Thanksgiving in Qatar

Hello everyone,

I am back home again in Delhi and it feels so weird to think that Delhi is now my home. I came home with a cold so it took me a little longer to get my photos posted and labeled, plus, I took over 250 photos and weeded it down to 197 for the album. I could have done a lot more weeding but you guys always say that you enjoy the photos so I decided to just leave most of them up and let you see the world through my camera.

I did have an excellent flight in both directions, traveling coach late at night because I am frugal. It saved several hundred dollars. Instead of flying on Qatar Airways directly to and from Delhi, which was possible, I took a flight that went through Abu Dhabi airport in both directions. I booked the flight on Etihad Airways but ended up flying the leg to and from Delhi on Jet Airways, which is what I had flown on all the way from New York. They did a nice job and I can't complain, even though I left Qatar at 6:45 in the evening and didn't get to Delhi until 5:40 the next morning. Most of that time was eaten up in a 4 hour layover in Abu Dhabi and another 2:30 was eaten up in time changes along the way since India has this silly half hour time difference idea that the British started. I can't even program that into my FMS on the airplane so I end up just using Greenwich Mean Time for all my time calls.

Alan very kindly picked me up at the Doha airport at 3 a.m. We had no problem connecting and off we went to his house and to bed. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were going to be doing dinner that day at the Dean's house for Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. Very nice house. Met some very interesting people and had some great food. I think Jennifer's "Poor Man's Caviar" recipe was my favorite chip dip of all time. I even got the recipe from her, which I almost never do. She also loaded me up with some great canned food for my stay in Delhi. I haven't eaten like this since leaving Pittsburgh last June so I am afraid to get on the scale.

Alan took a lot of time to take me around to the shopping area called the Souq and to a fancy mall where they had an amazing choice of stores and food. The food court looked like America gone Middle East. Had some Lebanese food for lunch one day, with the best Tabouli Salad ever.

Since there is not much beef in India (cows are sacred, remember) we went out to eat and I wanted a good hamburger. Went to this great South African place and even teenage Adam said it was like the best burger he had ever had. Because of my deprivation I could only agree. The hot Krispy Kreme donut from the shop next door was a good appetizer, too.

Church was interesting, mostly made up of workers from the Phillipines and parts of Africa. Lots of people and enthusiasm. The pastor was a soft spoken man from Brazil. It was funny because I was picking out all the people at church from India and talking with them. Native dress from your home country is a giveaway now.

On Friday Alan and Jen had potluck dinner at the Greek Neighbor's house, with some other neighbors who are Irish and Iranian. Cool mix and loved the international flavor of the company. The kids loved the chocolate fondue fountain and blew the chocolate all over the wall, as well as their clothes and the floor. Chocolate seems to be a popular international commodity.

Sunday, Alan wanted to take me on a nice tour so we headed for the desert and a fort that he found on the map. On the way we passed a Camel Race Track so I insisted we had to stop and look around since they really don't have anything like this anywhere I have ever lived. It must be a huge track as we couldn't see the whole thing. We did see many camel jockeys practicing and leading their teams on practice runs. Each team has their own blanket color so it's cute to see the babies following their mothers on the run. We didn't get much information so I don't know how long the races are or anything but just the visuals were amazing and fun.

We got to the desert and the road quickly deteriorated in to nothing. We were following multiple sand tracks to nowhere. The fort wasn't to be found. I thought Alan and Adam were going to have a heart attack when I told them to stop at this Arab house so I could approach and ask about the fort. There were kids and sheep and goats running around in and out of the tents and buildings. The man of the house came out, put his hand out and we shook. He smiled and I tried my slow English on him. The word fort wasn't in his vocabulary so I tried Old building and he immediately lit up and pointed almost to his front yard. Alan was so glad for my safe return and we saw the fort and then proceeded to explore the kind of interesting terrain in the area. It was a nice day for doing a little hiking so we explored the interesting hills and you can see from the pictures that we were also near the sea. I love seeing places that I have never been. There were even some ex-pats who were camping on the shore with their tents and Alan said he had seen that a brochure said there was camping there.

