Never more than now have I appreciated how many and how much the little things can quickly add up!

The first time that I stepped off of the plane at the Doha airport, 10:30pm local time, I had expected the exterior differences, from language and attire to traffic and cityscape, easily appreciated even in the nightlight.  First little thing…I’ve not deplaned into the airport but rather onto the tarmac filled with buses and people quickly scattering different directions.  There are separate buildings for arrivals and departures and I would have been hard pressed to figure which bus to get on were it not for an escort holding a sign with my name.  She made the initial arrival easy.  With no long customs line, my baggage delivered to the office where I was being retina photo processed over coffee and sandwiches, I could see through the big glass wall that separated us from the chaos outside, finally Stephen walking towards us.

It was a short drive to our new villa, filled with trepidation and flinches when faced with roundabout traffic entering my side, another little difference, no roundabouts in Naples.  At first glance, everything inside our villa looked pretty normal, in relative terms, I was pleased to see many of the same conveniences and feeling confident everything would feel like home once we got some furniture.  Funny how everything looks different in the daylight!

A wedding and a week later inventory begins, things we need, things I think we need but can’t find, things I thought we needed but don’t, things I don’t know that we need, little things overload!  First and foremost, a washer and dryer.  Now, initially this seems an easy task, but after a few evenings shopping appliances, reality sets in, there’s nothing I recognize how to use except an ax.  The servants quarters, I thought, would be my laundry room, but it’s meant to be lived in, has no dryer vent and needs some plumbing adaptions.  The kitchen is meant for the washer/dryer unit, but again, no dryer vent…why?  Because there are few full size washer and dryers to be found and most homes aren’t equipped for them!  Okay, we settle on the single unit.  Happy to finally be able to do my own laundry, another little thing becomes apparent, if I’ve only one unit, I can’t wash and dry at the same time and the wash cycle alone is a 2 hour cycle with a very small tub.  Next little thing, since I’ve opted to use the servants quarters as a laundry room the floor needs scrubbed and bleached to avoid rewashing laundry that may fall on it, so I do, carefully working around the rack that I’ve learned serves as a dryer filled with my hand washed black lingerie.  Well pleased with my spic and span floor I later return to check on the black lingerie hang drying to find them completely dry, and bleach fume streaked!  How could a little thing like product strength differ so much!  A good cry and a day later, the laundry room is ready for whites to be washed.  In total, doing laundry that would have taken me a day at my Naples home took all week…how can this be?…when will I ever do anything else?  I reckoned the good news was that during the 2 hour wash cycles I had plenty of time to scrub up the pre-lived in Villa and get myself cleaned up to go out for more ‘home things shopping’…like more laundry soap!

By this time, beginning to catch on to regional differences being for good reason, I stopped looking for products I’ve used at home (Tide here doesn’t smell like Tide at home!) and started looking for products that work here.  Sometimes resisting change simply makes life harder.  The mostly empty bottle on the left is what I started with, a UK laundry soap for all purpose use, directions provided in English and Arabic, smelled and cleaned okay, but measurements in metric and needed bleach for whites.  The Persil in the middle is a local product with directions in Arabic and English, measurements by cap fulls, is what I’ve learned cleans whites whiter than I’ve ever seen and smells divine.  Then there’s the French product in the red bottle to the right for colors, smells lovely, cleans brilliantly, but the French being the French provide directions only in French!  The sticker placed over the directions is in Arabic.  As for the bounce, the spin cycle leaves laundry 95% dry, so the dryer sheets aren’t as effectively necessary for a 10 minute dry time and of course not at all for things rack dried.  Mostly, they live in the laundry room for familiarity security!

Three weeks later, finally resigned to stop resisting the way things are done here, I’ve reduced the laundry days substantially and not ruining nearly as many clothes!  As for the tile floors, a steam cleaner is the only answer.  No more bleach for anything and learning to be careful with the hydrogen peroxide, also double the strength of what we get at home.  A bit short on furniture yet, but we’re getting there, every piece and story behind them making our villa feel a little more like home.  Still working out the Japanese air conditioners with 9 different setting sliders and all directions printed in Japanese and Arabic.  For now, it’s all about the little things and not resisting reevaluation of decades of accumulated knowledge!