Dubai Recap

We have had such a busy week! Dubai has been such a whirlwind – there was so much to do here that we used every free minute either out in the city or sleeping! Although I’m sad to leave Dubai, I am excited to continue our adventure. I’d love to return to Dubai sometime, though.

On Monday, we had a class session where we discussed our thoughts about Ghana & compared what we saw in Ghana to the US as well as what we expected to see in UAE. Then, Monday evening some of us took the metro out to the Mall of the Emirates (a HUGE mall). The metro in Dubai is brand new & only some of the stops are open, but it is an amazing form of public transportation. Everything in the metro station is accessible to people with disabilities. It was really remarkable to see such a high level of planning and foresight in a public structure – something that all governments and builders should take into consideration. Anyway, when we went to the Mall of the Emirates, we did the Ski Dubai attraction. It is an indoor ski slope inside the mall. In addition to skiing, they had tubing and other winter sport attractions (a chair lift, sledding, a big ball to get inside & roll down the snow, etc.) I purchased the Super Pass, which allowed me to go tubing & use all of the other features of Ski Dubai except the ski slope. (The slope was for experienced skiers only, and even though I’ve been before, I figured it would be safer for everyone involved if I didn’t go!) After the Mall of the Emirates, we went to a souq (market) in Jumeira where we ate dinner on the water and I finally found some vegetables! (It has been so hard to eat fruits & vegetables on this trip!)

On Tuesday, we went to Jumeira Mosque and Center for Cultural Understanding, where we received an overview of the Muslim culture in the Middle East. We all had to wear head scarves to cover our hair, and I also had to wear a long black dress over my clothes because my capris didn’t cover my ankles. A few other girls on our trip also had to wear them, and we took lots of pictures! After the mosque, we ate lunch at a cool little restaurant called Lime Tree Café (with the best carrot cake in town according to the guide book – and it was very good!), and then took a walk around Jumeira Beach. The water from the gulf was bright blue and beautiful and there were views of the Dubai skyline from the beach. Dubai is such a beautiful city! Then, after a much needed nap, we had tea with Dr. Hussain Masseh, the social care expert in Dubai Community Development Authority. The Community Development Authority oversees human rights, community center and social rights, and social care. Social care is in charge of family services, senior citizens services, and vulnerable groups, which includes persons with disabilities. Similar to the United States, Dubai has a history of institutionalization. Currently, institutionalization is really the only option for children with disabilities. Inclusion education, although legislated, is not in effect here, and services are hard to come by. Dr. Masseh’s own 17 year old son has autism, and he spoke of how he moved to the United States when his son was a child so that he could receive services. Now, Dubai has started an early intervention services, and they are working to implement 17 more services in 2010, including employment/vocational rehabilitation services (I work in employment services at the Center for Disabilities Studies at UD). After speaking with Dr. Masseh, some of us took an abra (water taxi) across the Dubai Creek to a textile souq. It was amazing – it was a huge marketplace just filled with fabrics, pashminas, bags, shirts, etc. I purchased a new pashmina to add to my growing collection as well as a few gifts for my mom & sister.

On Wednesday, we visited the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services. Sharjah is another emirate that neighbors Dubai. One of the things I was most grateful to see was the Center for Youth with Autism. They had a program set up for teenagers with autism very similar to the classrooms at the Delaware Autism Program. After leaving Sharjah, we went back to our hotel in Dubai and went on a desert safari! We rode in 4x4s through the desert dunes. Unfortunately, I developed some photosensitivity from my malaria medication, which made me very sensitive to the sun. My hands and feet were tingling/burning all day Wednesday and some of the day on Thursday, so with that plus the motion sickness from riding through the dunes, I wasn’t feeling too great throughout the evening. However, when we reached our camp, there were lots of festivities set up. There were camel rides, different foods to sample, shisha (also known as hookah in the United States), henna tattoos, and traditional Arabic outfits to try on. We were also served a buffet dinner and there was a belly dancing show. It was a really nice time and a good contrast of the festivities in Ghana.

