Scuba Classes

On May 9th I had my first scuba class. Jon and I joined a club here that is part of the British Sub Aquatic Club (BSAC). They do certification, hold weekly meetings and organize dive trips. Jon took a class in college, so he was already certified. He has been trying to convince me to become certified as long as I have known him—but it just didn’t seem worth it in Utah. Now that we live surrounded by water I have run out of excuses.

So far it has been fun—but a challenge for me. I am really not a water person. I am not a great swimmer and I hate getting water in my nose, eyes and mouth (salt water.) I figure that every few years you should do something that really stretches you and makes you step outside your comfort zone.

The classes were a challenge for me at first—but it got better every time. Scuba diving is good for managing stress and learning to handle anxiety because you have to focus completely on the present. You can block out work, to do lists, and everything else. The biggest adjustment for my body has been figuring out that I can breathe underwater. I have to remind myself to breathe in and that my lungs won’t fill with water.

The classes started in the pool and then moved to the ocean. The class I took is the first certification level—Ocean Diver. You learn safety, what to do in an emergency, how to rescue someone else, how to clear your mask underwater, how to set up and take care of all the equipment, and basic diving skills. After I complete all the requirements, I will only be able to dive to 20 meters—approximately 65 feet.

P.S. This picture is not of me. It is just one of the photos of a pool session from the BSAC website.

Stake Leadership Meeting—Bahrain

Today I went with the Young Women’s president and other ward leaders to our Stake Leadership Training in Bahrain. Bahrain is a small island country just to the north of Qatar. (Some of you may know it as where Michael Jackson has made his new home.) It is a little less than an hour flight from Doha. (There were 8 of us—we flew there in the morning and back to Doha in the evening.) The picture above is of the ward building in Bahrain. It is unique in this region because it can put "LDS" on the gate.

About 90 people attended the training session. Some statistics about the Arabian Peninsula Stake (as of 4 May 2006): 1157 members (plus 50 military groups in Iraq and surrounding area that our stake is ecclesiastically responsible for), 7 countries (United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Iraq), and 8 buildings.

I had been feeling like we were failing in our Young Women’s program just because it didn’t feel as organized or successful as the ward I grew up in. However, I realized at this meeting that we were actually doing really well. I had to remember that the YW program (and the whole church) was really new in the area and still was figuring out how to function in the Middle East. I also discovered that we have the largest youth group in the stake (10 young women and about 20 young men) and that we were the only ward holding mutual every week. I also learned a lot about how the program should be run. I have a whole new respect for the amazing Young Women leaders I had growing up. To those of you reading this—THANK YOU! I had no idea what a sacrifice you made for us.

This is a picture I took of a beautiful mosque in Bahrain.

Sand Storm

We have had several sandstorms in the past two months. This was how we found our house when we got back from church. Everything was covered in a thin layer of very fine sand. The picture is of my notebook after I picked up the pen that was resting on it. This amount of sand gathered in our house over a three hour period with all of our doors and windows CLOSED. After this Jon did a lot of work to add extra weather-stripping to the doors, but it only helps a little. When sand storms are going, you just want to climb in bed and cover your mouth with the sheet. You can feel the dust as you breath and your lungs end up feeling like sandpaper.

Young Women's Day Camp

Today we had our second Young Women’s day camp. Because we can not do an actual Girls Camp here, we hold two different Saturday activities. At this Day Camp we did certification and cooked Dutch oven peach cobbler. It was a poor substitute for actual camping, but we had fun. We have ten young women: 1 Canadian, 3 Filipinos, and 6 Americans.

My Muse: Steve

Our friend, Steve Muse (husband of Susan--my old roommate), sent us a list of questions about Qatar. I tried to find a good picture of Steve to go along with this post, but this was the best I could do. Apparently, everytime we are with Steve and Susan we only take pictures of their dogs. Here is a picture I have of their "family" visiting us right before we moved: Susan is in the chair, Jon is playing with their dogs, and those sexy legs on the side are Steve. :)

In response to the posting with the questions from my neices and nephews, Steve said:

Well I really like the Q&A session so I have a few of my own:

Do the people in Qatar think that O.J. is guilty or innocent?
I doubt they care. Although, ironically, an old Oprah was on last night that had the assistant district attorney that prosecuted OJ on as a guest. I will see if can get the ratings from the TV network to see how it did. :)

Are American sports a big deal there? Do they have ESPN? Or are they playing Cricket and Soccer all the time?
They have ESPN and Fox Sports and a couple other sports channels available by satellite, but we don’t get them because it is too expensive for it to be worth it. I don’t think American sports are very popular. Americans will get together here to play basketball—there are several courts. I think the Young Men in our ward have played basketball for mutual activity for the last 3 months at least. Occasionally you will see a couple of people in a field playing Cricket. Soccer is HUGE. Every neighborhood has a sport club, which (as far as I can tell) is just a soccer club. I haven’t counted how many stadiums there are in Qatar, but I would say there are at least 10 in Doha alone. They are huge. I have no idea what supports them or keeps them going. I am working on a good conspiracy theory on world domination through soccer.

Do you think we could make a fortune selling water sealant in Qatar?
Jon and I joke around all the time about starting a plumbing business and becoming millionaires. Put together a business plan and we can be partners.

What do the people of Qatar call themselves? Qatens? Qatarians?
Qataris. Qatari is used as an adjective and as a noun. For example: The Qatari food is really good—and—Our neighbor is Qatari.