Time was coming for me to get back and we went out to a very fancy mall. People watching is always interesting at malls and this was exceptional because of all the different dress styles that you see. I was amazed to find out that a lot of the women have fancy jeans and tops and very elaborate makeup on under those black, covered dresses. I just had a very different idea that things were very austere. I kept trying to see how they would eat at the mall with that total face cover on and I never did get to see that. Visual incongruity was everywhere with very simply exterior dressed people getting out of fancy SUV's and going in to very fancy stores and eating American style food. The fast food people have made huge inroads into Middle Eastern society. McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins were everywhere. Alan got a kick out of explaining that the kids in his college classrooms thought that Applebee's was one of the finest places you could eat. I guess when you compare it to McDonald's it does win.

I watched less football than I ever have for Thanksgiving. The only game we could find was the blowout of Green Bay over the Lions. Not much fun there. And, it was on early in the morning.

Seeing all the building going on in Qatar was simply amazing. I thought India was going great but I think Qatar has them beat. I counted 40 construction cranes at the Pearl alone, one small circle location. There are literally hundreds around the city. Dubai has proved that it isn't a bottomless pit of money out there so we'll see how it all works out.

I am now back in India and adjusting back to my simpler life style here. The streets are crowded again and the roads are rough but I am home. In another two weeks I should have a copilot and then I can go flying again. Yeah!

The picture is from Doha with Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores side by side in a little strip mall center.

Keep in touch,

Dan

Thanksgiving Plans

I've been thinking that since I cannot fly without a copilot at the moment and since it is the holidays, I need a plan. So, I called my friends, Alan and Jennifer Montgomery, whom I met while in Pittsburgh. Alan is a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and currently is on a teaching assignment in Doha, Qatar. That is only about a 3 and 1/2 hour flight from here. In fact, they are only two time zones away. They were thinking about coming here but then they have 6 people to travel and, at the moment, I am alone. I got on the phone today and checked and sure enough, they were staying home for Thanksgiving and Jennifer kindly invited me for dinner. I didn't have any idea what tickets might be like at the last minute but it turns out they weren't too bad if I arrived in the middle of the night. So, late Wednesday evening I will be boarding an international flight to Doha, Qatar, and spending a long weekend with Alan and Jennifer and family. The cool part is they were the ones who had the going away party for me in Pittsburgh last June so I will be reconnecting with my Pittsburgh friends, who were about the last ones I saw before I left. Alan and I had talked about getting together on the other side of the world but it was one of those things that might never happen. It probably wouldn't have except for my no-fly status at the moment. This is going to be so exciting!!

Had a nice time at the Sunday church today. The pastor there, Karl Smith, always comes up with great and thoughtful sermons. He is one of those guys who really puts a lot of thought and time into what he says up front and it definitely shows. Today he inspired me to put some kind of inspirational thought into each of my online offerings, whether it is a blog or a letter. He doesn't know that he did nor did he say anything direct, it just kind of occured to me that I would like to try it. Kind of just a thought for the day. Read and think or just ignore, whatever flips your switch. These sayings or phrases will almost always not originate with me, but are meaningful for me and I hope that they will give you pause for thought that will take you beyond the mundane, day to day thoughts that we all have. Maybe I have learned something in my life and maybe it can or will help you in some small way. If so, that would make my day, if not, then nothing is lost.

I have gotten a couple of letters from friends that are planning on getting together with family this week. Somehow, getting together at the holidays has become one of the things that we do. I remember the first Thanksgiving and Christmas that I spent in Botswana away from family in the Southern Hemisphere. With the warm weather and no family, it just seemed like any other day, so it is the relationships that make these times special. Take extra care and treasure each moment because they are so precious and few. I will be thinking about my family and where they are and what they are doing at this time. Karen will definitely be on my mind as she makes the final preparations to join me in India. I was the one who left her to clean up a lot of stuff left behind in the hurry to get over here to work. The love of a good woman is a treasure not taken lightly. My kids will also be in my thoughts. I am half a world away but thinking about them brings them closer, at least in my mind.

