Week one in Qatar (Arabic: قطر ‎; local pronunciation: giṭar)

After a 13 hour flight from Washington D.C. I arrived in Doha, Qatar at 6:50 p.m., Thursday, April 15,2008. Ash, my high-strung , American/Egyptian supervisor, greeted me at the airport and drove me to my new villa. During the 20 minute drive to my new home he pointed out land marks while recklessly swerving through traffic and blaring “The Sky Is the Limit -Little Wayne”. During that ride ‘home’ he gave me a piece of advice that I’ve heard echoed over a dozen times since.. “Stay away from the local women… they are off limits”. I smiled but didn’t respond. I remembered that I had decided not to focus on dating before I came. Just three hours later I was formally introduced to Doha’s night life when I was taken to a beach party at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Kinda wild eh! I made it home at around three a.m. that night!

The following day I slept in and spent the day with a few expats that I had met the previous night. Sunday I unpacked and today was my first day at work. Sorry for the short summary but I’m tired of typing.

A few things that I’ll note which have stood out to me my first week are the following:

• the transit system is in need of reform (to put it lightly)! It’s been explained to me that many of the people who drive the streets of Doha are “TCN’s” (Third World Nationals)… people who have come to Qatar to work menial jobs and are given drivers licenses to perform there duties. In addition to that no one uses turning signals and cutting people off while driving 100 km per hour is a common occurrence. The roundabouts only make this problem worse.
• there is a sad but very real class system here. For the most part everyone who lives within the city of Doha is pretty well off. Unfortunately the “TCN’s” work in the worst possible conditions imaginable and are payed anywhere from 600-1500 Qatari Riyal month. One U.S. Greenback is equivalent to 3.63 Qatari Riyal

Most people here that I’ve spoken with believe that because the treatment and payment of the “TCN’s” are much better than the conditions that they have come from, then this is okay. Others say that if they were to pay them higher wages and improve their standard of living that it would cause to many to move here and ruin the local economy. I haven’t formed my opinion just yet. Anyway. I’m off.

Feel free to post any questions or comments. I’m more than happy to respond.

sss