Do they have different types of sand there? Or does it seem like the sand came for one giant rock?
When you look at the landscape, it does looks like it all came from one giant rock. However, Hallmark and local souvenir places sell cool frames that have 10 different kinds of Qatari sand layered together. (Like the sand art project you made in elementary school or summer camp.) It is amazing how different all the kinds of sands are.

The Movie theaters, do they show mostly U.S. movies, or is there a popular underground independent Qatarian movie making scene?
Both. Last night we went and saw “Hoodwinked” It cracked me up. It was a dumb/funny movie, but worth seeing for the Fletch references. I highly recommend it to any true Fletch fan. Sometimes we have current movies, most of the time though we are about 3-6 months behind the US. Arabic movies make up about a third of what is playing at the theaters. From the posters they look like soap operas. I am not sure where they come from…too underground for me. Other interesting movie fact: Movies are edited here, but not always like you think. I was surprise that they have played Munich, Passion of the Christ, Jarhead, Duce Bigelow, etc. They don’t edit them for political ideas or language at all, just kissing (and probably nudity.) Public displays of affection are not really seen as appropriate. It cracks us up to see how they edit out the kissing scenes, but it is nice not to have to worry about sex scenes either.

What is popular music there?
American, Arabic, French, Indian…they have it from all over. I am trying to find some good local garage bands…but no luck yet. There is not enough good music that comes from the US. It is mostly Brittany Spears and bad R&B/Rap.

Are the people of Qatar as concerned with our politics and what happens here, as we in the U.S. are concerned with their politics?
Even more so. Qataris have a much better understanding of the US than we do of the Middle East. Most Americans have never even heard of Qatar….but then again a lot of American’s couldn’t pick Utah off of a map either. They pride themselves on being really educated about world politics. The US actually has pretty filtered reporting about the Middle East. All we (as Americans) “know” about the Middle East is that it is hot, has terrorists, and is always at war. While some of this is true for certain regions, there are a lot of different “worlds” and cultures that make up the Middle East. I think that most Americans that visit Doha are pleasantly surprised because it is so much nicer than what they were expecting.

Do they have pets like bulldogs and stuff? Or do they mostly have lizards and stuff like that?
There are a lot of stray cats everywhere. They seem pretty clean, so at first I thought they were pets. Apparently they are left alone because they keep the rodent population in check. I have seen very few dogs and when I do, they belong to Americans/Europeans. I don’t think Arabs usually have dogs as pets—I need to find out why. I have seen fish and bird pet stores, but that is about it. I found a cockroach in our kitchen the other day…does that count?

Are the cell phones they use there cooler than the ones they have here?
Yes, but they are more expensive. Cell phone plans are a lot more flexible here because you don’t have to sign up for a two year contract. You can pay by usage or by monthly or yearly plans. The downside of that is that you don’t get a free or discounted phone when you sign up. You have to buy them at full price. You will understand if you have ever tried to buy a cell phone without a cell phone plan—the prices are about the same. Jon and I both have the really simple Nokia model (which is like the first cell phone I ever owned.) It was about $50.00. The next cheapest phone is about $150.00 and then they go up exponentially from there. EVERYONE has a cell phone, only they call them mobiles. Everyone looks at me crazy when I refer to my “cell” phone.

Thanks for all the questions Steve. You and Susan both are "true friends." We miss you!

My Prayer Rug

Ever since I got here, I have been thinking about a passage in Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It is where Pi is talking about how much he loves his prayer rug. It was one of my favorite parts of the book. I really like the idea of daily meditation, so I have been on the look out for a prayer rug to buy. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, since this was more for novelty than anything else. I found one last night at Carrefour (our "Wal-mart") for 12 Riyals ($3.28 USD), so I got it.

In honor of the occasion, here is the quote from Pi:

"I loved my prayer rug. Ordinary in quality though it was, it glowed with a beauty in my eyes. I am sorry I lost it. Wherever I laid it I felt special affection for the patch of ground beneath it and the immediate surrounding, which to me is a clear indication that it was a good prayer rug because it helped me remember that the earth is the creation of God and sacred the same all over...When I prayed, the short unknotted tassels were inches from the tip of my forehead at one end of the carpet and inches from the tip of my toes at the other, a cozy size to make you feel at home anywhere upon this vast earth."

--Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, ch. 27 page 76

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter everyone! It made me really homesick to see the pictures my family sent of blossoms on the trees in Utah and of the family all gathered together. I looked everywhere in Doha for signs of spring. This flowering tree was the closest I could find to "popcorn popping."

This Easter was a little different for us because it isn't celebrated openly here and because Friday is our "Sunday." So, for the first time on Easter, I went out to eat...twice. I met some Qatari friends for lunch at the Diplomatic Club. They had an Easter Brunch. It wasn't very "Eastery" or "Brunchy"....all the food was Lebanese. They did have hardboiled colored eggs as an appetizer, but that was about it. It was really good though and it was fun to see friends. Jon and I went to dinner with Kaylene and Steve Murray (friends from the ward). We had a good time.

We are very grateful this Easter for the many blessing in our life. The past 4 months have made us realize how much we have to rejoice about.

It's good to be a local

Beach at Al Khor

Park on the Beach at Al Khor

Museum at Al Khor (in the old police station)

Traditional fishing boat and fort tower at Al Khor

Greenest part of the the public gardens--THE PARKING LOT!

