Our Dubai Digs

In order to figure out WHY our gameboys and DS's were dead, you had to look at the spelling of our batteries! Look carefully! Normally, we buy the real deal, but here in Central Asia, they are very cunning in their theft! Our househelper, who isn't so astute in battery purchasing, was easily fooled into buying something that would power up your travel alarm clock for approximately 3 and a half seconds. Dubagels will now forever be on our 10 ten list of funniest family jokes!

So, let me start by giving you a few fun facts about our destination. Dubai is comprised of only about 15% native Arabs. The remaining 85% of the resident population is comprised of Pakistanis, Indians, Philipinos, and Europeans. Apparently, their oil reserves are expected to run OUT in about 10 years- so looking strategically to the future, the sheik (prince) has steered the economy towards foreign banking investments and tourism (mostly for shopping). The city of Dubai is actually only one city-state of several that make up the United Arab Emirates- the name of the country collectively.

Here is one feature prominent throughout the city of Dubai.

There are more cranes in operation in Dubai than anywhere else on earth! However, all the taxi drivers that we talked to said that the word financial crisis HAS affected Dubai, and that a lot of construction has come to a complete stand still. They do aid in building some of the most incredibly beautiful architection we have ever seen. I do have few pics. to show later.

Tired and dirty, we arrived at our guesthouse. It was beautiful! Most homes in Dubai are HUGE! We guessed that most are so large because most are Islamic and follow the custom of having more than one wife. These homes are obviously meant for a VERY large group of people with 10-12 bedrooms being quite common. Just a guess, though...

The first thing we did was go to the neighborhood mall. EVERY neighborhood as SEVERAL mosques and at least one mall. And every mall has a WESTERN FOOD COURT! WOO HOO! Everyone could choose whatever they wanted from McDonalds to KFC to Pizza Hut to local cuisine. The Water Guy and a couple of others chose Lebanese, while I and Macaroni and Pixie went for Burger King. A Whopper Jr. with cheese never tasted to good!!! My fried were cold though, which was a serious bummer! I was very, very sad.

Back at the guesthouse, after exchanging more money (this was certainly a common theme), and satiating our western taste buds, we settled into our lovely guesthouse. It was spacious, clean, and well stocked with every amenity to help a tired overseas worker relax.

We were fed very well during our stay, the first meal being a great dinner of Tikka chicken, rice made by our househelper who was from the Seychelles Islands, green salad (do you know how often we get to eat green salad?), and Arabic flat bread. Mmmm, so tasty! Oh yes, there was fresh hummus to smear all over every tastry morsel.

Our vacation really didn't start until the next day when we got to go feel the soft, imported sand on our toes-eys. (okay, how badly can someone butcher a word??!) Next up...

Desert Storm on the Beach- Or How Much Sand Can One Person Eat?

Coffee by the Skin of your Teeth

Time to continue with our journey! Let's go!

I promised to give you one more installment here on our 24-hour journey by train. You all probably think that I have gone to extreme excesses with describing things here, but honestly, my words here can never quite give you an acurate picture of just how exotic, stressful, long, uncomfortable, and, interesting a Central Asian train is all at the same time.

The train stops every few hours to pick up or let off passengers. At these stops of varying durations one can stock up on most anything from TP to toothpaste. Need a doctor? Gotcha covered. Police assistance? Got that too.

For music to entertain you- how about a dombra, anyone?



And if you're hungry, how about trying a steamed meat and onion dumpling? A fried potato filled dumpling? Fried fish or boiled potatoes? Gassy water, assorted juices, or fermented milk of from every farm animal can quench your thirst at every stop! Mmmm- tangy, foamy, camel's milk, anyone?

Okay, it's no secret I am an addict. The people here can't live without their tea; I on the other hand cannot live without my coffee! But what does one do when one has FORGOTTEN the coffee filter basket??!!! This is what a proper overseas worker does- IMPROVISES! Take one empty yogurt plastic container, poke holes in the bottom with a pin, put the (remembered) paper filter with the coffee grounds into the newly created maker, and pour the hot water on top. Voila! A perfect cup of hot, fresh, java, ready for bringing anyone out of the sway-induced stupor only a train can bring on.

Well, time to be on our way. I have no pictures between getting off the train, and our imminent landing in Dubai. So, in case you need a visual for the inside of a plane, here you go. I know, too exiciting; please contain yourselves. Okay, Mom, you don't have to contain yourself, I know you get far too few pics. of the grandkids.

Drumroll, please! We've arrived, well, we're arriving. Here's a birdseye view of one of the brand new suburbs going up near the airport. These are massive and ubiquitous. I think this one photo give the very best representation of the scope of development going on here. It also shows just how MUCH sand is in this vast expanse of desert!

