Halfway There

Well, more than halfway actually since I just got off a 13 hour flight! The next leg, which I do tonight, is only 4 hours. But where am I you may ask? Well, let me give you some clues. It's far --I'm sure you gathered that! It's HOT- probably 100 degrees. And the third clue is this morning I went on a tour of the Jumeirah Mosque given by the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding.

(Thanks for the suggestion Reisha, if you are reading!) Give up? DUBAI !!!! I know, I know! Crazy, isn't it? I have wanted to visit Dubai for several years so when I planned this other trip I figured I could do a layover here and lo and behold I was able to finagle it. I am here for ten hours (and two days on the way back) and let me tell you, it is so hot and so big and so clean and so modern and a very interesting cultural experience and I have only been here four hours!
As soon as I leave this internet cafe I am heading to The Mall of Emirates to do some window shopping. I hear gold is very cheap there. Thankfully I am more of a silver person because I don't need to be spending any money. But, I might go skiing! They have an indoor ski slope in the mall.

How often does one encounter that??? And then I need to head back to the airport for my flight to...
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Addis Ababa!!! Yup! I am heading to Ethiopia on a 6:00 flight tonight! I am so excited!! I don't know how much I will be able to blog from there. I hear they are experiencing power shortages and three days a week there isn't any power and then I compound the problem by not bringing a laptop (I don't own one unfortunately). Plus I may not be able to post to Blogger at all and even if I am able to I won't be able to post any photos unfortunately.. but there it is! Ethiopia! Since I am not able to do the adoption right now (no official job yet) I will volunteer for a month in my downtime. When I get back I should have a firm offer and then be able to adopt. So, since I am not currently in the adoption process I will have the joy of volunteering in an orphanage and get the opportunity to learn about the culture of my future child. I mean, how fortuitous is that? It's a blessing for sure. So, there it is and I can't wait:-) Meanwhile, I hear a call to prayer as I type so I'm heading out to experience more of the UAE.