Camel Racing

Camel Riding

Sorry no Photos

Having a bit of problem posting photos at the moment so apologies for that. Now sorted. Do need to take more. Haven't for the last few weeks so will get out there snapping. Will also try and tidy up formatting as well. Not sure what I've done but will get it sorted :-) . You've probably noticed that many of the photos don't match the text. Sorry about that it is a biot of a random process.

I was having a little look at the blog (without pics) and it reminded me of the aerogrammes Nicki would send home when she lived in the UK. Each week should would post an aerogramme which chronicled her time overseas. It became part of the Saturday ritual, lunch at mum and dad's, catch up with the whanau and have a read of Nicky's letter. Now her English is excellent so it was always a great read. It allowed us to experience what she was living. I'm hoping that this blog gives you a similar sense.

Red Light - Ouch

I have tried to drive more to develop both my skills and confidence. This may have cost me a significant fine as I was focusing so much on the vehicles around me I drove through a flashing orange to red light. I think the fine for this is just over $NZ2000 so I am hoping I don’t get a nasty bill at the end of the month, inshallah. We have almost adapted to the driving style here so am worried how this will influence my efforts when I return home. Given my following distances and aggressive maneuvres I feel I may have to adapt quickly or I will be catching up with the boys in blue. This photo is of my daily turkish which arrives on my desk around 8am. It comes with a friendly smile and gives me a kick start to my morning

A bit more on study

Colleen, (who is part of the GR5) looked familiar when I first met her, but I couldn’t place her. I often meet other principals through ICT or principal conferences but it wasn’t those when we went through a list of things we had attended. I think I was three years in at Waimiha when she became a principal in the Waikato. We were talking last week and finally made the connection. We were distance ed students together. We were both working on the Diploma of Educational Management and Adminstration in the late 90’s. We would have attended residentials together in Hamilton as well as completed the same courses(I used to drive down to Hamilton from Paihia during the holidays). So pleased to finally make the connection.

Graduation

In our work’s weekly newsletter there was a short note congratulating Julie, one of the team, as she was graduating with her Masters (if she had been back home) I had completely forgotten that I too was suppose to graduate last week. My certificate had arrived in a folded envelope the week before I left NZ and so it some respects it was history, even though study has been a large part of my life since the mid 90s. With three diplomas and two degrees under my belt I was thinking that I probably had a few letters after my name and wondered how much of it was helping me with my current role. You can see that my spelling and grammar are still shot, so some things have not changed at all. Anyway I gave her a call to congratulate her on her success. We decided to share research stories over a curry as a form of graduation. Given that I have always elected to receive my qualifications in absentia it turned out to be a neat way to graduate. I was really pleased I made an effort as it is a milestone in my life. Problem was I couldn’t find a gown and hat. While I do have a thobe and yashmagh it wasn’t quite the appropriate attire for the occasion. If I think back to my graduation of ’86 it was a green shirt and a pencil thin black leather tie (think Miami Vice) with boffy centre parted hair and my BMI was in the low 20s. In '08 it was barker denims, thai cotton tee and hush puppies sandals with grey, receding hair and I’m not even going to think about the BMI. My times have changed. I think I am over study and need to eat more salad.

Euro Centric - Arab Centric World

It has been a very interesting week with so many new things and experiences relating to work and life with my team. While I am part of my home life (virtually) on a daily basis my life is filling up with a whole new way of thinking and living in this part of the world. I call this my Arab sense. This sometimes makes it hard for me when I get an email from work back home to get my head in the right place, to think carefully and rationally, my euro sense. So I marvel at the translators I meet here who are Arabic yet have the ability to live in a Euro-Arab centric world.

I was at a meeting recently which was being translated at a great rate of knots. The speaker made a couple of minor error in the presentation and so acknolwedged that they were very tired. This was translated to which the translator added that he too was indeed very tired - you sort of had to be there to capture the essence of the humour. It was the notion while we were operating at one fast speed. His was double that, yet he was able to convey this subtle humour through his translation. The room (english speakers) just cracked up.

