Recently, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Qatari wedding by my colleague Ameena. Weddings here are done just a little bit differently from the states. When a person receives a wedding invitation, it is has a number of personal invitations included for the friend/family member to hand out to friends. Now, it’s very important to remember that male and female guests do not have the same experience during a wedding. The female wedding reception is a completely different event from the male reception. The wedding ceremony itself actually takes place at the courthouse and is called the “engagement” and happens anywhere from a few weeks to a year before the wedding parties. The man and woman could live as husband and wife (technically) after the court house ceremony, but it would not be acceptable in this culture until they have their formal wedding parties.
The male reception is pretty much a bunch of guys out in an expanse of desert (usually near a major road) in a majliss that is set up (lots of easy chairs and places to smoke shisha) with a large space open in the middle. The men have sword dances and sometimes eat camel (so I’ve heard).
The ladies reception is a whole other story. They all take place in hotel ballrooms and they are completely run by ladies (the drink and food servers, the band, etc). This is done so ladies who want to remove their abayas (long black overcoat) and shaylas (head scarf) or neghabs (face veil) can do so for the party. When Kristin (a co-worker) and I arrived at the hotel, we had to give our personal invitation to the only man we saw at the place – the “bouncer”. We then had to go through a metal detector and they checked our purses to make sure we didn’t have any cell phones with cameras or any digital cameras. If you do, they take them from you and you have to pick them up after the reception. As we walked in the ballroom we saw that we were 2 of 5 or 6 white people there. That is a very interesting experience to have, especially when you consider we don’t even speak the language of the majority of the people there.
This ballroom was out of control. As you walked in there was a giant huppa-like structure covered in live flowers and vines and leaves. Just beyond that is a catwalk, just like at a fashion show that led to the front of the ballroom where there was a huge elaborate stage with live 30 foot trees, flowers, greenery, its own lighting system, etc. The ballroom had about 70 round tables that seated 10 people each. The catwalk also had seats along it that were reserved for family and close friends. The tables are elaborately decorated like at a western wedding, but they also included our own tea service, a tray of chocolates and pistachios. While there was seating for over 700 in this ballroom, at no point were all of the seats taken. I would guess there were about 500 ladies at this reception (and remember the men are having their own reception someplace else with almost as many people).
And then there were the dresses. Think Oscar Night formality with Video Music Awards scandal. The ladies who wear black abayas and shaylas/neghabs in public are wearing dresses cut down to THERE, with all the glitz of a Vegas show. Lots of rhinestones, bows, satin, fake gems, sequins, crystals, etc. And of course the makeup was flawless and THICK. Earrings were enormous, some hung so low they actually rested on the woman’s collarbones. Nothing Kristin and I could have worn or done with our hair or makeup would have been “too much”. We got there around 8:30PM and around 9PM the all female band begins singing in Arabic like we were at a rock concert. You could not hear yourself talk, but since this is when close family members get up on the catwalk, all you want to do is stare anyway. When the ladies get up on the catwalk, they dance their way up and down while other friends and family members come up and throw money at them. All of this money then goes to the band to thank them for their beautiful music. People can also come up to the band and give them money and they will sing a blessing for your family throughout the wedding. This entire time, hired ladies are serving tea, chocolates, savory hors d'oeuvres, freshly squeezed juices, Arabian sweets, etc. are walking around and offering you whatever you like. Around 9:45PM the music stops for a bit and we have the sound of chirping birds as the bride comes in. She is in a stunning gown (traditional white wedding dress) and looks like a 19 year old Eva Longoria.
Her veil is about 15 feet long, as is her dress. She has two Filipino assistants who fluff out her dress every time she takes a step or two. It takes her nearly a half hour to get to the front of the ball room because the whole way she is posing for pictures and being video taped by professionals. Just before she gets on stage, she turns around to face the “audience” and the band starts up singing again. At this point family and friends come up and shower money on her – this also goes to the band. People are literally throwing 20-30 pieces of paper money, which can be anywhere from 1 riyal to 500 riyals ($0.27 to $160 – I SWEAR I saw a 500 riyal note!).
She then goes up to the stage and sits there looking out at people for what felt like forever. The band is still going on, but only family and close friends go on the catwalk to dance. Around 10:30PM we suddenly start seeing ladies grabbing their abayas and shaylas and all of a sudden the groom and about 20 other men are walking up the catwalk. They move MUCH more quickly than the bride. The men are relatives of the bride and groom. The bride had a large black cloak thrown over her that completely covers her since some of the men are not blood relatives of hers. After a few minutes and some pictures, the men who are related to the groom leave and ladies who are family members of the bride begin to take their shaylas and abayas off. After some more pictures, the groom sits down next to the bride as they face the audience. The band is playing the entire time and the bride and groom just sit there not talking. I found out from one of the women we sat with that the bride and groom are first cousins. This is apparently common practice in this region. Since males and females do not intermingle like they do in other cultures, families want their daughters and sons to marry people they know. This isn’t all families, but it’s pretty common, which is also why they have some of the genetic blood diseases they have.
At some point the groom left. Around 11PM they announced that dinner was now open and we headed to the buffet that could have easily served 1000 people. It was the same food throughout, but there were close to 75 different food warmers filled with rice and whole lambs, and chunks of lamb and vegetables and hummus, etc. Close to 12AM the bride begins her long, slow journey back to the door down the catwalk. Since there are no men, ladies are fully revealed and there is lots of kissing of cheeks for the bride and relatives of the bride. We heard there was a private dinner for the bride and groom up in the hotel later.
This wedding was on a Sunday night, so by midnight we were pretty beat (since we had worked that day and had work the next day), but our colleague who invited us said she stayed until about 1 AM and her mom stayed until close to 3 AM. While the wedding was interesting, I wouldn’t have classified it as “fun”. There was no dancing by large groups of people, you could barely hear yourself talk over the music (which you couldn’t understand anyway) and it was 100% alcohol free. With all of the food and accoutrements, we were guessing that the female reception was in the $75,000 to $85,000 USD range. And the groom’s mother is responsible for paying for the wedding!
I’m the most sad that I couldn’t take any pictures because I felt like I was surrounded by the animal equivalent of macaw parrots – and I don’t think I can do it nearly enough justice for how elaborate it all was. We will add some pictures of male weddings soon, since they are just on the side of the road. At least you will be able to see the male set up, even if you don’t see the sword dances or roasted camel! :)
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Are we liking it?
It seems that has been the question on the minds of many friends and family these days, so I figured I’d try to put it into words. The answer is yes, on the whole, we like living and working here. Our home is comfortable, we have been able to find ways to entertain ourselves, meet new people and had some great first hand intercultural experiences. The other day we were talking about how we actually GOT to the choice to move to Qatar. By the end of our job search it was becoming clear that we would likely have ended up in Iowa City. I had a job offer and Curt had a very promising job opportunity. If we had gone with what was much safer and chosen the Iowa City option, both of us feel like we would have always wondered what we would have missed if we hadn’t moved to Qatar. As it is, we know what it’s like to live in IC (and it’s wonderful!), but it doesn’t fit in with our hopes to live closer to mountains or being able to travel like fiends. So yes, we are happy here.
