24.10.2007
So I’m finally in the UAE! The first night I got here, we went out with the Dubai members, interns & Alumni for dinner. It was good to see some old faces again and definitely good to meet some of the friends I have made in AIESEC UAE.
After dinner I and Stella headed to Abu Dhabi with Mohammed who is a new friend of AIESEC. At the beginning of the trip Stella comforted me by telling me that it wasn’t a long trip, she said it would last ONLY an hour. And I was like “and that is what you call a short drive?? Did you know that you can get from one side of Bahrain to the other in 1 hour!!?” Then we started talking about Bahrain and the population and how small it is.
On our way, Mohammed kept on talking to me in Arabic because he found it difficult to talk in English. Since Stella didn’t understand a thing that we said, she decided to fall asleep and we continued to talk about the UAE and how people lived and the relationship between locals and expatriates etc. Although Bahrain is in the GCC, I never imagined it would be this different from the UAE.
Anyways when we got the apartment, I got the shock of my life. I was speechless and all I could do was smile and act as if it was normal. I never knew this kind of apartment (or whatever they want to call it) existed. It was a huge apartment with 5 rooms and in each room there were 2 – 4 people depending on the size of the room. Our room was huge, it was almost empty except for 2 beds and 2 cupboards; one for me and the other for Stella and later on the CEEDer Reham. The rest of the night I couldn’t concentrate and didn’t know what to do. How was I going to live like this? No personal space? The apartment was a total mess. The location was great but the apartment was crappy and everything thing in it was even crappier. How could I tell my family I was living in a place like this? They would tell me to get the hell back home. I have to share the bathroom and kitchen and later on I found out that two random ladies will also be living with us so I will be sharing the room as well. The whole night I couldn’t sleep; I finally fell asleep at something like 3 am and woke up again at 6.30 am.
In the morning we got ready to go to an external event which was key for AIESEC Abu Dhabi. In this event we got to meet with a lot of externals who were mostly directors and top officials in their businesses as well as some people with a hell lot of money. The best part of the event was the Eric was there. Eric was the main person who started up AIESEC in Bahrain and now that I am in charge of expanding to Abu Dhabi, I again have Eric by my side. It was good to see him there; in some ways when I saw him, I was very comforted and knew that even if I could not depend on anyone here I would have him to depend on.
After the event, we headed to the Abu Dhabi women’s college where my office was going to be. When we got there, turned out there was a Nobel Prize winner coming to speak at the college. I don’t know what her name was, but we joined in and I watched one of the most inspirational people in front of me talk about her life and her struggle in Africa to get into parliament. After that, I got to meet the director of the university and some of the people I will be sharing the office with.
The whole day, people kept talking to me in English, I figured they thought I was Indian or something and it pissed me off. After getting home, I decided that I would wear the Abaya so that I get more of an Arab look and this morning it worked fine. When we got out of the building this morning and I was an Emirati guy looking at me, I knew it worked!!
Lets see how this experience goes…
Friday, October 26, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Iran
Filling my application to AD and looking into all the global strategies and structures was how I spent most of my time in Iran. I was very nervous with the application; questions like am I the right person? Is there someone who can do a better job than me? What the hell will I do there alone? ; kept running in my mind. All of these questions were answered when Jorein sent me my recommendation letter. The letter was so strong that I knew I was the right person for the job.
After a couple days after my first interview I headed off to Tehran to meet up the AIESECers there. It was one hell of a trip. The AIESECers were so motivated and thirsty to learn more. I was only there for a few days but every time I would meet up with them, they kept asking me how we did things in Bahrain and what I thought the best way would be. The thirst to learn more could be seen in their eyes and I was so happy and proud of them. AIESEC Iran will be facing a lot of difficulties for sure; they will have many challenges that maybe other countries haven’t faced due to their country reality but I am sure that with the members that are running the show it will all be possible. One the best things I like about the AIESECers there was that when they ask for your advise they actually listen to it and use some of it; which is something very rare.
Ramadan in Tehran was a bit different for me. The first we were having meetings in a park and for iftar two international students one from the Philippines and the other from Ireland joined us. We had ‘ash’ (kind of a soup) and tea to break our fast and then moved on to a restaurant for rice and kebabs. It was a wonderful evening filled with meaningful talk and a lot to learn. Although the two guys were not from AIESEC, the beauty of AIESEC was proved to me again. We were a group of 3 Germans, an Iranian, a Philippine, an Irish and a Bahraini having iftar together in Iran. Beautiful.
I returned back to Shiraz with Jonas, Jane and Gert and spent two wonderful days with them sightseeing and experiencing Shiraz. For me one of the best places we went was ‘Shah Cheraq’ which is a mosque where a very religious person is buried. While entering one of the guards asked if they were Muslim and my Aunt confidently answered ‘yes, yes they are Muslims’ (apparently non-Muslims were not allowed in which I think is a stupid thing to do). It was beautiful inside and best of all it was very peaceful; I wanted to cry for no reason.
After the guys left, I had a couple of days left for my family and I tried to make the most out of it. We went together for picnics after iftar, went Karting with the cousins who were very funny since some of them couldn’t drive, ate junk off the street (which by the way I love to do) and much more. They day I was leaving was very gloomy; I didn’t want to leave because I really enjoyed it there. It was the first time in my life that I have stayed so long in Iran and didn’t want to run back home. I loved it.
After a couple days after my first interview I headed off to Tehran to meet up the AIESECers there. It was one hell of a trip. The AIESECers were so motivated and thirsty to learn more. I was only there for a few days but every time I would meet up with them, they kept asking me how we did things in Bahrain and what I thought the best way would be. The thirst to learn more could be seen in their eyes and I was so happy and proud of them. AIESEC Iran will be facing a lot of difficulties for sure; they will have many challenges that maybe other countries haven’t faced due to their country reality but I am sure that with the members that are running the show it will all be possible. One the best things I like about the AIESECers there was that when they ask for your advise they actually listen to it and use some of it; which is something very rare.
Ramadan in Tehran was a bit different for me. The first we were having meetings in a park and for iftar two international students one from the Philippines and the other from Ireland joined us. We had ‘ash’ (kind of a soup) and tea to break our fast and then moved on to a restaurant for rice and kebabs. It was a wonderful evening filled with meaningful talk and a lot to learn. Although the two guys were not from AIESEC, the beauty of AIESEC was proved to me again. We were a group of 3 Germans, an Iranian, a Philippine, an Irish and a Bahraini having iftar together in Iran. Beautiful.
I returned back to Shiraz with Jonas, Jane and Gert and spent two wonderful days with them sightseeing and experiencing Shiraz. For me one of the best places we went was ‘Shah Cheraq’ which is a mosque where a very religious person is buried. While entering one of the guards asked if they were Muslim and my Aunt confidently answered ‘yes, yes they are Muslims’ (apparently non-Muslims were not allowed in which I think is a stupid thing to do). It was beautiful inside and best of all it was very peaceful; I wanted to cry for no reason.
After the guys left, I had a couple of days left for my family and I tried to make the most out of it. We went together for picnics after iftar, went Karting with the cousins who were very funny since some of them couldn’t drive, ate junk off the street (which by the way I love to do) and much more. They day I was leaving was very gloomy; I didn’t want to leave because I really enjoyed it there. It was the first time in my life that I have stayed so long in Iran and didn’t want to run back home. I loved it.
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