5/12/17

Hi Everyone!! Update here. I miss my home. I miss my people. I miss freedom. I miss Costco and Target. OK, now you all need to appreciate these, really!
I feel incredibly blessed not only to be from the USA but to be a member of the church. So many people need what the gospel can bring into their lives. I know that we can easily take for granted what we have just because we have it. I have much gratitude for my life.

This is a "high tea" that I was invited to. It was at the Four Seasons Hotel and it was quite elaborate. There is no absence of delicious food. They love their carbs here and especially their sugar. There are tons of diabetics here, no surprise.

This is a common scene here. Construction is everywhere and I mean everywhere.

This is from the Islamic Museum, way different museums here than there.

More from the museum, look at the dates and the description.

Beautiful chest behind glass made from mother of pearl, you can't really tell but it was really beautiful.

This is the museum from a distance and if you look at the top it signifies a woman's hijab, only the eyes showing.

Honey, lots of honey.

I passed my written driving test!!! This was only 1 of several pages of signs I had to learn. Bizarre motor vehicle experience.

 These 2 men, yes, the one on the left is a man, are leaving church to walk home in 100* heat. Men here hold hands as friends. I haven't figured it out yet but it happens everywhere.

Here they are again. I don't know why he didn't grow. He does not look like a dwarf but he just didn't grow.

 From church today, talking about gifts of the spirit. We have a teacher that is a professor at one of the colleges here, Texas A&M.  There are several colleges here from the states.

Thanks to all who remembered Emily this last week. That's all I have to say about that.

That's all for now. Love you all!!!

April 28, 2017

Hello from Doha - not a lot of new to report this week. I received my resident permit which allows me to order a visa for Dad. I had emailed the people at the immigration office several times but they did not respond so I traveled to their office and schmoozed the people as best as I could to get the paperwork done. I hopefully accomplished the task. If I am lucky I will have a visa by this time next week and then they just need to make the flight reservation. I am ready to have a partner!! It is a little lonely in my apartment. There are so many people that are here alone. Sad.

I checked out an area called the Pearl this week which might be a nice place to live. It is on the water and you could park your kayak and have access to it every day if you wanted. They also have paddle boards and jet skis. Plus we can learn to sail the ocean blue. The Pearl feels a bit like walking around Vail, minus the mountains and cold and beauty. I am really isolated where I live now but it is close to work.

I continue to meet people from everywhere. I had dinner one night with a woman from Syria. That was an interesting discussion. She said that it was her opinion that the media exaggerated the events that happened in Syria. I told her how much empathy the USA had for refugees and that so many people want to help. We talked about the Muslim cultures. She said there are so many different kinds of Muslims who wear different clothes and who believe different things, like on a spectrum. Maybe we could compare the same to Mormons. Some are really intense and some are really chill plus everything in between. She did not wear the abaya or the hijab but was still Muslim. Huge difference.

The uber drivers come here from all over but they leave their families in their countries. The sacrifices that people make for their families is monumental. We have no idea in the USA what it is like to work 18 hours a day for a small amount of money just to send it to family in another country. 

There are Filipino nurses here that agencies recruit and they are housed in tight quarters and given less than a 1000 dollars a month for compensation. 

It is getting to be 100 degrees or a little more each day. Very toasty. No rain. That's my report for now. Many hugs to all. I miss you so much.

This is a delicious drink that I had. They do not have alcohol here so they make amazing drinks. I wish they did that in the states! This was a strawberry lemonade frozen thing.

These are birthday cakes. Wow.

I found a cute down syndrome young lady that works for Sidra (my company) She was in the immigration office....

I think I sent this to some of you but this is a huge "art form" of a spider with eggs in the sack in the middle. Gross.

April 22, 2017

Hi everyone - another week complete. I am getting more comfortable, hooray. Uber has become second nature for me. I met some nice people at church that showed me even more places.

You will have to check this out, http://www.katara.net/en/about-katara

Very cool place.

I had Iranian food, mostly they eat meat and rice. I went to the Souq, http://www.souq-waqif-doha.com/  You will have to check this out too.

Work is good. No big news there. Someone asked me if I wanted to be involved in starting a new service involving reproductive endocrinology. We will see about that.

I get my resident permit this week and that is a big deal. That means that I can start the process to bring Dad over, I can get a drivers license if I want, I can get my medical license and who knows what else.

Amazing week, amazing place, so many people from so many places. I just met someone from Nepal but spent the day with people from New Zealand and Samoa. What an eye opening experience I  am having. 

I love you all and miss you as always, so grateful for whats app so I can talk to people!!

Chocolate crepe

Outdoor amphitheater 

Here is some music

This is a twin tower for pigeons, seriously they built this for pigeons

This is dessert that was delivered in a box. Amazing presentation.

A cute family having a chocolate fountain for lunch

Me and my new friends

My kind of 12 step program

Cool restaurant 

Dressed up bunnies

Iranian restaurant 

Cute little boy

First week in Qatar

Hi All my Peeps in the USA,

First of all, I have to say, enjoy the USA!! It is the very best country in the world. Yes, it has problems but we have amazing freedom and access to anything we want. Also, there is no censorship, which is not the case where I am.

