Contrasting worlds

Having returned now from my month leave back to America, I went on my first outing in the UAE again to see some more of the Emirates. I kept contrasting the two landscapes of my life. Having lived nearly two years here, the landscape here has become a part of me. The exterior landscapes and the interior landscapes of our souls are not disconnected. One becomes a part of the other, I think. I am always sensitive to landscapes as I walk and I often wonder that others are not. I feel the land, I sense its spirit—it has been this way for as long as I can remember. I went with my son to the American West some years back, and I recall how strongly this feeling was when it came from Pike’s Peak. I recall putting my hand against that great rock tower and closing my eyes and I knew there was something there inexplicable and real. It kind of weirded out my son that I did this, but I couldn’t help it. This grand landscape had such a strong pull on my interior landscape that a normally subconscious effect on my soul, that usually affects my mood for the better, became a call to me to the point that I am inclined to ascribe a quality of being to the great rock. Whether this is just a fancy of my imagination or not, I at least believe for certain that landscapes have profound influences on the development of the minds of men, the culture they live in and the ways people think.

I went with two friends of mine, Doug, who is renting the car, and Mike. Both of them are villa mates and work for the same University that I do. Doug found a place to go Scuba Diving near the Emirate of Fujairah near a city called Khor Fakkan, by Shark Island. The sharks here are benign creatures and people love the excitement of swimming near real sharks.

While Doug was diving, Mike and I took the car just to explore for a few hours. We drove north of Fujairah for a couple of hours and had a discreet snack in the car as we looked out over the Gulf of Oman. I say discreet because it was Ramadan and eating and drinking in public during the day is not only insensitive to the culture, it is also illegal.

Around five o’clock we picked up Doug and we followed directions given to us over the phone by an Arab acquaintance called Ahmed, whose English speaking skills are excellent, but even at that it is confusing to follow directions in a curvy mountain country where you have never been before. It was turning dark and we went through some very beautiful mountain country that was considerably further out in the sticks than I have ever been before in the UAE. It was too dark to get pictures of this landscape, but it was quite beautiful.

Ahmed and a host of other Arab friends in three cars met us at a gas station to escort us to Hamad Siredi’s house where they had already begun the Iftar feast, breaking their fast. They greeted us with smiles and presented us with the hospitality for which the Arabs are famous. Again, it stood out as a contrast to the family meal I had shared with my parents, sisters, neice and nephews, and all the grand children just a few weeks ago. And so I have been reflecting on these contrasts and when I made this short video, I did it a little differently, pulling out pictures and clips from the previous video and using them to contrast my life here, with my life over there.