Travel tales

We are home in Oregon and so happy to be here.  After almost 40 hours of travel between the car, plane, and airport time, we made it to my parent's house to stay for a few days before going to a wedding in Pendleton and then a trip with Colin's family to the Wallowas.  After that, we'll be heading to Bend on the 27th for most of July before coming back to Corvallis for August.

Our trip was soooooooooooooo long but smooth and easy.  Aberly was the best traveler and was a champ through the long haul.  She always insisted on pulling her carry-on suitcase through the airport and did a great job following instructions and listening to us as we told her about each step of the journey.  She slept well and spent her airplane time watching a lot of kid's videos on the airplane's personal seat monitors (this was one of the few times in her childhood where we will let her veg out on TV all day!) between some aisle walks, bathroom breaks, meals, and books.  We couldn't have asked for a better trip.

Once landed in Portland, we were greeted by my brother-in-law Kevin and then my mom met us outside to drive home.  We loved walking into cool weather and smelling the fresh air (and we are currently loving the cool, wet weather so far!).  

Here are the highlights and few lowlights of the trip:

-  Highlight:  Kelsey meeting and talking to a wonderful gal from Saudi Arabia.  Great conversation about life, religion, and the world.  She is a recently graduated doctor and although she has lived in Saudi the majority of her life, she started life in Portland and lived there until age 5.  She is going to be in New York for a training in November and December and doesn't know anyone there, so I hope to connect her with my brother.  

-  Highlight:  Picking to travel on Lufthansa airlines for international flights.  First, you get your own personal monitor on the back of the seat in front of you where you can watch movies, TV, and view cameras mounted outside the plane for different views of your flight (recommendation to not view the landing from the camera on the nose of the plane cause it feels just a bit scary as they try to steady the monsterous plane on the runway).  Secondly, they bring you hotel towelettes every few hours.  And lastly, they serve FREE beer and wine with throughout the flight (and give refills) and even offer Baileys or Scotch as an aperitif at one point.  Oh yes please.

-  Lowlight:  Being forced to put my sleeping child in an "upright seated position" with her belt buckled at takeoff and landing.  If you are a parent, you know how maddening it is to risk waking your sleeping baby/child.  The stewardesses on that first flight did not get a friendly reception from me or Colin at those moments.  Something to the effect of "I'll send my fussing child to you later if she stays awake and YOU can deal with her" may have come out of my mouth.

-  Highlight:  Seamlessly maneuvering through the airports, making all our connections, and having no delays. 

-  Highlight:  Getting to move to the front of lines since we had a small child.  Thank you!

-  Lowlight:  Not sleeping on our flights.  You would think that it would be easy to sleep on an overnight flight or on the following flight now that you are exhausted from not sleeping on the first flight.  Unfortunately not for this cowgirl.  We found that the constant movements, noises, meals, cramped space, and care for Aberly kept us just on the brink of being awake.  Okay, Colin did catch catnaps and fared better than I did, but by San Francisco, I felt physically ill from the lack of sleep.  36 hours awake?  In San Fran I finally napped for about an hour in a quiet room and then we all crashed later that evening for two hours at our gate.  

-      -  Lowlight:  Having a 10-hour wait in San Fran for our final flight to Portland.  I'm not sure why that happened when we book online since there were at least two flights on the same airline earlier in the afternoon that we could've taken.  It was a long, somewhat torturous wait but on the good side, it did allow for the napping time.  And we enjoyed two nice meals at airport restaurants.  It still was hard to wait though!

-      -  Highlight:  Being greeted by Kevin (Colin’s brother) at the baggage claim after getting to Portland.  So nice to see a loving face and extra hands to get all our luggage outside.  My mom was there waiting for us in the car and we worked out magic to get everything in her car.

-      -  Highlight:  Feeling settled and happy!  Being surrounded by green and more green.   Being able to sit outside and not roast in the sun.   No humidity and dusty air.  Knowing where everything is, where to buy what we need, and know it will be there. 

-      -  Lowlight:  Jetlagged parents and Aberly.  She was up at 3:30 today….

-     -  Highlight:  Not having to use Middle Eastern shopping carts. 

It really is great to be home and we love seeing all of our families and watching Aberly interact with her grandparents and uncles.  She is doing so well and having so much fun exploring her surroundings here.   Our best description of our feelings of being home is like how two close friends just pick up where they left off when they don’t see each other.  It feels like we just started where we left off and that is perfect.

Home!