Camels on the side of the road.

The most exciting news for this week is that we rented a car! I don't know why we didn't do it sooner, except that we keep getting told that we will get our work cars "soon." It is so nice to have some freedom and not have to worry about accommodating everyone else's schedule. We celebrated by driving to Al Khor, an old fishing town north of Doha. We visited the beach, a small museum and the public park. We also saw a guy feeding his camels on the side of the highway. (Talk about a double take.) I am pretty sure we were the only westerners in the whole city. It was nice to do some touring outside the touristy area. I also got my haircut at a local shop. It was really nice to have it done finally and I like the cut.

On the drive to Al Khor, we made a list of the top 10 things we like about Doha and the top 10 things we don't:

10 THINGS WE LIKE: (in no particularly order)
1. You can withdraw money from any ATM (any Bank) with no fees or penalties. No more searching for your bank's ATMs. It is really convenient.
2. Traffic laws are mere suggestions. Traffic laws, roads, lanes, stop signs, speed limits, etc are really more just suggestions for good driving. Everyone tends to do what I call "Creative Driving." Forget driving straight down the road! The possibilities are endless. You won't even be pulled over for speeding. If you are caught speeding (by radar), they just mail the ticket to you. You can pay them online or at the airport (or else you can't leave the country.)
3. Everyone is really friendly. Especially in our area (where I think we are a bit of a novelty), everyone goes out of their way to help you and say hello. Even if they don't speak English very well, they will always do what they can.
4. I am considered beautiful here. I have had several people (women mostly) stop me on the street and tell me how beautiful I am. It is a nice ego boost. I really think it is because I have such fair skin. Instead of self-tanning cream, the stores carry cream to make your skin whiter. In the U.S. I am pastey--In Qatar I am pretty. I love this country.
5. Hummus. Just about everywhere you eat serves hummus with Arabic (pita) bread. Yum. Jon would never eat it when I bought it at home, but he loves it here.
6. Cheap Taxis. The taxi drivers are friendly (usually) and cheap. For more details, see past post.
7. No snow. This one is for Jon, NOT me. He has liked that it is so warm. Only problem is that it keeps getting hotter!
8. Souqs. Souqs are what the local markets are called. They have a lot of character and you can get some good deals. All the shops here are gathered together into categories. All the car shops together, book stores together, jewelry together, fish markets together, etc. If you want something, you just go to that area and pick from a number of stores. Bartering is expected.
9. Cute Coke Cans and KinderSuprise. This is a dumb one, but we love it. You can buy regular sized pop cans, but they also have smaller ones that are half the size. For people like me who can't handle a lot at once, they are great. I also love the KinderSuprise eggs. I first discovered these when I was living in Austria. They are chocolate eggs with little plastic eggs inside that hold toys. I love them because the toys come in parts and you have to put them together. Sure they are a choking hazard, but they are great fun.
10. It is a small city/country. No matter how lost you get, you can't ever get that lost. Everything is relatively close. You can get anywhere (in the city) you want in less than 45 minutes. A nice change from trying to get from one end of Sacramento to the other.

10 THINGS WE DON'T LIKE (in no particular order)
1. No plugs in the Bathrooms. There are NO electrical outlets in ANY bathrooms. Very annoying for trying to get ready in the morning. There are also no light switches in the bathroom. I can't tell you how many times I have been in a hurry and ended up there in the dark!
2. Never-ending construction. I have complained about this enough already. It is everywhere.
3. Shoddy plumbing. Ditto to the above.
4. Being stared at. Although there are some benefits to "standing out", I am very self-conscious about being stared at. Apparently no one was ever taught as a child not to stare.
5. TV and Cable. We don't watch much TV here, but we miss variety when we do. I don't want to hear anyone in the US complain about "50-100 channels and nothing to watch!" We get 3 English channels. As much as we love Dr. Phil and Oprah (sense subtle sarcasm), it gets a little old after a while.
6. No mountains or grass. I have started being able to find directions without mountains for reference, but I miss the green. There are some nicely planted areas, but I miss wildlife. Also, there is very little grass here. I try to take a picture anytime I see it.
7. Most parents don't make their kids sit in car seats. It drives me crazy to be driving down the street and see so many kids bouncing around in the back of cars. I can't believe that they don't take child safety in cars more seriously. We like the "creative driving" here, but it does cause a lot of accidents.
8. "In Shallah" This is a very nice phrase that means God Willing. It is nice in theory, but we always seem to hear it in relation to broken promises. I would vent more about this, but it just comes out blasphemous.
9. Trying to call any business on the phone. Part of it may be the language barrier, part of it is cultural norms, but very few people will do business with you over the phone. There is no such thing as calling a store to see if something is in stock or to ask a question. You could try, but inevitably, they will ask you to just come in.
10. Speed beeps. While no one really pays attention to the speed limit, your car does. If you go above 120 KM per hour (the highest speed limit), your car will beep at you. It is a warning sound like when you haven't buckled your seat belt or when you leave the door open. Can you guess who is annoyed by this most? Jon or me?

That's all for now. Crazy weekend. Early Bedtime.

Jon, The Teacher

Yeah! Today was a great day--Jon worked! He substituted at the American School of Doha for their speech and English classes. He loved it. He was so excited when they called that he did two Toyota jumps before he even hung up the phone. He is still waiting to hear on several jobs, but this should keep him busy in the mean time. It is an answer to our prayers.

