Sun 6 May 2007
Once again on my travels I’ve been able to meet some wonderful locals thanks to friends back home. My friend Kal is the Head of the Engineering Department at ABC7 Chicago. He hooked me up with his cousin, Mehro, who lives here in Dubai with her husband, Zahid. They are originally from Pakistan, but have lived in Dubai for about a year now where Zahid is a regional director with Lloyds Registry.
We had a wonderful time at their house and savored a great home cooked meal. Their daughter was in
town for a visit from London where she is studying law at university. They also invited some of their neighbors from their very-worldly expatriate ‘compound.’ We spent the afternoon having wine with some fun Pakistanis, Italians, and Danish. It was a blast and interesting to see how those who move to Dubai for 
work live and play. Mehro and Zahid were a super cute couple who seemed to compliment each other nicely. Mehro told us a story from when she was a young lady growing up in Pakistan. Her father owned a hotel where they hosted guests from all over the world. One guest was a man from Japan whom she befriended. He wanted to learn Urdu (the official language of Pakistan) so she began by teaching him the standard greetings. That night he was meeting a very important man for the very first time. He extended his hand and said proudly in his new Urdu dialect, “Hello, I am a goat from Japan.” Mehro, of course, was in the corner snickering. She was already a trouble maker! Of course, the way she told the story was better than I am writing it here. I’ve never met a Pakistani that wasn’t very friendly and super funny—they always leave me in stitches.
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May 18th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
It looks like an awfully nice spread on the table there missy. Or in translated Urdu. “Hi I’m a fat hungry american who could eat a goat from Japan or anywhere else.” You found a place to get booze without paying hotel prices. You are an incredibly industrious woman.