I have been here almost a week. It was a rough week. The jet lag was intense. Changing from night to day and day to night is a process. They had food for me in my apt but it wasn't what I was used to so I was hungry. And as we know, a hungry woman is never a happy woman. So I think it was the 3rd night I prayed and told the heavens above that I needed some support. The next night I was invited to dinner that was delicious! The next night after that I was invited to a food festival. That was also delicious. My prayers were answered. And then the next night I was invited to go for a massage and it was awesome. Heaven kicked in and made everything better. Thank you God.

My apt is 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and 1 kitchen and 1 living/dining room and a little laundry room. The bed was super hard so someone gave me a mattress topper like memory foam and it is better now. The A/C constantly runs so it has been hard on my body. They say that when the A/C runs all the time it sucks the moisture out of you. I never heard that but I started drinking more water. I keep getting headaches which I guess is a mix of the A/C, the new everything and leftover jet lag. Hopefully they will disappear soon. All the floor is tile with an occasional rug. I have noticed that they don't do a lot of trash here so I had 1 trashcan when I got here. It's in the kitchen. 

I have a list of  stuff to buy that will make life feel more like home. I went to the corniche. http://www.onlineqatar.com/attractions/doha-corniche.aspx  Here is a link about the corniche. It was so lovely. Everything is very clean. There is no trash or stuff that makes an area look undesirable. The sky line is also beautiful. Joe Shumway, my Bishop and the doctor that recruited me to come here, told me that there are buildings that are really beautiful on the outside but they are uninhabited. This country has money galore, it is obvious by the architecture but it is a developing country so the streets are not the best yet. It is hard to use GPS. There aren't that many street names. People just know where stuff is. 

The people are friendly and polite. The traditional dress for men at work is that long white dress. They say that is like the men in our country wearing a suit. They are ironed perfectly and white as can be. I don't know who is doing their laundry but they get an A++. The women are covered up in black. I guess I will learn more about who covers up what because it varies from woman to woman. 

Work feels like I am back in corporate life. It is a big organization with many departments and many needs. The hospital is a women and children only huge hospital that is slated to open the first quarter of 2018. So now they have their outpatient clinics open but they deliver babies at a nearby hospital. It is a very very very medical model. I don't know why I always get mixed up with the craziness of turning pregnant women into sick people!! Always a challenge. I hope I can make a teeny tiny difference for these families...

The weather is getting hot for sure but the nights have been lovely. I guess we have the biggest pool in Doha. I haven't had time to go to it yet but maybe soon. 

Church is on Friday. That will be hard to get used to for sure. Saturday is like our Saturday and then Sunday I go back to work. You know all those baby statues that I showed you? Well, the people of Qatar apparently are offended by them so they may go away. Millions of dollars of statues...  We will see what happens I guess. I think they are cool.

I was asked to talk in church next week. So... I guess I am jumping right in. I guess it will be an Easter talk. This is where I spent the day. I was at my Bishop's house. It was conference for us today so people stayed at their homes. Can you find me?? They were celebrating the new temple that was announced in Nairobi. The spirit was strong there. I had a great time meeting more new people. Everyone here is away from family so I think it makes people more friendly to others. A lot of people work and just send their money home to their families. We are very blessed for sure. To be born into freedom and into prosperity is rare in this world.  Anyway- this was some stuff about my first week. I love everyone and miss everyone!!!

April 15, 2017

Hello Everyone!

Thought I would give you week #2 report. I am getting to know my way around just a tiny bit better at this point. I found a ride to go to work so that is good for now. Work is interesting for sure. 

There is this multi billion dollar building that is going to be the inpatient hospital one day but the delays have been significant and so it sits there looking ready but it is not open yet. They are in sort of a pickle because they need several thousand employees to staff the hospital but it is hard to hire people and just find stuff for them to do until the hospital actually opens. I have met people who were actually hired over a year ago that have just been waiting to come here, waiting for the time when things were closer to opening. 

There are 68 countries represented at Sidra ( the name of the hospital/organization ) so I have met people from everywhere like Pakistan, India, Jordan, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and only a few from the states to name a few. The accents are rough for me. Imagine talking to the help support that you get from India all the time when you need IT help. I really have to listen carefully. I am attaching where all the people are from.

  

The native language is arabic and of course I only know how to say hello so far. Marhabaan is hello. I can see the need to learn arabic of course especially when you are talking to pregnant moms. We shall see how that goes.

As far as non work stuff goes, I ventured out with Uber to find a grocery store twice. I know most of you think this is no biggie but for me it was a biggie. The GPS works so so here and I was afraid of being lost in a big city with no one to rescue me. But, despite my fears, I took the leap. The grocery stores are in the malls. Another different thing. The food choices are different of course. I am trying to figure that out. I lived on cheese sandwiches and oreos this week. I would love to swing by Chipotle but alas, there isn't one.

You can get birth control pills over the counter here. That was a shocker for me.

 I am probably buying this car but I can't drive till I get a license which is fraught with bureaucratic red tape. I might get it by July, the license that is. The car will cost about $4000 and is from the doctor who recruited me.

  And this is the street I live on.

Here is my newspaper

 

Here is me riding in a bus and looking at the city center

Here is the church, you can only see a little because I didn't work my camera right..

  

This is a job here, cleaning the floors with a scraper. 

  

 I guess that is enough for now. I have to go figure out my washer. I love everyone and miss you all!!!

PS - if anyone wants off this email you can let me know. I am just trying not to forget anyone! And if anyone wants to video chat or call you can use hangouts, whats app or skype.