So the word is finally out, we are moving to Doha (Qatar).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
We heard the first week of May, but were absolutely not allowed to talk about it. The compromise we made was that we told everyone we were sure to move this summer, but that it was still confidential where to. It is a very unpleasant rule but kind of logic if you think how many people are involved in the process. If one person moves, his position has to be filled, and so on, up to six or seven people. And it would be absolute horrible if someone would tell person nr six “so I heard you’re moving” when that person hasn’t been told yet… News travels fast, and the world is small.
The result was all my friends asked questions like: “but is it a nice place to move to”, “are there international schools”, “are you happy about the place”… I couldn’t answer the questions and everybody tried to be nice but in the end I was avoiding my friends so I wouldn’t have to answer.
So I’m very, very happy I can talk openly about it now. It hasn’t been a nice couple of weeks.
Also, there’s so much to organize, and I couldn’t ask anyone for advice or even a shoulder to cry on because I couldn’t tell anyone what was going on.
Like: School. The night we knew we went on the internet researching schools. So we picked a school just based on a website (again), paid the fee and the waiting began. Last week we heard all 3 boys are in!!!!!!!!!!!! Can not tell you how relieved we were that all 3 boys are in the same school.
Like: vaccinations. We had to be tested for Hep A, Hep B, Hep C, Hiv and TB. Test results came back and they told me I’ve no anti bodies against Hep B. But I have been vaccinated, so I told them I wanted the test again because I didn’t trust the results. I can tell you one thing, once they understood I didn’t believe the test results, they were not happy with me! But sure enough, second test confirmed everything was fine. Now, if you were in your home country it’s a lot of work. But try to communicate with nurses who do not speak any English, and only 10 words German. Imagine they give you a phone call to tell you the results and after 10 minutes you still are not sure if everything is ok or not at all because of miscommunication. And this is only one example, I could fill two pages with stories like this.
Like: housing. Doha has grown more than explosive, so there’s a big house shortage. The company will appoint us a house, but fully furnished. There are beds, sofa’s but also cups and plates, towels and sheets. Like living in a hotel. Because of that WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE FURNITURE WITH US. Just clothes and some very personal things like photoalbums! So what to do with all our stuff? Well, ship it to Holland. And then what? Well, we don’t know, store it somewhere. But we don’t have a house in Holland. Well, not our problem… What will happen if our next assignment is in America? Well, then you ship your stuff from Holland to America... So Romke did put up a fight, and in the end we are allowed to bring one container. It’s hard enough to move as often as we do, but if you’re not surrounded by your own familiar books, furniture and everything, it is even harder. The house will be filled to the brim with stuff because they are very reluctant to put furniture that comes with the house in storage. One thing is for sure, if youcome to visit us, we will have plenty of beds to sleep on!
This is enough for now, to be continued!
