New People, Places and Foods

Our time in Doha is continuing to be an adventure! Jack is still not sleeping quite right - long naps in the afternoon and waking up around 3am each morning! It makes for an interesting day for all of us, especially on the mornings Josh has to go to work. But other than that...he is remarkably accustomed to the food, climate and people already! He likes our little routines of going for walks at the park, grocery shopping, taking naps and playing on the play ground outside.

I am also enjoying my time here. It is very different from any other time I've spent overseas. For one, the native Qataris here are some of the most unfriendly people I've met. The men in particular have no regard for women or those of other cultures. I've been cut off in the grocery line a few times - treated as if I wasn't even standing there. The Qataris are oil-rich, so all of their manual labor is done by other country nationals. They don't want to do the work themselves, but they treat the immigrants like they are less than human beings. They show some of this same disregard for Americans - women in particular. Now, some of the friendliest people I've met are the third country nationals. They almost always stop to smile at Jack - even kiss him on the head! He's been kissed a few times already. :-) Another thing that makes this trip so different is that I'm seeing it through the eyes of a mother now. I worry about Jack, but I also see how the Lord can use my fair-haired little boy to attract others and break down language barriers.

On Monday we were back at apartment #2 when Josh went to work. In the evenings, the kids come out to play while dinner is being prepared (usually by a household cook). The compound has 24 villas and almost all of them are owned by Arab families. I brought Jack out for a walk in his stroller and all of the little kids flocked to him. In this picture, Fatima and her two little sisters are hugging on Jack. Fatima only speaks a few words in English but said something that made me laugh: "You baby no (gestures with hand on the head), my baby (her little sister) yes (gestures to hair)." Basically, they all notice that Jack doesn't have much hair!

Fatima and her sisters have a nanny, shown in the picture below. She does not speak English either, but after many smiles and gestures we figured out that she is from Indonesia and her name is Rita. She had a sorrowful countenance most of the time, but everytime she looked at Jack (whom she calls "Jacky") she would light up! She came close and lovingly stroked his head and cheek. I asked if she had family back in Indonesia and she said "Yes and one baby." I thought how sad it must be to give up her own child to take care of a Qatari family's children. I don't know what her story is, but I can see she has a sad heart. Most of the foreigners are here by choice because of the money offered and their ability to support family back home. But there is human trafficking here also, where people are held against their will with no alternatives. Please pray for Rita. I'm hoping to spend more time with her when we are at our second home. If she is there during the day when we are, perhaps I could teach her a little English and she could teach me some Arabic words. One of the other neighbor girls, maybe 13 years old, has sweetly offered to teach me my numbers in Arabic. For some reason, I can only keep five and ten in my head - hamze and ashera. I have to admit that before yesterday I had no real desire to learn Arabic at all...most of the people here speak English, so there is no real pressing need to do so. But now I feel like I would like to put my language skills to use and learn at least some basic conversation.

On Sunday night we went downtown to the "Corniche" or shore. There is a nice walking area which Jack enjoyed, right across from the Emir's palace.

Jack liked the lights of the city skyline across the way.

While we were walking in the souq that evening after dinner, we came behind a group of four young Filipino women. Jack started making this funny gutteral sound so they turned around to look and squealed with delight when they saw him! He smiled at them and put on his normal charming routine, so they all took pictures with him. What a hambone!

There are so many interesting and strange things here. In tribute to our friend Dana in Phoenix who finds weird things to take pictures of, I'll try to do the same. I think the bunny in a dress photo on one of my previous posts would count as the first one. This is the pedestrian crossing sign - an Arab man and boy in their robes crossing the street. I just found it funny!

On Saturday night I made my first Middle Eastern meal from the cookbook I bought. It was a fish dish with tahini sauce and toasted walnuts and pine nuts, tabouleh (parsley and cracked wheat salad) and homemade hummus to go with the Lebanese pita bread we bought. It was delicious! Josh said it was better than anything he had eaten in a restaurant. Jack loved it, too. He likes to dip pita into the hummus...kind of like he dipped chips into the salsa while we were in Phoenix!

And here is one last cute picture. It is so sunny here, we try to make sure Jack has a hat on or at least his sun glasses when we are outside. He really loves our walks at the park.

Signing off with love and hugs from Qatar!

Josh, Kam and Jack