Middle Eastern Dish of the Week: Yogurt Marinated Chicken+Tzatziki sauce and grilled cauliflower

So, I read about a middle eastern spiced yogurt marinade and tried it last weekend.  I was quite disappointed in the marinade, as I had burned the chicken quite quickly on the grill.  Luckily, Mark then took over and saved the chicken from being bricks of charcoal.  Even though one side of a few pieces was slightly burned, we were not impressed with the marinade and will not try it again.

The Tzatziki sauce (yogurt, mint, garlic, dill) on the side made for a great dipping sauce and the grilled cauliflower was delicious.  So, the meal wasn't a total bust, but the marinade is not one I would recommend.

Middle Eastern Dish: Syrian Chicken Stew

So, I realize I have slacked on the Middle Eastern dish making and I think I forgot to take a picture of one within the past few weeks, but oh well.  I recently made a Syrian Chicken Stew that had cinnamon in it to add a sweet kick to the stew, that we enjoyed.  We both liked it, but next time will make it with different chicken.  The chicken we bought at the store was a bit chewy, hopefully it was still safe to eat. ;)   I had mine with some roasted garlic cauliflower, which was delicious.

"Midterm" Break

So, although we are not quite halfway through our 2nd term, we just finished our week long "midterm break".  It was originally supposed to be the following week, but the SEC (Supreme Education Council) decided to change it to last week a couple of months ago.  They actually extended it to a two week break for the country, but our school fought for the one week in order to avoid having to extend our school year.  Luckily, Mark and I were not planning on traveling anywhere, so it didn't impact already purchased plane tickets and such, as it did for others.

Considering we just went somewhere in December, it was nice to stay in Doha for this week long break.  We wanted to give you a snap shot of what we did this week.  Mark already posted about the concert and I mentioned our trip to the ER.  Otherwise, it was so nice to get school work done, spend time with friends who also didn't travel anywhere, and just relax.

Museum of Islamic Art Park Bazaar 

Park Cafe' to plan our trip to Istanbul...I love the view. :)

We may be in Qatar, but that doesn't mean we can't watch the Super Bowl and enjoy junk food. 

Purchased the NFL ticket so we were able to watch the game the following day instead of 2:30 am our time.  Thanks to Tory and Maureen who let us connect our computer to their TV to watch the game on the big screen. 

Spring Festival at the Souq

Iranian Restaurant at the Souq -  (left-Mark and I, middle-Maureen and Troy (our Canadian neighbors), back-Suzanne- (another Canadian teacher), right-Cecilia (South African teacher--she's also teachers Year 5)

The flushing out of the ear--thankfully after 30-45 minutes Mark could hear again!

Date Night - Enjoying an Italian dinner and some shopping

Gulf Adventures Desert Tour - Dune Bashing (pictures don't do justice)

This was really our faces at certain points of the trip.  I would look down and just see a cliff and if we went slightly to the right we could just roll the SUV.  It was such a thrill and our driver did a great job; he was a lot of fun! 

Sand is covering the windshield -- We are going down a dune at this point--it feels like we were on a roller coaster in the dunes.

"Home is wherever I'm with you" 
We may be 1000+ miles from what we once called "home", but no matter where we are, Mark is my home. This has been such an amazing journey and I'm so grateful to experience this with my best friend. We've had our challenges, but prayer and strength from our Father has helped us each step of the way.

Mark and Majid (dune bashing driver)

Dune jumping

Being silly :)

It was scary to jump off the end of a dune

Just got to the camp and are enjoying some Chai Karak (tea+milk) 

yummy food in a cute tent--we were sitting on large pillows on the ground.  This place was adorable!

Let the sand boarding begin

A natural

As Mark would say, "We're making progress"--he's excited to hopefully get me on the slopes for some snow boarding.

Mark teaching me how to board and helping be down the hill~

This is what happened when I went down by myself...haha! I made it most of the way without falling. :)

Let the games begin -- we spent the afternoon playing games - ping pong, darts, foosball, and chess 

The desert trip was amazing! I have to thank my student's dad who works for Gulf Adventures who gave us a complimentary full day desert tour.  We hope to go with friends in a couple of months and hope it's warm enough to swim that time.  

We finished the day by meeting up with some friends to watch the Winter Olympic opening ceremony. Overall, we had a great week off and are trying to get our heads back into "school mode".  Our next "midterm break" is in the middle of April and we will be going to Istanbul, Turkey for the week.  

~Kristin

Emergency Room Visit #2

Well, Mark and I made our second trip to the ER since we have been here, but this time it was for Mark. We are unfortunately still waiting on our health cards that we were finally able to apply for about a month ago, so until then all medical trips need to go through the ER.  Luckily, our trips have not been for anything life threatening, and we are grateful for that.

