July recap

Remember how I said I would be posting intermittently?  Make that once a month!  Oops!  But here is the capsule summary so far:

Flight: great for the first leg; then kind of a disaster after we landed at JFK.  We did discover that our boys can stay up for 24 and 22 hours straight respectively (with the help of iPads) before completely crashing and burning into catatonic heaps, so...yay for that?  I guess!  We will be revisiting our flight plans again and again before next summer to see if we can figure out a better way to fly!

Here we are at Doha International Airport before our flight.

And here they are totally zoned out on the airplane!

Transitioning: only horrible for two days of getting up at 4am with the boys but after some judicious use of melatonin and creative bedtimes and hard work to keep the boys awake as much as possible, things were great after that and now they are back to waking up at 6:45am, which is fabulous!

Reunion: So. Much. Fun!!  The boys bonded with their older cousins, who were gracious and nice about letting the boys play with them or talk at them or generally monopolize their time for the whole week!  We went jet skiing twice on Bear Lake and found we have two little speed demons--or make that three, if you count the husband!  We rode out on a very bad road in our rental sedan to find an ice cave where ice stays all year long and found out that we have two little fearless mountain climbers as well.  Who knew?  We ate two big family meals every day, went to church together, talked extensively about family history, and played enough games did enough art projects to satisfy even insatiable J.  We had our own one bedroom condo with a Murphy bed the boys shared, a first for them, but they slept across the bed width-wise and didn't disturb each other at all.  Generally, we can't wait to do it all over again in two years!

E with smiling cousins.

The very cold ice cave (see large mound of ice behind us).

J with smiling cousins.

Health: The husband got a minor out-patient procedure done, taking care of something that's been bothering him for years, so we are all happy about that.  We took the boys to see a pediatric dentist and J handled it like a champ while E devolved into tears over the x-rays and only got a cleaning done after much drama.  I went to the dentist for a cleaning and found out that I have a cavity even though my last dental visit told me I had nothing going on, when I clearly did, even then, darn it!  And so far, we haven't had to visit the ER, a first for us when visiting Utah.  Fingers crossed!

Shopping: Umm, yeah, there's been a lot of that.  One day, the husband asked J if he wanted to go with us on an errand to a store, and J said "I thought this was a va-cation, not a shop-cation!"  Touche, small fry, touche!  The shopping is almost finished, and a lot of what we have gotten will be going home with the husband next week, but it has to be done!  We need quite a few things that simply aren't available in Doha, like clothes and shoes in my size, for crying out loud, and enough shoes to get the boys through next year's school without breaking the bank.

Food: We have been eating our way across the state, reliving all our past gustatory faves we can't get in Doha.  We are so pedestrian: Chick Fil-a, Bahio's, L&L barbeque (authentic Hawaiian food), Rita's Water Ice, Cinnamon Toast Crunch (J's favorite), and lots of pork.  E recently asked for bacon for breakfast.  And what else? we asked.  And sausage, he replied.  Oh, of course!  He later ate bacon for dinner and used it to scoop up salsa and sour cream.  Umm, ooookaaaay then!  Whatever makes you happy!  Still on our list is a visit to the Blue Plate Diner, another of our faves in Salt Lake City.  And, of course, as much Mexican food as we can stomach, because it's so good here.

Fun: Besides Bear Lake, we have gone to a parade, several museums (train, art, natural history, ammunition, children's), an outdoor farmer's market/farm festival, a water park, and a dinosaur park.  The husband went on a 15 plus mile round trip hike to Ben Lomond peak with our brother-in-law.  We also celebrated my father's 67th birthday and my newest niece's baby blessing yesterday with a big barbeque.  Tomorrow, we are going to Kangaroo Zoo, a collection extraordinaire of bounce castles and slides, with other cousins, these the same ages as the boys.  Next weekend, after the husband goes back to Doha, we are headed to another festival and extended family reunion.  We've also got tentative plans over the next month to visit a candy factory, two dinosaur museums, a new museum about play (or something), several splash pads, a train ride, and maybe even a funicular ride (of course!).  The boys have talked the grandparents' ears off, and they have all been very patient with our little chatterboxes!

