Author Holly Warah's novel is a compelling read. Filled with intricate details of mixed cultural marriages, the novel never fails to intrigue and satisfy the reader. 

Where Jasmin Blooms is a refreshing novel that delicately and adroitly navigates the divide between cultural and religious beliefs and customs of Palestinian Islamists and American Christians. 

Following the joys and challenges of three women from different decades, and two different continents, whose lives are entwined by marriage, the novel enlightens the reader to the joys and frustrations each face. This book was so compelling that I actually read it in one sitting.

In today's world of clashing cultures, this is a must read for anyone interested in understanding cultural and religious differences. I heartily recommend it for its honest and thoughtful commentary on cross-cultural families.   

Where Jasmin Blooms

Deep Deceit . . . a must read thriller!

Living in a foreign country is a lifestyle not for the faint-hearted, even for a professional expat like Deep Deceit’s protagonist Celeste.

Navigating unfamiliar rules and customs when things go awry can be heart wrenching. Throw in the mysterious allure of Dubai and Saudi Arabia and you have a double whammy that makes for an intriguing thriller.  

Anne O’Connell,in her second novel, gets it right. Set in the tumultuous Middle East, the pace quickens and the plot thickens as Celeste battles an abusive charlatan husband, searches for her kidnapped 18-year old temperamental daughter and defies death threats from Saudi nationals while trying to cope with her own fragile mental health.

Not only is this novel an exhilarating “can’t put it down” page-turner, it also is an excellent look into what an expat can expect living in the Middle East. Woven in this excellent read are the essential elements  needed to survive in the unfamiliar world of a Muslim country.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a real thriller but also for anyone interested in knowing what it is like for an expat to live in Dubai and the Middle East.  

Deep Deceit is available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. In celebration of launch week, it's free to download on Kindle March 10th and 11th! Amazon.com link - http://amzn.to/1zZrxEU and the Amazon.co.uk link - http://amzn.to/1BXWpXB

Follow Deep Deceit on Facebook. 

Dhafra Camel Festival - CAMEL BLING-BLING

Note to readers: This is part one of a three part series about our adventure to the Al Dhafra Camel Festival. Top 10 Tips for Enjoying the Al Dhafra Camel Festival, Camel Bling-Bling and How to Judge a Camel Beauty Contest. 

Prized camel beauty contestants showing off their bling-bling.

In all beauty pageants what one wears is most important. Beauty contestants usually get decked out in flowing evening gowns and skimpy swim suits. But camel beauty contestant dress in dazzling bling-bling called hatat. The hatat is artfully draped over the hump and around the neck and face like precious jewels. Actually, some are jewelry as they are made with real gold and semi-precious stones

Roger and I are at the Al Dhafra Camel Festival located just passed Madinat Zayed in the desert off Abu Dhabi Island. Among the many events at this two-week long celebration are camel beauty contests. It is astounding that more than 25,000 camels come from neighboring Gulf countries to compete. And it is even more astounding that in the offering is AED 66,000,000+ ($1,798,365) in prizes for the various contests held during the festival. All this is enticing, but I am most intrigued with the camel bling-bling – a huge business here.  

Top 10 Tips for Enjoying the Al Dhafra Camel Festival, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Note to readers: This is part one of a three part series about our adventure to the Al Dhafra Camel Festival. Coming soon are Camel Bling-Bling and How to Judge a Camel Beauty Contest. 

Stay tuned.

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Al Dhafra Camel festival Million Street parade. See Tip#10

There is an art to enjoying a camel festival . . .

If you are looking for an authentic Arab experience, the Dahfra Camel Festival is a must see.

This celebrated festival occurs the last two weeks of December in a desert camp city that sprouts up just outside of Madinat Zayed about a 2 hour ride into the desert from Abu Dhabi. This is a serious festival. At the 2013 Festival, the winners of the various festival competitions took home 50 million dirhams ($13,623,978+) in prize money including 198 top-of-the-line SUVs.    

