With school recently being back in session, the summer days trickling to an end, there has been a recent influx in the number of people of Dubai. It's like the summer hibernation is over, people are living their air conditioned villas to face the cooling Dubai weather. Traffic has jumped ten fold, queues everywhere snake through lobbies, and cabs have become endangered.
As a result of this transition my once calm, easy morning routine has transformed into an anxious, frustrated battle for a cab in the morning. Where I live in Bur Dubai there is quite a number of residential flats catering to the budgets of newly joined young professionals, Indian professionals, and other lower middle class families. Now these groups of people all have very similar 9 to 5 schedules which means we move in herds. When I step out onto the curb in the morning, I quickly size up my competition. The Indian across the street with his brief case, the mother with her toddler down the street from me, and the Jumeriah Jane want to be on her way to some health class. The stalk begins, praying on any cab that is coming our way. Today was unique as wanting to be proactive about the situation, I called Dubai transportation ahead of time. An hour later, having been waiting outside for 15 minutes a woman with her toddler comes outside. Now we are both battling the sun, though my exposure longer. Finally 10 minutes later, a cab stops on the women's side, though the cab driver is looking at me. The woman and I simultaneously open the door, and I begin saying "I ordered a cab," and she in her broken english "Cab number, cab number."
The cab driver says, "I am an ordered cab, this is for 244. . ." and before he can finish, I jump in with huge sighs of relief, "That's me." The woman looks frustrated, and somewhat broken. I feel guilty, as I look at here with her young blonde toddler, but I just didn't know what to do. In all other instances I would have gladly passed the cab onto the woman, but I had to be at work having already been an hour late the day before. I know if I gave this cab up, I would be an hour late again, and definitely be unable to find a cab.
I sat in back, feeling completely lost, a feeling I often get here in Dubai and you often placed into situations that greatly challenge your once concrete beliefs and values. As all the thoughts and justifications in my head begin to settle, my attention is drawn to something else present in that cab, the Arab commentator on the radio, which I assume is reading passages from the Kor'an, catching repeated phrases. Then it switches to the Arabic equivalent of gospel-easy music, and I feel myself getting more and more relaxed.
This is why I came to Dubai. Not to lose my values and belief, but to be exposed and engulfed by another culture, and to participate in something vaguely familiar to my first few years of my life in Saudi.