I hope that happiness is a big part of your days during this time of year. I will leave you with my thought for the day, which comes from another:

"When control enters a relationship, love is lost."

Wow!!

Take care and talk soon,

Dan

My New Title

Friday I was in the office and the Human Resources lady, who has her office at the airport office, came in and referred to me by a new (to me) name. They have always called me Captain Dan since I first came, since they call all of their pilots captain over here, but Friday it was Captain Dan gee. So, I was now curious what this new title that had been assigned to me was about. I asked one of the other people who spoke Hindi in the office about it and they were all saying that it was a sign of respect for like the senior guy in the outfit or the one who commands the most respect. The chief pilot and the CEO had given me a conference call the day before, asking me about my total flight hours (15,150) and my time in the Citation XLS (3000+) and time in the Citation CJ (2000+) so, after that conversation with them I think there was some discussion about me in the office since I wasn't there, that I was the high time pilot in the company. Of course, they have had my resume and total times for months but I don't think anyone paid too much attention to it until they were doing our ARGUS audit here recently and then it began to be clear. Of course, the other thing is that I am the second oldest guy in the outfit after Dhaka, who is out right now after his gallbladder surgery last week. Dhaka has me by 8 years but still I realize that I am not getting any younger here. So, I have called Karen and told her that I now would like for her to know my complete title in India so she can refer to me with the proper name - Captain Dan gee. It has a ring to it, but, as she says, this country does mess you up in many ways. Dr. McGhee was in church today again and he said the closest thing we have in English would that would equal gee is Sir. Now, since all men are looking for respect, I can now get all I need with just that title, Captain Dan gee.

It has been an interesting week as we try to rebuild the flight department and make the corrections necessary to get in line with the DGCA regulations and with our own Standard Operating Procedures. Several departures have occurred and now we are looking to hire some more pilots in order to properly staff our department. For a period of time last week I felt like I was playing a real life version of Survivor.

Fortunately, I have church on the weekends and it is a nice change of faces and venues to get my mind on other things and to be with other people at least for short periods of time. This week I have been priveleged to be with Dr. John McGhee, who is leading a public health teaching drive in Northern India for a few weeks here. He stayed with me for a few days. Then, I also had Edgar Pena, a pilot with our company, who was in Delhi for a week or so. I also met a pilot named Tom, who is a Japanese British citizen and has an American wife, so calls Seattle home. He flies a CJ2 for another company and we are thinking of putting him to work with us since his current contract is about to expire. We have recently become friends and since he is an accomplished organist we like talking about music since I was a music minor in college and loved the mathematics of music composition and also enjoy my piano, trumpet and occasional guitar. Now, one by one, the company has headed off and I am again alone. Karen is busy getting ready to come over and I still believe we will be together in a month or so.

We had another going away party last night for a departing member of our Tuesday night Bible study group. The hosting couple has the nicest house in Gurgaon, with a terrace roof that has grass and hedges and the temp was just perfect last night. Kathy, another American pilot from Austin, Texas was there. So, in lots of ways, it was kind of an informal pilot meeting on one side of the terrace. Fun!! Ricky is the departing one and he is headed back home to New Orleans. At the meeting I was again impressed with how supportive everybody is, while still calculating how long they have been in India or how long they have til they go home. Hoby, who taught the class last Tuesday is also headed home for Austin, even though he wasn't working here, he is Kathy's better half and she works hard as a pilot for another charter company here. Hoby has been through the "Emmaus Walk" program, which is quite similar to "Tres Dias", which I went through about 9 years ago in Tennessee. It has made a huge difference in Hoby's life and he is hoping to eventually bring it to India from Texas. For those of you who are wondering, it is a high intensity weekend spiritual retreat that is unlike any other retreat program that I have ever been through.