In 2012, Roger and I ranked this camel festival #2 in our 2012 Top Adventures In and Around Dubai; for 2013 it will retain its #2 slot. We just love getting down with the natives!

So here are my Top 10 Tips for enjoying the one-and-only Dhafra Camel Festival:

UAE National Day Celebration

Countries around the world relish celebrating their founding days and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) they take their National Day seriously. 

His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Nayhan

Celebrated on December 2, National Day commemorates the day in 1971 that His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan banded together the seven emirates of the Trucial States to form a new country - United Arab Emirates. National Day is an exuberant celebration of the greatness of this young country’s heritage.

One thing Emiratis love is their cars. Just stand on any street corner and watch the show. Glitzy, glamorous, bejeweled and audacious are words that describe the cars you can see. For National Day, all restraints are unleashed in the fervorous activity to decorate one’s car for the big celebration and show one’s love for their country . . . and proudly parading them all over town.  

My First Omani Wedding . . . A Distinctive Arab Experience

The Bride’s Love Seat

The female security guard discretely slips me through a side door and gestures for me to sit at the table in the corner. The Arabic music is pulsating and the room is reverberating with the nervous energy of 400 women. Suddenly, the lights dim and everyone turns to watch. A bride, dressed in a Western-style long white wedding gown with matching trailing veil has a death grip on her bouquet of roses as she takes very slow measured steps down the center aisle towards the “Bride’s Love Seat.” Her unsmiling face is devoid of emotion.

Following the bride are several bejeweled “bridesmaids” moving en mass like a swarm of bees following their queen. Rising above the pounding music, warbling female tongues emit the zaghareet, the high-pitched ululation made by Arab women to congratulate the bride. The level of noise is deafening but I am not going to miss a moment of this.

How does a non-Muslim living in a Muslim country survive and thrive during Ramadan? . . . Thoughts from Abu Dhabi.

The Holy Month of Ramadan is upon us. For a non-Muslim living in a Muslim country like the United Arab Emirates, this means making some lifestyle adjustments.  To make this easier, the first thing a non-Muslim must do is understand the practices and rituals of Ramadan. The second thing is to find a way to thrive during Ramadan.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI is ONLY one of many children seeking education.

Note: I feel compelled to repost this blog in support of Malala's speech on July 12, 2013, before the UN advocating for education for all children. On her 16th birthday, having survived an attack by the Taliban, this young girl inspired an entire world with her worlds of compassion, courage and determination.  If you feel compelled to help a disadvantaged orphan child in the UAE receive an education please read the post below and contact me. 

The media is full of reports of the young Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out for the education of women. This inhumane act has sent reverberations around the world rightfully denouncing the Taliban, supporting Malala and everyone's right to education.

Malala is not alone in her quest for education. There are many more Malala’s in the Middle East and Asia who must struggle each day to obtain their education.

I was fortunate to meet such a young woman through the Al Ihsan Charity Association. While this young woman is lucky to live in the United Arab Emirates where education of women is encouraged, nevertheless she had to overcome many obstavles to obtain her education. 

Here is her story . . .    

A Culinary Voyage Through the Streets of Old Dubai with Frying Pan Adventures

Frying Pan Adventures foodie explorers 

Varshik, Donna,Kate, Bob & Arva

Many times on my explorations of old Dubai I pass by multitudes of hole-in-the-wall restaurants lining the streets.  Each cafeteria, as these small street-restaurants are called, advertise their offerings with grainy pictures of peculiar looking plates of food and strange – or maybe exotic - aromas settling over the sidewalk.

I always wonder if some really delicious foodie finds are lurking inside. I must confess that I have been tempted but never found the required courage to drop in for a bite.

