Playing Where's Waldo with the American Embassy

Today, was another adventurous day in Doha. Just when I thought that the visa monster had been defeated, he was revived and reared his ugly head. But, This time it was a tad bit entertaining. So, apparently to get a work visa in Doha, you need the original copy of your degree and it has to be notarized. First of all, who carries a copy of the original degree. Yeah, so I walk off the stage fold it up and put it in my pocket instead of putting it in a frame. Got it!!!

Anyhow, I have a copy of my degree and teaching certificate. So, we decided to take a trip to the British and American Embassy to get our documents notarized. I really like Doha but one of the most confusing things about this place is that there are no signs. There is a stop sign and large "expressway type" signs but street signs and labels that are actually useful are far and few between. Sidenote: but I think its amazing that everyone knows where everything is and there are no addresses. lol.

We are driving around this "subdivision" looking for these two embassy and playing guess that flag (luckily the embassies have flags). Up the street, down the street, around the corners and back, still no British or American embassies. Randomly, we take a left down this back road and we see this large building with a massive dish on its roof and somehow we know we are in the right area. After a hour in the car and a mind numbing maze around this construction ridden "subdivision" we find this British Embassy only to find out that they are only open to the public from "8-11" and no matter what we said her only response was "tomorrow".

Next, stop the American Embassy. We ask for directions, (well the driver does) and we head out for what we think is the American Embassy only for the driver (who is lovely by the way) to go out of the subdivision to the other part of down and back, pull up to the British Embassy and say we are here. Out of frustration and irony we bursted out laughing. I don't know if its funnier that he didn't realize this is the place that we just left or that we weren't paying attention enough to know we went in a big circle.

Longer story short, we restart our journey to the American Embassy. It's funny because in the carewe are all joking about what our embassies would look like. I said that our embassy would be massive with a giant eagle or flag. Just because we are very nationalistic as a country. We drive by all the embassies you could imagine. But we still can't find the American embassy. After another few minutes and about 7 miles, we drive pass this massive fortress and all I could think was "Oh, say can you see".  The embassy was a massive fortress with a tiny flag. Tall walls, big doors and even larger guards lol. My happiness was short-lived though. When we finally get there, its closed, they don't notarize things anyway and we are in the middle of no where. Cheers to another interesting day in Doha :-) 

Why?

The one thing that I continue to hear is how did you end up in the Middle East. Why? How Come? For What?  First and foremost, I say that the person with a plan, finally went with the flow. My plan for India didn't work out and that's when I realized life isn't my plan to make. It's beyond me. He didn't want me in India. Then he dropped Doha in my lap. I am a true believer in two things 1) Karma 2) Everything happens for a reason. I am in Doha for a reason. I can't tell you what the reason is or when I will know. It may be 30 years later when I figure it out but I know there is one. 


It is hard to believe that it's been almost a month since I left the states. Six months ago when I told people I wanted to leave the states. I got the "Are you crazy?'.  I can't complain about the life I had in the states but I knew something was missing. I kept thinking there has to be more. I was dying to know more. I wanted to know more about the world, more about life but most importantly more about me. It's funny because I was surfing I-tunes the other day (Pandora doesn't work here) and I came across this Nicki Minaj song. I will be the first to tell you that I don't think she's inspirational in any way but for one moment, something in her song clicked with me. In the chorus, Rihanna says " I came to win, to fly , to conquer, to thrive, to survive, to prosper, to rise".  For that 10 seconds, I completely agreed with her and slowly but surely, I am finding all of that in Doha. 


So, when people ask me why I have come to the Middle East, my response is, why not? The one thing I know for sure is as a culture we keep ourselves inside a box because of fear. Fear of the unknown. I blog because I want to share my experience with the world. I want to be an example that there is nothing that you can't do. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's hard. I don't miss the states really but there is no substitute for loved ones and "Good" friends. But I know that this is worth the sacrifice. We are more than the situation we are in or the circumstances we were born into. There were many people in my life who told me I would never be where I am. There are people to this day that don't speak to me because I didn't follow their plan. My family is as dysfunctional as most or even more (still love them :-)  ). In saying that, my point is it will never matter what cards you are dealt, some get a shorter hand than others but in the end all that matters is how you play them. 

The First Days of Kindergarten

Tuesday was the first day of school for us in Doha. I was feeling excitement mixed with nervousness because I didn't know what to expect. This was the first time that I had to teach children this little. Their foundation for reading and writing was essentially in my hands. If that isn't enough pressure, there is a cultural and  language barrier. Things were already so different here (education wise). For instance, we have school from 7-1 because it is so hot here (literally). The school day is so short but I need to teach them so much. Not to mention that Im going to be teaching the British curriculum and not the American one that Im so comfortable with.

