Lucky to have an American Passport

Bobby and I went to a house warming party last weekend at a friend's villa in the compound.  We met lots of interesting people there.  One couple was from Lebanon (there are actually a lot of people from Lebanon here).  I had the most interesting discussion with them that I wanted to share with you.

This particular couple were Christians from Lebanon.  We discussed what it was like to be an Arab Christian.  They said that most Muslims find out that they are Christian and immediately try to convert them to Islam.  (like they are crazy for not being Muslim).  They are active in the Christian church here and were able to share where it is, etc.

Then the conversation switched to why they were thinking of moving on from Qatar to another country.  According to this couple, let me share a little background info about Qatar:  there is a hierarchy of salaries here.  Qatari and Americans are at the top of the hierarchy followed by Arabs from the other GCC countries (Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.), followed by Europeans, followed by other Arab countries, followed by countries farther east (India, Philippines, etc).  So if I had the same job as someone from Lebanon, for example, I would be paid more.  Seems crazy right?  In fact, I would guess if you are from certain countries, you wouldn't even be eligible to apply for such job no matter what your previous training.  He also told me how much you are scrutinized when traveling when you have a passport from the middle east compared to other countries.  It is impossible to become a Qatari citizen unless you are born to two Qatari parents.  Even people who were born here and have lived here their entire lives are not considered Qatari unless both parents are Qatari Nationals.  For example, Natalie's friend in class was born here and her parents have lived here for 20 years, yet they are still considered as from their previous country (which is either Pakistan or Palestine -- I couldn't understand for sure which one she said).  So different from the United States.  We have met many people here who are, lets say Canadian, but have one of their children who are American because they were living in America when that particular child was born.  Funny, huh?

He went on to tell me what it was like growing up in Lebanon where it is a battlefield with attacks related to the Israeli/Palestine conflict, etc.  I can't even imagine growing up in an area like that.  He said they would be playing in the streets/yards as kids while you could hear shelling, gun shots, etc.  The couple were thinking of moving to Australia since it is easy to establish residency there and get an Australian passport.  When I asked why they weren't considering moving to the United States, he said it is extremely difficult to move there and even more difficult to become a citizen and receive a passport.  I never realized how hard it is to immigrate to the USA.  We have so many people right in Gainesville that are from other countries.  How hard was it for them?  Or maybe they aren't actually citizens - just there on work visas, etc?  I know we have lots of illigal immigrants but this still surprised me.

I guess what I took from the entire conversation is that as an American, I so live in a bubble.  I had no idea what kind of hardships people across the world have to endure just to be treated like we are.  It was such an interesting conversation and I was so glad to have met this couple and learn from them.

We are so excited that Carol/Mia comes to visit us this Thursday!!!  The kids are beyond excited and Bobby and I are, too!  It will be so nice to have a familiar face from home.  She will be here for two weeks and is bringing Halloween to us (costumes, decorations, and all).  Yeah!  It sounds like our compound does a big Halloween thing for trick or treating, etc so I am excited about that.

We are supposed to get our furniture today so we shall see if that really happens!  Here are a few pics from the week so far:

Natalie wearing a new shirt that arrived in the mail from Kaitlyn (thanks Cindy!!)

Bought some paint so we could make some fun Halloween crafts (this one was Avery's purple ladybug idea)

Just because we are in Qatar doesn't mean we have to get dressed to go for a bike ride does it?
Avery is wearing her new "Gobble Gobble" thanksgiving pjs

The carousel in the mall

Chase with his new haircut!! We finally took him in after 2 months of shaggy central!