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08 July 2008

23:25

For HOSPITAL…

HOSPITAL TRIP

Our officemate, Sapan was confined at a hospital near our office about two days now. Since I didn't have time the past two days due to client calls, we figured it's best to go today for she might be discharged tomorrow.

It was somewhere we know so we just walked. It was again humid. I believe it's like 99^oF again and this picture below shows it again.

It's a street called Mankhool Road in Bur Dubai, one of the busy communities here in Dubai. The hospital is Al Rafa Hospital and we heard that this is one of the very few hospitals Filipinos here trust. This was taken about 7.30 p.m. The walk was about 35 minutes but surely, we do not mind that since bus wait could be at least 30 minutes.

The rows of trees along the road got my attention but it wasn't captured in this picture and it was supposed to. But at least I have a posing stint… LOL…

Anyway, last Friday, my room mate was a little melancholic about the events that happened one after the other. She felt gloomy that it seems people she loves leave her eventually. Of course we all know that it is inevitable, but I think she's unhappy that they left one after the other in less than a year's time. I told her that it's one of the things that I have learned at my early life here. Someone bluntly told me that if I have to move to another place, do not hesitate to leave the ones you've been attached with for, eventually, you'll be left alone, too.

Then, I looked for an article published by a magazine, THE BUZZ, here about a few months ago. This supported the advise my friend gave me a year ago. But I hope in her case, I hope it made her stronger and let her realize that this is one of the facts of living in Dubai.

BEST FRIENDS FOR NOW

By Claire Davis

Most Dubai friendships have an expiration date (based on the fact that one or both of you is here to save money and head home), that means you can take them for what they are: friendship flings. Like a romantic fling, it’s best not to get too emotionally involved.

What does this environment of ephemeral friendships do to the “friendship monogamist” who has kept the same friends since high school? What happens, then, when we move to a place where our circle of friends ebbs and flows along with the economy?

While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, Dubai encourages a certain amount of superficiality: hair extensions, fake tans and the like are as ubiquitous as the SUV’s we drive. This attitude can seep into our personal lives and many of us discover that instead of our meaningful friendships from home, we are actually experiencing “friendship light.”

This should not be confused with shallowness, however, Justin, a long-term English expat in Dubai, sees it more as self-preservation. “When you see so many people come and go over the years, you just become less interested in making deep connections with people. It’s a bit like being dumped over and over again. Of course, you keep in touch for a while, but it’s not the same.”

Certainly, we can’t blame people for wanting to come here and move on. According to Justin, “Here, you can be someone you can’t be at home. You can afford a flashy car and you can get caught up in it. Eventually, you either go with the flow and become a snob, or get fed up with the snobs and leave because the money just isn’t worth it to you anymore.”

Friendship in Dubai is also a question of the type of people who come here. it seems that most friendships in Dubai are actually made at work, which makes fostering deep connections, unlikely at best. By blurring the lines of professional and personal relationships, we unwittingly set ourselves up for shallow friendships that revolve around light, social occasions. Clearly, the rules in Dubai are quite different than they are in the UK, and the US and elsewhere – while going clubbing with colleagues and certainly your boss is almost unheard of in many places, it seems like the natural order of the day there.

While Justin may seem like a bit of a downer – and it should be mentioned that he, too, is moving on after 10 years here – he does have a point. It seems that the very atmosphere in Dubai is conducive to a “light-hearted” environment. Even when the laws contribute to creating a more substantial sense of permanency – with the real estate market opening up to expatriates – one feels a disconnect and transiency in connection with an almost nomadic existence here. it is hard to set down roots when the sands are constantly shifting and the characters in your life keep walking off the stage; only to be replaced with someone new.

Change is as inevitable as the summer’s torturous heat but similarly, the breadth and depth of the differing cultures we are exposed to in this global melting pot are unique and resplendent. If only for little while, our paths cross with the world’s multitudes and, like passing ships in the night, we touch each other’s lives for that brief moment, opening us up to yet another change on tomorrow’s horizon – and the whole cycle begins again.

Such are the vibrant colors of Dubai’s fabric, one wonders if growing up on the same block and socializing with friends you’ve known since kindergarten can offer that same value and once-in-a-lifetime feeling.