It's a small world

Today was pretty cool...G and K (our hosts...now our friends) took us to a little North Indian "cafe" which they frequent.  When we were discussing things we'd like to do, both S and I agreed that we would like to be part of the local culture, as opposed to being treated like tourists.  We wanted to know the hole-in-the-wall places that the locals raved about, ride public transport, etc.  This little eatery was perfect...small, cramped and delicious...unlimited dhal and rotis - you can't beat that for under $3/person.  S and I actually entertained the thought of opening something like this up in Seattle, as we haven't found anything close.  I want simple, authentic Indian food, without breaking the bank.  What i've found most of the time is rich, buttery, Americanized food that makes sure i have nothing left for a rainy day.  This place in Dubai rocked - we'll have to duplicate it stateside.

They also took us to see The Atlantis on Palm Jumeira.  So, Palm Jumeira is the island shaped like a palm tree, built on reclaimed land.  The "trunk" is lined with large buildings of condos waiting to be bought.  The "palms" consists of villas, each with its own private beach.  The Atlantis is a huge hotel on the tip of the "tree" - TAR fans might recognize it from last season...the one that had that giant waterslide, through a pool of sharks.  We have to pay money to see that slide...sheesh!  I guess they have to get out of debt somehow.

We were hoping to take our hosts out to dinner tonight, but during lunch, they got a call inviting all of us to an anniversary dinner.  Dinner was with a group of friends that were all part of their original community group, but had branched off since then.  It was nice to see that they still kept in regular contact and it was very apparent that their friendships had not suffered even though they now attended different churches.  It reminded me very  much of our own community group in the Rainier Valley and the friendships that have developed through that.  (I miss you guys)  The host couple wanted to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary by treating all to dinner...we are so honored that they included us in their celebration.

SIDE NOTE: So, "R" from last night...the reason "R" and i became chums was because his best friend in high school, "SP", was in love with me / had a crush on me / liked me / whatever...it was high school, take it with a grain of salt.  SP was a little on the shy side, so he would never actually talk to me directly ...instead R became the go-between.  Again, think high school...either that, or i must have been incredibly intimidating, i guess some guys like that  =D  SP also went to the same school and church and i guess he really liked me, because R and i became great friends.  Fast forward 20+ years...

So, we're at this anniversary dinner (in Dubai) and i get to talking to our hosts/guests of honor about where in India we're from.  Someone mentioned Bangalore and i said, "yeah, i'd lived there for a few years too and went to such and such school and such and such church, etc, etc..."  So, the guy says, "Well, then you must know QP (SP's mom)?"  How random...i mean, of all the folks to pick out, he picks this family. 

I must have nodded, because before i knew it he was calling her up - she lives in Dubai.  So, he hands the phone to me and we start talking, 
"Oh L, how are you?" 
"Fine, Aunty, how are you?"  We start catching up, yadda, yadda, yadda...then she says,
"You remember, SP?  He lives here too...do you want to talk to him?"  What!?  SP is there!!! 
"Um..."  Not sure what i said next, i think something to the effect of, "yeah, i know, i was just talking to "R" yesterday..."
That seemed to pacify her.  I don't think he was at the same place, but i think she was going to give me his number to call him.  That would have been interesting.  I really don't know how to talk to the dude without "R" being there. 
We promised to stay in touch...i owe her an email, must get on that.

The rest of the evening went well without any more surprises...food was decent but the company was fantastic...what an enjoyable day!

Old friends...and reflections

So, a week before we left, i was "friended" on Facebook by an old schoolmate, "R". We lost touch for over 20 years and it was great to hear from him. Come to find out, he lives in Dubai and we were able to meet up for a few minutes this evening. He has a lovely family, wife and two adorable sons, the youngest is only a couple weeks younger than "B". After a couple minutes of the initial shyness they interacted well. It was surreal!


SIDE NOTE: We moved around so much that i have a whole different set of "friends" for each phase of life. I have "childhood friends" in Calcutta; childhood and high school friends in Bangalore; school friends also in IL and MO; "career" friends in Hyderabad, Waukegan, Beijing, Guangzhou; friends from my single days; friends from my married days; friends from my parenthood days...the list goes on and on... Due to such a "restless" lifestyle, i lost touch with folks once i moved to a different chapter of life - very few friends have "carried over" into these different phases. Of course, with the introduction of the internet, it's been much easier to keep in touch, which only happened after i was in college. Facebook has been wonderful for reconnecting me with so many people that i've sadly lost touch with.