Tomorrow I have to go to church to hear a friend sing, then hurry over the the US Embassy for a Mela (kind of festival) program that will probably have US style food and entertainment. That should be a wonderful time to connect with other Americans in the area. Then, I have to leave there in order to get over to Muan's church and speak to his young adult group. Muan is a member of our Tuesday night fellowship group and he and Ricky have been here to minister to Burmese refugees in India. He wants me to come talk to his young adults but I don't have to worry about the topic since he assigned me a text to talk about that pretty much keeps me on that topic.

Now the conversation about the ex-pat pilots in India goes to an important meeting in January of next year that will determine the possible outcome. Looks now like it might be July, 2011 before we are ushered out. I still find it difficult to believe that they will have made enough preparations to go it alone, but we shall see. Now we are promised that our company will have an American component in case we have to leave India that will allow us to continue our careers in company. If that all works out, this might be my last job...........Dan

John McGhee and Edgar Visit

I am gaining weight again, this time it's because I have been eating like a King for the last few days. On Saturday my new friend, John McGhee came home from church with me and we had a great couple of days. He is a great cook and we did a store visit to buy some staples since my bachelor kitchen looked more like a convenience food outlet. Then we had the best spaghetti I have had since leaving home, where Karen's spaghetti still lingers on my tastebud memory. Then, when we were settling in to a routine of food, exercise and prayer, Edgar, my pilot buddy from the company, came to stay and now we had three people in the apartment. This seemed to confuse my househelper to no end. She wasn't sure what was going on but fortunately we had John to talk Hindi with her and kind of let her know what was going on. Edgar just laughs every time that John talks Hindi. He hasn't seen a white man talk this language and he was always just asking John to please talk to the taxi driver or talk to the maid or talk to somebody so I can watch you speak Hindi. It was like he didn't believe that a white man could actually speak this language, but we always got the desired results so it must have been working.

I haven't flown this week because the company is still working on our pilot situation for both the Citations. The XLS has no co-pilot and the CJ has no captain so it is a strange situation for me since I haven't left home without my suitcase in tow for a couple of months. I just can't afford to be caught on the other side of Delhi or something without my bag since we are charter and it can pop up. Dhaka, my XLS copilot had a gall stone so he had surgery last weekend and now the DGCA has decided that we cannot hire a pilot just for 6 weeks to replace him. That means that the plane may not fly until either Dhaka gets back or we send one of our Indian pilots to Excell copilot school. Either way it may be a couple of weeks or more till it flies and it could be as long as 5 more weeks. We are interviewing CJ captains and I believe we are going to hire one of the ex-pats whose contract was expiring and who is headed for America unless he finds a job. I have been encouraging and he has been calling. I believe we are going to hire one, if not two, CJ captains in the next few weeks.

Mardi the cat has been settling in to her new home. She is nocturnal but the most interesting part is that she used to live in a house and it was on the ground floor so she was used to being let out at night to play. Now, when she doesn't get to go outside there is a lot of yowling. I am working to turn her into a day kitty but as you know, this training of cats is a bad idea. We had one cat in Pittsburgh that Karen trained on the leash and he would walk and go places with the leash. He even had an alternate personality when he was on the leash. But this female kitty is like the female we had in Pennsylvania and she doesn't train AT ALL. When you put the leash on her to possibly go outside, she just falls down and slides with attitude. The funniest thing she does, though, is to always sleep with the covers pulled over her head. Sometimes I can't even find her because she is either in her basket in the jacuzzi or even on the bed with the bedspread or pillow case pulled over her. She has a bell on her collar or sometimes I would never find her. She loves her little games of hide and seek.

