A expat worker's Christmas in the Middle East

In a place where Islam is the main culture, religion, and law of the society, I seem to notice how one foreign worker from a certain nation on a contract of work in the Middle East spends his Christmas over here.

It got me thinking that I had a neighbor back home who's been working in the Middle East for far too long and sometimes he only takes a vacation (I mean went back home if you're working here) on several occasions in a year...but rare did I see him celebrate Christmas with his family and kids. The only thing that makes my neighbor celebrate Christmas was just a call away or send remittances back home. All they can do is just...call. They are far away from their homelands.

I would like to dedicate this post to such workers, plenty of them, who strive to work hard to raise his family back home, in spite of having little or no celebration of Christmas in an Islamic land, having to stay in a certain contentment of compensation and income in spite of unfair or unjust employee rights and abuse from 'upper ranks', having to survive the harshness of the climate in this region while they continue to help build such massive buildings for the modernization of this land, having to be a stranger in a strange and limited place they work in with all the knowledge and strength they have, and having to have a place for themselves to pray for the sake of their families back home in spite of their difficult personal health conditions in this environment.

I would happily greet a Merry Christmas to all of these workers, Christian or not, for their brave effort in helping to build a new Middle East and their continuous love for their families back home.