Hello Dubai!

"Hello Dubai" jumped off the shelf at the local bookshop last week. "Skiing, Sand and Shopping in the World's Weirdest City", seemed a very apt subtitle. 

Years ago we spent a week in Dubai on the way home from an extensive trip to India. Landing at the airport was like landing on the moon – wide open spaces, futuristic-looking buildings and an almost eerie silence after India. At the time most people were coming to Dubai to shop for jewellery and electronics. We took a 4x4 safari in the desert, barbecued in the middle of nowhere, beneath the stars, and checked out the camels up close. At the end of the week we piled into the fullest bus I have ever been on (South Africans and their shopping) and made our way home. 

I haven't really thought about going back - in many ways it does seem like "the weirdest city" in the world. - I worry about all this desalination, buildings on sand and the materialism it seems to represent. From all accounts it has become more so in the last 15 years since we were there. And yet, everyone seems to be going there. We even know people who live there. My husband is currently travelling overseas via Dubai. It seems like you can go anywhere via Dubai these days. 

In "Hello Dubai", Joe Bennett gives a cynically sympathetic  take on the city-country as he embarks on his journey to  discover the real Dubai. He points out that in a very short space of time, Dubai has become a global hub of trade and finance, has attracted people from all over the world, both to work and as tourists, and has erected buildings that everyone knows. On the other hand, there is the excess and opulence combined with what seems like the exploitation of migrant labour. 

Bennett is very funny and I have had a quiet giggle at some of his anecdotes and rolled my eyes at others. If you are planning to visit or know someone who lives there, I would recommend this book.

Bennett Joe, Hello Dubai is published by Simon & Schuster

Thought for the Day

Every time I open the newspapers my heart wants to break for the people in Somalia. I read that 6 of the 8 regions in Somalia have been struck by famine, affecting three-quarter of a million people. There are haunting images of malnourished babies and toddlers, queues of people hoping for food and water, against a background of an unfriendly landscape. People are dying every day and it seems that aid cannot be delivered fast enough to keep pace with the crisis.

There are also disturbing pictures of war and struggle while people fight for their freedom in other parts of Africa. The pictures don’t show the most vulnerable women and children who are being displaced, who have had their whole lives turned upside down. In Greg Mortenson’s book, Three Cups of Tea he says that “in times of war, you often hear leaders say ... ‘God is on our side’. But that isn’t true. In war God is on the side of refugees, widows and orphans.” I hope that he is right.

It is overwhelming to watch the suffering of people and I realise that I cannot help everyone. I do believe that if we do our best to help the people around us, in any small way, we contribute to the greater good of all humanity. Often we don’t do anything because we think that the need is so great that we cannot make a difference, but in the words of Rabindrath Tagore:

“Not hammer strokes but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection.” 

Yoga Lent comes to an end

This morning I did the last class of my 30 day Yoga Challenge. I feel a little sad that it is all over but happy that I have completed it. I feel stronger, more focussed and my body is thanking me for the detox that went along with the yoga.  I am proud to have risen to the challenge, to have dragged my body through the “mud” to show up on the mat and I’m humbled by the many friends who have supported me.

Over the last month I have attended classes by 13 different teachers, been to class morning, noon and night, and experienced Vinyasa Flows, Ashtanga, Pilates Fusion and Hatha Yoga – it has been a veritable smorgasbord from which I have been fortunate to sample.

It feels like each muscle in my body has been acknowledged, and those that complained have been soothed. This last week I have felt so good – full of energy and in that ‘golden space of yoga’ as Melissa calls it. I have been a good enough advert that at least three people are ready to join in next year!

Like many challenges, it seems that it has come to an end so quickly, after the slow grind to the top of the hill or the halfway mark. But once you crest the hill, it’s freewheeling all the way down and you feel the wind in your hair and the smile on your face. 

“For in truth it is life which gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.”

                                                                                                                                  Kahlil Gibran 

Kahlil Gibran on Giving

Thank you!

to everyone who supported me and encouraged me me on this yoga challenge.