We are home in Oregon!  Full blog post to follow within 24 hours, I hope!  Lots to do to get settled and trying to get on track with sleep to get my energy back to full :-)

Much love from the Prices!

Sex sells and cheap labor; a sad blog tale

Disclaimer:  I have re-read this blog before posting and it's a bit haphazard in the sense that one thought brings another and another.  A lot of stuff I want to share in a little space.  I hope this is educational as well as eye-opening, and I hope it makes you want to be more aware (if you already aren't) of many of the issues going on in the world, and what many people endure day-to-day or have endured in recent history.  Thank you.

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One weird experience I finally had here in Oman is the exposure to prostitutes.  We had gone out for after dinner drinks with our friends here and ended up at a hotel bar.  Besides being full of men (Omani and expats) as the night wore one, more and more Asian women dressed in tight and short dresses with HIGH heels and lots of makeup showed up.  They were clearly alone and stood or sat by themselves sipping on a drink, waiting to get the eye from a man.  Colin has seen it before going out with some guys for a few male outtings, but I had not been exposed yet.  I have always been aware that they are around.  Despite being Muslim and following strict religious laws, most middle east countries have sex workers, and the locals part take in using them.  No matter where you are in the world and how conservative it may be, a sinful underworld will always exist.  We humans are all the same, religious or not. 

Before we moved here, we had a great breakfast with some friends from church, the Berrams, and their friends who all worked in the middle east.  One man was Lebanese and grew up in the middle east.  One of his comments I won't forget was something like this.  "There are two things that run peoples' lives in the middle east; money and sex.  It's the same as anywhere else, just like in the US."

While many prostitutes make the decision to do what they do, many of the prostitutes are trapped in the system by having no other way to make money or being forced into it to pay off a debt.  My friend here was telling us she recently watched a documentary about prostitutes around the world and many of the stories are the same.  They were told they would be brought to a better life and that person would help get them to the country.  Once there, they are told that they must now repay that "benefactor" for all the costs incurred to him to bring her there.  She will work for years until it's paid off.  Most likely, it's a very high amount, trapping the woman into the work.   Oman wasn't mentioned in the documentary, but surrounding countries like Saudi were.  I also took a few minutes to type in "prostitution Oman" in google search and quickly found articles in local news websites about prostitution busts by local police from the past few years.

Related to prostitution is hired help and the abuse of cheap labor.  Nannies and maids abound here.  Construction workers, those working on farms, in factories, in malls or businesses as janitors, whatever.  About 1/3 of the population in Oman is expat workers.  These workers get trapped in the system too of having to do hard labor (the work locals don't want to do) for years to pay off the fees and expenses used to bring them here by their visa sponsors.  I've heard many of them have to work at least two years to repay that money and start to make money themselves.  The reality is that a form a slavery exists here.  Although there are labor laws here that protect expat workers, in the end, the slavery comes in the form of cheap labor, long hours, and working under someone else (a sponsor who they are in debt to and I would say owns them in a sense).  Not to say there aren't expats working here and are treated well and make money quickly, but there are many MANY who are not.  It is a sad fact of this part of the world.

The other sad part is that I have no doubt that many of these men and women leave families and children behind to make money and try to provide them with a better life.  They don't see them for years (although I know nannies are provided to go home at least every other summer and some go every summer) and under their work visas, they can't just fly home if needed, like in the event of a family death or emergency.   I know they can call or use in the internet to stay in touch, but physically, they are separated. 

Most nannies here have a family or children at home and working overseas as a nanny is way better financially than staying at home.  The system in place is that you go abroad to work and earn money while your parents raise their grandchildren.  Once your children are old enough, they many come and work too as a nanny, and then you can go home and raise their children, now your grandchildren.  Eunice, our nanny to-be, is 30 and has a 10 year old son at home being raised by her mother.  Isla's nanny, Marilyn, who has often cared for Aberly too when I was subbing, has a 9 year old son raised by her mother.  Nannies here strive to work for European or American expat families because they know they will be treated and paid much better.  Their hours will be less and more balanced.  Eunice currently works for a Sudanese family who although treat her well from what we know, probably pay her just a bit more than half of what we will pay her for a monthly salary.

The system is sad but for many of them, they may not realize how unjust the system is.  It is what they know and many of them seem very happy (I know this is not always true but in general).   The nannies always have a smile on their face and don't complain, the construction workers play games in the evenings and smile and wave whenever we pass by.   They live otherwise normal lives here working, going to the store, riding taxis/buses to work, have cell phones, eat meals...  Unless you were made aware of the system as we have learned over time, you wouldn't necessarily know it existed.