Jon laughed at me because I made him stop and take a "first day of school" picture on the way out the door. I couldn't help it. He looked so cute in his shirt and tie.

Dancing in the River...

Last week I went with some friends here to a dance concert. The concert was part of a cultural festival held in Doha. It showcased dance groups from around the world—some of the groups were a local traditional drum group, Riverdance (Ireland), Tap Dogs (Australia, US, Canada), Night of the Sultans (Turkey), Yamato (drummers from Japan), Ballet Teatro Espanol (Flamenco dance from Spain), and the German Ballet Company (which in my opinion was neither German nor ballet.)

Although the hosts were painfully cheesy and their script was terrible, the dancing was pretty good. We enjoyed the show. Riverdance and Tap Dogs were my favorite. The stage was really cool. It was out on the golf course.

The show was supposed to be the night after our big thunderstorm, but the storm destroyed the stage. They postponed it a night and rebuilt what they could. In some of the pictures, you can see plastic covering the left third of the background. I am amazed they pulled it off in such short time. I have posted more pictures of the night to emilyparks.shutterfly.com

Water, taken in moderation...

We hope you all are doing well. Things are going well on this side of the world. I just can’t believe it is April already!! March went by SO fast.

I am going to start posting updates to the blog everyday or at least several times a week. These will just be short daily entries. You can check then whenever you like, I am not going to send these out by email. I will still send out an email every few weeks with general updates. I just feel like I put off writing things down because it takes so long and I feel like I have to include everything in these emails—even though I never do. There are some nights where I just want to post a thought.

I turned 27 on March 19th. For my birthday Jon, Marya and I went to a sushi restaurant at the Ramada Hotel. It was really good. They didn’t have a very large menu, but everything they had was great. They also had a hibachi grill where they cooked food in front of you, so Jon was happy too. (Jon doesn’t like sushi, so I only get it on special occasions or when he is in trouble.) When we got home, Jon surprised me with a really cool table. I saw it the other day at an Iranian carpet store and fell in love with it. It is a long sofa table. The top is made from an old door. I wanted it for our living room so that I would have somewhere to put out photos of family and friends. Jon bargained with the store owner and got it for a great deal. It isn’t the most practical gift, but hey, what else are birthdays are for?! I love it. It is beautiful. Marya gave me a really cool Indian blanket from the same store. It has appliqué of a large tree and a couple of other animals. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. Jon also surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. It was a great birthday over all. Thanks to everyone for sending me ecards and emails. It was really nice to hear from everyone on my birthday. It made me feel loved and not so homesick.

March is a great month for birthdays. Marya turned 50 about a week after me. We threw her a surprise party. We did a double surprise party because one of our friends in the ward was also turning 50 that week. Half the ward showed up. I seriously think we had 40-50 people at our place. It was a lot of fun. We had a big dinner buffet and played a true/false game about each birthday boy/girl. It was really funny. I have known Marya for about 8 years now, but even I learned some things! Marya said she is going to kill me (which I knew she would), but I think she had a good time.

You have heard me talk before about the construction in Qatar. I think I may have complained to some of you that EVERYTHING is tile and that I miss having carpet. Well…in the last two weeks we have figured out why they always use tile—and it isn’t just because of the sand. A couple of Friday’s ago we came home from church to find our two area rugs and a couple of other things out on the sidewalk. While we were at church, the pipe under the sink broke (actually, a plug just popped off because it was never sealed properly.) Water from the hot water pipes flooded from the sink at the back of the house through the kitchen, down the hall, into the TV room, into the dining room, through the entryway, and out the front door. The guards in our compound noticed the water flowing out the front door and ran and got our neighbor. They came in and shut the water off and pulled everything out into the sun to dry. Luckily our furniture sits up on wooden legs so nothing was ruined. The rugs smelled pretty bad, but a few days out in the sun cured that. We just smiled, laughed about it, and were grateful that it wasn’t worse.

Last night we had a HUGE rain storm—monsoon like. It rarely rains in Qatar—only a few times a year. When it does rain the city is totally unprepared for it because there are very few drains or gutters in the city. The water just runs down the streets. Last night the storm started with a fantastic lightning show. It must have gone on for at least an hour. It was a really nice night, so we went out onto the roof to watch. It was amazing. They just kept coming. The whole sky behind our compound lit up with one lightning bolt after another. I finally came back in to spend some time on the computer catching up on emails. After a few minutes I heard the rainstorm starting outside. I was so excited to hear rain that I ran to the front door with the camera. It was out of control. I have rarely seen so much rain come down at once. In a matter of minutes our street had turned into a river. I tried to take pictures, but couldn’t get enough light to really do it justice. I love storms. I love the sound, the smell, and the changes that a great storm brings. This definitely was a great one—especially since we have two kinds of weather here: hot and muggy and occasionally sand and windy. In the middle of my excitement, I heard a strange sound behind me. It was a drip, drip, drip—a common sound in a storm, but strange because it was coming from behind me—from INSIDE the house. The window at the top of the house (the one that goes out to the roof) was leaking. It leaked down the wall of the stairwell and was dripping to the first floor. The good news is that it was dripping directly into one of our potted plants. The bad news is it was a plant with big leaves—it was hitting the leaves and splashing onto the TV and speakers. I grabbed a bucket and stuck it under it. We had one or two other leaks, but they were in areas where it didn’t really matter. Two of my coworkers are out of town right now, so we ran (in the middle of the monsoon) to their houses to make sure everything was OK. In one house, the water was leaking from the door to the roof all the way down the stairs to the first floor. There was a huge puddle at the bottom of the stairs, but no water damage to anything. In the second house there was a bad leak in the kitchen and a really bad leak in the office. When I walked into the office, water was dripping from the AC unit directly onto their wireless router. There was a huge puddle of water on the floor, right around the desk and all the electrical equipment. We quickly turned off the plugs, unplugged everything and pulled it to dry ground. Today, everything is dried out and I think it survived. We just had a good laugh. I have a friend here that has a phrase for times like these: “T.I.Q.”—this is Qatar. It just cracks me up because our place is really nice, but nobody thought about water proofing the house. Who needs their windows and air conditioning units sealed? Not us! Mark Twain said, "Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody." I am not sure I agree.