My mind wouldn't let me sleep the night before. I woke up at 4:30 am with the movie reel running of how the first day would turn out. Before I knew it there were kids coming through the door. It turns out they were just as nervous as I was. They were crying and holding on to their parents' pants legs. The parents didn't want to leave so we were really all a nervous wreck.

As the day went on things smoothed out. The kids stopped crying and I stopped worrying. They love me and I love them. They love when I read to them and for some reason they always want me to eat the random pretend food they cook lol. The kids are so well-behaved, interested and so eager to learn. They are getting more confident and the ones that don't have good English are at least trying to speak it now. While we working on the letter "s" today one of the little girls randomly looks up from her work and go Ms. Harris "Your a good teacher". I just chuckled and said thank you. Another girl came in this morning and said look Ms. Harris , I wore a ponytail and headband just like you did yesterday. They are cute and funny, but the best part is they are terrified of the time-out chair. That makes my job so much easier.

The parents seem to like me as well. Aside from the fact, that Ive already had about three of them ask me if I was African.  At first I said no, I am American. She then said, well yeah but where were you born. I said Buffalo, NY. LOL Then, I thought about it. Am I African? Should I be offended? I really don't think they meant it negatively. What bothered me most is the fact that I said no so quickly. Does that mean that we somehow think being African is a bad thing? I have to put some more thought into it. Anyhow, that's a topic for a blog on another day.

As for Kindergarten in Doha, so far so good! 

Can You Repeat That?

It's funny the way people communicate when you can't use words. We all work together but we dont speak the same language. We don't read the same words or count the same numbers. So how do you get someone to understand what you need, what you want. How do you thank someone without being able to say a thing?


 On Thursday, I was trying to cover my bulletin board with paper. One of the cleaners came in and saw me struggling. She came over to help me. She speaks very little English. I smiled to let her know I was happy to have her help. I would hand her things and point so she knew what to do. When we were finished I cheered with my hands to show I was excited. I gave her a big grin to show I was thankful. Then I did a thumbs up and said nice. I got down off the chair and began to pick up the staples that were dropped and she kept yelling I clean. I kept saying it's ok and continued to pick them up. She seemed to be offended bc she came over and started picking them up herself. I didn't mean to offend her. I was trying to show her that she doesn't have to clean up after me. I respect her.that I am thankful for her. But I didn't know how to do that without words. 


There a few teachers here that speak little English. I feel bad that I can't understand them. They try to talk to me but i look like a deer in headlights. One of the arab teachers also speaks French so I communicate with her that way ( see French does come in handy) after using it with her im getting much better at it and its coming back from memory. But for the other teachers, i just nod yes if i cant make out what they are saying in their limited English. I hate to keep asking them to repeat it so I nod. But i do want to communicate with them. After all I'm in their country. I think it's a bit arrogant for me to come to their country and demand they speak in my language. Islam here is more than a religion. It's their culture. It's their law. Its their way of life. 
Yes, Doha is international with many different nationalities but I suspect their reason for doing so is all about money. Doha is trying to attract wealthy tourists. Actually doha is so rich that it is running out of ways to spend it's money. For example, they are building an underwater hotel with an aquarium. There are less wealthy here but there are no beggars. The government takes care of them.


Anyhow, I don't want to be the American girl that went to the Middle East expecting things to be done her way. I really want to know and learn more. I want to know about the things you can't find on google. Most of what I have learned about Doha so far is from talking to people. So, I am going to try and learn conversational Arabic. The Arabic teacher here has agreed to tutor me if I help her with her English. I happily agreed. Watch Out World by the time I leave here I will be speaking fast in 3 languages lol.

Never A Dull Moment in Doha

So, I started todays blog this morning. I was going to write about this, that and the third but after today's events, I scrapped that story. So, lets see. Today, we decided to go to Lulu Hypermart which is the American equivalent of Walmart. Usually in Doha, you take the Karwa taxi which is the green taxi. But after coming out of the mall we couldn't find any. In Doha, there are also loads of private taxis, which we are adamant about not using. But since there were four of us, we thought it would be ok. Anyhow, in Doha they have these big circle roads or round-abouts. They are three lanes wide and nobody seems to know where they are going. People dash from the inside lane and cross all the lanes just to exit the round-about. Ever since I got here, I kept saying how much I hate them. The other day I saw two cars brush each other. Apparently that is the norm here, people are always in fender benders.

