THE NEW DUBAI

Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was only a 3 hour plane flight on Fly Dubai from Djibouti. We flew across the Gulf of Aden,over the vast expanse of mountains and sand which is Yemen and the southern tip of Saudie Arabia. I met John there for a 3-day weekend, when he was returning from a short business trip to the US to set up some salt test protocols at a lab in New Iberia, LA.

It is an amazing place. Dubai has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. Dubai's current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE.

It was the current ruler's father who truly had the vision that is now Dubai. Even though the city of Dubai is over 150 years old, the modern city itself has been built since 1968 when oil was discovered there. The vision of the late ruler was to take this original oil money and invest in education, health and infrastructure. Today the emirate's main revenues are from tourism, real estate and financial services. Less than 7% of their revenue is derived from natural gas or petroleum products.

The city is very modern, clean, civil and organized. Although there is an immense number of vehicles on the road, they all look new. The taxis are owned by 5 different companies. The cab drivers all wear uniforms, are polite, punctual and the cars they drive smell like new. They do not own their own cabs. They are paid commission for their work. We took the BIG BUS (hop-on hop-off)double decker bus in order to get a tour of the more modern parts of the city and to get a chance to visit all of the many shopping malls there. We took taxis everywhere else.

The malls are incredible. The largest mall is The Dubai Mall with over 1200 stores. One of the malls even has a ski resort right in the middle. We peered through large glass windows, watching ski lifts carry skiers, bundled up in their ski jackets up the snow-covered hill. We watched them ski down and watched little kids with innertubes on a little bunny hill. There was even a small tobogan run inside the resort. Amazing! All of this happening, when the outside temperature is 90 degrees.

Because of the remaining uncertain economic environment, there are many skyscrapers with cranes atop whose construction has been temporarily halted. Other building projects are going ahead as planned. There are still many guest workers in Dubai from all over, especially the Phillipines, Malasia, India and Egypt. All of the taxi drivers, waiters, maids and construction workers are guest workers. The human trafficing, sex trade and money laundering we hear takes place in Dubai is well hidden. I am told that this activity is due to recent Mafia influences, not the ruling family.

Dubai has absolutely beautiful beach resorts, tall, unusually shaped hotel buildings, even airconditioned bus stops. In the last picture above, I am standing in front of one of them. They are planning to build a theme park Xtimes larger and more elaborate than Disney World in the near future.

Dubai is a very international city. There is every imaginable restaurant type available. John and I stayed at the JW Marriott and enjoyed both their American Style Steak House and their lovely Italian restaurant. Both were delicious with excellent service.

I will do two more blogs about Dubai. 1. THE OLD DUBAI with its Spice Souk and Dhows.
2. Fashion

DONATIONS FROM AMERICA

Several weeks ago, I was asked to help distribute clothing, toys, school supplies and non-perishable food items to the families living in Laita, a small village near our compound. Because of the generosity of Superior Industries of Morris, MN, our conveyor belt manufacturers, we were able to distribute 28 huge boxes filled with donations to the area.

This was only 1/3 of the generous goods that Superior had packed into each container they delivered to Salt Investment. In all we were able to make three separate donations. The first were bikes and school supplies to our nearest school in Karta, a small village about 20 minutes from our compound.

The second set of donations, clothing, more bikes, and toys went to the little village directly across from our compound. THANK YOU SUPERIOR FOR YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT.

The pictures show one of the three vehicles we used to transport the donations, the beautiful small children of Karta, and our Salt Investment employees with the chief elder from the area. As a special thank you, the chief elder gave me a very special gift, a baby goat, which I sadly petted knowing that our cook would roast him for us all to share. He was a tasty little thing and I was very suprised that there was quite a bit of very tender meat provided by that tiny goat.

Beach Adventure

We had a bit of excitement last weekend. Friday is our day off in Djibouti City. John, our boss Dan and I went to a great beach to spend the afternoon and early evening. They have covered cabana areas where you can sit in the shade and enjoy the ocean breezes, take a picnic lunch, some beer or wine, watch the kids play soccer on the beach, swim and generally just chill out. Now, that the weather is cooler, it is really quite pleasant out there. We were having a delightful time really enjoying ourselves. We decided to go into the water at about 4:00 or so. But, the tide was really out and the water was quite shallow with lots of seaweed and rocks.

As I was trying to swim out to deeper water, I felt a severe pain in the side of my left foot on the bony prominence of my big toe. I thought for sure that I had scraped it on one of the rocks. However, the pain didn’t stop and began throbbing and traveling up to the top and along the side of my foot. It was excruciating. We quickly swam back to shore and I hobbled out of the water. All you could see on my food was a little dark spot on the side of my foot just under my big toe, oozing a tiny bit of blood where the initial pain was. I was afraid something had broken off inside. It took us a good 45 minutes over really rough road to get back to town and to the Villa where we stay on the weekend. John took a look at the wound and it didn’t look like anything was lodged in there. I quickly showered to get all of the sand and seawater off.

By that time, I was in excruciating pain. My foot was not swollen, but it was red on the top and side and it felt like someone was smashing a hammer down onto it again and again. I asked John to take me to the French Army Hospital emergency room (this is the only place we even half trust going to for medical care here in Djibouti). It took 10 minutes to get there by car and about 25 minutes after passing through security and paying money to be seen, we saw the doctor and nurse in the ER. They put hot compresses on the wound and my foot, supposedly to help with the pain, while they tried to figure out what was wrong. The hot compresses and then almost boiling water didn’t work to ease the pain at all.

