Travel With Reason

Only after booking a five-week trip abroad for business (and a little vacation) did I realize I was going to miss my mother’s birthday, April 22. A milestone. Turning 70.

Yikes! What to do? How to arrange something special from halfway around the world? For some occasions, ordering FTD just doesn’t cut it.

I put on my thinking cap. I was going to be in exotic places. On one end was Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where I was to spend 24 hours on a layover en route to my other business. The place is dripping with money, and unusual characters. Wealth is everywhere. You may have seen the place on the Discovery Channel, or likely in the news. It would be my 5th trip there.

On the other end was Nairobi, Kenya. You might also have seen it in the news, with post-election violence that rocked the nation earlier this year, and even this week (as of this writing, Tuesday April 8, newer incidents were reported after the coalition government failed to reach agreement on cabinet positions). Despite all this, it’s a place of people and scenery that can be quite nice.

I knew I’d be encountering unusual and exotic people along the way. Dubai in particular is a polyglot of nationalities, en route from one foreign land to another. Why not enlist them to help wish my mother, back home in Indiana, a Happy Birthday?

It turned out to be an adventure, and an education. I met people from more than a dozen countries. Almost all were happy to cooperate, and in fact lit up when told of my request (requiring translation on several occasions). Turns out, a birthday milestone is a birthday milestone in any culture.

I met a Moroccan dwarf, a German nun, Masai tribeswomen from rural Africa, and seemingly well-off Arabs in traditional garb. (Click here to see my Flickr album of all the photos.) A family in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, with whom I was sharing homemade vodka (a little scary but fun), broke into a rousing rendition of the “Happy Birthday” song. (The photo above was taken of me, taking a photo of them, by my guide, Noor Khamis.) My few rejections included an Indian woman who ran away from me in the spice markets of Dubai, and security guards at the Dubai airport and in my client’s Nairobi office tower, who flat-out refused due to security or employer concerns.

Several of the conspirators asked to see a photo of my mom; I showed a copy of their anniversary photo that I had on my iPod (caused quite a stir doing this in the slums – the cost of my iPod probably could have paid to run water pipes through several streets). “No way can your mom be 70! She looks great.” I told them I agree!

The first guy I approached was a businessman from Kerala, India. I had just been in India for a few weeks last fall and we exchanged small talk about his home city (known for the best ayurvedic massages and other spa treatments). After I snapped his photo (which turned out to be too blurry from interior cabin light in the aircraft), he said – obviously thinking I cooked it all up as just a prank – “You know, I really do wish your mother a very happy birthday indeed.”

Me too! Happy birthday, mom!
(Click here to see my Flickr photo album of international well-wishers mentioned in this article.)

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