Of course, you never think it will happen to you. Long story short, our taxi is going around the round-about and a car stops in front of him and he rams in the back of the other car. The girl we are with is sitting in the middle and she goes airborne. It looks like she's standing in the car. All of a sudden, Daniel loudly says "Is the taxi free ? We got in a freaking accident". The driver starts saying something we can't understand and we all just start laughing, mostly because we can't believe it just happened. We immediately put on our seat belts. Why we do this after the fact. I have no idea whatsoever lol. The funniest part is that the driver makes us get out and walk to our destination and then on top of that charges us 25 riyals, 15 riyals over priced. I started to get upset but the situation was just so random and funny that you couldn't be angry.

On the upside, I love the Lulu Hypermart. They have all the brands that I miss from home. I found Eggo waffles, El Paso tacos, Kraft cheese etc. They even had my favorite Louisiana seasoning, Tony's Creole seasoning. I think I can stay in Doha forever and ever. It's like being home again. I love Doha there is never a boring moment. 

Questions and Lessons

So, yesterday I discovered that Doha had a "hood". Our school put us up in this fabulous hotel but like any normal person we want to unpack and unwind. Our principal told us to wait until Sunday and he would give us an agent and a drive. Me... wait...whoever heard of such a thing. Anyhow, my adventure partner and I google some apartments, write down the addresses (with just street names and no numbers lol) and head for the green taxi. We decided to venture out on our own. We had for our favorite apartment first. The apartments are fabulous online and they were fabulous in person too. But, the neighborhood was needless to say "shady". It was shady in a weird way. You could obviously tell it was a poor area but there was no graffiti. There were no people standing on corners. There was no haggling, no loud talking, no mischief.

So, it got me thinking. How is it that Doha obviously has areas of poverty but no crime? When I say no crime, I mean crime here is almost non-existent. When you turn on the news you won't see any murders, thefts, burglaries, rapes etc. The news here reports on the problems of other countries and casually mentions their own climate here and there which is always "hot"!!!! In the states people often blame crime on the fact that there isn't enough money to go around or on how they want to come up. Why is it the same problem exists here, yet they respond to it differently? I asked 2 locals about it. One told me it was because of the Islamic "eye for an eye" law. In other words, they say the punishments are so severe that everyone is too afraid to break the law. Another local said it was from a genuine fear of the police and deportation. That reminds me, I haven't seen a police car since Ive gotten here.

Anyhow, this is a question that I'm determined to have the answer to before I leave Doha. Why is there no crime?

On another note, today was interesting. In the 3 short days Ive been here, I have met people from New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, Philippines, Libya, India and Yemen. Doha is truly an international melting pot city. When I started talking these people I never thought I would learn such a big lesson.

I was talking to the young lady from Libya. She was explaining to me that her family fled from Libya years ago because of the mistreatment in the country. The other day I saw a story on the news. The nanny from the Ghadafi family had boiling water poured on her head because she couldn't keep the toddlers silent. She had 3rd degree burns from head to toe. Then, she was refused medical care until the newscasters got wind of the story. Anyhow, the girl from Libya was explaining to me that this was normal in her country and has been going on for 42 years. She said the citizens are overjoyed about Ghadafi being kicked out.

Im a huge believer of the United States minding their own business and staying out of the drama of other countries. However, she was telling me how grateful she was that the United States and NATO stepped in. She said that if they hadn't, Ghadafi was going to order mass shootings of all the rebels and it would have had much more bloodshed than has already happened. So, I learned a lesson today. Some people do need our help and we truly can't understand a situation until we are closer to it. Hearing her story made me proud of my country. These are the wars we should be fighting. Lesson learned: When you are in a position to make a difference, do it!! We really shouldn't be afraid of these places with civil unrest. Instead, we should try to understand them. Everyone has a cause and a rationale for that cause. In the states, we gossip and complain about who did this and who did that. But could you imagine being tortured or having boiling water poured on you? It made me look at things differently. We should definitely be more appreciative and use all the resources we are so blessed to have as a nation. 

Day 1 in Doha

Well my first day in Doha was exciting to say the least. I didn't sleep at all last night due to a mix of excitement and jet lag. So, I was up bright and early at 5am to watch the sunrise from the amazing view or my hotel room on the 20th floor. Doha is gorgeous. It's like they rounded up all the best architects in the world and said build a city. No matter which direction you look in you see cranes, cement and more construction. In just six years, Doha has created a city that far surpasses any western country in modernity. Doha is definitely a hidden gem.