On the other hand, there are some things that are frustrating to the point of infuriating at times. Like how people couldn’t tell us when Ramadan would be over (when the new moon is "official"), and hence when the Eid would begin and stores be shut down. Or how you can’t go to a grocery store and get pretty much any thing you need or want - you need to go to three or four places to get everything on your list. Or how crazy the drivers are here. Curt has had to implement the “Silva Driving Method” – when you lay on your horn when another driver does something too rude or unsafe to just let go. It's not a place where either of us feel like it will ever feel like "home" - two or three years will be plenty of time living here.
One of the most significant experiences to date has been living here during Ramadan. For a short history lesson, Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. During this month devout Muslims do not eat, drink or have sex during daylight hours. They also have additional prayer time, some which last through the entire night. This is a moving holiday since they go by the lunar calendar, and it comes about 11 days sooner each year. Living in an Islamic country, they observe this month very strictly. It is illegal, whether you are Muslim or not, to eat or drink in public. I guess the sex in public is just assumed to be illegal. :) All restaurants, except those in large hotels, are closed during daylight hours. The fast is broken by the “Iftar” dinner. We have been to two of these at the hotels. Basically it’s a gorge fest, and some of them don’t even begin until really late at night because some Muslims use them as their “Sohour” meal (the LAST one they will eat before daylight). We were at an Iftar until 11:30PM which allowed reservations for people until 2 AM and we were the ONLY ones getting up to leave.
Now, the good news is the professional work day is MUCH shorter during Ramadan. Our official hours are 8 AM to 1PM. While it’s great to have shorter work days, it doesn’t mean the work load gets lighter (so we often stayed until 4 or 5, but the office is a ghost town unless you are a westerner). With that said, it is also very difficult to go that long without drinking anything. In some ways, just knowing you can’t have it makes you want that bottle of water even more. Being non-Muslim means I can drink/eat in private, so our offices basically become “dens of slack” – westerners come together to eat their meager lunches in private, or they hide their water under their desks in the event a Muslim colleague/student will walk by or come in. Several of our Qatari/Muslim colleagues have said they don’t mind if we are in a meeting and we’d like something to drink, but out of respect for them, we don’t. Others have been very clear that they don’t like even knowing that the Americans are eating or drinking in their offices during Ramadan. Curt and I fasted for the first day of Ramadan. We went from about 8:30AM until 6PM (sunrise was too dang early). Again, the food thing is hard, but the drink is MUCH harder, especially when it’s still close to 105 degrees during the day. We ended the first day of fasting with a student event and speaker. The keynote was a former Christian preacher (from Texas) who had converted to Islam. Let’s just say he was crazy. He made wild assumptions about Christianity, and was borderline offensive to some people in the audience (we were told the day before he asked all women to sit at the back of the room and all men to move to the front. Several people left that speech). Curt leaned over to me at one point and said “If George Bush was a Muslim, this is who he would be” – I laughed to myself for about 10 minutes as this man struggled through his loosely connected speech and his randomly repeated affirmations of Muslims.
The thing that I find troubling about this month is its impact on non-Muslims in the country. It seems strange to me that this becomes legally enforced piety. If denying oneself food/drink during the day is meant to cleanse the soul and purify the body, for me it is less pious because it is legally enforced on everyone else. In many ways this enforces for me why I don’t want the US government to be closely linked with any religion. It would be outrageous if the Catholics forced people to only eat fish on Fridays, or if people were forced to not eat chocolate in front of friends who had given it up for lent. So for me, sometimes this piety feels like a lot of show, but not necessarily with as much substance to it. The other thing I find troubling involves the “unskilled” workers here. While I get to go home nice and early, and many shops are closed in the late afternoon hours, malls and restaurants are then open until close to 1 or 2AM throughout the month, for the ENTIRE month. I guess when shopping is the national pastime, they need to make sure it can happen as much as possible. Qataris put Americans to shame in this area.
One book we read that is interesting for westerners is called “Understanding Arabs”. It’s written by an American woman, Margaret Nydell, who has been studying Arab culture for decades. Thus far I have found much of it accurate and helpful in our transition here. The close relationships of family members, the hospitality of the people and the constant references to the Muslim faith are hallmarks of this culture that the book covers. It also clears up why we have some issues of policy as the US tries to become more involved in the Middle East. We recommend it if you are interested in learning more than the 30 second sound bite on US news reports.
On the other hand, there are some things that are frustrating to the point of infuriating at times. Like how people couldn’t tell us when Ramadan would be over (when the new moon is "official"), and hence when the Eid would begin and stores be shut down. Or how you can’t go to a grocery store and get pretty much any thing you need or want - you need to go to three or four places to get everything on your list. Or how crazy the drivers are here. Curt has had to implement the “Silva Driving Method” – when you lay on your horn when another driver does something too rude or unsafe to just let go. It's not a place where either of us feel like it will ever feel like "home" - two or three years will be plenty of time living here.
One of the most significant experiences to date has been living here during Ramadan. For a short history lesson, Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. During this month devout Muslims do not eat, drink or have sex during daylight hours. They also have additional prayer time, some which last through the entire night. This is a moving holiday since they go by the lunar calendar, and it comes about 11 days sooner each year. Living in an Islamic country, they observe this month very strictly. It is illegal, whether you are Muslim or not, to eat or drink in public. I guess the sex in public is just assumed to be illegal. :) All restaurants, except those in large hotels, are closed during daylight hours. The fast is broken by the “Iftar” dinner. We have been to two of these at the hotels. Basically it’s a gorge fest, and some of them don’t even begin until really late at night because some Muslims use them as their “Sohour” meal (the LAST one they will eat before daylight). We were at an Iftar until 11:30PM which allowed reservations for people until 2 AM and we were the ONLY ones getting up to leave.
Now, the good news is the professional work day is MUCH shorter during Ramadan. Our official hours are 8 AM to 1PM. While it’s great to have shorter work days, it doesn’t mean the work load gets lighter (so we often stayed until 4 or 5, but the office is a ghost town unless you are a westerner). With that said, it is also very difficult to go that long without drinking anything. In some ways, just knowing you can’t have it makes you want that bottle of water even more. Being non-Muslim means I can drink/eat in private, so our offices basically become “dens of slack” – westerners come together to eat their meager lunches in private, or they hide their water under their desks in the event a Muslim colleague/student will walk by or come in. Several of our Qatari/Muslim colleagues have said they don’t mind if we are in a meeting and we’d like something to drink, but out of respect for them, we don’t. Others have been very clear that they don’t like even knowing that the Americans are eating or drinking in their offices during Ramadan. Curt and I fasted for the first day of Ramadan. We went from about 8:30AM until 6PM (sunrise was too dang early). Again, the food thing is hard, but the drink is MUCH harder, especially when it’s still close to 105 degrees during the day. We ended the first day of fasting with a student event and speaker. The keynote was a former Christian preacher (from Texas) who had converted to Islam. Let’s just say he was crazy. He made wild assumptions about Christianity, and was borderline offensive to some people in the audience (we were told the day before he asked all women to sit at the back of the room and all men to move to the front. Several people left that speech). Curt leaned over to me at one point and said “If George Bush was a Muslim, this is who he would be” – I laughed to myself for about 10 minutes as this man struggled through his loosely connected speech and his randomly repeated affirmations of Muslims.
