Villa, Villa Bo Villa...

A recent e-mail update from a good friend from Dubai was a little stressful.  You ask how does it affect me and I can give you more than one reason to be stressed.

Villa 16, Room #1

I chose to stay in a villa when I was in Dubai because I feel like there is a sense of home, although I know all the risks it entails.  Until our villas were inspected and our electricity was cut.  It was illegal to stay in a shared villa.  But people is still choose to do so for other reasons than what I have.  The most popular reason would be the financial side of it.  I know there is so much more.

When our villa was raided and our electricity was cut off, we were informed that we have three days to move before they finally lock the villa.  This means that we lose all our things that we left behind.  So, I have all reasons to be stressed about this news here, Shared Villas Lose Power.  

It's been almost a year since that day, and I can still vividly remember what happened starting from that phone call to inform me about the raid.  I was stressed from that moment until the day the dust settled in the flat where I moved into.  I spent half a day looking for a place and another half packing my things.  I would have spent more than that if not for my friend who referred me to some people.  Our mover came at about 7:30 p.m. and we finished unloading a few minutes before midnight.

The decision to move into a flat was out of the fact that villas are starting to be the flavor-of-the-month of the 'baladiyas' (immigrations people).  For those who live or have lived in villas in Dubai, I know you can relate.  But for those who haven't, it was a happy-sad-rewarding-stressful-relaxed-practical-relaxed-downtoearth-humbling and much, much more.

I stayed in two villas over the span of two years.  But I wouldn't have traded everything that I experienced.