Great water feature in Ogden at the farmer's market.

At the Treehouse children's museum.

Reading stories with Grandeur.

So far, it's been a fun and relaxing visit.  I have many more pictures, which I will add sooner rather than later, but this has been a small sampling.  We are so grateful to our parents for putting us up and putting up with us for so long and we have enjoyed everything.  Here's to continuing cousins and cooler climes!

Blast off imminent

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning!  Our last few days here have been somewhat anticlimactic: the boys had their "awards ceremonies" on Thursday morning for a half hour each.  They were quite nice affairs, but fully half the students were absent because many had already left.  We brought gifts for the boys' teachers (lovely little Turkish tea glasses for the four main classroom teachers that I liked so much I may go and get a set for myself and two little framed sand art pictures for the particularly helpful PE teacher and counsellor) and refreshments for E's class, while J's class decided against snacks, apparently.  We left early after J played in E's classroom for a while, which made E's year, and then came home to a leisurely early day.

But then they still had two more days of school...and who knows how many children would actually be there?  I compromised with J, who was insistent on going until the bitter end: if we showed up at the appointed time (the start time was an hour later on those last two days because of Ramadan) and there was at least one other student in his class, he could stay.  Otherwise, they were going home with me, because how I wasn't sure he could imagine how lonely it would be to be the only one there.  I hoped there would be students, both for his sake and mine, because what was I going to do with them during the day when everything was shut for Ramadan besides keep us all closed inside and driving ourselves batty?  As it was, not only did school start later, it ended earlier, at 1pm on Sunday and at 11:30am on Monday.  I wish someone would have just come right out and said "look, Thursday is the last day of school, Sunday and Monday are teacher work days, happy summer!" but no, that's not how we do things here.  Tradition, tradition!  We did show up on the first day, but there was only one student in J's class and he decided he didn't want to stay after all.  E's class had 5 students, including his favorite friend who had been absent the week before, so I left him stay awhile while J and I ran an errand and then we came back, played in the gym with E's class, let E eat lunch, said goodbye to all the teachers, and called it good.  We did not go back the last day!

Church was as sparsely attended on Friday as school had been, with only a very few children left in Primary.  J gave the prayer and was one of I think seven children in the all the junior classes.  E was the only one in his class so he met with some of the older kids.  I gave the lesson and led the music in Relief Society and the husband led the music and gave the lesson in his class.  Apparently, almost all families leaving will be leaving this week like us, so I can't imagine what next week will look like.  This summer exodus takes a little getting used to for me!

We did a little last minute packing the rest of the weekend, finishing off the carry on luggage and finally, finally getting the husband to part with his workout gear long enough for me to put it in the suitcases.  I had had great success the weekend before with an absolutely astonishingly and completely unexpectedly efficient run to the souq, during which I was able to find and make exactly the purchases I wanted at four different vendors in record time and without getting lost after the husband dropped me off so I could shop in the heat sans children.  Miracle!  So we were done with all our souvenir/gift shopping already, which was great.  We weighed and weighed again all our checked luggage to make sure we weren't in the danger zone, despite the fact that we are bringing home pounds and pounds of books and journals.  Whoever inspects our luggage is really going to wonder why we are bringing home all these very old Mormon books (that was the one box of books that made it into our shipment un-inspected from Cleveland, otherwise we would have sent these books home with my mother in the fall).  Actually, the customs officials will probably be most happy we are taking these books OUT of the country, never mind how they got in!

Ramadan began here on Saturday night and the crazy, not kid friendly hours that went into effect on Sunday morning made me very, VERY happy we were leaving soon.  Most of the kids' play areas, the only reason the kids really want to go to the mall and the only place we really can go in this heat, don't open up until late at night, even though the malls themselves are open briefly in the mornings.  And almost all restaurants are closed or only open late at night as well, so you can't just go have a long lunch somewhere to kill time either.   Most of the boys' friends are also either gone or going and busy besides, so we have really been left to our own devices.  We made a lot of cookies!

