Tomorrow night we will have been in Doha, Qatar for 2 weeks. I can honestly say the second week has gone much better than the first. Last week with jetlag and a touch of an "achy" bug it was a very long week. Jon would go to work for the day so Langston and I would entertain ourselves as best as possible. We didn't have a phone and of course no car. I hated walking up the stairs I was so achy but fortunately I'm feeling fine now.
We've had several memorable experiences already. Last Sunday we ate at Fuddruckers' with some folks from church. At the last minute they asked if we'd like to go to the sand dunes. It sounded like fun so an hour later we were following the caravan to Sealine and the dunes. Many people have landcruisers and other 4 wheel drive cars to drive on the dunes. They let the air out of their tires and drive on the dunes. I didn't realize we'd be going up and down the dunes! It was quite a bouncy experience. Langston loved it. The spot we stopped at was overlooking the Persian Gulf and there was a nice dune to slide down. Langston was ready to go down. He got on the snowboard, held his arms out to his sides and down he went. He was quite brave! I finally went down. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be.
There was quite a group of the church folk who turned up. When the sun goes down, it gets cold! I was glad I had our jackets. We had a campfire and ate hot dogs. Claudia George invited us to drive out with them. Our car was parked at Sealine Resort. I was ready to go. It seemed so late, but it was only 6 pm! I was wondering how you find your way out of the dunes. Kendall said you just watch for the lights of the refinery and don't follow only one set of car tracks. If there's several sets of tracks you're pretty sure the people got out okay. That was comforting!
One thing that was very touching was how the church people care for the little girls who lost their mother, Barbara when we were here in Sept. The girls, maybe 6 and 3, seem to be doing well. Different ones would take them down the dunes and mother them. The little boy stays with his dad most of the time. What a great display of how the church is to care for their wounded ones.
Sunday night, Dec. 14 Jon hosted the Star of Bethlehem presentation in our home. That was so cool because it was simulcast from San Antonio! What a blessing that it didn't mess up at all! I didn't get to see it though. I mainly tried to keep the 3 kids, Langston, Sen, and Jenna quiet on the computer upstairs. Then when the 2 visitors went home I collapsed on my bed with the shivers. I was cold till the presentation was over and then just felt achy. I guess it was some sort of bug that lasted about three days.
I can't really explain my feelings of first being here. I guess just feeling overwhelmed by living in a very strange country, weariness and feeling very isolated caused me to feel very low. During one of my hardest days that first week I was downstairs in the kitchen.
From upstairs I heard Langston say, "Mommy, I love God and I believe in HIm!!" He had made that revelation to me back in Bryan while we were going to St. Thomas one morning. But it was quite refreshing to my spirit to hear it again, that my son was thinking about God in the midst of this new place.
I asked Langston one night if he liked living here. He said, "Yes, because I have friends." That did my heart good too. We've tried to explain that most people here are Muslims. He asked what the sign above our bedroom door was. In all homes here there is a sign somewhere that has a little black box and a red arrow pointing to Mecca.
From that Langston started calling them "box" people. He said, " We don't pray to a box, we pray to God." He's learning some very important lessons.
I think there are four malls here and we've been to them all! Exploring, finding household items and groceries. Each mall has a grocery store. They're all confused in my mind right now. City Center Mall has an ice rink and a huge Christmas display. We were so surprised. There were giant reindeer and a sleigh hanging over the skating rink, but no Santa. So there is some celebrating of Christmas here. One store had Christmas trees for sale with tinsel just clumped on it. The malls are great places to watch people. You see them from all over.
One thing that I never want to get used to is hearing the call to prayer. It happens five times a day. I've heard it at 5 am, 11, 2:30, 6:00, I don't know the other one. The times are always a little different, I'm not sure why. They have mosques like we have Baptist churches, one every corner, with a tower and an intercom. Even the malls announce the call to prayer and have prayerrooms . I hope when I hear their call to prayer it will remind me to pray to the God who sees and hears and loves these people.
Posted by nellie at December 20, 2003 07:35 PM