I've known "R" since we were 10, went to the same school and church, so we basically spent most of the week together. To watch our kids play with each other was something i never thought i'd experience. Except for one guy, Joe, i do not regularly see folks that i've known since childhood. And Joe just had a baby girl a few months back, so our kids haven't had the chance to play together. But how cool is it to be friends with someone since you were a kid and then see your kids play together. "R"s kids and my kids might never become lifelong friends, but for that moment, it was awesome to see them play together.


"R" and I had been out of touch for so long, i wasn't sure how things would be...were we still friends or acquaintances? Would he remember our friendship the way i remembered it - with great fondness. He was one of my best chums and i hoped he still felt that way about me. The minute we said hi, it was like picking up after summer break (not 20+ years). I love those kind of friendships, the kind where time stands still when you're apart. Of course, we had other variables like our families, but it only added to the beauty of our friendship. It wasn't weird at all! We were one big happy group walking and talking and trying to mind our kids. I've missed our friendship, but now that we've reconnected, i can't wait for it to continue.

Church in Dubai

We attended the United Christian Church of Dubai this morning with "G", "K", and "P".

Christians in the UAE typically attend church on Friday, which is the Muslim day of worship as well. The weekend starts Friday and ends Saturday. Sunday is a work day. So instead of "Thank God, It's Friday", it's "Thank God, It's Thursday" here.

UCCD is located in a compound of Christian churches in Jebel Ali. The UAE government granted this compound for Christian churches to be built, so there are Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and Evangelical centers, each containing several worship halls that schedule multiple services by multiple churches.

Landing in Dubai

We arrived Dubai around 7:30 am....much earlier than expected due to a fast tailwind. Dubai International Airport is quite a remarkable place....still, for its size and splendor, it wasn't very crowded and seemed rather empty.

We met our hosts, "G" and "K", a couple who knew "L's" uncle Mamayya while they were in Oman. "G", "K", and their teenager "P" are extremely nice and hospitable people...we feel very blessed, especially since we've only known each other just through email within the past month.

Currently, the weather here is quite pleasant. It's breezy and cool, around 60's and 70's Fahrenheit. It's also quite overcast and hazy....the haze may be because of the wind blowing up sand. So it's a bit hard to see some of the city landscape, particularly the Burj Khalifa, the just-completed tallest building/structure in the world. "G" and "K" commented that it's rarely this hazy and overcast....usually it's cloudlessly clear. Just our luck.

After settling in, we took a long afternoon nap, then took a night drive around town. Lots of cranes and half-completed buildings to see. Some uncompleted buildings are suspended in uncertainty, due to the economic downturn that's hit Dubai hard of late. Still, there is much to marvel architecturally. We stopped by the famous Burj al-Arab hotel, one of the tallest, most expensive, and most opulent hotels in the world. We were more than content to play for free under its shadow in the sand (which, by the way, was the finest sand I've ever felt).

Flights

"B" has been eagerly asking about our upcoming trip every day since Jan 16. I'm looking forward to sharing it with her, now that she's able to comprehend the experience better.

We took off on JetBlue at 10 pm yesterday and arrived JFK at 6 am. The Emirates counter hadn't opened yet, so we were first in line in a rather sparse Terminal 4. Around 10 am, we were off again on an Emirates airliner, headed for Dubai.

The service on Emirates is renown for its excellence, and we soon found out why. What stood out was how they specially attended to the needs of our kids. We so appreciated it. The massive selections in their in-flight entertainment helped as well....not to mention the partially-full plane that allowed us to stretch out across multiple seats for restful sleep.

Overall, "B" and "J" handled the 17 hours of flight time quite well....and as a result, so did "L" and I.

Got the visa!

"L" got her 4-day visa to Dubai today! Thanks to Emirates and their partner CIBT, we got it only one day after applying online. CIBT sent the visa via email attachment which we just print and use. Another example of how the Internet makes things much easier.

Back to India!