I expect my posting to be a bit less regular while we are on vacation.  I know I always mean to stay on top of things, but I also know I almost always don't quite manage, but many of you will be on holiday as well, so let's all enjoy ourselves this summer, shall we?

In the words of E, "I'm SO EXCITED!!!"

Shot to my heart

I finally did go get the children vaccinated, but there was, of course, more to the story before we were through.

Miraculously, we did at long last get our state health cards, after a seven month wait.  And for a brief moment, I was jubilant, thinking that all my vaccination woes had been solved.  I tracked down a number for the primary health care corporation that runs the local health care clinics and I called.  They gave me a number to call to talk to someone directly about vaccinations--glory be!

But then, I called that number and had the following conversation:

"Hi, I'm calling about vaccinations."

"Go."

"Umm, okay, yes, well, my son needs some vaccinations, and I am wondering where I should go?"

"Is he an infant?"

"No, he is 4 years old."

"So he has had his vaccinations.  Why are you calling?"

"No, I mean yes, he has had earlier vaccines but he needs to have his final shots."

"Then you go to your local clinic."

"Yes, I would like to, but I can't find a list of them."

"Go to the one nearest your house."

"I live in Al Rayyan; is there one near by?"

"Yes, the Al Rayyan Clinic."

"Okay, where is that exactly?"

"I do not know."

"Do you know the phone number?"

"No, you cannot call.  You must go in person.  You must give them your vaccine record and they will convert it into a Qatari record and then they will call you and tell you which vaccines you need and when you can come in."

"Okay, where do I go then?"

"I do not know."

"Excuse me?  There is no phone number and you don't know where it is?  Can you tell me what street it is on?"

"No.  I do not know."

"Does anyone?"

(mumbled questions) "No.  All we know is that is near the Furousiya roundabout."

"Well...I guess...thank you?"

Click.

Guess what?  I never found it!  Go figure.  Instead, I headed back to the private hospital and got the boys vaccinated there.  I had told them there was a possibility that they would need shots after their "check up," and J decided he was going to be brave and go first to set an example for E.  Another miracle!  Only when he was on the table to get his one shot, J screamed at the top of his lungs like a 16 year old girl and set E off.  In the end, while J was over it and playing on the iPad happily, I had to hold a screaming, writhing E down on the table with the help of a doctor and a nurse while a second nurse stuck him twice and then the doctor tried to drop the oral polio vaccine in his mouth.  She got one drop in, at which point he started dry heaving and, when she tried to get a second in, he spit it into her face.  I'm not actually sure he kept enough down to count but we weren't going to get any better than that.

It's always a stellar day of parenting when you make both your children scream.

It's an even better day when you have had to go through all this aggravating ruckus and actually do research so you can have the privilege of making them scream...Gosh darn it!

Gimme a shot!

E turned 4 a while ago, but I was waiting to take him to get his next round of vaccinations until we got our health cards that entitle us to free health care at any government health center or hospital.

It's been more than six months and we still don't have them.

So I decided I needed to investigate what the possibilities were for getting the vaccines done anyway and what the probability was that I would end up getting them done here or getting them done back in the States.  I looked up both the boys' records, discovered that J, too, needed a Hepatitus A vaccine in addition to the three E needed and collected all the paperwork I had so I can carry it with me until we get this question all sorted out.  What followed was a typical journey I take here every couple of weeks, because talking on the phone to someone is utterly useless the vast majority of the time:

First, I went to our private health clinic to the pediatrician's office.  After waiting a while and speaking to three different people, I was told that there were no vaccines available except a few and those were "reserved."  What does reserved mean, I ask.  Well, when people come to get vaccines and those they need aren't available, these people are put on a list and when the vaccines come available, they are reserved for those people on the list.  How often do you have all the vaccines you need?  Not often.  How long does it take to request a vaccine when there is a need?  We don't know.  Do you store them here?  Yes, when we get them from the state hospital.  How often does that happen?  We don't know.   Which of these four vaccine do you currently have available?  None.  Okay then, I think I will be leaving now.  Strike one.