Last email I asked people to send me questions they had about Qatar. The Hampton family (my oldest sister’s family) sent me the following questions. My answers are in blue:

Daniel (age 8): How is Uncle Jon? He is doing really well. He misses all of his nieces and nephews though. Is there any video games there? There are video games here, but we don’t have any. There are a lot of stores that sell video games and I think a lot of kids play them. How is the food? The food is really good. One of our favorite kinds of food here is called Hummus. It is made from garbanzo beans and you eat it with flat bread.

Laura (age 12): Question #1: What kind of clothes do they wear there? The women here wear robes called abayas. They are like black graduation gowns that you wear over your clothes. They also wear black scarves over their heads. Underneath the abaya, they wear clothes just like you and me. The men wear long white gowns that look like dress shirts, but are long and reach all the way to the floor. They wear white or red-checkered scarves over their heads. Question #2: What is their favorite thing to eat? They eat a lot of grilled meat, flat bread, hummus, and other dips for bread. Question #3: What is the land like there, are there any mountains, if so, what do they look like? The land is flat and sandy. It is a desert. There are no mountains. The highest point is 300 feet above sea level. Besides our family and friends, I think I miss mountains most. Question #4: What is the humidity and temperature usually like? Lately it has been around 80-85 degrees. It will get very hot in the summer and very humid. It isn’t too humid yet. It just feels muggy like just before a rainstorm, only it usually doesn’t rain. Question #5: Is it difficult getting used to the major time change and having Church on a Friday, instead of a Sunday? We adjusted to the time change really quickly. It is strange going to church on Friday, mostly because Saturday isn’t until the day after church. Question #6: Are you getting tired of all these questions? 'Cause I'm just doing what you asked, asking questions. Never. I love questions. Question #7: Could you send us some pictures of some of your favorite things, and some other pictures of what your house likes? I have posted a lot of pictures on the web on shutterfly.com. Everyone should be able to look at them at: emilyparks.shutterfly.com (There are 9 albums posted right now, you just have to scroll down to view them. It also helps to view the pictures in slideshow mode.)

Matthew (age 4): Are you having fun in Qatar? We are having a lot of fun. We just wish you could be here to have fun with us. Do you see any kids there? We see a lot of kids here. They are really cute and funny. They have families and play with friends and go to school just like kids you know.

We love and miss you all! Send us emails and pictures. We love getting them! Love, Em and Jon

Finally blooming...

I took this picture of a rose in the planter box outside our house today. For those of you who know how much I love taking pictures of flowers, you will appreciate the fact that this is the first flower picture I have taken in Doha. Pretty amazing since we have already been here 2 months. If this were springtime in Utah I would have 2-3 rolls of film taken by now. Anyway...this one was worth the wait.

Things are new...and yet the same

We are doing really well. Things are sorting themselves out one step at a time. In case you haven’t heard me say it lately, things move in baby steps here. We are learning to relax and be patient and just be grateful when progress is made. It isn’t all bad…a slower pace is probably good for my stress level and it makes you more grateful for everything that does happen.

Quick update on what has happened since I last wrote: The offices are making progress, but are still a ways out so I am mostly working from the office at home. Work at the Institute is continuing to keep me busy. The Kenyan conference is over and now we are working on the conference in Sweden at the end of March. Jon has been busy looking for a job and working with our ward. He went to Bahrain for a day to go to Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting and really liked it. This meeting was the only one where more than one ward met together. Our Stake covers the whole Gulf region, so all the wards don’t gather for Stake Conference. Instead, some members of the Stake Presidency travel to each Ward with a member of the Area Presidency. Stake Conference is also usually held in the evening during the week. We had the youth meeting, then the adult meeting, a break for a pot-luck dinner (picture right) and then the main meeting. It was different, but a good experience.

It is hard to know what to write in our updates. I never know what will be interesting to read because each day just seems normal to me. Everyone please email with questions you have about Qatar and our lives here. I will do my best to answer them.

Today I am going to write about a couple of my first impressions of Qatar.

I think everyone’s first impression of Doha can be described in two words: pleasantly surprised. As Americans we have ideas and images in our head of what the Middle East looks like. Most of us haven’t had that much exposure to what the people here are really like. The media only highlights what they consider “newsworthy” and this only includes the extreme, the unusual and the controversial. We don’t see what normal people do everyday: go to work, go to school, grocery shop, go to the mall, go to movies, and spend time with family and friends. Even the images we do see are of Iraq and not much else. Qatar is a fairly new country (by historical standards), but it is part of a very old and very rich culture. The people here are educated and interesting and have a good sense of the world and modern issues.

