Here in Dubai I am staying with a doctor from Panama, working at the American Hospital. Last night, we went out for Yemeni food (a first), and joining us was one of his co-workers, Ron, who is an American.
Ron has an interesting story. Probably in his mid to late 40s, he grew up in Chicago, lived and worked as a doctor in Seattle, Virginia, Arizona, a few other places in the US, then lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years (from which he has some fascinating stories), and has been in Dubai now for 6 years.
So over a bottle of wine our discussion gravitated mainly to negative things such as problems in the US, discrimination here in Dubai, and other things that are quite easy to sit back and criticize while doing the whole sitting at a dinner table and drinking wine thing. Fed up with all the negative talk, I had the discussion switched to more positive things, and so Ron busts out the most feel good story I've probably ever heard.
Ron's parents are from a small island in the Philippines. When he was working at the University of Chicago in the 80s, by some miniscule chance, he met a girl from the same island that was also living in Chicago. They dated for awhile, he had to move to Seattle, so it ended there and he never really looked back.
Early this year, his mom passed away, so he went to the funeral which was on his home island in the Philippines. Low and behold, and unbeknown to him previously, when he showed up, his girlfriend from 18 years ago was also at the funeral. He said when they saw each other they embraced and it felt like 18 years ago (people from this small community were staring uncomfortably at their hug, as he said).
Anyways, he went on to tell how a few years after they broke up in Chicago, that she went back to the Phillipines due to a death in her family, and for various reasons, she never returned to the US. She ended up opening a shop on the island. Since it is such a small island, this girl was actually a good acquaintance with Ron's mom, but Ron's mom did not know that they had ever dated or even knew each other. In fact, in several trips Ron made to the island in the 2000's, Ron's mom took him to the girl's shop twice in an effort to introduce the two (since she knew they were both single) but both times her shop was closed so the connection was never re-established. So, however, in the end, his mom did succeeded in re-uniting the two, but at her funeral.
Anyways, it gets even cheesier. She goes on to tell him how she never really loved anyone since 18 years ago, and had been thinking about him. He brushes it off a bit, goes back to Dubai, but then they start communicating by email for about 4 months after the funeral. I guess they hit it off again, and so he proposed to her and they are getting married soon. He even extended an invitation to me to the wedding in the Philippines in September (guess I won't be going haha).
Now there is a positive story worthy of telling.
Showing posts with label Dubai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dubai. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
My Syrian Airplane Friend
I have to take a few minutes here to write and remember about the guy I just met at the airport in Istanbul and sat next to on the plane to Dubai.
He is basically the same age as me and from Syria. He has been living in Istanbul for 2 years while studying. He pays about $5,000 a year for school. Since he knows Arabic and English and thus can talk to most tourists, he works as a salesman at the famous Egyptian/Spice bazaar to pay his way through University (he just finished his degree in International relations).
But the most interesting part of our discussion was learning about how things really are in Syria right now. He hasn’t seen his family since last year, and not exactly by choice. His father, until things get better, is telling him not to come back to Syria. If he goes back, he could be arrested. The government believes that everyone that has been living abroad and that is coming back could be against the interests of the government. Therefore, he is scared of being arrested if he returns and anything else that might happen thereafter.
His dad owned a construction shop but basically closed it about 4 months ago. He lives in his house now and doesn’t go out much. In fact, since he is not working, he is being sent money from his son working in Istanbul.
He said it is all about religion. He is Muslim but extremely open to everything. He was fasting on the plane for Ramadan, but did not mind when I ate lunch (in fact offering me some dates that the airline gave him to break his fast). I even asked him for awhile what he accomplishes out of fasting himself and it was really interesting… But back to their government, which are people who are followers of a particular type of Islam that I don’t think I have heard of, which represents about 10% of the population. 80% of the population is Sunni. The last 10% are Christians.
So that 10% that is in power believes their way is correct and is ruling with military rule. He said they have killed about 2,000 protestors since it began earlier this year. Just yesterday, on the first day of Ramadan, he said they killed 100 people. But he said every time someone is killed, more people join in on the protesting. When a family member dies, their close family and friends feel the pain and are inspired to join in. So thus the more people they kill, the more join in on the protests. He said these 10% in charge have most of the money in the country (goes without stating I suppose). They have kicked out most of the independent journalists, as well.