Well, it's done....we're heading back to India! We just bought tickets today to fly the four of us to visit Thatha, Ammamma, and friends. We're flying JetBlue to New York City, and then Emirates from there to Hyderabad. Emirates allows us a free stopover in Dubai, which we hope to take advantage. "L" needs a visa, since she's traveling on an Indian passport. The rest of us don't, as we have US passports. Hopefully, getting "L's" visa will be a pain-free process.

Post-surgery pic

A lot of folks have kindly asked how "J's" been doing since his surgery back in December. We really appreciate the concern folks have shown for "J" so many months later. In retrospect, "J" recovered and bounced back quite quickly. Still, when one sees or hears about what the surgery involved, it's hard not to think the worst, even with all the reassurances we received from the wonderful staff at Children's that he'd make it through just fine, which he did.

So I think it behooves us to show an updated photo of "J", just so you can see how well he's doing now. This is one of our favorites, taken in July at a wedding we attended....

(photo courtesy of jliu)

CT scans paint a thousand words...

Like many of you, before we learned "J" had it, we'd never heard of craniosynostosis, much less the procedure that corrects it. Neither have we known or seen anyone that bore the scars from this surgery. Now, after going through what we have with "J" over the past two months, we feel we can almost "diagnose" which kids have pre-surgical craniosynostosis just by looking at their heads.

We've found that folks understand better what "J" went through when we show them the CT scans (aka "CAT scans") of his skull, before and after surgery. We certainly understood it better when another family showed us scans of their son who went through the same procedure years ago. So, here you go....

Before surgery		After surgery
	Top of skull
	Front of skull
	Right side of skull
	Back of skull
	Left side of skull

You'll notice a tube that wraps around and protrudes out the back of the skull in the "after surgery" scans. This tube served as a catheter to drain fluid build-up. The "after surgery" scans also show only the top half of "J"'s skull. (We wouldn't want you to think the surgery removed the bottom half!)

Again, to know why "J" needed this done, see this link.

The CT scan that blew me away was the one showing the top of "J"'s skull after surgery. To be frank, the skull looks quite shattered. One visitor remarked how we expect "after" pics to show marked improvement over "before" pics. But it hardly seems that way looking at the CT scans above. In fact, what the surgery basically did was fracture "J"'s skull....and quite violently, I might add. Over time, however, these fractures will eventually fuse....bone matter filling in man-made gaps to where "J"'s skull should eventually be like any normal person's skull.

All of which gives me pause -- we can certainly marvel at these wonders of modern medicine. Yet such modern medicine is still utterly dependent on forces beyond itself. "J"'s surgery does no healing. Once done, it must humbly step aside and call upon God-given properties, present inside even a tiny infant's body, to do the delicate, wondrous repairs no doctor can. Without these healing attributes, cutting up a baby's skull makes no sense. In other words, our only resort with conditions such as craniosynostosis is to take the body "backwards" by destroying tissue and managing the pain that comes with such destruction, forcing the body to mend itself using amazing mechanisms not replicable by any human. Same with vaccinations, where we inject harmful entities into ourselves in order to summon unbelievably wonderful anti-bodies and a hardier immune system for the body. So, we marvel not so much in the surgery, impressive as it is, but rather in the restorative mysteries that take place afterwards.

How Great Thou Art!

Day 1 @ home

We've been home less than 24 hours and already "J" has had 2 major diapers...more than enough to require a bath. It was a bit surreal giving him a bath - his personnality is back to normal and everything else seemed the same...and then you catch a glimpse of that giant incision on his head...and you remember how good our God is!

During our stay at Children's we met another family whose 1 1/2 month daughter was admitted due to a seizure or heart attack or stroke (don't remember exactly which one, just remember being shocked that it happened to so small a baby). I don't know their names, but when you're in ICU together, introductions are such minor details. You talk about "syndromes" and "issues" and "conditions" and "treatments" and "doctors" - never names, or what we do, or where we're from...none of that means anything there. So, i don't know their names and they don't know ours... Last we saw them, we were in the elevator together, and they asked what happened to us since we weren't in the ICU anymore. We replied that we had been moved down to "RECOVERY" - yeah! After they congratulated us, i asked them about their little one and when they were expected to move down to recovery. They said that their daughter/neice is in a coma and will probably not recover. I didn't then, and i don't know now, what to say...

As you celebrate Christmas, as a gift to us, please reflect on God's goodness...