John here, and I ain't no Ernie Pyle, but I do gots me a story to tell.
We're meeting the dangdest folks. There's the 7 foot tall doorman from Nigeria at our hotel. He has a smile that would light up a christmas tree. Our driver, Warren, from the Philippines who would wait for kingdom come to make sure he was right where he said he would be when we got through jabberwocking with whoever we were visiting. The real estate man, Ahmed, from Morocco who showed us 3 villas all the while making commentary on the managements of each place so we could make informed decisions - and also gracefully answering our most insipid questions about shemaghs and prayer practices and national identities, and asking his own questions and saying even at 42 he wants to learn something new about the world every day.
The folks at A&M Qatar are each exceptional, too. It makes the prospect of coming over here to do a job that has never been tried before seem possible. The attitude is: No road map? No problem. A little patience and a little kindness and we'll figure it out.
And holy cow these people are piercingly intelligent.
The golden rule is alive and well, peeps.
love it!
ReplyDeleteJohn, but you ARE such a good writer :-)
ReplyDeleteNow you all are beginning to see why it's taken us so long to re-aculturate!!
How nice to be around people from other parts of the world that actually have a sense of appreciation - for their jobs and the opportunities they are given. Hard to find a big smile here in the US on anyone's face or that great attitude -
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding us that those "rare" things still exist somewhere and hopefully we can all find these things in ourselves and start spreading some of that stuff in our own homes and cities here in the US! I am going to do a lot of BIG smiling today!