Lab or Lamb?

The flight attendant approached with the dinner cart and asked...chicken, ???, or vegetarian?  I asked her to repeat a couple times what the second choice was.  I had met her earlier in the flight while stretching my legs at the rear of the plane.  She and I talked off and on for about 10 minutes as she refilled my water a few times.  She is from Kenya and was able to teach me a couple words of Swahili, although I have forgotten them now...I should have written them down.  Upon looking at google translate, she taught me Hello (Hujambo) and I am fine (Haidhuru).  She had a very thick accent and was hard for me to understand especially over the sounds of the jet engine right out my window.

Still not understanding what the second choice for dinner was, I thought she had said Lab.  From eating dog in South Korea, my mind had me quickly thinking Qatar may eat dog meat as well.  I questioningly asked "Lab???" But would they serve this as an airline flight dinner?  She immediately saw I did not understand and with a big smile on her face she made a sound of a lamb...Bah-ha-ha and then the guy sitting next to me from Bangladesh, said Lamb.  I chose the lamb and it was quite tasty.

I am now in Doha, Qatar.  I had never heard of Doha or Qatar.  Doha, 1.8 million people, is a city in Qatar.  Qatar is a rather small peninsula that juts off from Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf.  The last two hours flying into here as the sun was setting upon arrival in Doha consisted of very harsh looking desert terrain flying over Saudi Arabia with not anything green in sight nor evidence of human habitation.

My geotechnical engineering teacher said he had lived here for a year working on an engineering project related to foundations.  His experience in Doha had him reminiscing on the heat.  Upon disembarking from the air conditioned plane about an hour after the sun had set, I  could not help but feel the high humidity and the sweltering heat during this time of the evening.  The forecast low for tonight is 86 degrees F and the high for tomorrow is 104.  I am glad I won`t be here for the summer.

One more leg of the trip departing at 0220 and arriving in Tanzania at 0750.