It's been a hard thing for Colin and I to stomach at times.  It even is hard to have a nanny sometimes, knowing that despite how well we will treat her, we are still allowing the system to continue.  To buy local food, we know that it is cheap because of workers paid low wages to pick it (i.e. Mexicans in the US).  We live in homes built by these immigrant workers who probably have never built a home when they first arrive.  And on and on.

And I could go on and on.  Living abroad has opened our eyes to how much goes on in this world that many Americans are sheltered from or never are aware of.  Life is hard for the majority of the world.  Many countries have lived through atrocities and still do.  Children suffer at the hands of the system.  People work their entire lives producing the food we eat and we never think twice about how that rice came to us.

I will close with some suggested books or sites to check out that either Colin or I have read or have heard good things about.  Sorry for the 'downer" blog but it's something close to our heart and I see the unintentional "unawareness" that many Americans have for what goes on around the world and also the effects of how we live in the US (been there myself!).  And as Christians, I believe it is our calling to be aware of the what goes on in the world and all of God's creation.  We should be the Samaritan and stop to help or listen to the brother or sister in need.  I know we can't help each one, but knowing about them and caring about them, and making changes in our lives make an impact.  Imagine if we all didn't upgrade our cell phones every two years.  That would mean way less demand on the rare and dangerous to mine metals used in them.  Stuff like that.

If one thing, please take the time to go to this website and take the survey.  The rest is up to you.   slaveryfootprint.org/

"First They Killed My Father"  by Luong Ung
"A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah
"The Breadwinner" and series by Deborah Ellis
"Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia" by Carmen bin Laden
"Sold" by Patricia McCormick 
"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser
"We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow we will Be Killed With Our Families" by Phillip Gourevitch
"Omnivores Dilemma" by Micheal Pollan (I suggest the junior version, easier and quicker to read)
"Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane
"The Translater" by Dauod Hari
"King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hoshchild
"Eaarth" by Bill McKibben
"Silent Snow" by Marla Cone
http://www.aljazeera.com/
http://www.globalissues.org/

Dubai

Our Dubai adventure was an adventure.  After a busy week, getting up bright and early to get on the road for the five hour trip didn't sound so appealing anymore, but we did manage to make it on the road at 7:30.  Our plan was to bring some fruit and juice and then get some doughnut holes at Dunkin Donuts on the way down the road.  Turns out their delivery hadn't arrived for the morning so all we could buy was coffee.  I knew that Aberly would be devastated to not have me return with anything as she loves getting doughnuts on the weekends, so I finally convinced the guy to give me a few holes from yesterday's batch that he wasn't technically supposed to sell.  Bless his heart.  He probably has no idea how much he saved the first leg of our trip from meltdown mode.

Off we went.  Since Colin and I still hadn't had breakfast, we did the terrible and stopped at the golden arches for McMuffins (turkey sausage here to be kosher) and hashbrown triangles.  Aberly took a few small bites and politely declined anymore (smart girl) and we ate the rest.  Colin had two, I had one.  His stomach wasn't too thrilled with the abundance of grease it normally would get over the course of a few days instead of in one meal.  Luckily the nausea subsided after an hour. 

The rest of the drive to Dubai was easy.  Aberly slept and then occupied herself when awake.  Traffic was flowing nicely and our border crossings were quick and painless.  We were making great time.  However, it was about that time that I realized the one thing I had forgotten to do was write down directions to our hotel, their number, and their address.  I knew they were on a highway in the 60's, so when I saw one, I exited.  Turns out it was the wrong highway, but luckily, that highway took us to Festival City where IKEA was, so we simply changed the order or our day from check-in then IKEA, to IKEA and then check-in.

After lunch in the popular IKEA cafeteria, we weaved our way through the showroom and got the things on our list to help cozy up our new home.  Aberly entertained herself by getting into the display beds with her baby doll, sitting on couches and chairs, and then playing in the kid's toys.  Bless Colin for following her around while I grabbed what we needed, asking for his opinion when need be.   Once done, we headed outside to pack up the car (it all fit!) and I headed back inside to ask the mall concierge how to get to our hotel.  He found it online and started to describe where it was.  I jotted the directions in faith.  He sure sounded like he knew where it was.

