't really service anyone and everyone has to go to one of the very few branches located around Dubai to be serviced!
I get in the info line and the nice woman behind the desk tells me which form to fill out and which line to get in. I then ask if I can use a credit card to pay the deposit, now remember I'm at a bank, and she says no. Cash or check only to be deposited into "Mr" Nekheels bank account. I only have 1025 AED and have just withdrawn earlier in the day from our ATM account. So now I'm worried that my account won't let me withdraw anymore cash..the whole cash withdrawal limit thing (the nice woman behind the counter says that at HSBC they let there customers withdraw $4000 a day so I should be able to withdraw more from my bank if I've only taken out $300, she thought that seemed very low, I said I think they might do things a little differently in the U.S.!)...luckily it lets me take out 300AED more and we're back in business. I fill out my form, get in line and pay the cash deposit. At this point all of this seems very shady! And I am only left with 75 AED (about $20) until the next day. Which again in the States you would think no worries, who uses cash in the States anyway, everything is debit or credit card..well not here everybody wants cash and some places only take cash.
So I have my little pink deposit slip that is my receipt and head back to our building where I am now supposed to take it to an office in building #3. We are in building #6. I stop and park at building #3 (the 1st time) and go in and of course the little man in the little office is no where to be found. Rich says to me, I don't think he would like it if he knew you were calling him the little man, and I say I am so annoyed with this whole process that the gas man is now called the little man in the little office! I take my receipt back to the "little office" three times and each time the "little man" is not to be found. Finally I decide to camp out at the office this past Thursday right after I drop off Emma at school, which proved to be a good plan because after about a 10 minute wait, the "little man" shows up. (He's actually really normal looking but at this point after having been there so many times and him not there, he would not classify as one of my favorite people) I walk in and say I'm trying to connect my gas in our apartment and then I show him my pink slip and he says call this number and ask for Ibraham. I could not believe it, I have wasted over 2 days trying to track this guy down and all he gives me is a number! Do you think maybe it would be a good idea to put that as #3 on the "how to sheet", what do I need to be traipsing over to building 3 for in 110* heat if all I needed was a number to call! Aarrgghh I was so mad!
So I go home and make a call to Ibraham and he tells me to scan my receipt and email it to this email address and then someone will be contacting me. I of course do not have a scanner at the apartment, so I have to drive over to Rich's office and drop the little pink slip off. It gets scanned and emailed. Rich ask when are they coming, I say I have no clue, I was told to wait for a call! Ibraham says maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday we call you, we come turn your gas on..
Now it is Saturday morning and we are getting ready to leave the house in 15 minutes to go watch Emma's first tennis lesson and guess who calls...yep..Ibraham. He says they are in the building and can they come in 20 minutes. I tell him we were just about to leave for my daughter's tennis lesson and could they come later around lunch. He of course says no not good, so Rich decides to stay behind and I will take Emma. The guy arrives before I leave and starts telling me that I have the wrong stove for gas. As soon as he says that I am about ready to explode, I start yelling upstairs for Rich and tell him that he has to deal with this. The "little man" says that we have the wrong stove and that it will cost another 175 AED (cash) for them to hook up some converter so the gas will work. Now Rich is upset, saying what a racket this whole process is, just another way to squeeze a nickel out of us..and why didn't the lady at the store say anything about not being able to hook the gas up to this type of stove..the "little man" was just looking at Rich, like I know you're upset but I don't have a clue as to what you are saying! Rich finishes by saying whatever you have to do just do it...the guy says 175 dirhams cash..we agreed and when I got home from tennis lessons,
I finally had GAS!!
Just think, you make 1 phone call in the States and it only took me 1 week to have that switch turned on!
Love to all,
Jennifer
Well here I am again writing about this crazy place called Dubai. I told Rich that I was going to write something positive next post but this story just has to be told.
So we have been living for about 3 weeks with no gas in our apartment. Our stove/oven has one electric burner on it and the oven is electric as well, so that is how I've been cooking since we got here. I finally decided that now that I've got the kids settled in school, I am going to take on the job of getting the gas turned on. Now in Kansas City, and I'm sure most places around the US you would pretty much just make a phone call to your local gas company, maybe put down a credit card or even a credit card deposit and your gas would be switched on and you'd be in business..simple. Well here, not so much...