Their initial diagnosis was that I had been stung by a sting ray. They are here hiding in the sand and that is a prevalent occurrence. But, after consulting with their surgeon, they determined that the position of the wound couldn’t have been a sting ray. Sting ray wounds are generally on the top of the foot or the lower leg. They finally decided that I had been tagged by a sea urchin. They can be very large here. Their venom will not kill you. But, the agony of it all! The treatment was clean the wound topically with betadine, wrap the wound, and send you to the nearest pharmacy for 8 days of antibiotics and some painkillers.

They did not give me any medication for the pain while we were at the French Army hospital. So, by the time John was able to get the medications from the pharmacy, I practically attacked him for the pain medication. That medication took about an hour to take effect. Then, the pain was dulled for the next several hours. Then came the taser-like shooting electrical jolts that attacked my poor foot all night long. I would be sleeping and wham! Needless to say, I didn’t sleep too well until after 4 am or so.

But, next day , absolutely no pain, felt great. Everything fine. Good thing their venom doesn't kill you. Just hurts like .....! So, here is my advice, especially for you divers out there. If you are ever tagged by a sea urchin, you can expect about twelve hours of excruciating pain. Lesson - wear shoes in the water at the beach!!!!! And, if an one of those urchins jumps out and grabs you, pee on it as fast as you can, just like they taught you in scuba diving class. Your urine is warm, acidic and sterile. All of which helps sooth this kind of pain and clean the wound. Then, my advice, take the strongest meds you can lay your hands on to control the pain and do it fast.

GOLF IN DJIBOUTI

Golf in Djibouti is a new experience. The course is all dirt, sand, and a few trees. Oh, yes, did I mention that there are a few goats and camels wandering around. John and I went to watch our friend and colleague, Boris, the CFO of Salt Investment play in a tournament out in the country almost to the border of Somalia. The course is called Douda. The course is divided into two parts, crossing over at the club house and driving range.

To tee off, the golfer steps atop a concrete pad covered with astroturf and hits the ball down the fairway. Each time your ball lands on the fairway, your caddy pulls out a piece of astroturf which is placed under the ball so that you can hit it again.

Even though the whole place is dirt and sand, they have built additional sand traps on both sides of the greens. And, of course, the greens are a mix of dirt and sand. After you hit your ball up onto the green, your caddy carefully uses a small hand broom to create the smoothest path possible to the hole. But, alas, the ball invariably hits a small pebble and veers off landing to the left or right of the hole.

Here's a photoshow I created to give you the entire Djiboutian golf experience:
Go to http://www.photoshow.com/watch/re6Ve3kp

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) CLASSES

Salt Investment currently employs about 114 people at Lac Assal. But, there are an additional 150-200 contract employees living here during the workweek working for various companies doing construction on the project.

On October 5, I started teaching English As a Second Language (ESL) to the employees of Salt Investment at Lac Assal, Djibouti. I currently have about 35 students, with a waiting list. The classes are strictly voluntary and must be scheduled during their off time from work So, finding time in the day for the classes is most difficult. The work schedule here is usually 7am-12noon and then from 3pm-6pm (Sat-Thurs noon). Usually during the afternoon break period, people nap. However, my eager students come to ESL classes and also come in for the extra individual help they need.

The top picture is of my early evening class. Notice that this class has only one woman. I am the only professional woman working for Salt Investment at Lac Assal. All of the other women are maids, kitchen help or maid supervisors. The second picture is of Mouna, one of the women in my mid-afternoon class. I took mugshots of the students in order to help me memorize their names.

To meet their special work schedule, I have also added an extra class at 9am in the morning to accomodate the four kitchen staff who serve the meals at our expat compound. There are two women in this class. I am also looking to start some special classes for the security people - who have a very strange schedule. I am also taking special English lessons to the employees who work at our offices in Djibouti City. Some of the office staff are advanced English students and the security staff there are beginners. I am fortunate in that I have only one student who cannot write. She will need a lot of time and patience. Luckily she is part of the close-knit four person kitchen staff who have promised to help each other. Most of my other students have at least a 4th grade education. Some have graduated from high school.

My biggest challenge is to keep up with the lesson plans of all of the classes and special people. Since I only brought one master of all of the teaching materials, I must copy everything - texts, workbooks,flashcards, etc. I spend hours at our ancient copy machine that doesn't make double sided copies and doesn't collate. I did splurge however, and bought a paper cutter. The purchasing supervisor insisted that the company buy me a beautiful large double-sided whiteboard. I now have a newfound appreciation for the planning time and organizational ability needed by teachers.

I try to keep the classes relevant and fun. The Djiboutians like to laugh and they tell me that they love their classes. Oh, no, my husband, John, the COO of Salt Investment, just brought me a list of 8 names - people from the small Djiboutian village across from our compound - who want to learn English. Luckily, he told them that I was too busy now. But, maybe, in the future, we could set up some classes for them.

SALT ENCRUSTED SKULLS

Catering to the tourists who visit Lac Assal, there are several souvenir stands down at the salt deposit(the Banques). Among the souvenirs sold there, are the highly prized salt encrusted skulls of cows and goats. These two specimans belong to our friend and colleague, Koffi Azzome. He is pictured holding his goat skull.

In order to make these special objects, an animal skull is placed in the brine near the edge of the lake. After a few weeks, the skull is totally encrusted with hardened layers of salt. It is sad that we cannot take these back to the US. They are hauntingly beautiful and so reminescent of the area.

NOMADS & THEIR CAMELS COLLECTING SALT

John took this picture just yesterday, while building test ponds at the salt deposit(the Banques) at Lac Assal. The camels are seated on the salt deposit awaiting their 150-240 kilo loads. After using small pick axes to harvest the salt, the nomads will place the salt into 30 kilo bags and place them on either side of the camels backs. Then they will walk their camels out of the lake area and off to Ethiopia.