I Love Talking to People

(from Thursday)

I'm just now back from a jaunt around Dubai. Well, not much of a jaunt because I didn't really know about any place to go see except for the tallest building on earth (less impressive at night). Others suggested the malls, but that had less appeal to me for obvious reasons. So I had some decent food in a hookah cafe, watched a bit of soccer on TV and strolled back and forth to the metro station. On my return back to the airport, I struck up a conversation with two women who worked at the metro station—both coming to Dubai from far away for work. Not sure how we got started, but it reminds me that I just love talking to people. And they were delightful. We talked about work here, life at home, love, freedom, travel, the like.

Dubai was fascinating that way: far more South Asians and East Asians than Arabs. I guess that gives it the feel of a very international city, but it’s clearly stratified in the jobs that people are doing. The women with whom I spoke were from Malaysia and Kenya, and told me that they came for the experience and the money, respectively. And they were making close to 10k a year with almost all of their expenses covered, and this was tax-free. That’s better money than I make, and they work that they were doing at the metro didn’t seem particularly taxing. Ninie told me that could make more in Malaysia but that it was a good life experience. Julie said that this was far more than she could make in Kenya but didn’t like the lack of freedom to be herself in Dubai. She flies back to Kenya 2-3 times a year to have enough sex and alcohol to last her another six months in Dubai.