Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm living in the State of Qatar, which is just North of Saudi Arabia. The call to prayer is actually pretty cool -- it just gets old really fast! Lol! There's actually three calls and then the actual prayer. The calls are 10 mins apart, and each of them is a bit different. (I can give you a translation of them if you'd like!) After the three calls, they say the actual prayer and its very neat to watch. They pray 5 times a day here, so all in all, our Mosque goes off 20 times a day! Its pretty awesome though -- there's this one guy with a really high sqeaky voice...lol. And as for hearing it, I could always record it and email you the file! Or you know, because I've heard it so often, I could just sing it for you! LOL! *I can actually quote it!* I'd be really happy to answer any other questions you might have about the Middle East -- living here has really taught me so much!

I also just wanted to say sorry for being harsh on you before. I didn't really stop to think about why you were considereing running away -- I more just thought that it was a bad idea.

Oh and BTW, I thought you might like this. Its a picture of the Mosque two doors down from our house. Its called Ali Bin Jaber Mosque. It looks absolutely gorgeous at night.

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/550/alibinjabermosque0dl.jpg

Lol, I know! Its really gorgeous, especially at night! There will come a day when there is a temple where every mosque was! LOL, that's on every street corner!! Yes, I'll translate the prayers, and see if I can find you a nice lil chart of the motions. If not, I can always explain them, having seen the men here pray quite often. Being here has been a really neat experience, and it has really opened my eyes to a lot. And its quite neat to hear what the Arabs believe. Did you know that they believe in Jesus and say what a great man he was? They don't believe that he was the son of God of course, but they respect him very much. I'm amazed at how much faith the people here have, and in a way it is very uplifting. Although they are not of the same faith as me, I look at them and think very highly of them for what they believe. And it makes me want to become even more faithful in what I believe. I had the oppertunity to work as an English teacher here, and so I have learned a lot from the people here. It has been such an amazing experience, and one I will never forget. I believe that in some ways it has been like what a mission is -- I wasn't here to preach the word of God, but I have strengthened my faith and learned so much. I would strongly recommend that anyone who has the chance to live overseas should take it. 'Tis a most amazing experience, and I didn't mean this post to be so long! Oh well! Opera Ghost, I'll pm you that stuff when I get it, okay?

so.....um......did we get away from the whole running away thing?? lol

Yay for not running away!! Lol, no worries OG -- *huggles back* -- I'm glad to be of help! And lol, I've been learning arabic here so I could speak to the local people, and to help me out when I teach English. Its been quite the experience, but reading and writing is the hardest part! My writing looks awful, but I can write the alphabet, my name, the numbers and probably about 30 or 40 other words. I can read a lot of words though, because I've been getting used to seeing names of places and stores in arabic. Its really cool but I'd like to be able to know more of it.

Hey hey, we're trying to get AWAY from the running away-ness here! Lol!! And who wants cold? Man, I'm freezing as it is! No, don't go running to Utah OG!

just so ya'll know im about to switch the name of this post to "Non-christian religion info" okay well ill do it now.

Hey Brian, sorry hun but I have been so busy packing for my move and taking scuba diving lessons. I haven't even been on the computer in a couple weeks. Argh! But, I am pretty much set to move back to Canada now, so I am back on here to post!

First off, I found the Call to Prayer translations, and even found them written in Arabic for ya. I'm going to pm them to you right after I finish this post.

Secondly, I wanted to tell you some really exciting news! When I first moved here in April, our branch had about 80 members. In November, we were made a ward by our stake, and we now have almost 200 members!!! And, a member from BYU Utah just moved here. He is going to be working with Sheika Mosa (our Emera/Queen) to set up a whole bunch of family programs. So although we aren't recognised as a church yet in this country, we've got people working high up in the government that can maybe help us out later on!! WOO HOO! And also, the Catholic church just got permission to build their first building here! Things are really changing!

Anyways, that's my news for the day. Lol, I didn't know that you had changed the topic of this, and so I read the first 2 pages, and was like..."NOOOOOO!" He's still gonna run away... sad

Word of wisdom for the day: NO RUNNING! lol

That's cool!! All I have to do is my final 2 open water dives and then I have my license!! I'm going the day after tomorrow, and I have the greatest diving partner in the world! Wow, crazy stuff! That's so weird that you have done it too. Oh yeah! I bought an underwater digital camera today! Gonna take some KAHRAZY pictures with it! LOL

So, do you have all your own equipment? Or did you just rent everytime you go? I've got everything but my BCD...*grumbles*...I want one...

Yeah, a HUGE jump in numbers! We were really pleased! Yeah for having the largest spanning stake in the world! Our stake covers 7 countries!! Stake activities are really hard to plan, for obvious reasons...lol.

Hmm, it died without me? OH, I FEEL SO NEEDED! Ha ha...

Word of Wisdom for the day: Listening to me won't make you any smarter....hee hee hee!