pausing

So when I stepped off the plane in Dubai International Airport at approximately 3:25am on May 14, I had no idea exactly what iI was walking into. I knew, only, that I would be spending the next two weeks with my big sister, her husband and their daugher. The first thing that I noticed was that MERCY, it was hot. Even at 4:00am when I made it out of security and outside to the waitng area, it was stifling. I had to stand tehre and wait for about 10 minutes because, strangely, my plane had landed early and Alison had slept past her alarm a bit. Those time minutes, time that pre-Morocco Meredith would have been freaking out- foreign country no cel phone credit, haven't showered in a while, that might be some throw up on my jeans from this morning, wait was that yesterday morning, what day is it- passed with quick calmness before I heard my name shouted and turned to see my big sister walk running towards me. I cried, she cried, we embraced and grabbed my stuff to head to the car. Brad and Alison ushered me back to their car where we packed up and headed back to the hotel.

THe next day was a lot of culture shocked as I was forced into Dubai culture. Dubai is not your typical middle eastern city, but it is infact America on crack. For example, we ate lunch in one of the HUGE malls there. We had Taco Bell (classy, I know) but everybody else around us in line was wearing abaiya (google it) and while we bought our dozen Krispy Kreme donuts a veiled woman supervised her children enjoying their fried goodness. For me, coming from Morocco, it was like being hit with two very different worlds intertwined. First off, nothing in Morocco compares in modernity or spectacle to what Dubai offers, but nothing could really compare with the conservative Muslim culture of it. It's amazing, and something that I couldn't believe people before when they said you had to see it for yourself. You must.

After loading up on American carbs, we headed back to their home. They live in the country next to the UAE and our hot hot hour and a half long drive through the desert transported us back to a place a world away from what we left in Dubai. Their city is hot and flat and all of the buildings are painted tan. I had a pretty emotional experience as we walked into their apartment and I laid eyes on my precious 2 and a half year old niece, Lucy, who I haven't seen or held since the last time they visited the US, over a year ago.

Hamdulillah, I've been blessed with two weeks of time with all of them. Alison and Brad attend a local language school learning foosha (formal Arabic) and khaliji (local dialect). They go to school in the mornings while Lucy goes to day care. I typically sleep in a it, read, and catch up with uploading photos from Morocco (clearly I haven't been blogging...) When they get home from school/day care, we eat lunch, Lucy naps, and we spend the afternoon in the comfort of air conditiong in attempt to fight off the 100+ degree weather encroaching from outside. In the evenings we've visited with their local neighbors and friends, watched episodes of the Sing Off on tv and headed on a few adventures to get Arab food and coconut milkshakes.

Needless to say, I've had a lot of free time on my hands. I've been a little frustrated at my newfound lack of mobiility seeing as how it isn't culturally acceptable for women who go wandering out on their own, I can't speak the dialect to be able to communicate properly and it's too stinking hot to leave!

In Psalm 85:4-7 the authors cry out for God to restore them and to revive them so that they may rejoice in Him... "show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation."

God has used the past two weeks as an incredible time of restoration and fellowship in my semester. I've had the opportunity to read bedtime stories to Lucy, to be filled with good conversation, to laugh a LOT and to be challenged and prepare for this summer. I cannot think of a better way to rewind from an incredible semester than in the company that I'm in now and though it is going to be incredibly difficult to walk into the airport and away from this place for the forseeable future, I will rest knowing that the marrow was sucked out of this leg of my journey.

This is (some of) what the Lord has been doing here these two weeks: