The landscape is different just as the overall ambience is, here in this strange new place. Tower cranes riddle the horizon like mushrooms in a bog, and the vaunted skyline is indeed so much higher and widespread than that in Qatar. Cars pass by me in droves and the multitude of people that practically stampede by is overwhelming ... Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Asians ... you name it ... even the Europeans and Americans number in the hundreds, if not thousands. This is my new place ... this is Dubai. I should be elated to be away from Qatar. I should be beaming with pride that I have cast my unnerving experience away with clandestine cunning and precision ... I should be relatively happy. In fairness, I am pleased with the way things have turned out ... the way events have turned in my favor making my "escape" almost smooth. I would be lying if I said I don’t smile as I remember my "Prison Break." Looking across the dimming sky, however, I cannot help but realize that this is just another balm to soothe me ... a bandage of sorts that provides first-aid to that which I have felt the day I left my family. All of a sudden, the Pakistanis and their lengthy khaki-colored robes look just the same ... the Indian shake of the head that means “yes” rather than “no” are akin to that which I have seen everyday for the past nine months ... and even the familiar yell of "Kabayan" of fellow Filipinos do not differ any more than how it sounded back in Qatar. I am no nearer to my home than I was when I left. I am still 2,430 miles away from my son ... his *sob* is still a painful memory that wakes me up in the middle of the night, and the only voice that brings me to him is through a telephone line that attempts to break the distance. Yes, I have left one country in favor of another ... and yes, work here seems more tolerable ... I am glad in that sense. To my son ... to my family in the Philippines, however, our Christmas will have to be spent with only a memory of each other. I will try to smile and imagine that I am there ... I will still laugh at the errant joke and greet those I meet here with the usual Yule salutations. Know, however, my dears that my thoughts are with you and that I miss you ever so sincerely … thinking of you every time. Love, Dad