Arrival in the United Arab Emirates

Kenedi Houston
2 min readJul 9, 2019

--

The United Arab Emirates: Future driven with open and traditional cultural values

Young ladies and mentors from The GEMS CAMP on La Mer Beach, Dubai, UAE

Immediately upon exiting the Dubai airport’s doors I exclaimed,”It’s hot out here. This is like Texas heat and Houston humidity times 10,000!”

Dubai is a city , and an emirate(state) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) , of fascinating architecture, customs, and innovation that can be a lot to absorb upon first glance. It is very different from the United States in terms of political system and main religion, but in many ways it is very similar. They have universities, theme parks, malls, restaurants,and diverse places of worship even with Islam dominating the culture here.

Here I am in front of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. UAE

The culture here is actually very welcoming, and a surprising amount to absorb initially.The UAE has a Year of Tolerance in place to celebrate the diversity here. Twenty percent of the UAE are native-born Emiratis, while the remaining Eighty percent include expatriates from other countries.Expatriates are people born in other countries who have decided to live in a another country for a number of years.

There is American food, as well as a number of international cuisines such as Pakistani, Emirati, Turkish, Korean, Italian, etc. There is something for everyone here, and many opportunities to try new things! We have learned about the importance of the retainment of the culture of the Emirati people with their connection to the desert and sea.

From top left clockwise: Chicken Shawarma plate, Fattoush, and Chicken Biryani
Myself at Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, UAE across from La Mer

Check out more updates to my page in the near future, or Medium picture series soon! There is so much more coming!

--

--