After watching the sunrise, I ventured outside of the hotel a little bit. Doha is hot to say the least, but I don't find that its any warmer or humid than Louisiana. Actually, I find the heat a little easier to deal with because of the breeze that comes off the Persian Gulf. Anyhow, after my short venture. I went to the mall. The Vellagio mall in Doha is designed to look like Italy. There is even a canal that runs through the center of the mall. The Vellagio reminds me of home. They have massive super stores and common American chains like H&M, Sephora, Applebees, TGI Fridays, Gap, Banana Republic Etc. Things are actually reasonably priced. I bought this wonderful Dolce and Gabanna perfume for 30 US Dollars. You can take the girl out of America but not the America out of the girl lol.

Four hours later, Im done shopping and I head home for a nap. The jet lag must have caught up with me because I could have sworn I was just dreaming when my colleague woke me up. We head down to the lobby because my principal is taking us to the Souq Waqif. The Souq is a street market. It's equivalent to a flea market in the states. You can get anything you want at the souq. I was at the souq for 3 hours and didn't even cover a quarter of it. Anyhow, my boss took us to this Yemen restaurant inside the souq. It was different to me. You take off your shoes and go into a carpet filled room. You sit on the floor amongst these pillows and eat on the floor. For the first time I ate Yemen food. I ate buried Chicken, Chicken Mandid and a plethora of other things that I really didn't know. It was all delicious. It's funny in the Middle East you finish a meal with a cup of tea. It was the best tea I had ever tasted. It's my first thing on my list to bring back to the states.

Ive also had my first set of frustrations in Doha. For one my plug blew. They use a different voltage of electricity and me thinking I was prepared bought a convertor. Until my convertor got a smoky smell and popped lol. Oh well. I will buy one at the market tomorrow. Also, I bought a prepaid phone today. It was like a small act of congress lol. You buy the phone at one shop, the sim at another and then minutes at a different location. With my type A personality, I was screaming for them to put everything in the same darn place lol. Then, I realized I'm not in Kansas anymore and it kind of goes with the territory. lol

Ive spent the last 12 hours exploring Doha. Now, I think Im ready to go to bed and knock out the Jet Lag. Besides tomorrow is my first day at work!! Im loving Doha so far. You don't even realize you are in the Middle East. You look around and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Every now and then there are men and women that walk around in their native dress and that snaps you back to reality. But Doha is a melting pot, full of people from every walks of life. I can't wait to see more. 

First Impressions of Doha, Qatar

Even as I made my way to the airport in NY, it still hadn't hit me that I was about to leave the country. I was about to be 7000 miles away from the only thing I had ever known. Yet, there was nothing. No nervousness, No worries. I was simply existing. As I sat in the airport waiting for my plane to D.C., I was chit chatting with my friend about this and that. We didn't discuss my fears, or any nervous, just the normal happenings in our world.
When I got off the plane in D.C. the plane to Doha, was already boarding. Still I was more mesmerized by the fact that this plane could fit over 300 people and had private suites.
Twelve long hours I arrive in Qatar. At 6:30pm local time it is still dark. However, the temperature is well above 90 degrees. The first thing that amazed me about Doha is the fact that almost no one who lives here is from the Middle East. In other words, there are a lot of foreigners from all over the word. Also to my surprise everything was written in Arabic and English.

Even though things are written in English not everyone here is fluent in English. It's funny because I usually have such a large vocabulary. Now, instead of saying words like magnificent and wonderful, I say things like nice and pretty. You have to slow down and listen hard. Funny enough, I like the challenge of figuring out what they are saying. I secretly plan to learn some Arabic while Im here. Most things are in English but some people are still working on it lol.

Anyhow, the plane lets us off of in the middle of the Tarmac somewhere and a bus takes us to the Doha arrival center. There is nearly no one in the center. You get in line and the nice attendant asks you if you have a visa or if you want to buy one. I tell her I want to buy one, she says "ok" , charges my card and stamps my passport. After the India situation I was terrified of visas but Doha has redeemed the visa process.

The driver meets me at the door. As we ride through the city I am truly amazed by what I see. The buildings and architecture in Doha are far more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. They are better than Chicago, better than New York and the lights are better than Vegas. It was absolutely amazing. Everything is so clean and modern. So beautifully made. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to do much else today as we are seven hours ahead. But I can't wait to wake up to tomorrow and discover what Doha has to offer.