The thing that I find troubling about this month is its impact on non-Muslims in the country. It seems strange to me that this becomes legally enforced piety. If denying oneself food/drink during the day is meant to cleanse the soul and purify the body, for me it is less pious because it is legally enforced on everyone else. In many ways this enforces for me why I don’t want the US government to be closely linked with any religion. It would be outrageous if the Catholics forced people to only eat fish on Fridays, or if people were forced to not eat chocolate in front of friends who had given it up for lent. So for me, sometimes this piety feels like a lot of show, but not necessarily with as much substance to it. The other thing I find troubling involves the “unskilled” workers here. While I get to go home nice and early, and many shops are closed in the late afternoon hours, malls and restaurants are then open until close to 1 or 2AM throughout the month, for the ENTIRE month. I guess when shopping is the national pastime, they need to make sure it can happen as much as possible. Qataris put Americans to shame in this area.
One book we read that is interesting for westerners is called “Understanding Arabs”. It’s written by an American woman, Margaret Nydell, who has been studying Arab culture for decades. Thus far I have found much of it accurate and helpful in our transition here. The close relationships of family members, the hospitality of the people and the constant references to the Muslim faith are hallmarks of this culture that the book covers. It also clears up why we have some issues of policy as the US tries to become more involved in the Middle East. We recommend it if you are interested in learning more than the 30 second sound bite on US news reports.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Home Sweet Home
Well, we think we learned our lesson about when to decorate your home. We waited nearly a year to get stuff on the walls in Wisconsin and then we turned around and sold the damn house 6 months later! After only 6 weeks we have hung everything we wanted to in our house and have put everything in its place. That way we can enjoy it the full time we are here and spend the rest of our time exploring the area and indulging our hobbies, etc. We’ve included some pictures of our duplex and the surrounding area for you to have an idea of what it looks like where we live. 
1) Our duplex (it's foggy b/c of the humidity when I brought the camera outside)
1) Our duplex (it's foggy b/c of the humidity when I brought the camera outside) 2) Our street - look at the variety!
3)a bedouin's camels - about 2 minutes from our home(does it look hot out?)
4) our dining room
4) our dining room
5) our living room
6)Neighbor's Majliss (area outside of home for men to hang out and smoke shisha and drink tea. This one has A/C)
7)a compound nearby for one family (probably quite extended)
8) the ladies have their own area of the bank away from men!
As we have gotten more settled we feel like we have been “Qatar-ized”. Curt is now using his horn when he drives to help teach people. For instance, we had a quick meal at McDonald’s (we hardly ever eat American fast food – really!) and when we were trying to pull out of our parking space there was a Qatari woman who was fully veiled who had parked her car right behind us as she waited for someone in the restaurant. Now keep in mind, our car was LITERALLY directly in front of the front door of the place. Curt waited for a little while and then had to use his horn to let her know he wanted to back out. So she kindly pulled up. Just enough for us to back out, not an inch more. Keep in mind, there are literally dozens of cars trying to drive this two lane road in the parking lot – that she is parked in. So after Curt pulls out, he then lays on the horn. He just wanted to indicate that she was in a ROAD and there were easily 10 parking spots available for her to PARK. And he stayed on the horn until she not only moved, but parked in a spot. I almost died laughing.
Now, since most of you know Curt, you also know this is somewhat out of character for him. Qatar is a place all to its own when it comes to driving. I have had people in the right-hand lane, cut me off when I am turning left – and actually move in front of me. Or cut on the inside of us when we are in a roundabout so that they can just get in front of us. In some ways this driving is more standard than if they were being courteous. We bought a Resident’s Guide to Qatar and in it they use terms to describe the driving as “deplorable” and “horrendous” and they are so right.
Where Qatari suck in driving, they make up for in food. We were hosted by a Qatari colleague for lunch last weekend at her home. We ate traditional style (on the floor) and her mother (and their cooks) served a feast. We had lamb that was out of this world, shrimp and potatoes, lentils, rice and noodles, etc. And then we had dessert, coffee, tea, etc. We also tried their Oud – it’s a strong incense-like thing that you are supposed to waft toward yourself and women will put it under their shayla (the head scarf with an abaya – the long black dress) and men would put it under their thobe (the long white shirt dress). We ate until we were sick and then ate some more. She also showed the women pictures of her wedding (since she wasn’t covered the men couldn’t see them), honeymoon, etc. It feels like being invited into a secret club as a woman.
Now, since most of you know Curt, you also know this is somewhat out of character for him. Qatar is a place all to its own when it comes to driving. I have had people in the right-hand lane, cut me off when I am turning left – and actually move in front of me. Or cut on the inside of us when we are in a roundabout so that they can just get in front of us. In some ways this driving is more standard than if they were being courteous. We bought a Resident’s Guide to Qatar and in it they use terms to describe the driving as “deplorable” and “horrendous” and they are so right.
Where Qatari suck in driving, they make up for in food. We were hosted by a Qatari colleague for lunch last weekend at her home. We ate traditional style (on the floor) and her mother (and their cooks) served a feast. We had lamb that was out of this world, shrimp and potatoes, lentils, rice and noodles, etc. And then we had dessert, coffee, tea, etc. We also tried their Oud – it’s a strong incense-like thing that you are supposed to waft toward yourself and women will put it under their shayla (the head scarf with an abaya – the long black dress) and men would put it under their thobe (the long white shirt dress). We ate until we were sick and then ate some more. She also showed the women pictures of her wedding (since she wasn’t covered the men couldn’t see them), honeymoon, etc. It feels like being invited into a secret club as a woman.
1)the spread, 2)more food, 3)keep it coming, 4)Curt getting the Oud under his pits, 5)Lindsay going for the Oud gusto!
I think the part for me that boggles my mind has to do with male affection in relationships. Now remember, Qatar is a country where if they heard you were homosexual, they would likely deport you if you were an expat, or they could give you lashes and jail time if you were a native. And at the same time, men wear effectively a long white dress(the thobe) with a white headdress called a guthra. Many of the men fold the sides of the guthra over and it hangs down their back. Some men leave the sides down and constantly push them out of their face, much like a woman would her long hair. This effeminate gesture (from my perspective) is some what magnified by the fact that men will often hold hands with close friends as they are walking together. It is a common sight – we even saw two teenage boys who were ice skating in the mall together holding hands. So while being gay is absolutely haram (bad, sinful) in their culture and faith, physical affection between males is a common occurrence. Added to this is the fact that any public affection between men and women, even if they are married , is frowned upon. In the time I have been here I have seen exactly 2 Qatari couples (male/female) holding hands, and they were definitely married. In that same amount of time, I have seen dozens of men holding hands. This is something I just can’t quite wrap my brain around.
For you student affairs geeks (and those who remember what it was like to be a freshman in college) there are a few stories to show that students are the same everywhere and students here are very different than any I have worked with. During International Student Orientation I had an afternoon where I ran some ice breakers with the students. I had them get into different pairs and answer questions out of the “Book of Questions”. One of the questions I asked them to consider was “Would you eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000USD?” Now, as a poor college student, this is one I would have had to consider – paying two years of my tuition for eating something other people see as a delicacy? I think I would have seriously considered it. After about 10 seconds one boy standing in a small group near me says “We’re done. There is nothing to even talk about with this one.” I said “Well, some people seem to have something to talk about.” The boy says to me “There are people here who are BILLIONAIRES. We would never even consider this.” He was so matter of fact, not even seeming stuck up, just sort of letting me know I didn’t quite know my audience. I was stunned. It had never occurred to me that we would have people with that kind of wealth in the group. Some things you can’t prepare for I guess. At the same time, I recently met with a student who isn’t sure he will be able to pay for his spring housing fees.
