Spring has Sprung – Just in Time!

Spring has now sprung over here in Dubai. Patches of poor irrigation have started showing themselves through wilting trees and flowers. Everybody and anybody who steps outside glistens with sweat. An the balcony is officially too hot to stand on during the day again – confirmed by my poor burnt feet from a foolish attempt to water the plants barefoot this morning.

Aside from the heat, one big sign of spring is that the Palm trees have started shooting up bright green stems with little green bubbles all over them which I have been reliably informed are the beginnings of dates.

     

These little sprigs have gone a surprisingly long way to preparing me for the idea of leaving so soon. When I moved here in August, these same trees were at the stage where they had carried these little fruits their full cycle and were dropping them left right and centre. Since then I’ve seen them pruned for the winter, watched stacks of them being uprooted and heaped into the back of those little white pick-up trucks which Dubai seems to have an inexhaustible supply of. Seen them being planted in some truly random locations – in case you’re looking for an idea for sprucing up an empty stretch of road, apparently somebody seemed to think planting a lone palm tree three quarters along it would make all the difference.

Now as I watch them start up their date producing season again, I feel like I’ve come full circle on my journey with these trees, and by some weird extension that makes sense in my mind, I’ve come full circle in my time here in Dubai. I can look at them working hard at pumping out those little stems and say that it’s going to be alright, I know what’s ahead of them and I know it will turn out well. In the same way I feel like I’ve experienced every season of Dubai – cheating a little by skipping the worst of the summer – I’ve gotten to know so many different people that I would never have met elsewhere. And at every turn I’ve learnt something new, not only about this place and it’s melting pot of cultures but also about myself, and that, though this time here has been brief, it’s been by no means fruitless.