Everything I Need to Know...Part 2

Kim J., Karen (our friend from college), Kim S.

I had a wonderful time chatting with my sweet friend Kim from Houston the other night. I have known Kim longer than I have known Keith, if you can believe that. We first met our freshman year in high school, in 1971. I am pretty sure Kim knows everything about me. That's what happens when you room together all through college, are in each other's weddings, share the same name and both have 3 boys. Kim's mom was like a second mom to me. Mama Frog will always occupy a big chunk of my heart. Anyway, I am little off the track...

Kim asked if I had ever thought about blogging a list of some of the things that are different about Doha. No blog is big enough to hold the whole list, but here is my attempt to at least share some of what I have learned from what is different about life here. It's surprisingly simple!


You can live without 95% of your own household stuff for at least two years. (Real proof that it's only stuff.) Houston drivers are wonderful compared to the situation I am currently in. You can almost understand Italian even when you don't know a word of the language, but Arabic is another story. Mints, gum and pills are just as good for change as coins are. In Qatar, when your kid has an out of town game, it is also out of the country. Church is the people, not the building. And you can run a Sunday School, even if it's a Friday School, without construction paper. Spanish rice is much better when it's homemade. And you can chop up frozen french fries to make hash browns for a potato casserole. Roses are beautiful in the winter. Pink is not such a bad house color. I love dates, especially Peggy's chocolate dipped ones that come from the tree in her front yard. The sunset in this part of the world is amazing. I could not live without a Vonage phone. Out of sight does NOT mean out of mind. It doesn't matter if gas is 75 cents a gallon if cereal is $8 a box. A neighborhood post office is a blessing. God is REALLY EVERYWHERE....especially in the places you least expect Him to be.

There is much more that I have learned, but if I share it all now, I won't have any ideas for Everythi ng I Need to Know....Part 3!

(sunset photo by my neighbor Adrian)