One of the first things that you realize about Doha is that the ENTIRE city is under construction. It is growing so fast that the construction cannot keep up with itself. Construction here LITERALLY runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I doubt that there is a place in the entire city where you cannot hear or see construction. There are currently 40+ high-rise buildings under construction downtown. A lot of this is because of the Asian Olympic Games that will be hosted here this December. (The Asian Games are regional Olympics. It is a big deal and everyone is really excited.) The skyline is changing everyday. The main section of downtown that is now the Doha skyline didn’t even exist 4 years ago. It is amazing. I honestly don’t know how the city is sustaining it. (Picture to left is the construction on the road to our house.)

The second thing I felt was how similar…and yet at the same time…how different things are here. It is almost like a twilight zone episode…everything in the town looks the same…only something is a bit off. For the most part everything looks generally as it would at home: there are streets and traffic, restaurants and fast food, malls and movie theaters, schools and parks. It almost surprises you that people dress differently than you are use to or that the news is in a different language. For example, the traffic signs are the same, but the stick figures are dressed differently and the deer crossing signs are camel crossing instead. (Here are some random road signs I took pictures of near our house.)

It also surprises most people how friendly and warm everyone is here. The Qatari people (and Arabs in general) are known for being wonderful hosts. They will go out of their way to make you feel welcome and make sure you have everything you need. It isn’t just the Qatari people. Qataris make up 20-30% of the population. Foreigners (they are called expatriates here) make up 90% of the workforce. Doha is a very international city. I think that the fact that everyone here is in the same boat (away from home, away from their families) makes us more willing to reach out and help people we don’t know. I think I felt this the first time I stepped off the plane here. I instantly felt at home.

One example: when we first got here, we didn’t have a car (not that we really have a car now…we are sharing a pool car with the rest of the staff.). The bus system is really new here and only runs in certain areas, so we took taxis everywhere we went. There are three types of taxis in Doha: orange taxis (older cars that are the cheapest taxis with drivers that usually only speak Arabic and drive crazy), turquoise taxis (newer cars that are a little more expensive and often have drivers that speak English, but are new to Doha and have no idea where anything is), and Limos (unmarked sedans that are the most expensive but have drivers that always speak English and are very dependable.) Unless we were at a mall or on a busy street that made it easy to catch a taxi, we usually used Limos. Limos are great because you can call them on a phone and no matter where you are, you can be picked up in 15 minutes or less. It is also nice because they are dependable, you don’t have to worry about communication issues, and they are still relatively inexpensive. You can go almost anywhere in Doha for 35 Riyals or less (approximately 10 US dollars.) We used one driver almost exclusively. His name was Renny. Originally from India, Renny has worked in the Middle East for over 20 years. Renny is friendly, helpful and funny. About the third time we drove with Renny, I took the car alone to a meeting. The first thing he asked me was where Jon was. I was amazed that he had remembered Jon’s name. Renny gave us a lot of our first introductions to Doha. As we drove around he helped orient us with the city, its history and landmarks. It was comforting to knowing that no matter where we were we could call Renny and he would take us home—that he knew where our home was even if we didn’t! One night, after we had been driving with Renny for a couple of weeks, I started listening to Renny on his cell phone. It was a particularly busy night and Renny received a lot of calls one right after another. (Renny manages 3 drivers. His cell phone is the central number people call and then he calls and coordinates his closest driver.) Most of his calls were from Americans or Europeans. The speaker on his phone was up loud enough that I could hear some of the conversation on the other end of the line. Each caller said hello and identified themselves by name. They always said something like, “at 8:00 I would like you to pick me up and take me home…or to work…or to the gym.” Renny would reply with, “Yes Madam/Sir, so pick-up from Qatar Foundation to Al-Jazi compound”…or something else that specifically identified that he knew the caller and the location of their home, office, and other regular places. I started paying attention to how many of these calls came in. It was amazing. I have no idea how he kept track of everyone and kept their schedules straight. I never saw him write notes or consult a book. He acted as if he was the personal driver for each person. This is when it occurred to me…Renny (and other drivers like him) are a security blanket for new Westerners to the area. No matter how much information they had to prepare them before they came, everyone is a little nervous on their first trip to “The Middle East.” Renny provided some familiarity and stability to someone feeling totally lost. We were lucky that we had church members here to act as our extended family, but most people don’t have that. Having Renny helps you feel secure when you feel totally cut off and lost from the world you know. We often called Renny and said, “We need to buy (fill in the blank)…can you take us somewhere we can get it?” Renny took care of us no matter what we needed. After a couple of weeks always calling for a driver became frustrating and the costs really started to add up, so we were grateful to get a pool car from Qatar Foundation so that we could drive ourselves around. I enjoy driving because it makes me feel like a part of the community—like I am no longer a tourist. There is great satisfaction in getting from point A to point B with out getting lost and having to pull out the map. But part of me misses Renny and wonders how he is doing. I am sure that he is smiling, making the same jokes, telling the same stories and making the next set of “newbies” feel right at home.

We are still alive!

There is a lot to write about this week. Sorry I didn’t write last week, it has been kind of crazy. This will be a long one, but it has been over two weeks since I have emailed anything. We have been really busy and internet access has been hard. However, they were running wires for our house today, so hopefully we will have internet tomorrow (which means we will be lucky to have it by the end of the week.)

