For the first time in my life, I was a "stand out."

Halfway through a fourteen hour fight from Chicago to Qatar, I looked around and suddenly realized I was the star attraction on Qatar Airlines, Flight 866. Along with meeting a family from Toronto who are Toronto Argunaut Fans, I was the only woman with an uncovered head of light curly hair; thus, Mothers and children gathered around me as I walked up and down the aisles to get my circulation going and stood by the bathrooms marching in place to the sounds of crying children, engaged mothers and snoring fathers. The women, children and I played peek a boo, patty cake and head shoulders knees and toes and we laughed, we laughed and we laughed. Laughter can easily become a common denominator whenever people from opposite shores meet.

My layover in the city of Doha, in the state of Qatar, a sovereign country, is a world away from my life on the Columbia River, the only similarity being water. The sidewalk city of high rises host the tallest building in the world, and maye the hottest; yet outside the city is a scene from "Lawrence of Arabia." Their economy is fueled by the third largest natural gas reserves in the world and oil reserves. They have the highest per capita income in the world, so I was not surprised to meet many Nepali's as well as other expatriates, working to send money home.