The securtiy guard downstairs gave me a "how to sheet" with the steps listed to get the gas turned on. 1st step, make a deposit of 1250 AED (dirhams), about $350 to M/s Nekheels bank account located at HSBC bank. Nekheel is the big developer in Dubai, they built the Palm Jumeirah we are living on. So I head to the closest HSBC bank and after waiting in line I am told that this bank was only a service center and to make this deposit I would have to go to an actual branch. He tells me where that is and I head to Jebel Ali, about 20 minutes down the freeway. I get to the Jebel Ali branch and it is crazy busy, which I can understand since the "service" centers don't really service anyone and everyone has to go to one of the very few branches located around Dubai to be serviced!
I get in the info line and the nice woman behind the desk tells me which form to fill out and which line to get in. I then ask if I can use a credit card to pay the deposit, now remember I'm at a bank, and she says no. Cash or check only to be deposited into "Mr" Nekheels bank account. I only have 1025 AED and have just withdrawn earlier in the day from our ATM account. So now I'm worried that my account won't let me withdraw anymore cash..the whole cash withdrawal limit thing (the nice woman behind the counter says that at HSBC they let there customers withdraw $4000 a day so I should be able to withdraw more from my bank if I've only taken out $300, she thought that seemed very low, I said I think they might do things a little differently in the U.S.!)...luckily it lets me take out 300AED more and we're back in business. I fill out my form, get in line and pay the cash deposit. At this point all of this seems very shady! And I am only left with 75 AED (about $20) until the next day. Which again in the States you would think no worries, who uses cash in the States anyway, everything is debit or credit card..well not here everybody wants cash and some places only take cash.
So I have my little pink deposit slip that is my receipt and head back to our building where I am now supposed to take it to an office in building #3. We are in building #6. I stop and park at building #3 (the 1st time) and go in and of course the little man in the little office is no where to be found. Rich says to me, I don't think he would like it if he knew you were calling him the little man, and I say I am so annoyed with this whole process that the gas man is now called the little man in the little office! I take my receipt back to the "little office" three times and each time the "little man" is not to be found. Finally I decide to camp out at the office this past Thursday right after I drop off Emma at school, which proved to be a good plan because after about a 10 minute wait, the "little man" shows up. (He's actually really normal looking but at this point after having been there so many times and him not there, he would not classify as one of my favorite people) I walk in and say I'm trying to connect my gas in our apartment and then I show him my pink slip and he says call this number and ask for Ibraham. I could not believe it, I have wasted over 2 days trying to track this guy down and all he gives me is a number! Do you think maybe it would be a good idea to put that as #3 on the "how to sheet", what do I need to be traipsing over to building 3 for in 110* heat if all I needed was a number to call! Aarrgghh I was so mad!
So I go home and make a call to Ibraham and he tells me to scan my receipt and email it to this email address and then someone will be contacting me. I of course do not have a scanner at the apartment, so I have to drive over to Rich's office and drop the little pink slip off. It gets scanned and emailed. Rich ask when are they coming, I say I have no clue, I was told to wait for a call! Ibraham says maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday we call you, we come turn your gas on..
Now it is Saturday morning and we are getting ready to leave the house in 15 minutes to go watch Emma's first tennis lesson and guess who calls...yep..Ibraham. He says they are in the building and can they come in 20 minutes. I tell him we were just about to leave for my daughter's tennis lesson and could they come later around lunch. He of course says no not good, so Rich decides to stay behind and I will take Emma. The guy arrives before I leave and starts telling me that I have the wrong stove for gas. As soon as he says that I am about ready to explode, I start yelling upstairs for Rich and tell him that he has to deal with this. The "little man" says that we have the wrong stove and that it will cost another 175 AED (cash) for them to hook up some converter so the gas will work. Now Rich is upset, saying what a racket this whole process is, just another way to squeeze a nickel out of us..and why didn't the lady at the store say anything about not being able to hook the gas up to this type of stove..the "little man" was just looking at Rich, like I know you're upset but I don't have a clue as to what you are saying! Rich finishes by saying whatever you have to do just do it...the guy says 175 dirhams cash..we agreed and when I got home from tennis lessons,
I finally had GAS!!
Just think, you make 1 phone call in the States and it only took me 1 week to have that switch turned on!
Love to all,
Jennifer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A380
The A380!
Rich took some video of the inside during his flight from Dubai to JFK. He said it was pretty amazing. The upper deck stretches the whole length of the plane. The downstairs section is all coach, the upstairs is business and first class. It's hard to believe that something that size can actually take off!
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