Culture

I found out a little more today from one of my colleagues about Arabic culture. This was to do with the connections with family and the physical connection with men. Greetings are more than just verbal here. They should where possible involve a physical connection. As we walked around and he introduced me to some of his colleagues the physical connection was fascinating to watch. Not just a hand shake, but a holding of the hands, throughout the conversation. He explained to me that different Arab countries use many of the different forms of greetings I have discussed earlier (rubbing cheeks, hongi). So it is different in Sudan, Egypt, Syria. There are some practices more common across the gulf countries. Also people have two names. One of these is used in essence to trace your whakapapa. So your name will be father of or mother of your oldest child. If you do not have children then your name is son of your father. This clearly places the family at the centre of culture, more so it appears than in western culture. I was pleased to hear today that a good friend has become a father again. This may not be the last time :-). His new son carries a connection to the family in that his middle in that of his grandfathers', a man he will never meet as he passed on recently. By having the name he helps to retain a connection with the family and a connection for my friend. I know as kids we were interested in our name and why we got the names we did. Who we were named after.

Where Rugby Sits

John is a Hurricanes stalwart. On several occasions now we have ventured out on a Friday morning looking for somewhere to watch the rugger. John adorned in his 'canes shirt. The golf club was a great spot but lately we have been going to Rydges as they have been publishing what matches they'll be showing over the weekend. So last weekend the 'canes were playing at 6pm local time. We venture down to support the boys. At the same time there was a football feed coming in from England. Man U vs Blackburn. They had this up on the big screen with the rugby taking second fiddle on the small tvs. This was due to the large English contingent in the room at the time. If you can imagine 30-40 English watching the game on the big screen and three kiwis sitting perpendicular to the main event staring at a small telly watching the rugby. The highlight in sometimes watching John and his responses rather than the rugby itself. He didn't let us down. The referee made what John decided was a dubious call against the 'canes. So John expresses his frustration at the ref's cal in true style. It coincided with a slight paue in the football commentary. Head's turned , people stopped talking. It was almost like a western scene. John was totally oblivious. Love it.

From Hot to Cold

One of the challenges of this environment is temperature change. The temperature is pretty constant and it's only going to get hotter. Where this change is most obvious is the move from inside to outside and vice versa. I went for a walk to the Royal Plaza to pick up some trousers. It's a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel. Temp was in the mid 30s and it was pleasant enough.the problem is when you step inside an air conditioned environment your body tends to react be releasing all the fluid it has held onto in the hotter temperatures. You end up bathed in sweat and realise that it's not a good time to try that shirt on that would go well with those trousers!

Playing on Grass

We got to get back out onto the Academy Course at the Doha Golf Club last week. The course is a short par 34 and I had a good day carding a 35 just missing a birdie putt on the last. It's only the second time we have played it so was very happy with the result. Stay out of the desert and you can score low. We're hoping to get on and play the championship course before it gets too hot. It's interesting golf has been an important part of my life as I do a lot of thinking on the course. A great release from the daily grind. A major part of the game which I enjoy is the niggle, the gamesmanship. I paly with a great group of people back home. These guys I play with here love the niggle as well. Its the testosterone I think. Anything competitive and its all on. There is an ANZAC tournament here on Friday which we are playing in so it will be a good chance for Kiwis and Aussies to get together.

Dunestock

We thought we would head off to Dunestock. Think Woodstock 40 years on underneath a sand dune in Qatar and you’ll get the drift. (excuse the pun) We headed off in the morning in the new upgraded Suzuki. Our original Liana had a noise in the back brake so our man gave us the 2.3l version with spoiler and mags. You notice the difference in getting out of roundabouts. We are due to swap to our Vitara soon so will be able to drive down the side of roads rather than on them like people do here to avoid queues.

So the plan was to head down to Sealine, a resort 40 minutes drive down the coast, spend the day there and then head off to Dunestock for the evening. By lunchtime in started to grow dark and very windy. You could look directly at the sun there was that much haze. It was a dust / sand storm quite like we hadn’t seen before. The thought of sitting on a blustery sand dune for the evening watching local musicians suddenly lost its appeal. Apparently 5000 people did go and were relatively well sheltered, making the event a huge success. We packed up about mid afternoon and I drove the team back to Doha. An experience in itself as piles of sand and dust blew across the road all the way back.

