Another Update

So, I know it has been a while but I am going to try and give some brief points to update you.

· After arriving back from Europe, I think I got some food poisoning. We went to a restaurant the week after getting back and that night I woke up with some major stomach pain. Needless to say I did not make it to work the next day and thankfully, I was able to get in the next day. All I could think of was Carrie the time she ate the egg and how much pain she was in. I probably felt similar, but I am in Doha and not Morgantown and I KNOW what the hospital is like…so I let my immune system handle it.


· We had a lecturer here from Pittsburgh who was on the Board of Directors. She actually called me before she came because she had heard about my leadership class and wanted to make sure she had the same message. How cool is that. She was a great instructor, however I could only attend a few hours because I was teaching as well. She and our administrative manager invited me to the Ritz for drinks so I went up and had a great conversation with both. I especially wanted them to know that I had applied for that fellowship.


· Can I tell you how much I hate this culture sometimes. Now, I preface this with the fact that I think anybody should be allowed to do whatever or worship whatever they want. However…read on. So we went to spinning on Monday night as usual. Myself, Mike, and Carol. We arrived and a class that used to have 5 people in it now has about 25 show up at starting time (or after). (There are 2 times in Qatar. Western time (on time) and Qatar time (add about 20+ minutes). So after we start about 10 minutes into it, this group of guys come in and of course they have not been there before, so the instructor has to continue to run the class why trying to get them set up. About 2-5 minutes after she is done setting them up…they all get up to leave and go pray. Are you kidding me? Then, one has the nerve to come out and ask the instructor to turn the music down. Really? I mean, you know Prayer Time is at 6:18. Can you not pray at 5:55 or 6:45? You know, God says it’s OK to miss if you are doing something worthwhile. Like working EMS, etc. So then they came back and got on the bikes for the last 10 minutes and cool down. Wow. That was a tough workout, eh guys. I am sure they talked about how much they worked out and how much they do, but that kind of crap just makes me mad. Common sense. Take the 7:00 class so it does not interfere with you.


· The 2 guys that are replacing me arrived last week. (YES! What you are thinking is correct! It takes 2 people to do the work that I can do myself!...I wish….) Anyway, I am now in the role of teacher again trying to get these guys up to speed quicker than I did. I knew nothing and no one. These guys have picture reference sheets with names to help them while in the field. I take them and explain stuff to them, which is something that no one did for me. Anyway, they are getting adjusted and I think they might be a decent fit for this project. We will see.
That is a quick update for now. I am working on getting so much done plus looking for jobs that I need to space out my posts. Don’t worry I have plenty more where that came from. Talk to you soon.