The big news since I last wrote is that we have moved into our houses. We have been here a week now and are still working on moving in and making it feel like home. We are getting more comfortable every day, but I really had mixed feelings about our place at first. On the one hand, our places are really nice and in a lot of ways too much for just the two of us. There are two living/sitting areas, a kitchen, a dining room, four bedrooms, an office, and a roof patio. WAY too much for just the two of us. On the other hand, it isn’t really our style and since there is tile EVERYWHERE it is hard to make it feel like home. Also, the plumbing in this place looks like I did it. So far we have had a big leak in the kitchen sink (twice), a broken dishwasher, a leaky shower, a leaky bathroom sink, a washing machine that wasn’t hooked up right and no hot water. Beyond the plumbing problems there have been a handful of other things that have made living here difficult. Jon is quickly becoming known as the MacGyver of the compound. The maintainence crew also came out and fixed everything….but then Jon has gone around and “re-fixed” everything after they left. Everyone is really grateful he is here.

Yesterday a member of the ward took us out to a wholesale nursery on the border of town. It was a lot of fun and great to see so much green all in one place. We could have bought the whole place—but settled on a tree for the house, a plant for the house, an aloe vera plant, a bogenvia (sp?) and a pot for each. It was really inexpensive—the plants were really healthy, they potted everything for us (we didn’t have to buy any soil or fertilizer) and they delivered for free (which was a HUGE plus.) Everything only cost us 420 Riyals which is about $115.00. We could have done it even cheaper, but the tree we got is imported and we got two ceramic pots. I thought it was a pretty good deal, especially since nothing green grows here naturally.

After the nursery we came back to the house and cleaned up a bit and did some more unpacking and rearranging. For dinner we went out with several families in the ward to a place called Turkey Central. The food was really good and it was really cheap. Jon loved the food and it was fun to see people out of church. It was so funny. Around 1:00 PM people in the ward just started sending text messages around saying, “Turkey Central. 6:00 PM Pass it on.” I was amazed that 40 plus people showed up. In our old ward that would be a pretty good turnout for a planned ward activity that they announced for 5 weeks! The ward here is really friendly and does a lot together. It is really nice. There are a lot of really amazing people here from all over. Even though everyone is so different, everyone reaches out to each other to make you feel welcome and comfortable. It really is a great example of what a ward should be. We feel like we have a ton of friends already.

Jon and I spoke in church a week ago. They asked us to speak on the Second Coming and the Millennium. We were a bit overwhelmed—it would have been nice to have something easy like “keeping the Sabbath day holy.” Jon thinks that it was our hazing into the new ward. It went well though and I think it was good for us. Not having access to the internet and not having a million resources available to us made us rely on the scriptures more. We are glad to have it over though.

Jon’s favorite new discovery this week is the cafeteria at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The University has a design school next to the Qatar Foundation main offices. The food is REALLY good, there is a lot of it and we both can eat for around 20 Riyals (about $5.50.) Jon is in heaven! When we can, we eat there for lunch and that is our main meal for the day. After that we don’t really need much for dinner. They usually have two kinds of meat (chicken and beef something), rice, potatoes, salad, hummus, fruit, and a few other things.

Jon, Marya and I have also started taking Arabic classes at VCU. They are one night a week and will cover just the basics. So far we are getting pretty good at the greetings, directions for taxis and all the general polite phrases. It is really nice to be doing it together. We practice on each other and on taxi drivers whenever we can.

Jon is networking with everyone here to try to find a job. Now that we are moved into our place and we have an extension on our visas it will be easier. Everyone has been really helpful and we are crossing our fingers that something will come through soon. Finding a job here will be NO problem, but he really wants to hold out for something related to medicine.

(The picture to the right is a view from our roof)

I keep putting off sending this email until I can finish writing about a few things, but I am afraid it will never happen. I will send this now and send more pictures and updates later.

We love you all! Em and Jon

One Week Down...

Saturday, January 28

We have been here for a little over a week, but it seems like it has been longer than that. Last Sunday we moved to temporary housing until our houses are ready. We are in a two bedroom apartment. Our houses are basically ready; we are just waiting for the last couple of things to be completed and the paperwork to go through. We have been out to visit the housing twice. (See picture to the right.) The houses come furnished—but in Qatar that doesn’t just mean couches and a fridge. A furnished house comes with dishes, kitchen supplies, bedding, soap, etc. We may still have to buy a few things—just depending on our preferences. For example, I will probably get a new comforter for our bed.

The apartments we are in are great, we are just anxious to get settled. The only bad thing about our apartment is that they are building a new apartment complex next door. I think that construction workers work harder than anyone else here. They start just before 6:00 AM (just after the morning call to prayer) and they go until dark. They have two big tractors with jack-hammers at the end that are constantly breaking up the ground/rocks. It is driving us INSANE. Jon has started sleeping with earplugs. The apartments are nice, but it is obvious that men were the ones to choose the decorations and stock it with supplies. For example, the furniture in our room is sort of designed in “affordable elegance” style, but our bedding looks like it was made for a 10 year old girl.



We don’t have offices yet either. We went into the main Qatar Foundation offices a few times last week for meetings, but other than that we are working from our apartments. The Qatar Foundation offices are beautiful. I really like the style of the architecture.

We are learning to be patient and move at a slower pace here. Everything just takes a little longer. As far as I can tell the only things that move quickly are the cars and construction.