Now, it's a very good thing we landed when we did because the gameboy batteries were all completely dead! Can you guess why?? First one to guess wins a special homebrew coffee :)

Next up.... our digs in Dubai.

Your SteppeSister

I left off with the inside of the train. Although, I didn't get very far. So, here are some pics. of what one might see in the new and improved "Chinese" train. Let's back up just a bit so I can fill you in on what the OTHER trains are like here. Let's just say that they are used- well used. Every part and piece has been patched, repaired, replaced, duct taped, or stolen. The toilets are unbelievably filthy!

But now, there is a new option. For more money, of course! But what an improvement! Here is a room with a view...

Each coupe' has 4 beds, a table, and a window, and of course a door. (that locks) They are cozy, and come with a set of clean of sheets.

Down the corridor on each end of the car are toilets. The newer Chinese trains have Turkish squatty pottys and are ever so much cleaner. Very nice improvement! Also, there is a boiling water spigot for tea. Our people go nowhere without their tea pot and cups!! NOWHERE! It is also very convenient for adding hot water to the bowls of top ramen that are our staple when travelling by train. In my next installment, I'll add some photos of what one might find at a stop. Many various and sundry food options are available at the stops!

One doesn't get too much sleep on the train, however! The constant clickety-clack most certainly prevents that!

Well, next up... On to Dubai! You'll get your first glimpses via our plane window! I know, you can hardly contain your excitement.

A Cosmopolitan Quest!

We're back! From a highly cosmopolitan, immensely fun, albeit too expensive, outrageously delicious experience in DUBAI!

I'll give you the blow by blow low down on how we conquered yet another strangely wonderful place we call planet Earth. But first things first. I feel compelled to have you travel with us to our jumping off point. That alone is adventure, ladies and gents! Let's take a train- A central Asian train, no less...

Our trip will take 24 hours thru the most BORING landscape on earth. It is desert, but not the beautiful desert of California or the exotic landscape of the middle east that is dotted with oases of palms. This is just bleak! Hard packed, salty soil, with interspersed sage brush type bushes and mangy cows and sheep is all one will find here. Throw in a nice mix of garbage all along the tracks- plastic pop bottles, a myriad of plastic shopping bags waving like Buddhist prayer flags on every bush, and an assortment of contruction materials- enough to build several homes if one is savvy, and voila, there you have it a picture of our mundane scenery for 1,000 miles. Let me illustrate for you:

The photo above was of interest to us. We suspect that this is actually a uranium mining operation, which is quite prolific in our area. Did you know, in Soviet times, the government would put the miners on trains with no windows, haul them to the mining sites on twisting, winding tracks for miles and miles and offload them underground so they could neither know where they were themselves, and consequently not be able to disclose the location of the deposits! Things are quite so bad now, mostly because western companies are overseeing the mining operations, but still, as you can see, a bit out of the way, and "hidden".

Now, what does the inside of a real live train look like? Well, let me show you! They are actually quite comfy, if NOT travelling with monkey children. For 18 years I have been saddled with the label of "mother of monkey children". Sad, but true. Oops! Lunch is ready, I'll have to continue in my next post. Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but we can't have burned rice now can we?

Until Next Time,

Your Steppe Sister

Well, one more day! We are all fairly bursting at the seams waiting to see what's in store for us! We all love to see new places, smell and taste new foods, learn how to navigate the culture around us and hear the new sounds around us.

The kids are pretty darned excited about THIS though:

The website says they have over 30!!!! attractions from wave pools to 200 foot water slides to lazy rivers to float away your cares on. Let me tell you, ladies and gents I am ready!

How about this??

I think sitting on a beach talking about anything but work, is just the ticket!

We have a VERY busy spring and summer with new teammates joining us, projects to get started and some funded (that means lots of proposal writing), and hopefully and new quilting group getting started- of course that one depends on if my funding comes in. But, I am very eager to get it up and running and sharing time with some ladies and watching them learn a new skill.

Anyway, I have plenty to do this evening before I go to bed. But the pizza pockets are made, the cookies baked, the other food provisions packed and ready (need to provide your own food for the 24 hour train ride); just one bag left- The Water Guy's of course! What is it with people who actually wait until the last minute to pack??!! That so does NOT register with me, but hey whatever, it's not my clothes.

Well, I promise to bring back a load of photos to share with you! Will Wild Wadi live up to its esteemed reputation? Will the "golden sandy beaches" really be all that beautiful, or will we just discover that what they mean is that you have to pay in gold doubloons to sit on them??

Until next time,

Your SteppeSister

Too long, once again.... just deal with it, SteppeSister, you're only going to be able to post once a week at best! Ahhh well, good intentions.