Now I know I just set that up like he said he knew but it would turn out that he didn't.  Actually, he did know and he did give us pretty good directions.  The problem is that he didn't give us any road names and only landmarks (hospital and Police club) and additionally in Dubai, the highways and exits are numerous and confusing, and there aren't actual road signs indicating which exit to take for hotels.  Anyways, our first attempt was unsuccessful and we felt totally lost.  I took a few wild guesses of which highway to get back on to and thanks be to Jesus (and the fact that I took an exit to avoid paying a toll coming up), we ended up going over a different bridge that took us back to IKEA.  Colin went inside with his iPad and hooked up to wifi at a coffee shop to look it up himself.  Turns out we were literally blocks from it after we stopped at the hospital the concierge had referenced.  So, we headed out again and took the turn indicated on the map.  Hallelujah!  We could see the hotel!  We tuned left at the traffic circle to get to it... but... that road didn't connect and once again we were spit back onto the highway.  Sigh.  Grr...  At least we knew where we were this time and headed back towards IKEA for one more try.  This time we took a different exit that initially looked dubious and I was sure we had made another mistake but then, behold, we were there! 

Thank God.  Aberly was getting seriously annoyed at that point and wanted to get to the "otel".  We checked in to our super nice one bedroom apartment hotel room and took a big breath.   The room had a patio with a great view of half the Dubai skyline.  It was a great spot for a great price (about $150 US w/ breakfast buffet) and we will stay there again. After a brief rest, we hit the pool and it was great.  It was super kid friendly with a kiddie pool end that had a little "creek" towards the deeper pool.  It slowly got deeper and ended up at an end with a waterfall over a cave.  Colin and I had a good laugh entering the cave because they had made some faux ceiling with stalactites coming down that looked more like a cow udder.  Aberly LOVED it, of course.  After swimming, we went up and ordered room service before crashing at 8:30 (all of us) in our big king bed. 

 

(Photos of our room and night skyline views) 

The next morning we hit the pool again and our big girl swimmer actually swam about 4 feet on her own in the deep end from me to the wall, and then from the wall to me.  Goodness!  We laid in the sun and then went back to our room to pack up before hitting our last destinations of the trip.  ACE Hardware and Mirdif Mall.  ACE?  That is a destination?  Oh yes, yes it is.  It's the closest thing to Home Depot you will get, and in Oman, there is nothing like that.  I was looking for gardening supplies and a canopy for our patio (which I found plus some fun house plants).  Colin was looking for brewing supplies.  He struck out.  Either the items you use for home brewing are just not popular or the UAE government knows about the sinful way to use things like copper tubing so they keep it away from the general population. 

Getting to Mirdif Mall was our last mis-adventure.  I had been to Mirdif before with some girlfriends, but I only knew how to get there from one direction, and that was not the direction we were going.  I did guess the right exit to take... but I didn't take it as I second guessed myself.  So we headed down the highway to the next round-about to turn around on (yes, round abouts in the highways) and finally got there.  Oh, I should note that before all that, we got mixed up trying to get on a different highway and burned 20 minutes as we navigated around the Dubai Mall parking lot since it was a landmark we knew. 

Mirdif is a great mall because it has 4 things I/we love.  Pottery Barn, PF Chang's, Borders, and good toy stores.  I found a few cute decor items at Pottery Barn, Colin actually got to peruse a large, stocked book store, Aberly died and went to heaven surrounded by toys and displays to play with, and then we savored good Chinese food not available (as far as we know) in Oman.  Mirdif Mall is also huge, I will note, and I think you could shop in there all day and not hit it all.

(Aberly took this lovely photo of our lunch)

A sidenote about Dubai is their money.  It is so weird because their Durhams run more in 10's than 1's, like in the US.  So you look at a price and it says it's 50 Durhams, which is about $13.  It's weird to look at a menu and see something listed at 70 Durhams.  Or a toy listed at 100 Durhams.  But you sure feel rich for a moment when you go to the ATM and pull out 1,000 Durhams (About $260).

Okay, so the rest of the trip was tiring.  The car ride was long going home.  It felt like 1,000 degrees at one of the five boarder stops.  Yes five.  But that is the only one where we have to get out at and stand in line to get our visas back into the country.  Aberly was grumpy and tired and only wanted to play her Curious George game on the iPad (thankfully she did finally sleep for an hour and a half).  The roads were busy and it took longer to get home.  We finally rolled in around 8:15 PM.  Aberly watched Curious George cartoons while we unpacked and ate a PB&J sandwich for dinner.  Once she was in bed, we watched some TV and had a cocktail to relax and decompress.

Today we took our haul over to our new place (yes, we have the keys!) and put the boxes in the house so at least they are there and don't have to sit in our apartment until our move on the 13th.  We'll put it all together later.   We are too exhausted right now.