Road Kill

Robert and I nearly died today.  I'm still seething over the near miss.  It's common here but this time it was THAT close.  We see a lot on our morning commute on the roads here,  from camels, goats and sheep to silver rolls royces and red ferraris.  And sometimes we see our lives pass before us.  It was heavy traffic and we had just come off one of our 5 roundabouts... cars stretching before us and beside us.  This guy squeezes in between the lanes, cuts off my front bumper, and to make his point he slows down in front of me. I lay on my horn, clinch my teeth, and brake .sure that someone will slam into us.  The crazy guy weaves in and out and races on down the road.  Only to be one car in front of us at the next roundabout.

Recently my friend Alisa and I educated a new friend on the ins and outs of surviving the driving here.  You scream, you cringe, you get mad..then you find a friend and laugh.  After a couple of years you learn which flashing head lights you can ignore(toyota trucks and vans) and which you can't(white land cruisers and silver rolls').  Not sure where I'd put gray suburbans in that list but I almost used rude hand gestures (which can get you arrested around here...)

On the brighter side..we have fun drives to school, too.  Like when we saw a cute, black, floppy- eared goat  or a grinning camel.  The fancy ferraris and rolls royces are nice.    And my favorite..the travelling outhouses.  

You just never know.  Today, Robert and I are just happy to be alive after our morning drive...

Outside the police station in our neighborhood.  To deter bad driving? maybe. Successful? huh..  

  
   

Reconnecting!

Celebrating Jen's Birthday last weekend. She's in pink.  

About 4 or 5 years ago we met this lovely lady in Abu Dhabi. An American teaching in Abu Dhabi, not her first international living experience but her first in the Middle East. We got together weekly, to  share and encourage each other.  She moved to China to teach and we moved to Doha at the same time.  But lo and behold! She moved to Doha about two months ago! So just like no time has passed..we are meeting for coffee every week, or trying to!  It's always fun to spend time with Jen, but my favorite part is usually hearing about her day as a teacher. The stories she shares usually bring us to tears with laughter... which is one of the many ways we all cope over here. :)  

Last week she had some fun ones.  Like how her first graders were doing work with alphabet cards and she had removed the P card...because the illustration was..you guessed it a pig. Wanting to be careful not to offend any of her many diverse students she removed it.  Well, apparently her advanced group would not let it go, "Miss, Miss, we are missing a card. Where is the P??" "Oh maybe it was misplaced..."  "No Miss!  this was just opened! where could it be?? we need to find it!" "No, no, its ok. Just keep working. " "No, Miss! where could it be????" Finally, in a soft whisper she says to the group..It was a pig. And I put it away. OHHHHH . Big eyes everywhere. OK!  And the game continued. Poor, Jen. She was sweating that one.

And the grammar lesson she taught the other day on run on sentences....  And my mom took me to the indoor amusement park and we rode the rollercoaster and we ate lots of food and my mom yelled at me for fighting with my sister and being too loud..."but Miss! why ??? why would my mother be upset with me?? why if I'm too loud? " At the point she lost the whole class. Being loud here is a way of life. I had one friend say that he had yet to be in a restaurant over here where at least one or two kids weren't screaming and running around the tables. Yep. at that point, her lesson was over. She quickly changed her sentence but it was too late. 

She has a boat load of stories. I enjoy every one.  What a blessing for our lives to circle back around together.  Love the stories. Love the laughter!   

Gift Giving

Last weekend my friend Kathi and I hosted a small Gift sale here at the villa. We met this lady a couple of weeks ago at the Doha Mums Bazaar, where she had a table with beautiful hand made crafts and items displayed.  After striking up a conversation with her, we found out that she was discouraged as many of the Holiday bazaars this year have been cancelled in Doha and she will not have many opportunities to sell her things.  She and her husband are distributors for many families in Palestine who make these items and sell them in other places to... well....survive. She is a beautiful lady with a compassionate heart and limitless energy!  Kathi and I were happy to help with a home sale and we were excited to have at least 30 ladies pop in to shop!  It's always fun to have my neighbors come over.  For some of them it was their first time in my home.

Kathi and Jeni playing Vanna White 

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Sejal and Sandra. My new friend Suha is on the left in the back.

Checking out the Arabic calendars and handmade educational toys.

   

Sarah and Jen, done shopping ..time to chat!

On the subject of gifts, we received a very special one last week. Our terrific driver Sadiq had his cousin bring us something from Bangladesh. He brought us pickles and limes. We tried them. Our mouths caught on fire. Wednesday night I very carefully explained to Sadiq that we could not eat them. He laughed and laughed." Madam. To us they have no spicy. " Sadiq, "to us ...they were like fire". He loved it. I gave them back and said to enjoy them but we were very honored that he thought of us. He smiled and said ok. :) The limes, by the way, are tasty.

Those Rolling Hills

It's time for our favorite part of the year. While our friends are getting colder and temperatures are dropping in the US, we have moved onto the patio with mint tea and butter cookies. Plans for Thanksgiving are taking shape.Good friends, Jeff and Mary, are coming to visit from Oman.  Even though homesickness also gets us, like missing fall colors, missing Sallie and Ryan, our families, and great friends,we appreciate what we have here, too!   I will say that keeping a sense of humor makes it better here when things get hard.  And for that, we have Robert.

A few Fridays ago, while driving to church, which is not a very pretty drive, Robert had us laughing out loud.    Our route to church takes us right thru a construction materials sight.  Robert, under his breath,  "Ah the Rolling Hills of Doha...."  We miss green trees and green grass. We miss fall colors and Thanksgiving decorations...but we do like laughing. And we love our middle of the winter temperatures! :)