United Arab Emirates

The Arab world has warmly welcomed me! I have been amazed by the new sights and sounds of this ancient land. One my first day here, an English lady from the guesthouse and I got lost in the streets of Dubai. I was amazed at how few women one sees here. We stopped at an Indian restaurant and were escorted to the "family room." Almost all restaurants here have a family room where women and children are allowed to dine. It's usually a hidden room with no or few windows in the back of the restaurant. Thankfully Dubai is an incredibly safe city so we had only to grab a taxi to find our way back to the guesthouse.

I taught four classes here in these cities: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Al Ain. While in Al Ain, we crossed the border into Oman for lunch. That brings my country total up to 49! The students I have taught have been so receptive to the content of my lessons and very participatory in the activities I have them do. There's a deep sense of satisfaction for me knowing that my students here will be able to apply the lessons on cross-cultural communication immediately into their own context. Some of the nationalities that I've taught while here include: Indian, Philippine, Taiwanese, South African, Scottish, and American. Here's a photo of my final class in Sharjah. We had such a great time together!

Yesterday I went with Heather Lausch, daughter of one of the VPs of ELIC, and her boyfriend, Jason on a desert safari! Wow, did we have fun. We were in Land Rovers and went "duning" ... driving like crazy people up and down the sand dunes of the desert here. So many times I thought our driver had gone too far and we were going to roll over, but thankfully he knew what he was doing and we survived with loads of laughs and a few screams :).

We then drove to a little "oasis" where we had an Arabic style barbeque. Heather and I got henna on our ankles. I got to pet a baby camel. We watched a belly dancer and made fools of ourselves as we tried to dance in the same way.

Today I'm off to the only mall in the world that has a ski slope in it. This is truly the land of the biggest, best, wildest, and costliest. It's been amazing to experience.

Vietnam Visit

I spent the most amazing week in Vietnam visiting students of mine from years ago! This first picture is of Hein, one of my very first students in 1995. She became our language tutor and continues to both teach and tutor in Vietnam. Both of her children speak English very well. We went together to the countryside where both she and her husband were raised. We attended a wedding reception and then had a long nap in a very old-style Vietnamese home with writing on the rafters. I felt like I had gone back in time several hundred years.

The next photo is of Phuong and her soon to come little baby. I met Phoung in 1997 in Hanoi. She and her husband have actually been able to visit me in Los Angeles not too many months ago.

In the final photo, you can see the whole group of us. You'll notice the small Vietnamese lady in the photo holding her son. That's Little Lan. She had prepared this delicious meal for us in her home. She and I are definitely sisters, sharing love and truth together across the miles.

I was so blessed to spend time in Vietnam again!