Abu Dhabi Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque
This week I’m visiting the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I’m traveling with about 100 other women, mostly my sorors of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. The trip is a trip of a lifetime (although I plan to come back soon). How could I miss the opportunity to: 1) travel to the richest capital city in the world, 2) immerse myself in a culture that so often misrepresented and misunderstood and 3) celebrate 97 years of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. on Founders’ Day with my international sorors? The short answer is I could not. This trip was a year in the making. A year of sacrificing my favorite vanilla lattes with a triple shot of espresso, eating out, cute shoes and fabulous handbags. A year of reminding myself that I would be traveling to where no other woman in my family has ever gone and I was setting an example for my daughters to follow. I got an opportunity to try food that I didn’t know existed, like beef bacon and coffee made with saffron and rose water and eat food I wouldn’t regularly eat, like rocoto miso glazed black cod with avocado poblano puree and orange mojo. I embraced the culture and wore a jalabiya to dinner with my sorors and felt like a queen, if only for an evening. To receive compliments from Muslim and Arab women as I walked through the hotel was an amazing feeling. While I reside in the United States, I am a global citizen. This trip is just the beginning of my journey to expand my global experience. When was the last time you purposely set out to have new experiences to gain a broader perspective?
With love,
Registration is open for the 4th annual Work Your Package Women’s Conference on October 6 & 7, 2017.
www.wyp2017.eventbrite.com