Author: Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Retired writer and teacher, now living outside Lisbon, Portugal. I was born in Chicago and have lived overseas for about 25 years in: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Egypt, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, France, and most recently, Turkey. I earned my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and a teacher's license from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. I am presently writing THE EXPATS: DAYS & NIGHTS IN ARABIA, condensing my overseas experiences into one book.
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20 – Cultural Identity: The Expat Experience Explained

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Everyone in the Gulf is introduced by their name, which is immediately followed by their nationality.  Rather than remain simply American, I decided to use my heritage to bridge the communication gap with other ex-patriates.  A friend explained that Caledonia wasn’t an island some mercenaries were fighting over, but the old name for Scotland, so I attended a Caledonian party. I badgered everyone to educate me about my heritage.  I learned about “haggis”:  a big rat which limps on Scottish mountains and is cooked  in a sheep’s stomach.  I thought people had ceased eating rats after the Black Death.  I … Continue reading 20 – Cultural Identity: The Expat Experience Explained

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19 – Cultural Souvenirs from Arabia

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

Leaving a country is traumatic. What’s worse is being back home and thinking, “I should have bought that when I was there!”  What stops me? I have this silly feeling that anything that costs more than 100 of any denomination is too expensive.  Before I left Saudi Arabia, I went on a jewelry binge. This is not healthy shopping. It’s less painful to take a few weeks and buy a souvenir (French for “to remember”) here and there, carefully and selectively.       I love rugs, however, I’m not a doctor or an oil executive.  I’ll invest in fake Chinese rugs … Continue reading 19 – Cultural Souvenirs from Arabia

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18 – Lessons from Lifelong Friendships

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

  My oldest friend, Bill Hunt,  was 75 when I met him, and he died when he was 82.  He was a famous psychologist, listed in Who’s Who and honored by the American Psychological Association for his overall contribution to the field of psychology.  He was so well-known that his divorce was reported in The New York Times. In college, I thought anyone who punctuated a story with, “More than ten years ago….”  was old. Non-family old or older people were exotic.  They knew more about life because they  had lived more. They had made mistakes I incessantly and cruelly … Continue reading 18 – Lessons from Lifelong Friendships

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17 – Where’s my mail?

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

  Maybe my friends lost my address?  But I always write my address on every letter.  I learned that years ago when a friend’s excuse was she didn’t know my address. So where’s my mail? Maybe my letters didn’t reach them?  But I received my VISA bill! And my bank statement, so where’s my mail?  It must be lost, somewhere between here and there. Maybe they forgot to put enough overseas air-mail postage on the letter and it was returned? Maybe they used the country’s initials and the mail was rerouted to Ireland, Canada or Egypt as one of my … Continue reading 17 – Where’s my mail?

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16 – The Journey of a Modern Nomad: Embracing Change and Adventure

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

  “You’ve got itchy feet,” a friend said to me.             “No,” I said, “I feel it in my stomach.” From two to 18, I lived  “in the sticks” as my Chicago cousins called Des Plaines. I saw the sidewalks laid by the neighbourhood fathers, the dirt roads tarred, schools built, cornfields turned into suburbia, the natural lake landscaped and countrified, a K-Mart discount shopping mall built nearby and I had climbed all the climbable trees on my block.  One house. One street. One town. Sixteen years. I wanted out. Since then I’ve moved nearly every two years.   “I’m … Continue reading 16 – The Journey of a Modern Nomad: Embracing Change and Adventure

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Hunting from Animals to Clothing and Food – 15

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

A student who had written about hawking in Pakistan presented me with a few close-ups of hawks as their claws stilled their living prey. The hawks’ I’ve-killed-and-won eyes were self-satisfied, arrogant, proud and powerful. All I saw was the joy of killing. I mentioned it to my student who smiled happily, “Of course. He can eat now.” I don’t look like that when I leave Safeway.  Nor when I receive my monthly salary.   In the States, one of my Cambodian students told me how he had daily hunted for food. I imagined my muscles tuned to the jungle heat, eyes … Continue reading Hunting from Animals to Clothing and Food – 15

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Guns and Generosity: Eid Celebrations in UAE

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

I had helped a student who was partially blind last year and he invited me to join his family on the Eid holiday. I couldn’t so he telephoned and told me about the day.   “We go to the mosque and everyone brings their most valuable possession….” he said. “What do they bring?” I asked He tried to avoid answering. I repeated the question.  I could almost see him lower his face, “Their guns.  Some have old ones, some have machine guns.” “Machine guns?” I shouted.  “Men carry machine guns to the mosque!” I have to remind myself that tribal disputes … Continue reading Guns and Generosity: Eid Celebrations in UAE

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First Times – Part 2

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

The first time in a Las Vegas casino, I was shocked at the shorts, t-shirts, jeans and cheap dresses of the gamblers. It didn’t look like “Dallas – worldwide popular American TV show about wealthy Texans.”   I was also surprised by the free food and drinks, discounted hotel bills. Rather than gamble, I played Pac Man for the first time. The first time I was in a Monte Carlo gambling casino, I was astonished at the artistry and plushness of every square inch of the place.  I was also shocked at the whole idea of gambling, and gambling such lush … Continue reading First Times – Part 2

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Engaging Students with ‘First Time’ Writing Prompts

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

      It’s difficult as a teacher to get students to write interesting compositions.  Over the years, I’ve invented bizarre topics to force my students to think.  However, transplanting American topics to the Gulf just doesn’t work culturally.  Gulf students are more private than Americans and don’t indulge in discussing the same topics which per-occupy Westerners:  for example, families. I blush.  High school and college nights were an endless dissection of my parents’ bizarre behavior and my six sisters’ endless cruelty and misunderstandings.  Even to this day, confidences both direct and dreadful escape my lips about my family.  Religion … Continue reading Engaging Students with ‘First Time’ Writing Prompts

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Women Drivers – 11

Alice Delaney Walker, aka Dana Walker

   Only women should be allowed to drive.  Men’s biological urge for speed, their quest to overcome all obstacles on the road and their passionate self-absorption once in front of the wheel has littered the road with blood, heartache and years of pain which only a faith in God can heal. “Write about something wonderful or terrible,” I suggested to my students. I received paper after paper describing bloody car accidents.  Never had I known so many young people to have witnessed such carnage. The first time I seriously sat in the driver’s seat, the instructor described all the things … Continue reading Women Drivers – 11