Next, I went to the main state hospital here and inquired again.  This hospital was 20 minutes away from the doctor's office and I had to park very far away and it was a balmy 106 degrees right then, at 8am but why focus on all that?  At the hospital, I was told that they only give vaccines to infants or those who are hospitalized and others might be available at my local government healthcare clinic...if I had a health card.  Strike two.

Then, I went to a private hospital, a tiny little place right smack in the center of a very busy commercial district where I ended up parking illegally when it became apparent that the 20 car parking lot they did have was laughably inadequate for all the people waiting to get in.  At this place, they did have all the vaccines available that day but they advised me to call before I came since often they did not.  They told me the procedure was for a doctor to see the patients and order the vaccines, have the nurse call the insurance company to see if the vaccines were approved (a process that could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 48 hours depending on insurance carrier), and then have another nurse administer the immunizations.  I was able to find out how long my insurance company generally took to approve (10-15 minutes, thankfully) and get the direct number to call to see if the vaccines were in stock.  I was also told the helpful tidbit that though vaccines are administered between 8am and 9pm, I should really get there before 8pm and should definitely NOT arrive between 2 and 3pm, which is shift change for the doctors.  It also happens to be the time I would arrive if I take the boys right after school, which is less helpful.  Ball one

Finally, I tried to locate my local government clinic, in the hopes that I might be able to show up there and get them to give me some more information, but I couldn't find locations or phone numbers for any of them.  Typical.  I also, on a whim, called the employee health clinic for my husband's work, but no, they don't do immunizations, I am sorry madame.  Ball two and ball three.

So where does that leave us?  I will try the private hospital route exactly once before we leave (getting the boys anywhere after school is never fun, let alone into this difficult to access area).  If I can get everything done then, so much the better.  If not, I will call up pediatricians and/or infectious disease or travel clinics in the States when we get back and have what needs to be done done as soon as possible.  At the very least, I know that while it may cost me an arm and a leg to have the kids vaccinated in Utah with Qatari insurance, I will absolutely not strike out AND I will be able to track down the information I need in less than half an hour of phone calls, as opposed to the two and a half hours of driving around, waiting, and almost fruitless conversations I had this morning.

Packing my carry on

I've always wanted to do one of these "what's in my carry on?" posts, mainly because I love reading those kinds of posts.  And since we're about a week away from departure, and I am feeling all sorts of organized right now (a fleeting thought, I am sure), here goes!  Forgive the blurriness of these photos: my iPhone camera and I are not seeing eye to eye these days, for some reason!

This is my favorite carry on bag of all time when I am not trying to travel carry on only (for that kind of travel, I prefer a roller bag).  I had it made to my specifications by a fabulous seamstress on Etsy (who has subsequently stopped making bags, sniff!).  It's HUGE and the dimensions fit the size regulations for the average airplane carry on, but, because it's a fabric bag, it doesn't seem as large as it is.  The outside fabric is upholstery weight (courtesy of Ikea), and the inside lining is waterproof.  There are 5 big pockets on the outside and 5 big pockets on the inside in addition to the large interior pocket.  I have never had enough pockets in one bag until now!

I added the piece in the bottom, a strip of flexible plastic I took from a reusable supermarket bag and cut to size to make my bag able to stand up on its own.  The zipper is super heavy duty, and the handles are long enough I can wear the bag on my shoulder but not so long that the bag hangs down too low and hits me where it hurts (I hate that!).