Now, for those of you looking to hear the stupid stuff college students do, we have our fair share of that too. During the same orientation there was a cooking competition between the students. I was going from apartment to apartment to make sure they weren’t burning the joint down when a freshman boy came up to me. He says “What happens if you eat raw fish?” I told him that lots of people ate sushi, but that was usually a different cut of fish. He then says “What about eating raw shrimp?” I asked him if he ate a raw shrimp and rather sheepishly he says, “Yeah. Is there anything I can eat to make me less sick?” He was also quick to tell me that it didn’t taste all that bad. Freshmen boys – it seems it translates easily just about everywhere . . .
For you student affairs geeks (and those who remember what it was like to be a freshman in college) there are a few stories to show that students are the same everywhere and students here are very different than any I have worked with. During International Student Orientation I had an afternoon where I ran some ice breakers with the students. I had them get into different pairs and answer questions out of the “Book of Questions”. One of the questions I asked them to consider was “Would you eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000USD?” Now, as a poor college student, this is one I would have had to consider – paying two years of my tuition for eating something other people see as a delicacy? I think I would have seriously considered it. After about 10 seconds one boy standing in a small group near me says “We’re done. There is nothing to even talk about with this one.” I said “Well, some people seem to have something to talk about.” The boy says to me “There are people here who are BILLIONAIRES. We would never even consider this.” He was so matter of fact, not even seeming stuck up, just sort of letting me know I didn’t quite know my audience. I was stunned. It had never occurred to me that we would have people with that kind of wealth in the group. Some things you can’t prepare for I guess. At the same time, I recently met with a student who isn’t sure he will be able to pay for his spring housing fees.
Now, for those of you looking to hear the stupid stuff college students do, we have our fair share of that too. During the same orientation there was a cooking competition between the students. I was going from apartment to apartment to make sure they weren’t burning the joint down when a freshman boy came up to me. He says “What happens if you eat raw fish?” I told him that lots of people ate sushi, but that was usually a different cut of fish. He then says “What about eating raw shrimp?” I asked him if he ate a raw shrimp and rather sheepishly he says, “Yeah. Is there anything I can eat to make me less sick?” He was also quick to tell me that it didn’t taste all that bad. Freshmen boys – it seems it translates easily just about everywhere . . .
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Our Firsts
We have had many firsts here and I figured I could share some of the highlights. The first time we went to a movie theater with assigned seats, the first time we have had to had someone else buy us booze (since I was underage anyway) :), the first cereal we have ever had that is (and I quote) “ludicrously delicious”, the first toilet with two flush buttons and the first time I have ever felt that being outside for more than a few minutes at a time was a privilege.
We saw “The Bourne Ultimatum” last night with some branch campus and QF folks. Apparently the best system for their theaters is to assign seats, so when you purchase your tickets, you actually have to pick out your seats like you would at a Broadway show, otherwise, apparently people don’t play very nice. The other thing that was just amazing was how many children were at this movie. They will censor breasts and even kissing in Qatar, but apparently murder for hire and severe beatings are family affairs. There were children in the 3-8 year old range at this movie. Not that they were watching it – but since they are Qatari (and you just never know whose cousin is whom) until another Qatari man asked the usher to tell them to be quiet we suffered through their occasional shrieking and their cell phone songs.
I know we have mentioned it, but we are living in a Muslim country. J Now, you can get alcohol at certain bars in hotels, but most restaurants do not serve alcohol. In order to buy alcohol for personal use, you must have a liquor license and there is only one liquor store in Doha. After a particularly challenging week of work, Qatari Kevin took us to the liquor store. There are no signs, just lots of white people (and a large number of Indian people) driving to this place out in the middle of nowhere (relatively speaking). We can’t get our liquor license until we have our Resident Permit (RP), but since Kevin has one, he said I could play his wife and they would allow us in without having to see mine. You know, because I’m just a chick. Curt had to wait in the car, but this place was CRAZY. Not only did I feel like everyone could tell I didn’t have a license, but I was in shock at how much people were buying. You are allowed to buy a certain percentage of your paycheck each month. Kevin was allowed close to 3000QR (about $800 USD) and I saw that MANY people were making sure to get their money’s worth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people buying 5 bottles of vodka, rum, 6-8 cases of beer and 20 or 30 bottles of wine – all for one person/family. There are also signs “warning” people about Ramadan. You are not allowed to buy or consume alcohol anywhere publicly for the month of Ramadan, so their signs are letting you know you are allowed up to 3 months worth of your allowance in August, September and October since you can’t buy it from mid-September to mid-October because of the religious observance. The signs were also warning for you to plan ahead – apparently the lines can be over an hour long in the 10 days before Ramadan.
Curt and I finally had time to leisurely shop for groceries. We took time to go on every aisle in this particular store so that we could begin to get familiar with it. It seems that things like whole wheat bread or pasta and cereals for people older than age 12 haven’t quite made it to this part of the world. Curt was looking for a cereal that wouldn’t send us into diabetic shock when he came upon a Kellogg cereal that said it was “ludicrously delicious”. I love how translations don’t always quite make their mark.
I was at an ex-pat party the other night while Curt was sick (he told me to go!) and some of the women were talking about the different flushers on our toilets. Apparently the reason there are two is for the different things one might need to flush. The big button is for “big things” and the small button is for “small things”. Amazingly it’s a water conservation function which is rather surprising in this country. I have never seen a place where so many people sit in their cars (or just leave them running when they go into a store) while they wait for someone. And of course they have to have the AC on otherwise you would pass out from the heat!
Speaking of the heat, Lindsay – a coworker and I, were invited to swim in the pool of a branch campus guy named Dave. Now, our places are nice, but Dave lives in the residences of the Four Seasons Doha. His views are amazing – over water and the boat of the Emir along with a wonderful pool. Lindsay and I were both commenting how it was really difficult for us to be inside so much, but we also couldn’t be out in the heat for more than a few minutes at a time. There is just nothing enjoyable about it during the day. Dave graciously invited us to his pool and we went over late afternoon. It was amazing! The pool water was easily in the 90 degree range, but with the ocean breeze and the fact that we were outside and in the water it felt wonderful!
Work has been going pretty well – it’s definitely the busy time right now for Residence Life. Our RA training has been really great – our students are so interesting and worldy while at the same time seeming to be young for their ages. I’m trying to get into the habit of calling them boys and girls rather than men and women so as not to offend anyone. If you refer to a girl as a woman before she is married you are making an inference about her sex life which is “haram” (very bad). One of the boys (who actually holds an American passport) is from Pakistan and he made us all a traditional Pakistani dinner the other night. Everyone had so much fun (it was nearly melt your face off spicy, but it was sooo good!) that two Afghani boys on staff offered to make traditional Afghani food the next night. So we strapped on the feedbags again the next day – and again it was delicious (but not spicy, just flavorful). Another thing I have noticed is that in Arab culture it is not OK to put your back to anyone. If, in our training, the seating is set up so that a student’s back is to another’s they will try to move their chair or they will go out of their way to apologize to whomever their back is facing. Every time.
That’s about all for now – we are beginning to truly feel settled, even as we are still bowled over by how similar and different things can be at once.