No real news here, except The Water Guy built me a (very) small green house from some old windows. and of his own accord planted some chard and lettuce in it! Woohoo! Maybe in a few weeks we can eat green again. :)

The other news is that we are once again in packing mode for our trip to Dubai next week. It is such a chore finding all of our summer clothes out in the shed, bringing in the boxes, making sure I put them away clean (which I'm known to blow off occassionally), finding appropriate bags (which we are majorly lacking!), and coodinating matching outfits. I do my best, but meh! Of course, NariLoo has grown a bit, and now needs a little blouse as a cover for her sleeveless dresses (no sleeveless there, for sure!), but alas, I'm sure they will not have such items in the bazaar this early in the season. Shoes, let's not even go there. Shoes only last 1! season here, then they are shot. Our last year's sandals are shoddy beyond belief, so hmmm... another dilemma for Super Mom to ponder at night.

Our power continues to be a bane in my bright outlook. Off everday from 9:30 until about 6:30 each day, although we did have a break of that nonsense over the weekend. And today, it didn't go off until about 12:30, which allowed a washing of some previously mentioned clothes for packing. Oh yes, and the other BIG deal news is that the vacuum cleaner belts that I had ordered and had sent arrived!!! Yeah, baby, my rugs are clean of crumbs once again. But alas, no matter how careful we were with crumbs, the ants found their way in and now we are inundated!! No, I don't mean like we have a few ants! They are EVERYWHERE!!!!! You know that saying, "Do you have ants in your pants?" Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do! Thank you very much!

A discourse on ants:

There are two types of offending creatures in our home. The little black ones that are hard to see, and the great big, monstrous beasts with wings. Can you guess which ones can make you scratch your hiney for a week?? Yep, you win! Those little nasty ones that when you squish them between your fingers make a wretched smell of formic acid linger for an hour. It does keep one from picking their nose for a time- one good point, I guess. Nariloo has found it great fun to collect the big ones with wings in a jar and watch them dig. She is driven to distraction, though, as they eat their own wings when they fall off, and they won't drink from the bottle cap of water she put in there for them. As I reach for my crystal ball, I see serious interrment ceremonies in her near future. I think matchboxes will work great, don't you? It is amazing how a vacuum cleaner can help control the pest population, and I am very thankful for modern inventions such as these. Next, I will work on a coffee maker that won't burn my coffee after keeping it (too) hot for an hour. Hey, wait, maybe I could just set out the burnt coffee for the ants to drown in?

Back to my bagel making bonanza,

Your SteppeSister

Well, again, I've been foiled in my attempts to post on here! The power has been out all day yesterday AND today. They do turn it on in time for eating dinner, though. Ugh! It is times like these that I get pretty darned frustrated and need to take a step back and try to find the positive things in my situation!

So, I will dig way down deep, and try to list the things that I am grateful for here on the Steppe.

1) The culture we live in is very hospitible! When invited to a home, you are treated to the very best your host has to offer; food, entertainment, conversation, the works!

2) Life is slower and simpler here on the steppe. We are not encumbered by the temptations of shop, shop, shop; eat, eat, eat, busy, busy, busy, sport this, club that. We are HOME, most of the time, and a night out to friend's house is truly a special time out.

3) We have been able to put a little (I do emphasize a little) money away for our retirement, which we probably wouldn't be able to do living in the US. There is nothing extraneous to spend our money on, so any extra gets put away.

4) Our children are having an amazing childhood learning how to adapt to other worldviews, learning a second language fluently, and how one must rely on our Father for all kinds of circumstances.

5) We have a vastly enriched view of who God is, and many portions of Scripture have come to light with a whole new twist. When Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd, we KNOW what that means. We see good shepherds all the time!!

6) We have learned to be self-reliant in many circumstances; we get along as a family, relying on each other for comfort and companionship, probably more so than most families in the US. We have skills like baking bread, butchering turkeys (I'll tell THAT story sometime :) ) , plastering a wall, and digging a cistern, that most of our friends back home don't have a clue about.

Please don't think I'm bragging!! Just am REALLY in need of finding some good things about being here. I do go through these cycles of feeling good here, and feeling quite lousy.

7) We've gotten to travel to some amazing places while being here- Thailand, all over central Asia, Turkey, and soon Dubai! Ouch, that's really sneaking up on us, isn't it??!!

8) I've had time to play with some hobbies that I wouldn't have started like quilting and reading classic books, watching old movies, and finding new and creative ways to cook a tasty meal with 5 ingredients or less. Seriously, life in the States is so distracting, that it seems very few people find time to do what they might not otherwise because they are so busy!

Well, this is certainly not an exhaustive list by any means, but it gives a good idea of how many ways we, as a family, are blessed!

Next time, I want to share a photo of that applique quilt I am working on. All 4 blocks are done, and I've started appliquing the border. Doing the border like this added about a month more of work, but I really think this will end up being one of the nicest pieces I've ever done. I LOVE IT so far!!

Hope you are feeling good about where you are, and are counting all your blessings!

Your SteppeSister