Al Jazeera – Teaching Abroad- American Teacher Overseas

365 Day Recap

It is New Years day here in Qatar and I am not at work. Hallelujah! -My New Year’s Eve was kind of boring (no fireworks here, and stayed home instead of partying) but after the amazing year I’ve had, I’ll take it! If you came to my blog expecting this…

Sorry to disappoint you. Sure, there are things I plan on doing more and even some I plan to do less but believe me I’ve set and broken enough resolutions in my life. I like to set goals whenever I feel like it, not just at the start of a new year. But that is me, so if you have set New Year resolutions for yourself, I sincerely wish you success.

When a new year starts, I like to reflect. I like to reflect on the things I did in the last 365 days. It is a way for me to stay humble, grateful and thankful. So here is my 365 day recap…

I started 2017 in bed because I had to work the next day for the first time, that stunk but that was no indication of how my year would be, in fact quite the opposite.

I visited 7 countries, 6 of them for the first time, 1 of them from my original bucket list (now called my Places to Visit List).

My husband moved to Qatar with me and I moved from my big villa to a nice apartment.

I had some of the most amazing food ever and even tried really hard to be a vegan when I wasn’t eating seafood.

Deliciousness

Yum

Squid

sardines

Evergreen Beet Ravioli for dinner

Vegan High Tea

Ritz Carlton Christmas brunch

Really what would this post be without some food pics!

I found fun ways to enjoy my time and took in some sights around Doha.

The Pearl

Mall of Qatar

Bowling

Souk Wakiq

Desert life

Zekreet

camel racing

happy hour

horse racing

Yes a mobile ATM

You don’t see this in the U.S. Camel crossing. lol

Women are given priority in the market

A country united against the blockade

Comedy in the Middle East

Banana Island

Zubarah Fort

Rode trip to the northern most coast of Qatar

National day at the Corniche

A show at the Mall

Darb Al Saii

Katara

Lusail in Qatar

I am QF symposium with Sheikh Moza

A look at the Corniche

The Torch all lit up

The new Stadium for 2020

Zig zag building

Game night with Friends

I flew first class for the first time, twice.

I watched my girlfriend marry her sweet heart in Vegas and we had a blast.

I ended this year with several interviews and a headline on Al Jazeera, focusing on my superpower- alopecia! Something tells me this is just the beginning…

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I’ve made new friends and lost some people along the way. Everybody I knew last year, is still alive and that is a blessing in itself. This is only a portion of my last 365 days.

The next 365 will be even better! I LOVE MY LIFE! I am on a journey and the path looks amazing!

What were some of your highlights from 2017?

My Imperfection is my Super Power: The Crown

“Step outside of the box and others will follow” by Kennesha Bell and Amani Khlifa

I told my son I believe that it is important to give and serve but I didn’t think that I was doing enough to help other people. Yes, I am teacher and I help little people every day but that is my career. Then my partner, Nàzma (the very talented Henna Artist from Sri Lanka), called me to do an interview with her. She wants to get her free services out there and serve, so that more people are aware and can use her. For some reason, she has not gotten any call backs for women with cancer or alopecia wanting henna crowns for their bald heads here in Qatar. She has contacted the cancer society here and still no responses. I have my own opinions about that. I think people here are ashamed. I told her that if she was in America, she would have too many clients to handle.

I was first interviewed by a young Northwestern University student named Noof. I met her at a local mall, where she asked me a few questions about how Nàzma and I hooked up and my perception on the culture here and its response to hair loss. She then wrote a paper as part of her assignment for school.

You can read the feature story here:

feature story alopecia and Henna

After that initial interview we just called ourselves partners. Each time Nàzma called, I answered. She was contacted by a Qatar University college student, a journalist, Amani Ben Khlifa (famous from AJ+ as well). Amani did a documentary on us and presented it to her school. I was so bummed that I couldn’t make it to the presentation because I had prior engagements but I was honored to have been a part of it.

My featured Image above was from the front of the brochure she created and the documentary is here:

One of our proudest achievements Nàzma and I did, was the interview with Al Jazeera. Laura Burdon-Manley and her videographer came to my flat and recorded a whole news story on November 14, 2017.