We saw “The Bourne Ultimatum” last night with some branch campus and QF folks. Apparently the best system for their theaters is to assign seats, so when you purchase your tickets, you actually have to pick out your seats like you would at a Broadway show, otherwise, apparently people don’t play very nice. The other thing that was just amazing was how many children were at this movie. They will censor breasts and even kissing in Qatar, but apparently murder for hire and severe beatings are family affairs. There were children in the 3-8 year old range at this movie. Not that they were watching it – but since they are Qatari (and you just never know whose cousin is whom) until another Qatari man asked the usher to tell them to be quiet we suffered through their occasional shrieking and their cell phone songs.
I know we have mentioned it, but we are living in a Muslim country. J Now, you can get alcohol at certain bars in hotels, but most restaurants do not serve alcohol. In order to buy alcohol for personal use, you must have a liquor license and there is only one liquor store in Doha. After a particularly challenging week of work, Qatari Kevin took us to the liquor store. There are no signs, just lots of white people (and a large number of Indian people) driving to this place out in the middle of nowhere (relatively speaking). We can’t get our liquor license until we have our Resident Permit (RP), but since Kevin has one, he said I could play his wife and they would allow us in without having to see mine. You know, because I’m just a chick. Curt had to wait in the car, but this place was CRAZY. Not only did I feel like everyone could tell I didn’t have a license, but I was in shock at how much people were buying. You are allowed to buy a certain percentage of your paycheck each month. Kevin was allowed close to 3000QR (about $800 USD) and I saw that MANY people were making sure to get their money’s worth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people buying 5 bottles of vodka, rum, 6-8 cases of beer and 20 or 30 bottles of wine – all for one person/family. There are also signs “warning” people about Ramadan. You are not allowed to buy or consume alcohol anywhere publicly for the month of Ramadan, so their signs are letting you know you are allowed up to 3 months worth of your allowance in August, September and October since you can’t buy it from mid-September to mid-October because of the religious observance. The signs were also warning for you to plan ahead – apparently the lines can be over an hour long in the 10 days before Ramadan.
Curt and I finally had time to leisurely shop for groceries. We took time to go on every aisle in this particular store so that we could begin to get familiar with it. It seems that things like whole wheat bread or pasta and cereals for people older than age 12 haven’t quite made it to this part of the world. Curt was looking for a cereal that wouldn’t send us into diabetic shock when he came upon a Kellogg cereal that said it was “ludicrously delicious”. I love how translations don’t always quite make their mark.
I was at an ex-pat party the other night while Curt was sick (he told me to go!) and some of the women were talking about the different flushers on our toilets. Apparently the reason there are two is for the different things one might need to flush. The big button is for “big things” and the small button is for “small things”. Amazingly it’s a water conservation function which is rather surprising in this country. I have never seen a place where so many people sit in their cars (or just leave them running when they go into a store) while they wait for someone. And of course they have to have the AC on otherwise you would pass out from the heat!
Speaking of the heat, Lindsay – a coworker and I, were invited to swim in the pool of a branch campus guy named Dave. Now, our places are nice, but Dave lives in the residences of the Four Seasons Doha. His views are amazing – over water and the boat of the Emir along with a wonderful pool. Lindsay and I were both commenting how it was really difficult for us to be inside so much, but we also couldn’t be out in the heat for more than a few minutes at a time. There is just nothing enjoyable about it during the day. Dave graciously invited us to his pool and we went over late afternoon. It was amazing! The pool water was easily in the 90 degree range, but with the ocean breeze and the fact that we were outside and in the water it felt wonderful!
Work has been going pretty well – it’s definitely the busy time right now for Residence Life. Our RA training has been really great – our students are so interesting and worldy while at the same time seeming to be young for their ages. I’m trying to get into the habit of calling them boys and girls rather than men and women so as not to offend anyone. If you refer to a girl as a woman before she is married you are making an inference about her sex life which is “haram” (very bad). One of the boys (who actually holds an American passport) is from Pakistan and he made us all a traditional Pakistani dinner the other night. Everyone had so much fun (it was nearly melt your face off spicy, but it was sooo good!) that two Afghani boys on staff offered to make traditional Afghani food the next night. So we strapped on the feedbags again the next day – and again it was delicious (but not spicy, just flavorful). Another thing I have noticed is that in Arab culture it is not OK to put your back to anyone. If, in our training, the seating is set up so that a student’s back is to another’s they will try to move their chair or they will go out of their way to apologize to whomever their back is facing. Every time.
That’s about all for now – we are beginning to truly feel settled, even as we are still bowled over by how similar and different things can be at once.
Catching Up: Weeks 2 and 3
Well a lot has happened since our last entry so I will try bring folks back up to speed as best I can. Let me begin by saying that keeping a blog is a royal pain in the ass! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…this was totally Belle’s idea:). However, I must admit it’s therapeutic in a way. It’s almost like I’m having a conversation with all of my dearest friends and family at the same time – only trying to be witty, introspective, and concise at the same time. I actually feel like I’m back in grad school. Anyway, enough rambling…
So I guess I drew the short straw and got to be the first person to get sick in Qatar. As we speak, I’m sitting on the coach with pills, lozenges, and dirty kleenex’s scattered all over the coffee table. Maybe Belle got me sick knowing that at some point I would get so bored of watching horrendous episodes of Dr. Phil (the only American show it seems Arabs can’t get enough of) and soccer matches in Arabic that I would write something for our blog. Regardless, I must admit that I haven’t felt overly homesick until I got sick. Suddenly not knowing how to use the hospital system here if I needed it or where to find products familiar to me in the states was a little stressful. Lucky for me it’s just a cold and we packed enough Nyquil and Ricola to get me through this first brush with sickness. Of course there are many wonderful people here ready to help (we even got a couple new home remedies to try from our Qatari colleagues) but it all goes back to a feeling of not being in total control, having all the answers, or understanding the system. I’m sure this is the same for anyone living in a new culture for the first time.
We did finally manage to get our temporary driver’s licenses. In many ways we felt trapped in our home for the first several weeks…so much so that we named our rental car “FREEDOM” (a quality American piece of junk – Ford Mondeo). I must admit we drove illegally for about a week because it was driving us crazy but only from home to Education City which is only a couple of miles in light traffic. Now that we have our licenses we have been able to enjoy the finer aspects of driving in Doha. Let’s just say that many people living in Doha view driving as a sport – getting from point A to B in the fastest possible time regardless of speed limits or say other cars. The city is full of roundabouts, not streetlights, and even you Northeasterners would be scared. You really have to drive aggressively to survive while at the same time watching your own ass. You especially have to keep an eye on white Toyota Landcruisers – the national vehicle (typically Qatari men driving like complete lunatics). I swear I’m about ready to open my own Toyota dealership over here! It will certainly take some time to get used to…until then we try to drive at slow traffic times or on less crowded roads. Another challenge is lack of street signs of any kind. Instead of street signs they give random names to each roundabout (but no actual signage) so people know where they are in the city such as “Burger King roundabout”, “Decoration roundabout”, “Slopey roundabout” – I am not kidding…they are even on the official city map! The good news is that the country is finally realizing they have a genuine safety problem. One attempt at slowing people down is through the strategic placement of speed bumps. They are seemingly everywhere and we’ll probably end up with permanent neck damage by the time we leave here. There is also countrywide campaign of signs that have gruesome crash pictures with the word ENOUGH! on them as well as quotes such as “Where are you daddy?”. They have also started to replace roundabouts with streetlights on new streets and have just increased the penalties for reckless driving. Hopefully it will start to have an impact but just in case we will be buying a car with full airbags. After seeing “The Bourne Ultimatum” last night (Belle will share a funny story about that) we were hoping to import a NYC police car but it’s a little out of our price range:).