Earlier this week Mark was cleaning out his ears with a Q-tip and must have pushed the wax in too far, because he has not been able to hear out of that ear ever since.  It has been quite annoying for him (and I), but I keep joking with him that his is just an excuse for him to ignore me. ;) 

Anyways, after several days of this and trying various home remedies and ear drops from the pharmacy (you don't need a prescription to get quite a few medications from the pharmacy, but the pharmacy at the hospital has different drugs), we opted to see a doctor.  Going to the hospital here is quite different than in the States, well if you're going to the public hospital at least.  We first tried going to the family ER that I went to, but found out they only see woman patients.  

So, we then proceeded to the Male ER entrance and boy was that quite different than the female one.  The female/family ER wasn't very packed at all and had both men and woman, but they were sitting in separate areas.  When we walked into the men's ER, I stuck out like a sore thumb as I was literally the only female, minus a few nurses, inside among about 50 sick men.  I'm quite used to the ratio here, but this was a bit extreme in such a confined area.  After seeing the long line for registration, I told Mark I would get us a few seats.  As soon as I sat down, a man with a surgical mask, who was hospital security, came and told me that I was not allowed in there.  He told me I had to wait outside.  Mark and I were both frustrated at this, as we just wanted to be able to stay together. 

This is definitely a frustration here as it is part of their culture/religion to separate the men and women as much as possible.  So, as we were questioning if there is anywhere we can go to be together, the security guard did tell us that I would be able to go in with Mark to see the doctor.  So, I went and found a chair just outside the waiting area and read.   Mark came out and sat with me for awhile as there was quite a lot of people infront of him and we were expecting to be there for quite some time.  We definitely saw a few interesting people come through, but luckily we didn't see any severe cases.  

After waiting for a little over an hour, we finally heard "Mark Daniel Wilcoxen" announced over the intercom.  We walked back into this area where they had about 6 "cubicle" medical areas, and Mark is directed to go sit in one of them with a couple of other men.  Lets just say they were doing their best to get people in and out of here as quick as possible.  The doctor, who happened to be the same one I saw when I went, looked at Mark's ear with his handy dandy medical ear scope and said there wasn't a hole in his eardrum and it was just a build up of earwax.  We were hoping he would flush it out, but all he did was write a prescription for it.  

So, one and half hours later we were walking home after spending less than $1 USD on his prescription and nothing for the hospital visit.  We were somewhat disappointed in that they didn't do anything but prescribe medication, but were hopeful that it was strong and would work quickly.

Well, that was two days ago and the problem still persists.  We came home from our small group last night and I began researching more home remedies/suggestions.  I then proceeded to look into the medication that they prescribed to Mark, and couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw that it was not for ears but they were eye drops instead.   

The moral of the story, ALWAYS check the prescription before taking the medicine any doctor here prescribes.  That's probably a good rule of thumb anywhere, but I can't help but think that it's more rare of something like that happening in the States.

I'm not sure Mark sees the humor in the situation as much as I do, but you could definitely say we go out moneys worth. ;)

PS- Any suggestions you may have are welcome! We are going to attempt to find Hydrogen Peroxide today, as that is not something they have at the the pharmacy or grocery near us.  

Side Note:  It was brought to our attention that people were not able to "follow" our blog.  We have finally figured it out, and you need to enter your e-mail address in the box under "Follow by Email" (top right).  Afterward, you need to click the link they e-mail you to verify your e-mail address.  This was a widget we needed to add, so mission accomplished. ;)

Go The Distance

These past two Fridays at "The Place" (Sundays in other parts of the world), singer/songwriter/Grammy artist Geoff Moore lead worship.  It was his first time to The Middle East so that was one of the key things that we had in common with Geoff.  Another thing, more notably for me, given the size of the university and its current graduating class, was to learn that Geoff attended/graduated from Taylor University.  Like any TU alum, the most popular question was where did you live on campus?  And that was where our commonalities ended as he lived in Wengatz Hall while I was in Sammy Morris.  Oh well; Geoff is a solid guy.

I'll leave you to research and look up other biographical information on Geoff while I continue to share our experience with him these past couple of Friday mornings.  This past Friday, Kristin and I were chosen to help him sell CD's.  The combination of Geoff's heart piercing music and the pretty girl next to me help sell quite a few CD's.  Afterwards, Kristin and I got to meet Geoff (hence the first name basis) and his accompanying guitarist, Mark (need I say more) who were both real humble, down to earth and easy-going people to strike up conversation with.

We're hopeful that Geoff and friends of his like Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman will come across the pond to play and lead worship.  In our conversation with Geoff and Mark, others were saying how often people return to Qatar so that is a positive.  Having both of them was a real treat and blessing as they shared their music with us that spans generations.  One of our favorite songs that Geoff played both Fridays was "Listen to Our Hearts".  Check it out at the link below, and may it pierce your heart and give praise to The One who gives us new life.

"Listen to Our Hearts" by Geoff Moore