This morning Nàzma sent me this Whatsapp message, “Kennesha we will be on aljazeera…I don’t know when, everyone messaging me that they saw me…” No-one told us when it would be airing and apparently it had already aired. We searched and searched through the tv channels and online. Nàzma was able to find it by scrolling back through the news on Al Jazeera English Live and youtube. And then while sitting in front of the television, there it was: My big bald, beautiful head. They aired the Headline again and I was so proud of myself and my partner. Then Laura, who was in London, sent us the clip and here it is:

So now I’m thinking, I am helping people, through my story, at least I hope that I am. I would love to be the face of alopecia and inspire other women, who like me, are bald and beautiful. It has been an internal journey to accept me, but I hope that my external journey is just beginning, the journey to help others to accept themselves.

I am using my imperfection as my Superpower! What is your SuperPower?

Special thank you to Nàzmä Màzhar- a very special and talented person, Noof Al-Ahmad, Amani Ben Khlifa, Ahmed Photography, Laura Burdon-Manley for helping to get the word out.

I value the opinion of my readers and would love to hear from you, do you have any suggestions of how I can advocate more for alopecia sufferers, inspire other women and or become the face of alopecia? Please leave a comment with your suggestions!

If you or someone you know has alopecia please join my facebook group: For Women Living with Alopecia.

Footprints in the Sand

So my head is famous and now so is my face, a little bit.

I love being in front of the camera. That sounds really arrogant, right? I know but it’s the truth. No, I don’t think I’m the most beautiful person in the world, not even close but I’ve learned to love myself and that was a journey. I also think the camera and I have a pretty good relationship. I would love to be a model, but when I google types of models, I don’t fit into any of the categories.

I am not tall; I’m actually pretty short, 5’2 to be exact. I’m not thin or plus sized; I’m somewhere in the middle with a pouch. I’m not glamorous, fit, a child or mature. But I do have pretty nice skin, a caramel complexion, a pretty smile, a nice shaped BALD head, I’m smart and I’m confident. So I’ll probably never end up in Vogue or on someone’s catwalk but for some reason I always end up in front of a camera.

It could have started with my baby pictures. I was a cute, chunky baby. Or perhaps it was nude photos I had taken years ago. Where are those anyway? Or maybe it started with this….

That was a picture taken at my graduation from Cabrini College for my Master’s degree 4 years ago. I remember a photographer coming around and snagging pictures but the real shocker came when I received a phone call from a friend saying that they just saw me on the L-train. I knew I hadn’t been on the L-train that day so I was confused. Then they told me, my picture was on a billboard advertisement for Cabrini. I contacted the school and had them send me a copy. That picture was on their billboards and on pamphlets. For months, people would call me saying that they saw my picture.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine passed on some information about a tv channel that was looking to interview some people of Qatar. So of course I responded and a few days later the crew was at my flat conducting the interview. The interviewer asked me questions about my life in Qatar and allowed me to speak about Alopecia and my blog. The interview went well, but I beat myself up afterwards because there was so many other things I wanted to say. Isn’t this always the case; you think of things you coulda woulda shoulda said afterwards? But it was too late and well, what’s the point of crying over spilled milk. He said he would contact me once all the editing was completed and the interview was posted.

Today on my 6th wedding anniversary I got the message. The interview is posted. Please check it out using this link. QatarnaTV

Everything that was said was my exact words, but it comes off a little different than my intentions especially at the end, when I said “I don’t plan to return to the U.S. anytime soon.” It is true that I don’t intend on moving back to live in the U.S.A any time soon, but it’s not because I plan on living in Qatar forever either. I plan on exploring other places. And when the time is right to leave here, I’ll move someplace else. I’ve learned so much from living abroad, I want more experiences like this. I will always love my home country of the U.S.A and will always visit.

My friend Nazma, the Henna artist, did an interview for Society magazine November 2017 edition (The First Family Magazine in Qatar) a few days ago and she posted a copy of the article on facebook. And who’s big head took up a whole page, MINE! Here it is in all it’s glory.

You can also read the article here. Society Magazine

So my head is famous and now so is my face, a little bit. I have another interview coming up this week with Nazma on Al Jazeera. Wish me luck!

Honestly I would love to be the first internationally recognized alopecia model and travel the world as an activist and a bold, fierce model. I would love to be the face of alopecia all over the world, to encourage other women to not let a lack of hair define them, but to recognize their natural beauty inside out.

Who knows, maybe one day, I will create a new type of model. For now, I’m leaving my footprints in the middle eastern sand.

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