वेयर'स माय Rolex

Anyways it is Easter Sunday now and around ten o-clock. I fell asleep writing last night and was in the middle of explaining my research question for this trip. My hope is that when I leave Dubai in a week that I will better understand the life of a migrant worker. This city is expanding so fast and is stretching the limits of what is humanly possible in regards to development. A huge force of Indian, Pakistani, and Pilipino nationals have been brought in do this extensive work and are now a diverse and prominent crowd all through Dubai. Many are employed for years and live in specialized labor camps. Their families live back in their home country and they are permitted to visit every so often.
So while looking for new friends I first met Yussar who had sold my brother some coffee from Yemen. He was very pleasant and eager to talk about life in Dubai. Yussar has lived here for about ten years and was able to move his family over making him a permanent resident.
Later that same hour as I was walking around through the alleys I was approached as a potential buyer of fake Rolexes. Now Dubai has been a hotspot for all types of nock-offs such as purses, clothing, watches, and even in rare cases cars. Lately the government has been cracking down on these goods and have forced them to go underground with their sales. A few persuasive gentlemen had already tried to get me interested but so far I remained unmoved by their goods. This time though I felt compelled to comply as this little Indian man begged me to come and follow him. I asked about his life as he led me deeper into the maze of back alleys and although he did not speak very good English I was able to understand that his name was Zubelure and that he had been living in Dubai for nine years. He talked to me about going back to India for two months out of every year to see his family. By this time had already led me through a short door and up some tile steps. We turned a corner at the top and then Zubelure knocked on a door. By this time I was fascinated by the secrecy that was being used and it gave me a very different perspective of what it is that they are actually doing. The room behind the door was covered from wall to wall with fake Gucci purses and there were two other Indians who looked at me expectantly as I nodded to them. Zubelure said something in Telegu and one of the others brought out a dresser drawer full of what looked like thousands of dollars worth of Rolexes. Now I was then persuaded to try on about five before I stopped and asked for a price. “Good deal for you today” is what he kept telling me as he typed some numbers into a calculator seemingly for a purpose. I have a suspicion that these numbers were all random because at the end he cleared the screen and typed in two-five-zero. He looked very official and he would not say the price but only show me the numbers. I shook my head and told him that I didn’t have two hundred and fifty dirhams (roughly sixty dollars). He erased that number and went down to two hundred. I told him that I would think about it and maybe come back in a day or so. After making sure that we were all good and learning how to say goodbye in Telegu I had them unlock the door for me and I left down the stairs.
Wandering around the souqs led me even deeper into the heart of the poorer sections of Dubai. I met a man named Ishmael who sold me and my family some great Indian samosas and a specialty drink of his which he called “milk with butter”. He is forty and has a wife with two kids back in India. A younger Indian who worked with him and was also named Ishmael was very helpful in showing me where to use the restroom. I followed him down a dark alley to their community toilet and found him waiting outside when I was done just to make sure that I got back all right. This Ishmael was twenty-six and lives with the other one. I do not know if they are related but intend to go to see them again later in the week.
After wandering for hours my dad, my brother, and I decided to get on a bus returning to the other side of the creek. We got one but were surprised as instead of going directly across the bridge it made a wide arch around the city and through the cultural districts. I have ridden the bus many times now and am always surprised to never see any white people. Not one that I have noticed has ever ridden the city buses. Many of my co-riders were all Indian workers just getting off of their shifts. I was reminded of how tired I was when the man next to me started to snore. I looked around and realized that just about everyone on the bus was falling asleep or at least trying to. The sun was still out and the traffic was thick but here was a bus full of tired workers after what must have been a long day. The bus drove speedily out of a tunnel and immediately I was looking at a view of the Burg Dubai, the monolith that happens to be the tallest building in the world. The tiny looking cranes were still visible at the very top and just added to the understanding of just how tall it actually is. I had a moment of wonder as I realized that I have never seen any man made thing that was bigger than this tower ever before in my life. A sense of wonder gripped me and I glanced at all the men sitting around me. It might have been the Emirates who funded such a building but it was these small, thin haired, tired Indians who actually built the worlds tallest structure. I was in awe of these men and became even more curious about the lives that they must live.
Later that evening we caught a cab to the Emirates Mall and ate sushi while watching people ski down an indoor slope. Quite a contrast to earlier in the day.
That was all yesterday and today it is Easter Sunday and we all got up for a sunrise service at Dubai evangelical church over in Jebel Ali. We were picked up by some friends of my dad named Bob and Caroline. They have been living here for about five years and love it. While they were driving us there I learned that as of a few weeks ago the Dubai police had closed down the church parking lot and designated a special spot a little ways away for all the cars to park. This was thought to be for security reasons as people now arrive at the church in buses and are searched and scanned before being able to enter.
The church location is shared by all the evangelical churches in the area and is located exactly where the government will let it function. Today being Easter and all meant that all the churches were there at the same time. We heard worship in Chinese, Indian, Korean, and even Arabic. The sun came up and then we all ate together.