Kahlil Gibran on Giving: 'via Blog this'

Part of the Group

A little while ago I chatted to one of the hockey mums who commented that she did not see me at the matches. My son has been telling me that I didn’t need to come and watch. So off I went a few weeks ago and to my surprise, found a little supporters group of parents who have been valiantly cheering them on all season. (Kind of like the feeling at varsity when everyone assures you that they are not studying and you find them all in the library!).

 It was freezing cold at 800 yesterday morning, watching the last under-14 hockey match of the season, huddled up with other parents on a stand which the sun failed to reach. It was a good game and the opponents were evenly matched.

It felt good to be part of the group as I find that in high school one seems to lose the contact with other parents. I seem to only fetch and drop. It was the same with my daughter, perhaps more difficult since she went to a different high school and he has stayed with the same group of boys from his Prep school.

I am not sure if this is part of his separation from my protective wing, which started with not being kissed goodbye in the mornings, way back in grade 4 or 5. He did the same with the Eisteddfod last term. He was playing his clarinet, and also told me it was not necessary for me to come. I was very glad that I did decide to go and witnessed the atmosphere at the school.  Since he came back from Sweden, I have felt the independence.

Once again I marvel at how differently boys and girls seem to grow up. My daughter has no qualms about kissing me in a busy mall, outside the movies or wherever it is I am dropping her. I hear that it is part of becoming a man and then they come closer again. I guess he is going to have to get used to having me around for another little while longer! I am not quite ready for this empty nest!

New Drugs for TB

I was pleased to read in this weekend’s newspaper that there is new research into a vaccine booster for Tuberculosis (TB) in people with AIDs, in Khayelitsha. South Africa has the second highest rate of TB in the world and in 2008 more than half a million people died of TB here. The disease is exacerbated by the high incidence of HIV/AIDS, of course.

A few years ago I volunteered at the state hospital, Brooklyn Chest. Specifically, I did baby massage and helped with bathing the babies and generally spent time with them. It broke my heart that there were so many children in the hospital, from the poorest social background – single, unmarried mothers, unemployed, AIDS, etc. TB is a preventable disease. It is one of the childhood vaccinations along with measles, mumps, polio and rubella. Yet children are dying or becoming permanently disabled from the effects of the disease.

Some children had had the disease for a while before presenting for treatment and it had spread throughout their bodies and to the brain, resulting in meningitis. I saw children permanently disabled because they had not had the BCG vaccination that all babies have to have.

I discovered that very little research had been done on new medication and the drugs being used were the same ones that had been used for 50 years. It seemed that drug companies had little interest in developing new medication since there was little money to be made. The treatment for TB involves a cocktail of antibiotics which make the patients feel very ill and compliance is poor because of the length of treatment (6-9 months) and is compounded by the poor socio-economic conditions of those affected.

I continued to volunteer for about three years before the scare of the outbreak of drug-resistant TB. I felt that I was putting my own family at risk and it was with a heavy heart that I decided to stop. I hope that this is the start of more research into prevention and treatment of this disease.

  

Almost There - proving our identities

30 days, 30 yogis and 30 sponsors...that was the plan...all very rounded and neat.

But this challenge has taken on a life of its own and has flowed out of any boundaries we may have set. There are certainly more than 30 yogis, some have joined in later and will continue for longer, others have to make up time afterwards due to hectic schedules. Some have been doing yoga in weird and wonderful places.  And many people have way more than 30 sponsors which means we are going to be raising more money for Home from Home than planned.

By all accounts, it has been a hectic journey for many. This morning someone cursed as she unrolled her mat, but she showed up and was a much nicer person at the end. Someone injured her foot on a hike and is now doing a Pilates Challenge instead. And yesterday, I overheard someone say that she was so full of aches and pains but reluctant to say so “because everyone else is lying around looking so happy!”

The challenge has been exactly that – ‘a demanding task or situation, a call to someone to take part in a contest, invite someone to do something difficult’ and I like this one: ‘to call on someone to prove their identity’ (Oxford Dictionary). The contest has been within ourselves, testing the boundaries but at the same time learning to respect our bodies. And I think we have learned more about who we are over the last few weeks than we may think.

This last week I have felt full of the joys of yoga. Something has shifted and the challenge has gone from being hard work to providing a deep sense of satisfaction. It truly has been a gift to me too.

Melissa in the warrior pose
We're all feeling like warriors right now