NOT a Peace Corps country

No direct flight from Kazakhstan to Nepal. Instead of a several hour layover, I decided to stay over a couple of days in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

When you drive into town you see an Arab Las Vegas. A super glitzy metropolis arising in the God forsaken desert. I’ve never been a fan of Vegas. Somehow as a Muslim country, they ignore the alcohol (and food on fasting days) that the international visitors want.

So I climbed to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (via elevator). I met an English family that had previously lived in Dubai for 14 years. Two days is enough for me.

At the restaurant I watched a soccer match between Almaty (remember? in Kazakhstan) and Madrid. A father and son were at the match in their white robes. Because there are so few men wearing them I thought they must be royalty or at least nobility. Turns out this is what all the Emirati men wear. The loose white cloth keeps them cool in the desert. (Not that they ever have to go out of their A/C penthouses.) The reason there are so few men wearing them is because citizens of the Emirates make up only about 10-15% of the population.

The rest are foreign workers, mostly from across Asia, working in massive ongoing construction projects. I asked a couple of girls working at the hotel who were from Zimbabwe how long they had been here. Two years. Do you like it? NO! It’s too hot! Need the work? Yes.

The immigrant men are the worker bees in construction. Many more tall buildings going up. Amazing what oil will do for a desert kingdom. They were working on a building next to my hotel in the oppressive heat. And at the end of the day a bus full of workers headed home, certainly not to the palatial buildings around town. Just like Vegas.Read more