We went to church again yesterday. The ward here is really nice. It is growing so fast. There were two new families this week. They are looking for a new building for us to meet in. Right now there aren’t any open seats in Sacrament meeting.

Sorry this is a boring entry, but not much happened this week. Hopefully we will have some exciting news by next week.

We made it! We are here!

Thanks to everyone who prayed that we would make it to Doha safe and on time. The flight was long (almost 24 hours!), but every flight was basically on time and we were tired enough by the time we got on the plane that we were able to sleep.

Our take-off from Salt Lake City was beautiful. The Salt Lake may be smelly and murky, but it is really beautiful from the air. I have to admit we were a little nervous as we watched the Wasatch Mountains disappear, but we were also excited for our new adventure.

For the entire flight I had one song stuck in my head, “How Gentle God’s Commands.” The ironic thing is that it isn’t a hymn I have heard often, but for some reason the words just kept coming back to me. I think it was to give me peace about the trip and our decision to move to Doha. The words are:

How gentle God’s commands. How kind his precepts are.
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord, and trust his constant care.
Beneath his watchful eye, His Saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up, shall guard his children well.
Why should this anxious load, Press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heavenly Father’s thrown and sweet refreshment find.
His goodness stands approved, unchanged from day to day.
I’ll drop my burden at his feet and bear a song away.

It was almost 8 PM Wednesday night when we arrived in Doha. The airport in Doha is small. All planes unload down stairs and then you take a bus to the terminal. (The airport is building a new terminal, but I do not know when it is supposed to be done.) We expected to be met at the airport by employees of Qatar Foundation, but by the time we went through passport control and got our bags we still hadn’t seen anyone. Luckily, as we walked through security, we were greeted by members from the LDS ward here. It was a relief to see their smiling faces. They had brought two cars and were able to load almost all of our things in one trip. Jon and I took a taxi with the rest of the bags to the hotel. (We found out later that there had been someone there to meet us, but we had missed each other since the airport was so crowded that night.)

We are staying for the first few days at the Sheraton Hotel. Our houses are not quite ready and we arrived right before the weekend. The picture at the top is of us on the balcony of our room. (You can see part of the Doha skyline in the back.) The one below is a view of the hotel from the gardens. It has been nice to be in a hotel for a few days to relax, adjust to the time zone and get some sleep. The hotel is very nice. We are feeling very pampered. Jon keeps telling me not to get use to it.

The hotel is very close to Doha’s biggest mall, The City Center. It is HUGE—much bigger than any mall we have in Utah. It has at least 5 levels and takes up several city blocks. It houses a large movie theater, a bowling alley, an ice-rink, a grocery store, a sports/gaming area and many many stores. I had forgotten how modern it is. I lied to everyone when I said that there was not a McDonalds here….there are several. In fact, the mall food court also has a Hardee’s, Appleby’s, KFC, Burger King, Duncan Donuts and TCBY.

The LDS church meets on Fridays here since that is the religious day for Muslims. Sunday – Thursday is a regular business week, Friday is the Sabbath, and Saturday is the day off. Yesterday we went to church at the ward here. I would estimate that there were 125-150 people at church. The ward is made up mostly of Americans and Philippinos. There are also some families from other places in South-east Asia and Europe. Jon was surprised by how many people were there. Everyone was very friendly and made us feel right at home. The ward meets in a private villa that is rented for the purpose of religious worship.

After church Jon and I decided to take a “little nap” and ended up sleeping the whole rest of the day and through the night. I blame it partly on jet lag and partly on exhaustion. Today (Saturday) we spent the day alone (no Marya, Richard, or Rex) and just relaxed. We took a nice walk down by the beach, had lunch by the pool, and saw a movie at the mall. We really can’t complain, but reality will hit soon enough. We are actually getting really anxious to get into our house. We are hoping for tomorrow, but realistically expecting Monday or Tuesday. Being on vacation is nice, but the adjustment will be easier once we get settled. So far the things that I think will be the biggest adjustments for Jon will be the driving (very few traffic lights here, but there are a million three-lane round-a-bouts and everyone drives very aggressively) and the food. Even though there are a lot of chain stores, we won’t be eating there much. Jon said at lunch today that he misses Palace Cafe (his favorite Provo place to eat.) He is struggling because when he ordered a Dr. Pepper they brought him salt and pepper and no one has managed to figure out what he means by “a side of Ranch.” We will have to go searching in the grocery store to see if either even exist here. I am enjoying the “down time” and ocean views too much to decide what my adjustments will be yet. I can’t sleep tonight, so I got up to write this and turned on the TV. Although Qatar only has one station produced here, they get a lot of satellite channels. On the American Highlights channel I have watched Gilmore Girls and Law and Order. They are really old ones, but I am happy and feeling right at home.

We are both doing really well. We take turns being really excited and really nervous. I told Jon today that I was sad that we hadn’t both been excited at the same time yet, but he reminded me that it was good that we both haven’t been nervous at the same time either. I guess it is good we have each other after all. ;) I am starting to get tired, but will write more soon. We love and miss you all.

New Departure Date

Our departure was delayed...again. We are still in Bountiful at my parent's house. We are leaving for Doha on Tuesday, January 17 via Chicago and Frankfurt. It may take a little time for us to get internet "up and running," but I will post again as soon as I can to let you all know we arrived safely---and most likely to tell a few interesting travel stories. Everyone pray that all of our flights run on schedule.