Pictured above, clockwise from the top: 

• Wallet, planning notebook with back-up pen: in case I lose my primary pen or pencil (it happens!)
• Passports: I am the official keeper of the passports when we travel with the boys.  It makes it easier to keep track of them all. 
• Reading material for the boys: we are reading The Chronicles of Narnia aloud with them right now.  I don't need any reading material for me because who has time for that?  I may pick up a magazine in the airport, but I don't count on it!  I look at my time on the airplane as my best chance to catch up on watching all the movies I've missed over the past few months...or years!
• Pen and pencil: for notes and customs
• Calendar: why yes, this one came from the dollar store before I moved here, thank you very much!
• Green travel folder: my travel folder is central to a successful trip and contains itineraries, reservation information, copies of passports, copies of birth certificates, written permission to travel alone with the children (just in case), copies of our insurance forms, and all sorts of information about our destination (in this case, things like registration sheets for swimming lessons and instructions for how to switch to a UT driver's license).  That folder also contains my master packing list and is the last thing I put in my bag before we leave to go anywhere.  I feel naked without it!

The first row of items here goes in my quart-sized plastic bag for TSA.  The rest also goes in a quart-sized bag for convenience but also just in case TSA decides something in there secretly qualifies as a liquid or gel (it has happened before).  Since I am hardly ever traveling alone, I always use two bags because I am carrying my liquids as well as the boys'.  

• Top row: Nasonex for J, hand sanitizer, children's Tylenol with measuring cup, cortisone cream for itches, Neosporin for scratches, medicated cream for serious outbreaks (I'm prone to them), and waterproof mascara (though I often just check this with the rest of my make-up because really, how much touching up am I going to be doing?).  
• Middle row: assorted bandaids (need these every single time we travel), assorted medications (the husband would tell you not to mix meds in one bottle but that bigger bottle in the center has four different meds in it at least--shhhh!), melatonin (the secret to happy kids/happy parents and minimizing jet lag), lotion (Nivea creme is thick and really works.  I even use it in my hair in a pinch), and Savex lip balm (for everything including lips).  
• Bottom row: flavored lip balm for the boys, lipstick (again, just in case I decide I can't stand how I look when I land), face powder (ditto), tissues (now a staple of every bag of mine since bathrooms here are so often under-equipped), and anti-bacterial wipes (so we don't get sick, hopefully).  I may add toothpaste in here since we are traveling for so long and I have space in the liquids/gels bag. 

Boys and their bacon

Even though Qatar is a Muslim country and alcohol is therefore frowned upon, Doha is not completely "dry."  Many hotels serve alcohol at bars and brunches, and alcohol is available for purchase at one place in the city, the Qatar Distribution Center or QDC.  You must have a permit to buy alcohol there and getting one is a bit of a production: you need to bring a signed letter from your employer on letterhead stating your name, ID number, monthly income, and accommodation arrangements, and your marital status.  (So first you have to go into HR and tell your employer you really, really want to buy tequila and/or ribs.)  Then you have to take your letter and 1000QR (in cash, of course) to the QDC itself, a gated, nondescript little building in an out-of-the-way location far outside city center.  Next you have to fill out an application, which asks for, among other things, your religion.  (So, yes, you have to tell them I am a Christian and I really, really want to buy wine and/or ham.)  If your application is approved, you pay your 1000QR fee (which, surprisingly, is refundable) and your are given an amount you can spend per month, usually something like 10% of your monthly income or thereabouts.

So we haven't gotten one of these licenses until recently, and then only to help out the husband's new boss who wasn't in country yet, but a few weekends ago we went and did the whole process.  Want to feel totally bizarre, a little furtive, and quite guilty by association?  Go to the QDC on a Saturday morning in Doha and watch the (mostly Western) expats go in and out with cases and cases of booze.  It all feels a little seamy, really.

BUT you can also walk in and leave with cases (if you want) of pork products, so since we were already there anyway, I went into the freezer room to check out what they had.  After practically fainting at some of the prices, we left with two pounds of smoked, thick cut bacon (for only $7.50 per pound, a veritable steal!) and a small salami (a bit more expensive than the bacon but not much).  Now, I am as big a fan of ham as the next (non-Jewish or Muslim) person, but I have my limits, for crying out loud and buying a 3-4 pound ham for 275QR (that's $75, by the way) is apparently beyond my limits.   Can you imagine??!!  I still can't believe how much that is!  So we are officially saving our ham eating for the States.  Salty pork goodness for less than the cost of a microwave, here we come!

