EBCI

Our church in Dubai, Emirates Baptist Church International, has been around for a little over 10 years. We started going there in 1998 when it was less than a year old, meeting in a villa. God grew the church and worked in the landlords heart. He also moved tenants in and out of the adjoining villa (like a duplex) so that when He grew us, we just knocked down the common wall and moved into 2 villas. Of course, this meant that the pastor had a support column right in front of the podium but one gets use to things like that in Dubai. Traffic chaos occured when a semi mega mall was built across the street from the villa. We looked at it as if we had our own parking garage, movie stage and starbucks. Safety was a MAJOR prayer request on AWANA evenings.

There are laws governing renters and rentees, but no one really knows what they are for sure. One rumored law is that a landlord cannot kick out a tenant unless he is going to do major rennovation or needs the villa for a family member. They are not suppose to raise the rent more than 5% every other year. There are many loopholes in the law. Rents have more than doubled in the 5 years we've been here this time, so it wasn't surprising to learn that our landlord wanted to do major rennovation. We were in need of a new home. We had grown soooo much, we were in need of a new home anyway. Religious communities are not allowed to meet in schools - at least that's the rumor. However, some schools don't fall under the Ministry of Education, so we can rent from them. Al Noor school for special needs kids warmly opened their arms to us. It's a win win situation for all of us. We have a place to worship, and they get income. The unpacking setting up, taking down, packing.....reminds me of the early days at Fellowship of the Woodlands. Mind you, I didn't attend there then but have heard the stories which I'm sure are true, not rumors.

I'm not sure how many nationalities attend our church. One Friday, Pastor Dan did an unofficial survey and counted more than 15 different first languages spoken by attendees. The congregation has changed significantly over the past years. Newcomers came from all over the US and we would try to guess which state they were from. (Texas usually won). Now, we try to guess which country people are from. They come from all over the world. It's truly amazing.

Here are a few pictures from a recent service at our new location.

Praise and Worship team....

the somewhat hidden worship band...

the gym is full....

a close up.

Camels

Camels were a novelty when we first came to Dubai 10 years ago, November 1997. We would see them around the city in trucks, along the side of the road and in the desert. Every camel we saw would bring us to a standstill and we marvelled at the sight of them. Now we have to drive at least 30 miles out of the city to see a camel in the desert. The closest we get in the city is at the camel race track. Since camels are associated with the desert and Dubai is built in the middle of one (desert not camel), I'd thought I'd share with you some pictures I've accumulated over the years.

Riding a camel is easy - getting off and on is difficult. They bend at 45 degree angles a couple of times in the process. I went head over heels for one camel:-) I don't have pictures of that and if I did, I probably wouldn't put them on my blog, but here are pictures of the process.

WHEW!!!!!

Baby camels can be quite cute...and come in many different colors, well at least 3.

.....speak no evil....(no they don't make these for teenagers- I've checked.....)

Smile for the camera!!!!!

Camel shower!!!!!

"Spicy" Old Dubai

There's a part of me that feels the need to include pictures any time I post. Since I'm still learning all the aspects of adding photos, that takes me the longest to do. I've put off posting until I had some interesting pictures. Plus, I've been busy at school taking basketball pictures. I take photos for varsity, JV and the under 14 group. After school has been quite busy. Taking the pictures is the fun, less time consuming part. Manipulating them on the computer is the time consuming part.

In between games, I was able to take a trip with some friends to an older part of Dubai called Diera. It's the part of town where you can find the wholesale souk, gold souk, spice souk, etc. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Here are my friends smelling cinnamon sticks in the spice souk. The blue stuff in the next picture is indigo for washing jeans. The last picture shows the many ways the spice souk can spice up your life!!!

As we headed home, the dry docks had a shift change. All the workers wear blue coveralls and ride their bikes to work. The picture doesn't do justice to the amount of workers going to work. It was a sea of blue.

If you have anything in particular your curious about or want to see pictures of, just let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to post about that.

MD Anderson and St. Luke's in Dubai

I had the opportunity to take pictures at a neuroscience conference that was being held in Dubai. Doctors from MD Anderson and St. Luke's in the Houston Medical Center were brought in as speakers. Since Michael had a neurosurgeon for one of his doctors and I'm from Houston, it felt like old home week. The staff from MDA were so excited to know I was from the Woodlands and lived in Dubai. I had an instant bond with many of them. Although I didn't understand half of what the doctors were saying and the slides were very graphic (especially the brain photos), I enjoyed listening to the seminars. One thing Dubai always does well is food and this conference was no exception.

A highlight of the conference was a visit by the Minister of Health. I didn't realize how important this was until the "other" media showed up. Kinda felt like I was in a rugby match. Many cultures don't understand the concept of personal space. I did manage to capture a shot of the minister and a few of the doctors.

Activities

When I first thought of doing this blog, I wasn't very busy so I had plenty of time to mess around with it trying to figure out what was going on. Since my first post, I've been on the go for the past few days and too tired to figure things out when I got home. So, until I'm proficient at this my posts may be a few days apart. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get english tool bars instead of arabic. I've pretty much pressed every button I can. At least the dashboard is in english.

CBI had a golf tounament on the coldest day of the year in Dubai. That may not be cold compared to Illinois cold, but it is compared to Dubai hot. I couldn't even feel the club in my hand for the last couple of holes. It started out as a great day so I can't complain. I wasn't even sweaty at the end of the round which has NEVER happened to me before. Our team didn't win but we weren't losers either. My partners were 3 of the nicest guys at CBI.

In the beginning...

I'm just trying to keep up with you younger people out there so you may need to cut me some slack as I learn all about blogging. That explains WHY I'm blogging, let me explain some other things. The title - someone who lives outside of their own country is considered an expatriate, an expat for short. The main purpose of the blog is to give family and friends an idea of our life over here. We've only been overseas 7 years so it's about time you know what going on. The template for the blog: it's called snapshot - what else would a photographer use.

Frank doesn't have school today - it's raining. I know strange as it may sound, school is closed because of the rain. It has been raining for several days now. You see, Dubai is set up to handle sand and it does that very well. Since it only rains once every several years, the drainage system, or lack of one, is not set up for rain. So, streets flood, people drive like it isn't wet, roofs leak, windows leak, sewers back up, etc.

This is the second day this week school was cancelled. President Bush visited Dubai on Monday and Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, declared it a holiday and most everything was closed. Needless to say, Frank has had a great week. Friday/Saturday is our weekend so he only has one more day of school this week. I've benefited also. Steve takes Frank to school but when he's traveling, I do it. Since Steve is in Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam, Rome and Milan this week, I had to drive. Thanks to Bush and the rain, I had 2 days off just like Frank.

Our new villa handles the rain much better than the old one - at least so far. I've only discovered a couple of leaks and they are bearable. Along with the rain comes lower temps which is nice except there are no heaters in the villas. So we are running around in robes, sweatpants (only have one pair), hoodies and socks trying to stay warm. I'm trying to be content and not complain because I know if a few weeks it will be hot again and I'll be wishing for more rain. There's alot of things I need to work on but I'm going to try the content thing at least while the rain lasts.....