Then he went on to talk about how he met an Australian girl in Syria awhile back, and they dated for a few years (even a year or so after she went home), and got married in Jordan. But she went home to Australia, and he tried to move there. But the Australian government said no. Of course, he was going to work and was going there legitimately for his wife. So, after 2 years, they gave up, he couldn’t make it to Australia, and that was the end of their marriage.
And the whole reason this guy was on the plane was that 4 or 5 months ago he met a girl from Dubai. A real Emirate (she was actually born there). She was in Istanbul for 2 weeks and somehow they got along real well and when she left started communicating daily, and so she invited him to come to Dubai to get married. So 4 months later, after he received his degree, he was on the plane sitting next to me ready to start a completely new life. He had known this girl for 2 weeks in person (though he was also looking for a new job).
More interesting also is that if she chooses to marry him, in the UAE, she must give up her passport and accept a Syrian passport. Because she is a woman. However, an Emirate man can offer citizenship to a women. So maybe they will go to the UK or Jordan for the marriage. That is just screwed up. Male dominated society throughout the middle east to say the least (he agreed with me).
So in the end, I took a few things away. One, that we are damn privileged not to have to go through anything like this in our lives coming from our part of the world. I just can’t imagine really. But this guy takes it full on positively and makes the best of it. It pretty much makes me not want to complain about much. And two, this is the great perspective you can get travelling that BBC and CNN and Fox just don’t give you. Love it.
He is basically the same age as me and from Syria. He has been living in Istanbul for 2 years while studying. He pays about $5,000 a year for school. Since he knows Arabic and English and thus can talk to most tourists, he works as a salesman at the famous Egyptian/Spice bazaar to pay his way through University (he just finished his degree in International relations).
But the most interesting part of our discussion was learning about how things really are in Syria right now. He hasn’t seen his family since last year, and not exactly by choice. His father, until things get better, is telling him not to come back to Syria. If he goes back, he could be arrested. The government believes that everyone that has been living abroad and that is coming back could be against the interests of the government. Therefore, he is scared of being arrested if he returns and anything else that might happen thereafter.
His dad owned a construction shop but basically closed it about 4 months ago. He lives in his house now and doesn’t go out much. In fact, since he is not working, he is being sent money from his son working in Istanbul.
He said it is all about religion. He is Muslim but extremely open to everything. He was fasting on the plane for Ramadan, but did not mind when I ate lunch (in fact offering me some dates that the airline gave him to break his fast). I even asked him for awhile what he accomplishes out of fasting himself and it was really interesting… But back to their government, which are people who are followers of a particular type of Islam that I don’t think I have heard of, which represents about 10% of the population. 80% of the population is Sunni. The last 10% are Christians.
So that 10% that is in power believes their way is correct and is ruling with military rule. He said they have killed about 2,000 protestors since it began earlier this year. Just yesterday, on the first day of Ramadan, he said they killed 100 people. But he said every time someone is killed, more people join in on the protesting. When a family member dies, their close family and friends feel the pain and are inspired to join in. So thus the more people they kill, the more join in on the protests. He said these 10% in charge have most of the money in the country (goes without stating I suppose). They have kicked out most of the independent journalists, as well.
Then he went on to talk about how he met an Australian girl in Syria awhile back, and they dated for a few years (even a year or so after she went home), and got married in Jordan. But she went home to Australia, and he tried to move there. But the Australian government said no. Of course, he was going to work and was going there legitimately for his wife. So, after 2 years, they gave up, he couldn’t make it to Australia, and that was the end of their marriage.
And the whole reason this guy was on the plane was that 4 or 5 months ago he met a girl from Dubai. A real Emirate (she was actually born there). She was in Istanbul for 2 weeks and somehow they got along real well and when she left started communicating daily, and so she invited him to come to Dubai to get married. So 4 months later, after he received his degree, he was on the plane sitting next to me ready to start a completely new life. He had known this girl for 2 weeks in person (though he was also looking for a new job).
More interesting also is that if she chooses to marry him, in the UAE, she must give up her passport and accept a Syrian passport. Because she is a woman. However, an Emirate man can offer citizenship to a women. So maybe they will go to the UK or Jordan for the marriage. That is just screwed up. Male dominated society throughout the middle east to say the least (he agreed with me).
So in the end, I took a few things away. One, that we are damn privileged not to have to go through anything like this in our lives coming from our part of the world. I just can’t imagine really. But this guy takes it full on positively and makes the best of it. It pretty much makes me not want to complain about much. And two, this is the great perspective you can get travelling that BBC and CNN and Fox just don’t give you. Love it.
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