But we did have bacon.  And as soon as we got in the car, J started asking when we were going to eat it.  Can we eat it now?  No, it's frozen and raw besides.  Can we have it for dinner?  Well, it's frozen solid and a brick so it may take a while to thaw.  Can you thaw it in water when we get home? Can you thaw it in the microwave? Can we have it with eggs? How many pieces can I have? I want to eat it now nownownownownownowNOW!

Did I mention bacon is J's favorite food?  Turns out, he hadn't forgotten and the poor, deprived boy was just biding his time until we gave him some, but being that close to it and not being able to eat bacon was almost more than J could bear!  So we had bacon and eggs for dinner.  And it was DELICIOUS!  We haven't eaten the salami yet, but the boys demonstrated a heretofore unknown love for salami while we were in Germany, so I know they will be happy to eat it right up.  I'm thinking I may slice it up for school lunches before we go and then bring the rest to eat on the plane since salami keeps so well.  Let the pork appreciation parade of summer begin!

On writing a newcomer's guide to Doha

I think I mentioned that I have been working on a brief guide for new members of our church group.  I had all kinds of momentum after I volunteered to chair the committee...and then only one stalwart soul appeared at the meeting I called out of the five or six other volunteers...and then J got Scarlet Fever...and then I just shelved the project until I had more time or guilt set in.  Last weekend, both those things happened at the same time: I started to think I should perhaps get working on the guide again AND the woman I told I would do this in the first place checked in and wondered about my progress.  Time to get writing!

More precisely, it's time to get typing.  We had an earlier document to work with, and I had already done a thorough edit of that piece, cutting sections that seemed superfluous, shortening sections that were far too long, regularizing the format so the information available was easy to find, etc.  We decided that we only wanted to include locations that had actual street names, as opposed to instructions that reminded me most of the kinds of directions people gave in Guatemala ("You know the green door?  That's not it.  Go up, up, up and turn and a little right and pass where the old tree used to be and there it is!") There are no street addresses here, which complicates matters immensely, but we worked hard to find cross streets at least!  I had also done most of the additional research needed to flesh out the sections that seemed to be missing information already, and my lone helper had done research on two new sections as well, so really what I needed to do was check a few websites, update a few phone numbers, and re-type the whole thing, which I have been doing this past week.

In order to give you a little insight into life in Doha, the new guide contains the following sections:

• Essential print guides--like every major city, Doha has an entertainment coupon book and a version of the Time Out magazine.  We also have this incredibly detailed and super comprehensive book called Marhaba, which means welcome in Arabic.  This book is basically the Doha Bible, with maps and restaurant listings and descriptions about how to get a driver's license or hire a maid and everything in between.
• Event and information websites--despite the existence of Marhaba and Time Out Doha, I have found it very difficult to get information on what events are happening this week in the city.  I am forever finding out about something fun that we missed because we never heard about it.  So I have been assiduously collecting websites that list events so we can know more about what's going on.  Doha actually has a million activities taking place and it's a shame to miss so many of them!  This section includes a few of those along with some websites designed just for new residents, with even more up-to-date information about settling in.
• Schools and Nurseries--the question of schooling looms large here, where there are not nearly enough international schools for all the expat families that keep pouring into the city.  Some employers, like ours, sponsor various schools and arrange for automatic placements for employee children.  Others do not, and the wait lists to get kids into schools can be very, very long (one teacher at a primary school I met said their wait list had 3000 kids on it!).  Questions regarding schooling can make or break your time here, really, which is a shame.
• Shopping--consistent readers will remember that my biggest concern during my first days here (besides schooling!) was where to go to find everything I needed.  It took a while to discover that grocery stores are often located in shopping malls, that "express" stores are smaller but not necessarily less well stocked, that many kinds of things can be found in souqs or outdoor markets including vegetables and shovels, and that you can't judge a shop by its appearance on the outside (one of my favorite places to go now turned me off for months because it looked so dodgy as I drove past).  Plus, I would have loved for someone to tell me about the relative "bargain" stores when all the usual prices were giving me some serious sticker shocks!