Well, that should cover me for a couple weeks…Curt.
So I guess I drew the short straw and got to be the first person to get sick in Qatar. As we speak, I’m sitting on the coach with pills, lozenges, and dirty kleenex’s scattered all over the coffee table. Maybe Belle got me sick knowing that at some point I would get so bored of watching horrendous episodes of Dr. Phil (the only American show it seems Arabs can’t get enough of) and soccer matches in Arabic that I would write something for our blog. Regardless, I must admit that I haven’t felt overly homesick until I got sick. Suddenly not knowing how to use the hospital system here if I needed it or where to find products familiar to me in the states was a little stressful. Lucky for me it’s just a cold and we packed enough Nyquil and Ricola to get me through this first brush with sickness. Of course there are many wonderful people here ready to help (we even got a couple new home remedies to try from our Qatari colleagues) but it all goes back to a feeling of not being in total control, having all the answers, or understanding the system. I’m sure this is the same for anyone living in a new culture for the first time.
We did finally manage to get our temporary driver’s licenses. In many ways we felt trapped in our home for the first several weeks…so much so that we named our rental car “FREEDOM” (a quality American piece of junk – Ford Mondeo). I must admit we drove illegally for about a week because it was driving us crazy but only from home to Education City which is only a couple of miles in light traffic. Now that we have our licenses we have been able to enjoy the finer aspects of driving in Doha. Let’s just say that many people living in Doha view driving as a sport – getting from point A to B in the fastest possible time regardless of speed limits or say other cars. The city is full of roundabouts, not streetlights, and even you Northeasterners would be scared. You really have to drive aggressively to survive while at the same time watching your own ass. You especially have to keep an eye on white Toyota Landcruisers – the national vehicle (typically Qatari men driving like complete lunatics). I swear I’m about ready to open my own Toyota dealership over here! It will certainly take some time to get used to…until then we try to drive at slow traffic times or on less crowded roads. Another challenge is lack of street signs of any kind. Instead of street signs they give random names to each roundabout (but no actual signage) so people know where they are in the city such as “Burger King roundabout”, “Decoration roundabout”, “Slopey roundabout” – I am not kidding…they are even on the official city map! The good news is that the country is finally realizing they have a genuine safety problem. One attempt at slowing people down is through the strategic placement of speed bumps. They are seemingly everywhere and we’ll probably end up with permanent neck damage by the time we leave here. There is also countrywide campaign of signs that have gruesome crash pictures with the word ENOUGH! on them as well as quotes such as “Where are you daddy?”. They have also started to replace roundabouts with streetlights on new streets and have just increased the penalties for reckless driving. Hopefully it will start to have an impact but just in case we will be buying a car with full airbags. After seeing “The Bourne Ultimatum” last night (Belle will share a funny story about that) we were hoping to import a NYC police car but it’s a little out of our price range:).
Well, that should cover me for a couple weeks…Curt.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Week One in Qatar
After 15 hours of flying, we arrived around 1 AM local time (that would be Greenwich Mean Time+2 (GMT+2) in case you are trying to keep track!). We got all of our luggage (because they had been marked priority!) and our ride took us to our new home! We have what is considered a 2 bedroom duplex – all tile floors, neutral colors, beautiful walk-in closets, fully furnished, 4 different air conditioning controls. They were also kind enough to provide us with some staples in our refrigerator: eggs, OJ, milk, etc. It’s very nice and will soon feel homey!
Our supervisor and soon-to-be friend, Kevin (or Qatari Kevin, even though he is American) was introducing us to some of the quirks of the duplex. There is a small backyard with grass (?!) and plants some small trees that are all cared for by others. There is also a drainage pipe coming out of the side of our home for waterfrom the Air Conditioner on the roof which is growing some lovely algae. In the bathrooms we have showers that you walk in to with glass doors. The interesting feature is that the floors are not graded in any way whatsoever – the water from the showers does not run into the drain in the shower, but out into the center of the bathroom floor (since it is not graded toward the other drain in the bathroom either). When you shower, you have a little lake that forms in your bathroom. Solution: buy squeegees to squeegee the water toward a drain after the shower! Also, each bathroom has either a true bidet or a hand-sprayer in it for your backside. I will admit, I did try the bidet – it’s very freaky. If you ever want to try one, you have to come and visit us. Our laundry room has the dryer on top of the washer – however the door to the unit would not open. It turns our door is just a LITTLE BIT too large for the space. Solution: never close the door all the way. It also does not vent the heat or the lint out anywhere – that should be fun. We also have lots of plugs and several plug adaptors, but they don’t fit the appliances they provided like the toaster or the iron. Luckily we didn’t want toast for breakfast anyway . . .
On our first full day, Friday, we met up with all of the new people in our department for lunch and some shopping. Lunch was at Bennigan’s – they are just like in the US – with a Monte Cristo sandwich and everything. They also list all of the drinks with alcohol, but as we are in a Muslim country, they are all virgin drinks. Luckily they still charge the price you would pay with booze in them. Everyone seems nice and just as tired and jet-lagged as we are. We then hit the grocery, and boy was that a ride. In case you are interested they have whole lambs (or goats, I couldn’t decipher) in the meat department. Other than that, it was pretty much like a US grocery store. They had some recognizable US brands, and others that we just went with. Thus far fruits have been tasty, vegetables less so. We need to get better at this.
That evening we ran some additional errands with two colleagues, Qatari Kevin and Lindsay. We were out and about until past 11PM and we saw MANY families in the stores and eating places. We did have one of our favorite meals here yet – at the orange chicken place. That’s not its name, but that’s what is on their sign. It was a chicken shawarma that was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Curt and I both agreed we could eat that every day. For one pita and a can of coke, it was about $2 USD (7.30 Qatari Riyal). It’s been said that shopping is the national sport – there’s not a ton of other things to do, especially when it’s so hot. And because it’s so hot, many people do things with their families until late at night. I totally understand that, but it’s still a little weird to see lots of 4 or 5 year olds in the grocery at 1030 PM.
This of course leads us to the weather. It’s hot here. Damn hot. Too hot. I haven’t had a blow dryer for the last 4 days, so I would go outside for about 5 minutes to fully dry my hair. That’s all it takes. The average temp has been about 105F every day. It gets down into the 90s at night. We will include some pictures of the surrounding area, but on the whole it is dry and dusty with very little greenery. Your sunglasses fog up every time you go outside and it can feel oppressive in the backseat of a car.
On day three of our arrival we had our health appointment with the state. We were picked up with several other new employees of the foundation and the branch campuses. At the state health department (or whatever it is called) we got our blood drawn and chest x-rays (no TB thank you!). Of course, the men and women are separated and have completely separate experiences. The other way in which people are separated is by class. If you are an “employee”(professional worker) you will go in to wait inside the air-conditioning. You will also get to go to the front of the lines, no matter how long they are. If you are a “worker”(laborer) you wait outside in the heat for as long as it takes. There is little shade and no place to sit. There were probably 300 “worker” men waiting outside when we arrived. For women, there was maybe a tenth of that. We had been told to expect the process to take upwards of 4 hours, as professionals we finished everything in about an hour and 15 minutes.