On Thursday, we went to see the Dubai Early Childhood Development Centre (DECDC), a program under the direction of the Community Development Authority. It has been in existence for 2 years and serves children ages 0-6 with special needs or at-risk. It is the first program of its type in the Middle East. The program is so unique because they employ a range of professions, including social workers, special educators, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists who go out to families’ homes and community sites to provide services in natural environments. Therefore, instead of the children coming to a center to learn skills, they learn adaptations for the environments they use on a daily basis, while also training parents how to help their children in those settings. DECDC currently serves 27 families and has a waiting list of 29 families, but what is so interesting about their clientele is that they only serve UAE nationals. Only 15% of people living in Dubai are UAE nationals, and the rest are from other countries within the Middle East or Asia, leaving a huge number of people without services. After seeing DECDC, we went to Inspire Children’s Nursery. Two women who used to work for the UAE government in social service positions left their jobs to open a nursery for all children – regardless of nationality, ability level, etc. They converted an old mansion into a school & it was absolutely beautiful. I had never seen a school like it before & it was such a nice, welcoming environment. They were actually still in the process of setting up when we took our tour, but they are opening on Sunday with 10 babies. (The weekend in Dubai is Thursday night, Friday, Saturday). Having an inclusion school is still virtually unheard of in Dubai, so they are pioneering into a new realm for UAE & then will show the government their success so it can be duplicated. After seeing Inspire, we went back to the souq in Jumeira where we went on Monday night. This time, all the stores were open, and we had quite a bit of time to browse to kill time before our tour of the Burj Al Arab! Seeing the Burj Al Arab (aka the sailboat hotel & the only 7 star hotel in the world) was an amazing opportunity for our group. One of the girls on our trip has a friend from UD whose father is one of the executives at Burj Al Arab. He allowed all 25 of us to come take a tour and see the whole hotel. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I cannot even explain it in words – you’ll just have to see the pictures when I post them! When we left the Burj Al Arab, we went to the City Centre Mall, which is located close the hotel where we stayed. We did some clothes shopping (my favorite thing to do) and I also had to buy a new camera. I bought a camera the day before we left, but it incurred liquid damage while in Ghana. I’m not sure how this happened, but it was very hot and humid in Ghana, so I’m sure it had to do with environmental factors. Anyway, I got a new camera & will be able to take pictures throughout the rest of our trip!

Friday was our final day in Dubai. We spent much of the day just relaxing, sleeping, and packing. In the afternoon, we went over to the Palm Island to Atlantis. Atlantis is a huge water park and there are only two of them in the world – Dubai and the Bahamas. If anyone has seen the Dubai episode of the Amazing Race, they went to Atlantis and rode the biggest slide, Leap of Faith. Leap of Faith was a straight vertical drop from about 4 stories high. I was SO afraid, but realized it was again a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I did it. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, but I was terrified on the way down. We did it a second time since our eyes were closed the first time, and the second time we kept them open. : ) It was really fun & I’m glad I did it. I didn’t take my camera to Atlantis, but there are lots of other pictures of the park online. After Atlantis, we went back to the Mall of the Emirates and had schwarma for dinner and gelato. It was delicious! All of the food we had in Dubai was so good. We got back to our room around 11 & then had to leave at 3:30 am for the airport. We flew out of Dubai to Doha and then to Kathmandu.

Kathmandu so far has been really interesting. It is quite a contrast to Dubai! It is somewhat like Ghana, but we are staying right in the Thamel District, so we are surrounded by things to do. Last night we went to dinner at a place called Rum Doodle, where we had an amazing dinner. It was nice to have everyone together and to be off the plane. This is definitely the mildest climate we’ve been in so far – everyone here has been bundled up in hats & gloves. Comparatively, it’s definitely not as cold as it was at home, but it is much chillier than Ghana & Dubai. We have a full week of visits to various disability organizations and I’ll try to update more frequently this week!