International Youth Day – Putting a smile on children’s faces

Last Friday we had the great opportunity to spend some time with children at Al Wasl Hospital to play with them, get to know them better and to make their day a little bit different.

Personally I was very touched to see all of you – Adriana, Ali B., Ali G., Chico, Fallon, Guillermo, Kanika, Matt, Peep, Pieter, Romina, & Sameer – at the hospital interacting with the kids. I am very glad having had the chance to get to know all of you from a very different side. And I bed most of you will be great parents. Ali B. & Guillermo, you impressed me most. Where did you learn all this? You are definitely a natural.

But the best father award goes to Ali G. You are definitely the best. I don’t know how many kids you scared away but you definitely made at least one of them cry. Keep up your good work. But please before you go ahead to get own ones take some lessons with Guillermo and Ali B. so that they don´t run away from you.


All in all it was a very beautiful start into the day and I really hope that we managed to fulfil our mission to make this day somehow special & more exciting for these kids.

Insight into local Culture

Last week we had a meeting with four local ladies – Aisha, Iman, Iman & Hana – to give Chico & Peep a better insight into local culture, traditions & thinking.

It was interesting to see how much my perspective has changed since I came to Dubai. Listening to Peep’s and Chico’s questions, seeing their reaction on their faces etc. clearly showed me my line of thoughts one year ago. I saw their question marks and I saw that the information was not easy to digest. Too many differences. It´s hard to put the puzzle together but I know that this is the beauty. Everyday you learn something new and the puzzle looks different day by day.

One of the questions which came up was “What are the hot issues within the local community?”. And the answer is…
... increased cost of living
... increased divorce rate
... change in lifestyle due to changed working timings/hours

There are still so many questions coming into my mind and I hope I will find answers.

I had fun during these two hours and hope that there are more opportunities like this crossing my way. Thank you girls!!!

The Place to Be!

P.O Box No. 502068, Association Centre,
Office No. 7, Building 8, Dubai Media City,
Dubai, UAE

This is the place where I spend most of my time within the last year. 110ft² where

• we had incredible fun,
• everyone felt home,
• we worked hart,
• we spent our nights to get our work done,
• we took tough decisions,
• “Heartbeat” was played 24/7.

This is the place from where AIESEC UAE started & took shape from. The office which supported us from a country with one member & one exchange in 2002 to 15 members & 36 exchanges in 2004-05!

AIESEC UAE will enter a new era which will be marked with incredible growth, impactful learning activities & a positive contribution to UAE’s society.
We are extremely proud to announce Knowledge Village as our Founder Partner who will host our office at Knowledge Village, Block 2A, Office G34 and G41.

The New Team is in da House

A couple of weeks back my new team mates arrived in Dubai. And of course I don’t want to miss the chance to introduce them to you…

Chico comes from Czech Republic and is known in the office as “wifee” and spreads lots of energy and smiles in the office. She seams to be a very positive person and I hope that she will “infect” our team with her attitude.

Peep is our Estonian warrior. He really enjoys the weather in Dubai and started appreciating for the first time in his life the cold weather in Estonia. He seams to be a “can do” person and I am really looking forward to lot´s of challenging experiences with him. If you want to have a special place in his heart you just need to call him Piep or Pepsi. :)

180° Turn Around

My life today is so different from yesterday…

Today
… I am living in a big & nice 3 bedroom apartment in Bur Dubai with a swimming pool on the roof and a gym on the first floor…
… We have a kitchen with all cooking facilities where cooking is fun!
… No public transport any more! I am getting picked up in the morning from one of this private bus services which picks you up from home and drops you to the office and vice versa at fixed timings.
… A 5 day working week – Sunday till Thursday
… A washing machine!!!

Yesterday
… I was dealing with buckets to be able to take a shower… in the summer I had to store water in them to have a “cold” shower… in the winter I used them for taking a hot shower.
… I was cooking on a single hot plate in my room so that my clothes always smelled like my last meal.
… No more waiting & sweating in the heat for busses to find out that they are already full.
… Friday was my holy day because it was the only off working day.
… I was either washing my clothes by hand or gave them to a laundry service. Half
of my clothes are ruined because of that and the other part is disappeared.

Life has changed. I have changed. And as much as I have loved the last 14 months with all ups and downs I am very grateful for all these changes.

I guess you are curious to know why my life completely changed? It is because of one very special person. I met her couple of time on international conferences but never really bothered to get to know her better. But I guess I was meant to meet her again and I am very thankful. Ana thank you so much! I don’t think that you will ever understand how much you influenced my life for the better.

I know now what it means to go to bed without having food, I know what it means to turn any coin trice before spending, I know how it feels to be poor and how difficult life can be. But I don´t regret any of these days. You might think that I am crazy but coming from the West where everything is available I never had the chance to experience this. Now I value & see lot of things differently. And I would like to thank all my friends who supported me during this time… Bert, Deepak, Philipp, Najib, Haila, Tifa, Wasseim, Yassir, Ravi, Aqeel, Basma & Sana, Arwa and of course my family.