But that all changed when I met Arva Ahmed. I ran into Arva online through her blog I Live in A Frying Pan. I was instantly taken by her fresh wit, funny take on life and sheer joy of exploring. I was certainly intrigued by the hidden food gems she featured. When I read she was developing ethnic food walking tours in Dubai, I jumped at the chance to try one.  I was not disappointed.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque - One of the most talked about attractions in the world!

Official image of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

It seems quite a lot of people agree with me that the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is one of the most wonderful places on this earth!

Just this week the UAE newspapers reported that users of TripAdvisor ranked it as number 16 on the list of the top most talked about attractions in the world. It joins the ranks of such iconic global sites as Sydney Harbor, the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Central Park in New York City. 

What makes it so special?

International Day of Peace Sparks a Personal Comment on “The Film” . . . The Mobs . . . The Violence

Today, September 21, is International Day of Peace. It was established by the United Nations in 1982 to “encourage all of mankind to work towards worldwide peace.” 

How ironic that this year the date falls just as our world grapples with seemingly never ending whirlwinds of protests and violence fueled by hate.

The media headlines of the past week are disturbing; because of an amateurish crudely made film, The Innocence of Muslims, more than 30 people are dead and mobs have rioted in 20 countries.  All allegedly in the name of avenging an insult to a religious leader whose religion, Islam, means peace. 

Why are we letting the fanatics on both sides control the agenda?

11,000 Volunteers Being Human for Every Human Being – Adopt A Camp Ramadan Care Package Project in Dubai

What do you do when 11,000 volunteers show up?

Saher with her "adopted" boys
from the labor camps

I believe that one person can make a difference in the world. What starts with a small act of compassion can become so powerful that thousands of people join in the crusade.

That is exactly what happened with Saher Sheikh’s random act of kindness one day as she stood in the checkout line at her Dubai grocers  watching a laborer carefully count out his coins for a meager meal of bread and laban (a yogurt drink). Seeing the distress in the man’s face, she steps in, pays for the sparse meal and tells him to go get anything else he wants – he simply gets a strawberry drink.

From this small act AdoptA Camp was born. Adopt A Camp is a grass roots organization that today brings assistance to 43 camps helping more than 32,000 laborers in the Dubai area.

Ramadan 2012 Adopt-A-Camp Project. . . Join me in a small act of charity

Please join me during the 2012 Ramadan holy season in a simple act of compassion to support the Adopt-A-Camp Care Package project. 

The program will provide 5,000 large “care packages” of personal hygiene products, clothing, bedding and food items to help improve the lives of laborers, some who have been abandoned by their employers. 

This effort is organized by the non-profit Adopt-A-Camp organization and the DubaiChamber of Commerce.

The goal is to raise enough money to cover the cost of 5000 pillows @ AED12.

If I can find 200 people to donate 300 dhs each ($80) we will succeed. Thank you for anything you can do.   Please feel free to ask your friends to help. Contact me email: katiefoster46@gmail.com or
cell:055-525 6619

LIVING IN AN ISLAMIC COUNTRY

Note: This article appeared in the March 2012 issue of Loyola University in New Orleans Alumni Magazine LOYNO.  I was honored to be asked to submit an article about living in Dubai. Living in a Islamic Country. I have added additional photos to the article. I received my BA in Journalism from Loyola in 1968. 

Jumeirah Mosque, Dubai

In my wildest dreams I never thought I would be living in a foreign country let alone an Islamic country in the Middle East. A phone call New Year’s Day 2010 sent my husband Roger packing for a flight to Dubai where his company was relocating him. I would follow two months later.

Reactions from family and friends to our announcement that we were moving to the Middle East ranged from total disbelief, “You shouldn't be doing this at your age;” to sheer terror, “What about all the terrorists there;” to concern, “Mom, you are such an independent women, how are you going to live over there where women are so oppressed;” to the comical,“You're going to look great in a headscarf.”