Dr. John McGhee and I did a song at Delhi church and then he did a song service in the afternoon that set the kids on fire. Too fun! They are so used to just their old songs and stuff, they always enjoy someone new coming in and leading. Since I have no guitar, no piano or trumpet here, I have been hiding my musical skills and letting the kids go. Many said it was the first time they had seen me play the piano. I did manage to unplug the electronic piano half way through the song with my other foot but we got it going again and they sounded really good a capella, too.

Hope you are having a great week. Now I am back to one guest, Edgar, as John is starting his work with the incoming instructors for his new health education programs throughout Northern India. It was interesting watching him chase the challenges of trying to put together this program, which involves many volunteers from America plus the church administration in India and the travel challenges of visas, etc. Sometimes, I think it even challenges the Almighty to work with all the India stuff.

If you look carefully at my 3rd birthday pic, you will see the little metal airplane with fold up wings that I insisted to my father I HAD to have. It took him days to find the right one because the propeller had to spin and the wings and wheels folded up. I have had this aviation bug for a long, long time. Sometimes, it takes me to interesting places.

Richest Temple in India

We flew a group of family down to Tirupati near Chennai in Southeastern India to see the world's richest temple at Tirumala. Lord Balaji is the god of prosperity and if you go there it is promised that you will be prosperous. This idea has obvious universal appeal, I mean who doesn't want to be prosperous. Anyway, this temple entertains between 60-100,000 visitors a day. Completely insane, of course, even by India standards. Our air hostess Mehak had wanted to go several times before and it just never worked out so she was all set to go and Dhaka was going to make it all possible so we all piled into the touring van and off we went up the mountain. Some people we walking up to 18 kilometers up the mountain and there are extra blessings promised for those that do. Many people have saved up their hair and then get their hair completely shaved so there were a lot of bald heads walking around. As the crowd got into the different lanes and started working their way towards the middle of the temple and the deity viewing, it got crazier and crazier. First of all, these people have no personal space requirement like American's do. I was being pushed and shoved the whole time by overweight Indians from behind. It was hard to maintain your balance and a couple of times as we got close to the god viewing the crowd was pressing so hard I was barely able to breathe at all and actually got worried about my personal safety. In order to not get separated from Mehak and Dhaka in the crazy crowd I was hanging on to Mehak for dear life from behind and one FAT Indian lady took humbrage at my behavior in the temple and gave me the evil eye. I barely noticed it but Mehak and Dhaka were laughing about it at breakfast. I said I didn't care what she thought, I just didn't want to get separated in that crazy, milling crowd. They have 12,000 temple workers there and many of them are using bullhorns to keep control of the crowds. I have never been through anything like it in my life. Just think the most crowded day you have ever experienced at Disneyworld or some amusement park and then remove the personal space requirements of us Americans. Also, remove the deodorant and bath that most of us have every day. The ONE saving grace was that there was a slight, cool breeze and it was blowing from our side of the cattle stantion. If it had been warmer or no breeze or from a different direction I believe I would have passed out and it wouldn't have mattered because the crowd would have carried me vertically right through the place. I know Karen and she has clausterphobic tendencies so she would have never made it. The bad thing is, once you are in there is absolutely no way you are going back out. The steel bars that keep you in your lane or area go all the way from floor to ceiling to keep people from cutting the line. I can see how people die in these religious journey's to the Middle East now because there were times last night when I really wasn't sure about survival. I told both my partners that they owed me coming to church with me now, no questions asked, and they both agreed that was fair. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I have never been pushed and shoved by so many heavy and stinky people for so long in all my days. It goes 24 hours a day and never stops. The Vatican has studied this temple for many years trying to figure out how to get money from people like this. This temple has documents in it that date back to 500 AD so it has been around awhile.

Too wild, and when I looked in the darkened hallway toward this Lord Balaji, it was just such a let down and so not what I thought it would be. My passengers who had made this special trip believe in the magic and donated several hundred thousand dollars towards the temple so there you go. Blessings return to those who give. We Christians have the same belief in our tithing and that it returns in spades when you give faithfully and generously.

Too bad they won't allow a camera or Blackberry anywhere on the place.

Dan