Our blood work was VERY quick. The chest x-ray was awkward at best. While there was a large waiting area with lots of seats, there was a smaller room just before the x-ray that they ushered us into. This was about 8’X12’ and had close to 45 or 50 women in it in various stages of undress. There was a small woman (Qatari or Indian?) who was shouting directions in a mish-mash of languages at everyone. Of course you can’t wear an under-wire bra for the x-ray, but they don’t easily hand out the clean hospital gowns – they kept handing people the ones others had been wearing. Apparently they also don’t want any older women to wait; Nancy from our group was ushered to the very front of the line after the woman in charge tried to manually remove her bra for her.
As we slowly moved toward the door to the x-ray room we noted several things. 1) the door to the x-ray room was open and there was nothing being done to prevent any radiation from coming into our area, nor did they seem to be concerned about ensuring all of the women wore the lead belt – you had to specially request it. 2) The woman in charge had locked us all in the room. Apparently she wanted to control traffic flow in, but this meant that there was then a line of women waiting to get out. Once we realized we were locked in, one woman in our group commented she felt like she was in a Turkish prison. The other thing we noticed was the professional women were not forced to remove their clothing and wear the used hospital gowns – we were allowed to have our X-ray as long as we didn’t have an under-wire on. The “worker” women were all forced to change into the gowns, and sometimes to completely remove them for the x-ray even though their clothing was just like mine and they had removed their bra. Class is clear and distinct here.
We have spent some time in the office in the last few days trying to get settled. Probably the main thing that is most disconcerting to us is the “tea boys”. These are gentleman whose job is to provide snacks and beverages to the employees and any guests they are meeting with. Jaya (sp?) is the one who mainly serves our area. He young and is very nice and seems to be from somewhere in Indonesia. After 3 days he now knows we are most likely to just ask for a bottle of water, but they also have cookies, juices (mango is my favorite), coffee, tea, you name it. He is very kind, but it’s really bizarre to be waited on like that. As I commented to Curt, even though his job isn’t very exciting, he doesn’t have to work out in the heat. I’m guessing his class is higher than other workers here.
Our supervisor and soon-to-be friend, Kevin (or Qatari Kevin, even though he is American) was introducing us to some of the quirks of the duplex. There is a small backyard with grass (?!) and plants some small trees that are all cared for by others. There is also a drainage pipe coming out of the side of our home for waterfrom the Air Conditioner on the roof which is growing some lovely algae. In the bathrooms we have showers that you walk in to with glass doors. The interesting feature is that the floors are not graded in any way whatsoever – the water from the showers does not run into the drain in the shower, but out into the center of the bathroom floor (since it is not graded toward the other drain in the bathroom either). When you shower, you have a little lake that forms in your bathroom. Solution: buy squeegees to squeegee the water toward a drain after the shower! Also, each bathroom has either a true bidet or a hand-sprayer in it for your backside. I will admit, I did try the bidet – it’s very freaky. If you ever want to try one, you have to come and visit us. Our laundry room has the dryer on top of the washer – however the door to the unit would not open. It turns our door is just a LITTLE BIT too large for the space. Solution: never close the door all the way. It also does not vent the heat or the lint out anywhere – that should be fun. We also have lots of plugs and several plug adaptors, but they don’t fit the appliances they provided like the toaster or the iron. Luckily we didn’t want toast for breakfast anyway . . .
On our first full day, Friday, we met up with all of the new people in our department for lunch and some shopping. Lunch was at Bennigan’s – they are just like in the US – with a Monte Cristo sandwich and everything. They also list all of the drinks with alcohol, but as we are in a Muslim country, they are all virgin drinks. Luckily they still charge the price you would pay with booze in them. Everyone seems nice and just as tired and jet-lagged as we are. We then hit the grocery, and boy was that a ride. In case you are interested they have whole lambs (or goats, I couldn’t decipher) in the meat department. Other than that, it was pretty much like a US grocery store. They had some recognizable US brands, and others that we just went with. Thus far fruits have been tasty, vegetables less so. We need to get better at this.That evening we ran some additional errands with two colleagues, Qatari Kevin and Lindsay. We were out and about until past 11PM and we saw MANY families in the stores and eating places. We did have one of our favorite meals here yet – at the orange chicken place. That’s not its name, but that’s what is on their sign. It was a chicken shawarma that was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Curt and I both agreed we could eat that every day. For one pita and a can of coke, it was about $2 USD (7.30 Qatari Riyal). It’s been said that shopping is the national sport – there’s not a ton of other things to do, especially when it’s so hot. And because it’s so hot, many people do things with their families until late at night. I totally understand that, but it’s still a little weird to see lots of 4 or 5 year olds in the grocery at 1030 PM.
This of course leads us to the weather. It’s hot here. Damn hot. Too hot. I haven’t had a blow dryer for the last 4 days, so I would go outside for about 5 minutes to fully dry my hair. That’s all it takes. The average temp has been about 105F every day. It gets down into the 90s at night. We will include some pictures of the surrounding area, but on the whole it is dry and dusty with very little greenery. Your sunglasses fog up every time you go outside and it can feel oppressive in the backseat of a car.
On day three of our arrival we had our health appointment with the state. We were picked up with several other new employees of the foundation and the branch campuses. At the state health department (or whatever it is called) we got our blood drawn and chest x-rays (no TB thank you!). Of course, the men and women are separated and have completely separate experiences. The other way in which people are separated is by class. If you are an “employee”(professional worker) you will go in to wait inside the air-conditioning. You will also get to go to the front of the lines, no matter how long they are. If you are a “worker”(laborer) you wait outside in the heat for as long as it takes. There is little shade and no place to sit. There were probably 300 “worker” men waiting outside when we arrived. For women, there was maybe a tenth of that. We had been told to expect the process to take upwards of 4 hours, as professionals we finished everything in about an hour and 15 minutes.
Our blood work was VERY quick. The chest x-ray was awkward at best. While there was a large waiting area with lots of seats, there was a smaller room just before the x-ray that they ushered us into. This was about 8’X12’ and had close to 45 or 50 women in it in various stages of undress. There was a small woman (Qatari or Indian?) who was shouting directions in a mish-mash of languages at everyone. Of course you can’t wear an under-wire bra for the x-ray, but they don’t easily hand out the clean hospital gowns – they kept handing people the ones others had been wearing. Apparently they also don’t want any older women to wait; Nancy from our group was ushered to the very front of the line after the woman in charge tried to manually remove her bra for her.
As we slowly moved toward the door to the x-ray room we noted several things. 1) the door to the x-ray room was open and there was nothing being done to prevent any radiation from coming into our area, nor did they seem to be concerned about ensuring all of the women wore the lead belt – you had to specially request it. 2) The woman in charge had locked us all in the room. Apparently she wanted to control traffic flow in, but this meant that there was then a line of women waiting to get out. Once we realized we were locked in, one woman in our group commented she felt like she was in a Turkish prison. The other thing we noticed was the professional women were not forced to remove their clothing and wear the used hospital gowns – we were allowed to have our X-ray as long as we didn’t have an under-wire on. The “worker” women were all forced to change into the gowns, and sometimes to completely remove them for the x-ray even though their clothing was just like mine and they had removed their bra. Class is clear and distinct here.