DUBAI . . . LOOKING UNDER THE VEIL

Photo: www.solarnavigator.net/geography/dubai.htm

Dubai, UAE is the archetypal 'City of Contrasts.' Brash and flashy, and sometimes a little tawdry, a glimpse beneath this veil reveals a proud culture determined to retain its heritage while racing at breakneck speed to embrace the 21st century.

“I have a writing assignment to describe Dubai in 500 words using descriptive words and dialogue and I want to show the contrasts and tensions most visitors never see. Can you help?” I ask my expat friend Sara as we sip our coffee in the Mall of the Emirates.

Travel to Turkey - Blue Mosque, Istanbul Turkey . . . An Architectural Treasure Worth every Painful Step

The gradual crescendo of the alarm is a rising torture. Even the beauty of the first morning’s light through the kitschy curtains doesn't help the pain. I can’t believe it is time to start again. Every muscle and bone in my body is screaming for mercy.

I roll over and Roger is already awake. He is just sitting on the side of the bed, hands bracing him up and head hanging low. He slowly turns to look at me and we both just start laughing. The entire situation is so ludicrous that laughter is the only way to relieve the tension.

Katie & Roger at Ephesus

We are on Day 8 of our 10 day tour of Turkey. 

We survived the first five days in Ephesus with minor complaints but Istanbul has been a different situation all together.

RAMADAN . . . A SIMPLE ACT OF CHARITY – Adopt-a-Camp Care Packages

Ramadan is the Muslim holy month; a time of spiritual renewal, fasting, family gatherings and alms giving. As a Catholic living in a Muslim country during Ramadan, I see much emphasis placed on the restraints imposed on ones daily schedule. But rather than ruminate on the restraints, I decide this Ramadan to embrace alms giving and do simple act of charity as a gift to my adopted home town, Dubai.

Adopt-a-Camp (AAC), which provides “care packages” to the men who live in Dubai’s labor camps, is my choice.

JUMEIRAH MOSQUE - Guest post by Anne "The Writer" O'Connell

One of the great pleasures of living in Dubai is enjoying unique adventures with friends. Recently Anne O’Connell and I went on a tour of the Jumeirah Mosque. This is one of the programs of the Sheikh Mohammad Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU) that strives to remove barriers between people of different nationalities and raise awareness of the local culture, customs and religion of the United Arab Emirates. With Anne and I both being raised Catholic, we were amazed at some of the similiarities of the faiths. 
Please enjoy Anne’s account of our visit to which I have added photos.

DUBAI LITERARY FESTIVAL - FINDING PEACE . . .BROTHERLY LOVE . . . AND LAUGHTER IN DUBAI - PART 2 - BROTHERLY LOVE Tariq Ramadan

Part 2  of Finding Peace, Brotherly Love and Laughter in Dubai is about Tariq Ramadan’s presentation, “Charting a Course Between Islamic Values and Western Cultures.”  This seems like an interesting choice since both Anne and I had decided independent of each other that we want to use some of our time in the Middle East to understanding this mysterious Muslim faith.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature  proves to be one of the best experiences in my first year of living in Dubai.

CELEBRATING ARABIAN WOMEN - 2011 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

What a way to celebrate International Women’s Day meeting the most fascinating woman in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)!  – an Arab woman suffragette (a female advocate of the extension of equality to women)! This 90-year old dynamo is still the “Little Earthquake” she was nicknamed as a child.

Maryam Behnam, an Emirati Woman of the Year, was the keynote speaker at the American Women’s Association (AWA) of Dubai’s luncheon celebrating International Women’s Day. Held at the Dubai Ladies Club, the packed house marveled at the energy and spirit of this remarkable woman who has advocated for women’s empowerment in the Middle East  for more than 80 years . . . yes, this means she started when she was 10! Actually, it appears even her birth “rocked the world” as she was born in Iran the year of the terrible earthquake in Bandar Lingah a harbor in the Hormozgan province of Iran on the coast of the Arabian Gulf just across the “eastern tip” of the UAE.