Since moving here, Andres and I have had a chance to meet so many different and beautiful people from the lower working class. We have truly come to love many of them.
The most shocking thing for me is the social class system here.
A persons rate of pay changes here depending on your Nationality.
Andres is treated like lower class than me just because he is not white.
The inequality is just heart breaking to me. You hear about it happening in parts of the world but it is really something else when you see it firsthand.
(I do not mean this to slight Dubai in any way as a country. I think the government and what they are trying to do is so amazing and I would love to see more countries learn from Dubai's example and follow suit.)

Let me tell you about a new friend of mine.
Her name is Kay (not her real name).
Kay is a Sri Lankan woman who is working here in Dubai as a maid.
I met Kay a few weeks back and thought she was the cutest thing. She is tiny, maybe 5feet tall. She has the cutest little voice and a face that is always smiling.
I knew Kay just by name and face for the first few weeks until a few weeks ago.
Andres and i were going to order some hamburgers from a nearby place and thought we would ask her if she wanted one. She told us no thank you because she was cooking.
Andres and I love Sri Lankan food so naturally we asked her if she would be wiling to cook for us in the future.
She got so excited and said that she would share the food that was just now making.
A few hours later she brings platters of food to us and sets places for Andres and I.
I then ask her if she would eat with us. It took a bit of convincing before she agreed to it.
We sat down at the table together and loaded our plates with the food. Rice, beans, eggs, chilis, tomatoes and who knows what else; all cooked to a spicy  perfection.
She then began to open up to us.
Kay first married when she was 16 and had children right away.
She then moved from Sri Lanka to work so that she could take care of her children, who are living with family back home.
When she was 20 she began working for a family in Lebanon. The family was very tough on her. She spoke no Arabic which made things very hard for the communication between her and the family. She was often times beaten and upon completing her promised 3 years with that family they refused her a ticket home.
She went on a food strike until she fainted from it, even then they would not let her leave. After a month of asking they allowed her to go home.
She got home and was told by a family member that 3 months earlier her husband had died in an accident. In those 3 months no one had thought to tell her.

She then went to Dubai to work. She spent some time with a very good family until they no longer needed her. She then came to work for the family she is now with.
She was given the job when the previous maid quit. 

She was promised 2,000 AED per month upon starting with this family. The family then started paying her 1,900 or 1,800 AED a month and not telling her why.
She is often time asked to work in the heat for hours on end. (some days are as hot as 120 F).
Because of how hard she works she has been very sick for much of the time she has been with this family.
The family found out a month or so ago that they were going to move. The family did not tell Kay they were moving.  Kay saw the family begin to pack the house and then asked the family if they were moving. They waited to tell her until the time of year when so many families are on holiday, thus making it near impossible for her to find a new job.

The most amazing thing about this is you hear these stories and you see these people and how they live and work and you wonder at how they are so sweet still.
When we offered to help Kay buy ingredients for the food she was sharing with us she refused. She told us that she was just so happy that we wanted her to cook for us and that was enough. A few nights later she invited Andres and I to go out to dinner with her and her boyfriend. We went to one of our favorite local places, where as usual I was the only white person in the building, and at the end of the meal they insisted on paying.

I am just so amazed and blessed by the people here.
So many of them are working so hard and sacrificing so much so they can make money to send home to their families/ children. I cannot imagine how hard it must be for a woman to be in another country while their child is living with a family member back home.

It is just such a good reminder to be grateful for the life you have and the blessing you have.
I know so many people who have really nice lives and they feel that their world is ending if they don't have the nicest or newest things or if someone is even the slightest bit rude to them at one point during their week.
It is always an encouragement to me as well that even though I may not have all of these fancy things and the most up to date things I have better thing; I have spent my time and money on building relationships and memories that will last forever and mean so much to me.