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I don’t know if there are two cities more different than Mumbai and Dubai (even though they both end with the same three letters.)

Mumbai is crowded and buildings are older. Not everyone is poor, but poverty is everywhere. People set up temporary houses on sidewalks. Mumbai is more colorful and interesting.

Dubai is a rich country because of gas and oil and you see tons of new construction everywhere. It isn’t as crowded because it has fewer people and more space. The roads are newer and I saw more fancy cars. (I even got to ride in a Rolls Royce!)

One thing the cities have in common is air pollution. In Mumbai it is because there are just so many people. In Dubai, it is because of factories, big cars, oil refineries and dust storms. I was surprised to learn that in 2015, United Arab Emirates (UAE) was named the most polluted country in the world. It has over double the amount of pollutants in the air compared to India.

Omar is the man who drove the SUV when we went dune bashing. Do you agree that he has a great job? Imagine if your job was to take people out to the desert every day and drive crazily up and down the sand dunes. I tried to take a video while I was inside the SUV, but that was impossible.  We were moving too fast. So many times it felt as though we were going to tip over. You may have seen that on the video. Sliding down the sand dune on that wide ski was more exciting than it looked too. I watched the others in my group do it, but I didn’t think I would. Then, of course, I realized that I HAD to do it for my video. I didn’t want to let you down by missing out on something!

One night I went on a tour of an area in Dubai. The Hindu festival of lights called Diwali (or as some call it Deepawali) was happening soon. Everywhere I looked I saw colorful lights in homes to celebrate the holiday.

One of the most special parts of my whole trip was meeting the family from Iraq. I was supposed to meet a friend in the gold souk, but my phone didn’t work without wifi. I needed to talk on the phone to set up a meeting spot. I asked a bunch of people where I could find a restaurant or store with wifi, but everyone told me there weren’t any in the souk.

Then this friendly man heard me asking people. He told me I could use the hot spot from his phone. At first, I wasn’t sure if I should talk to him, because most of the people who approached me in the souk wanted to sell me something. However, I soon realized he was just being sincerely helpful. He invited me to sit on a bench with his wife and two sons while I contacted my friend. We started talking and I learned that he used to have a good job in technology in Iraq. However, there was so much fighting going on in their country, the family decided they had to leave in order to be safe. They all really missed Iraq, but they knew it was not a good place to be at this time.

Sadly, they didn’t feel welcomed in Dubai. Because of that they were going to go to Istanbul, Turkey. They had some family and friends living there already and someone had offered the dad a good job working with technology.

They had a car nearby and offered to take me back across the water to the place where I was going to meet my friend. On the drive we talked more and I learned about how difficult it was for them to leave their home country. They said they would write to me when they got settled back in Istanbul. They even invited me to visit them there. I don’t recommend that you talk to strangers if you are alone, but remember that I am an adult.

Do you know anyone who had to leave their home country because it wasn’t safe or because the parents couldn’t find a good job? Can you imagine how hard it would be to leave your home and all of your friends and relatives? Can you imagine how they would feel trying to settle in to a new country with different customs and a new language? Maybe you have a classmate who had to leave their country for one of the reasons I mentioned above. How could you make them feel welcome in Minnesota?

Please write with your questions or comments.

Ms. Barthelemy