FAREWELL TO DUBAI

On Sunday morning in Dubai we went looking for a Methodist Church and thought we had found one.  Their theme was “Open doors.  Open minds.”  I knew something was amiss without “Open hearts.”  It was Jumeirah Mosque!  They open this Mosque to non Muslims, but then claimed all Mosques are open to anyone who follows the rules and customs.  I thought that perhaps this one was built just for tourist education, but it is a very active Mosque and has this special educational mission three days per week.  The presentation was good and again, our experience of the Moslem people has been wonderful. 

We had purchased Big Bus tickets so we saw much of Dubai, including the Palm, a wonderful extension into the ocean that is largely residential and everyone lives on a canal with a beach.  I put $ 20 down on a place.  We saw the beautiful Atlantis on the Palm Hotel and it is one beautiful building.  We then hit the Dubai Mall.  Mall of the Emirates had 450 shops, but this one had 1200.  1100 of them were restaurants and all closed until 7 p.m. for Ramadan.  We went hungry until dinner.  We could not go up to the 127^th floor viewing deck of Burj Khalifa until evening, so missed being on top of the tallest building in the world.  Note the striking divers into the waterfall. I wanted to join them. We saved the rest of the bus tour until Monday, but that was not to be.  Marilyn became very ill in the night and we went to the American Hospital not far away only to discover she has stones floating about various parts of her body and will probably need surgery upon our return.  We feared missing our flight and financing surgery here with questionable insurance.  She has prescriptions so we plan to get on the flight and see a doctor upon our arrival in Omaha.   We are lounging around the room today, catching up on sleep, packing and using room service awaiting our departure on Emirate Airlines Tuesday morning. Those who have been following our journey have to know what an unbelievable trip it has been and we are grateful for the way it fell together so beautifully.  The stones were polite to await the end of our journey.  Thanks to all who have shown interest in the wandering Scahills.

Joe