We have spent some time in the office in the last few days trying to get settled. Probably the main thing that is most disconcerting to us is the “tea boys”. These are gentleman whose job is to provide snacks and beverages to the employees and any guests they are meeting with. Jaya (sp?) is the one who mainly serves our area. He young and is very nice and seems to be from somewhere in Indonesia. After 3 days he now knows we are most likely to just ask for a bottle of water, but they also have cookies, juices (mango is my favorite), coffee, tea, you name it. He is very kind, but it’s really bizarre to be waited on like that. As I commented to Curt, even though his job isn’t very exciting, he doesn’t have to work out in the heat. I’m guessing his class is higher than other workers here.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Flying business class to Doha, our first entre into the world of privilege…
I must say our trip over the pond from the states was almost as surreal as our first full day in Qatar. With the exception of a flying complication bump to first class for a short flight in the US several years ago, neither Belle nor I had experienced the true luxury of flying business class. It all started with our arrival to the ticket counter where a huge line of international passengers were waiting patiently to check-in. With our new found travel status we were able to skip that entire line of approximately 100 coach passengers to the business class line of only 4. While checking our bags, we also noticed that the airline had placed orange “priority” stickers on our luggage. Within minutes we were passing through security on our way to the gate – but it gets better! We don’t have to wait in those dirty airport seats with scores of other travelers…we get to hang out in the Business Class Lounge. Inside we find free internet access, leather seats, and of course all the free food and drink you could ever want including fresh fruit and liquor. I had to resist my economy class instincts to eat until I was sick, after all it was free. However, I soon realized that if I get all this free stuff now I’ll probably get it on the plane as well – boy was I right.
If you’ve never flown business class on an overseas flight, I almost feel guilty telling you what’s been happening on the other side of the “curtain” all this time. The quote in “Jerry Maquire” makes total sense now – “It’s not just about a better meal, it’s about a better life.” Our seats were spacious and comfortable recliners that could be adjusted to meet the individual preferences of any traveler(including nearly flat for a bed) and complete with a lower back massager, personal pillow/blanket, and interactive audio-visual center. You could literally pick from a huge selection of movies, television shows, cd’s, or video games whenever you felt like it. On our trip over the pond I watched Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory, and 300. But it gets better…
When I noticed a new menu(just like from a restaurant) in front of my seat I thought to myself you’ve got to be kidding me. It was like eating a three course meal at a four-star restaurant at 35,000 feet. We started with an appetizer and drinks(including wine), progressed to the main course, and of course finished with dessert. Belle and I felt like the Beverly Hillbillies so we naturally decided to take photos and steal a menu – just so we could share them with all of you – enjoy!
The final privileged experience that I’ll share from our trip took place when we landed in Qatar. First and business class passengers are taken off the plane first and put on a bus that takes you to immigration. There was a young Asian women who had our names on a sign to make sure we got on the correct bus. Then when we arrived at the immigration area, another young Asian women escorted us to a comfortable waiting area complete with chairs, snacks, drinks, magazines, etc. while they reviewed our visa materials. Ten minutes later, she escorted us through a separate customs line and led us to baggage claim where all four of our bags (clearly marked with the orange “priority” tags) were some of the first to arrive. I can’t remember a more stress free or relaxing flight. 
If you’ve never flown business class on an overseas flight, I almost feel guilty telling you what’s been happening on the other side of the “curtain” all this time. The quote in “Jerry Maquire” makes total sense now – “It’s not just about a better meal, it’s about a better life.” Our seats were spacious and comfortable recliners that could be adjusted to meet the individual preferences of any traveler(including nearly flat for a bed) and complete with a lower back massager, personal pillow/blanket, and interactive audio-visual center. You could literally pick from a huge selection of movies, television shows, cd’s, or video games whenever you felt like it. On our trip over the pond I watched Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory, and 300. But it gets better…
When I noticed a new menu(just like from a restaurant) in front of my seat I thought to myself you’ve got to be kidding me. It was like eating a three course meal at a four-star restaurant at 35,000 feet. We started with an appetizer and drinks(including wine), progressed to the main course, and of course finished with dessert. Belle and I felt like the Beverly Hillbillies so we naturally decided to take photos and steal a menu – just so we could share them with all of you – enjoy!
The final privileged experience that I’ll share from our trip took place when we landed in Qatar. First and business class passengers are taken off the plane first and put on a bus that takes you to immigration. There was a young Asian women who had our names on a sign to make sure we got on the correct bus. Then when we arrived at the immigration area, another young Asian women escorted us to a comfortable waiting area complete with chairs, snacks, drinks, magazines, etc. while they reviewed our visa materials. Ten minutes later, she escorted us through a separate customs line and led us to baggage claim where all four of our bags (clearly marked with the orange “priority” tags) were some of the first to arrive. I can’t remember a more stress free or relaxing flight.
Needless to say privilege has its privileges. We got our first real taste of what it must be like to live between two different social classes. In the states we would never fly business class or be waited on like we were on this trip. There were several times when we both felt uncomfortable and guilty about passing people in line or thinking about the folks crammed in coach but that didn’t stop us from taking full advantage. We both knew coming in that the concept of privilege would be a part of this experience in Qatar but maybe didn’t fully understand the magnitude. It will certainly be interesting to see how these experiences change some of our perceptions and behaviors in the time to come.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Process
(Spices in the Old Souk)So Curt and I were in Qatar May 18-23 of 2007. We had our interviews, visited the Old Souk, met people from Qatar Foundation and the branch campuses and then headed home to think about our decision. By Memorial day, we had decided we would take the plunge! Our American contact in Qatar (hereafter referred to as "Q"), Kevin (aka "Qatari Kevin") had called us to see if we were interested in coming to work there. Apparently, in Arab culture, they want to know that you will accept an offer before they will formally give you an offer. A little different than we were used to. Our first lesson in Arab culture became apparent when 2 days later Qatari Kevin called to tell us that Belle's job "was not a position they wanted to have at this point in the strategic plan" but he assured us that "they still want you both to come". Needless to say, we had sold our house by this point, and were freaking a little bit.
Through too many emails, some stressful days/nights, we finally got details worked out for Belle's job (complete with job description!) and were now left to wait for the formal paper offer. In the meantime, Belle had interviewed at Iowa for an advising job in their College of Business and been offered the position. We were now faced with " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - after some serious handholding by Qatari Kevin, the Qatar Foundation was able to get our offers to us - and only 3 short weeks after we had returned from our interviews.
Through too many emails, some stressful days/nights, we finally got details worked out for Belle's job (complete with job description!) and were now left to wait for the formal paper offer. In the meantime, Belle had interviewed at Iowa for an advising job in their College of Business and been offered the position. We were now faced with " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - after some serious handholding by Qatari Kevin, the Qatar Foundation was able to get our offers to us - and only 3 short weeks after we had returned from our interviews.
(BTW - this is a falcon at the Old Souk - they sell them for hunting in the desert!)So our master plan is to be done with work the end of June, visit some family and friends in Iowa, finish up moving and closing on the house, visit family in TX and then fly to Doha, Qatar from there. We will hopefully be able to keep this blog updated for people who are interested, or at least for those who are bored at work . . .
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