Sealine

This was a great little resort. We sat on the beach, on grass, under a palm tree and spent the hours reading and sun bathing. Damian, Colleen and John went for a swim as well. The dust storm was a bit of a blessing as I hadn’t realised how much sun I had got. An unhealthy red glow! It could have been in the pacific this resort. The water wasn’t as clear as you would get in the islands but the heat and the resort had a similar feel. There were some differences though. Like my own situation many of the people in Qatar are male and have families in other countries. The gender balance is incredibly out of sync. Friday is the main day off or weekend for many of the men. So what first struck me as we entered the pool area was the absolute lack of any females. Men everywhere, mainly in the pool. Shortly after two young European women came into the area and stripped down to their bikinis. It was fascinating to watch the quite overt glances at these women by most of the men. When we got down to the beach area there were more women. The outfits ranged from Abayas to next to nothing and 100s and 100s of men staring. I could understand why the men came. The women didn’t appear to take offence at the staring.

Whanau

This weekend I have spent a bit of time thinking about how important the notion of whanau is in my current situation. This has come about mainly as a result of following the news back in NZ about the students in the canyon tragedy. It has got to me for some reason. The notion of whanau or community has come through strongly in the reporting that I have picked up from here.

So here I am halfway around the world and thinking about the community that supports me and others in our team? I feel very lucky. Someone here used that word recently to describe me, lucky. I’m feeling very lucky right now. This is because I feel that I’m part of a close knit group, my Qatar whanau. This group has a number of sub groups whom I interact with. Some are very special to me and I really value these and am happy to put lots of energy into them. I thought I’d share a little bit about some of these groups

The GR5

The GR5 are the group I am currently sharing accommodation with. They are who I feel very responsible to and have this strong sense of loyalty and belonging. Family Four were part of this group when we were the GR7 but they have moved out so the connection is a little different. GR5 currently share meals, cars, stories, work, adventures and laughs. We know so much about each other. This has happened in a very short period of time. When you get stuck in transit or share food you have lots fo time to share.I’ve tried to promote the idea of nicknames for the group, which are starting to stick. We have Koro who is our elder statesman and has this wonderful depth of knowledge. He sums things up with a "Jolly Good". He doesn’t talk as much as some of us but he is worth listening to when he does. There’s Gazelle who dances across roads and doubles as camp mother. She remembers the little things like fresh coffee, birthday pressies and other important things that help keep the group a unit. There’s Whiz who is so so clever and is also really considerate. She thinks about others, communicates well and makes sure that we are being inclusive. As well she is able to answer any question ever asked in a pub quiz. There’s AQM (Al Qatar Man). He is doing the bulk of the driving for the team. There is carnage going on around us on the roads and he is in complete control. His sense of where his vehicle is on the road in relation to others who dance to a different tune is like Wayne Gretsky on an ice hockey rink. Never have I felt so safe while driving before. A great bloke. And then me. I’m either Umpoi – after 3 buffet meals, Average – too hard to explain and I wouldn’t understand because I’m not smart enough, Lucky or Polly. The mix in this group is an incredibly eclectic one but it works. It works incredibly well. Feel really fortunate

The Staff

We could in all possibility spend 1 sixth of a year in this hotel so it is important to build relationships. We have made some great connection with people who work here. They are becoming very special to us and I think we too them. This has been very obvious in the last week or two. some examples of this

One of the front of house staff is off for a month on annual leave. We gave her a small gift as a thank you in case we were gone when she got back. She cried and hugged us all and then came in to visit us just before she was about to leave the country.

Our maitre de has been away for a week out of the country. I moved from a verbal greeting to shaking his hand each time we met a few weeks back. Again he was concerned that we would be gone before he got back. I walked into breakfast this morning and got this great hand shakes and a big hug. Arabic men are very tactile and the amount of physical contact appears to be a measure of respect, closeness, relationship. So you see greetings, handshakes, hugs, hongi cheek touch and kiss. We appear to be moving along the continuum of friendship amongst Arabic men.

