Over the past few weeks a lot of people have been asking me "How's home?" and then later, "So when are you going home?" Alternatively, other people have asked "Where are you from?" All of these questions have become hard to answer. I know that Hamilton, Ontario and Canada will always be my official home base, but I would have to call my current "home" the UAE. After living there for a year, going back for another (and perhaps more, we will see) it is impossible to feel as I am merely a visitor any more. In some ways, I will be a perpetual visitor, as I will never look like a "local", I don't think I'll ever have a perfect grasp of the language, and I will always stand out. However, I have created a kind of UAE family that consists of people that I love, spend lots of time with and know I could count on for anything.
So, the perpetual question, "Do you like it there?" The answer is complicated. I have to reflect a lot on this recently since everyone who knows me (or sees the name of my bank on my credit card) wants to know about the UAE. I usually answer that there are some things I love and some things I don't. Truthfully, I LOVE my life in the UAE. I love my co-workers. These amazing women keep me sane, make me laugh and let me debrief. Also we drive each other crazy, but that's what happens when there is absolutely no testosterone in a room of 12 ladies. I (sometimes) love my job. Things about the organization and bureaucratic stuff can be very frustrating, but my students are extremely sweet and I cannot complain about the beautiful, state-of-the-art building I work in.
I love my lifestyle, my weekends and my holidays. I love sitting by the pool, visiting Dubai and waking up to palm tree lined streets every day. I have loved learning some words in a new language and learning about Emirati and Arab culture. I have learned the important difference between what it means to be a Muslim and what it means to live in an Islamic country with it's own distinct culture. I admire the people who try to live their lives in the best way they can under their religion and I admire the fact that the UAE has built itself up from small desert communities to 7 distinct Emirates in only 40 years. I love my apartment too!
Then there are the things I don't love. I don't love the way some people are treated. I don't love the fact that some people claim to be good people and have strong religious beliefs, but then do every possible thing they can that goes against their religion and good moral judgment. I don't love that some people have more money than they know what to do with, and others don't even have a house to sleep in at night.
Here is one thing I have learned when I really think hard about all this. You can take the above paragraph and apply it to Canada. We too have preachy religious people who (as my coworker says) "Pray with their mouth but not with their heart". We too have homeless people begging in our streets, while professional basketball and baseball players make disgusting amounts of money a year to play a game. We too subscribe to modern day slavery with migrant workers brought over from the Caribbean to work in factories and on farms. Canada is just better at hiding it. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. But I can also see that no country is perfect and that power and greed can turn people anywhere into unfeeling beings. I love Canada's freedom and I have lived nothing but a safe, happy life in both Canada and the UAE. I guess I have simply learned that you cannot know the truth about a place until you live there and spend time there. I definitely appreciate the opportunity to find all of this out.
So, the perpetual question, "Do you like it there?" The answer is complicated. I have to reflect a lot on this recently since everyone who knows me (or sees the name of my bank on my credit card) wants to know about the UAE. I usually answer that there are some things I love and some things I don't. Truthfully, I LOVE my life in the UAE. I love my co-workers. These amazing women keep me sane, make me laugh and let me debrief. Also we drive each other crazy, but that's what happens when there is absolutely no testosterone in a room of 12 ladies. I (sometimes) love my job. Things about the organization and bureaucratic stuff can be very frustrating, but my students are extremely sweet and I cannot complain about the beautiful, state-of-the-art building I work in.
I love my lifestyle, my weekends and my holidays. I love sitting by the pool, visiting Dubai and waking up to palm tree lined streets every day. I have loved learning some words in a new language and learning about Emirati and Arab culture. I have learned the important difference between what it means to be a Muslim and what it means to live in an Islamic country with it's own distinct culture. I admire the people who try to live their lives in the best way they can under their religion and I admire the fact that the UAE has built itself up from small desert communities to 7 distinct Emirates in only 40 years. I love my apartment too!
Then there are the things I don't love. I don't love the way some people are treated. I don't love the fact that some people claim to be good people and have strong religious beliefs, but then do every possible thing they can that goes against their religion and good moral judgment. I don't love that some people have more money than they know what to do with, and others don't even have a house to sleep in at night.
Here is one thing I have learned when I really think hard about all this. You can take the above paragraph and apply it to Canada. We too have preachy religious people who (as my coworker says) "Pray with their mouth but not with their heart". We too have homeless people begging in our streets, while professional basketball and baseball players make disgusting amounts of money a year to play a game. We too subscribe to modern day slavery with migrant workers brought over from the Caribbean to work in factories and on farms. Canada is just better at hiding it. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. But I can also see that no country is perfect and that power and greed can turn people anywhere into unfeeling beings. I love Canada's freedom and I have lived nothing but a safe, happy life in both Canada and the UAE. I guess I have simply learned that you cannot know the truth about a place until you live there and spend time there. I definitely appreciate the opportunity to find all of this out.
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