I have taken an interest in our staff’s cricket team. One of my first posts was about the cricket that is played out in the car park. The word got around that I had asked so suddenly I was having these conversations with them about their cricket and their team. Remember they have one day off and this is how they spend part of their limited free time. So it is a big part of their non work experience. I got up and went out to watch them at 7-30 on Friday morning. They were so pleased to see me and they were short of players so asked me to play. I couldn’t and wouldn’t given the skill level that was on display. The cricket would match top club level back home. I took some photos and shared them with some of the staff over lunch. I’m now getting daily updates on their next matches, how they are going in their league. They seem to appreciate someone showing interest in their lives.

Love this technology

I get to text or video Skype with home pretty much every day. Technology is so cool. The end to daylight savings has made it that much harder to keep in contact. It’s just one hour but it throws things out of sync. I either need to sleep in the afternoon so that I can stay up in the evening. (I can’t seem to survive past 9) When I do, I struggle to sleep at night and then getting up at 5-30 for work can sometimes be a challenge. I work it out. I am online the whole time I am at work. Given that I spend most of my time in a male environment I feel really uncomfortable talking with female members of my family in this environment. It feels cultural inappropriate so I don’t SKYPE I tend to use text. What it means is that I’m pretty much still back in NZ in a virtual sense. I don’t know how people coped waiting for letters to arrive. I think I get the text thing as I use it more. It's quick and efficient but also can be used in lots of ways. We use texts and calls here with the team. There is that saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a few words can have the same effect.

Fishing Trip

Steve from work organised a fishing trip for the team on a dhow during the weekend. The day was perfectly calm and the sea was like glass. We cruised (well chugged) out into the Arabian Sea and parked up near a couple of drilling platforms. What a great way to spend a Saturday. The tour operators provided a barbecue lunch and we sat and fished for an hour or two. There don’t appear to be the same sorts of regulations that we have back home regarding catches and size of fish. I had a double catch with a baby snapper and a hamour (groper) on my line. You would get a fi rather than a fillet off the snapper. Our group of 25 caught about 20 fish in total. Steve and Damian shared the prize for the largest fish. On our way backing we stopped off at Banana Island for a swim. The water is so much saltier here than back home. Helps the shashimi to float. We arrived back at the wharf and hopped into the car. The car had been sitting in the carpark all day so the outside temperature was 46 degrees. Believe anyone who tells you about the benefits of passive solar. The heat trapped by concrete buildings can be quite intense. At night it pays to keep your distance from buildings as the closer you get to them the warmer it gets.

Covering the Country

We decided that we would go for a drive in the car to check out a bit of the country. Having been to the South and the Inland Sea it was time to head West across the country to the other coastline. The trip is approximately 80 kms and the road, while still being completed is a double three lane motorway. We check the map and decided to head for Durkam as that looked like the largest settlement (pretty much the only one) on that side of the country. The trip was pleasant enough with very little traffic on the road given that it was Friday. Halfway across we came to camel racing country. We attempted to follow the signs to the race track but ended up in the middle of some housing estate on roads ( well we’ll call them roads) not designed for our little lantra. With sump intact and a little conversation I had with a local we finally came upon the camel race track. It is about 5 km long and they use robots to control the camels. There was no racing on the day but we saw a lot of camels. We’ll make the effort to get back in the coming weeks as it is coming to the end of the season. Not only did we find the camel track we also found the sealed highway which takes you there. At least we’ll know for next time. So onward to Durkam. We arrived we saw and we left. Simply because there was very little there. Qatar Petroleum has a huge compound there and there is a members only beach resort as well. A police station, a fire station and lots of construction. Having found the other coast with not a toilet in sight it was back in the car and home for a late brunch. We only need to get to the northern most point and then we have knocked the country off.

My First Driving Experience

Julia asked if I would drive her down to the bookshop to pick up a copy of The Times. This paper kills I don’t know how may trees as it is huge. You almost need a shopping trolley to carry it to your car. The bookshop is on Salwa Road. This road goes from the centre of Doha out into the desert, right through to Saudi Arabia. It is amazing how one simple missed turn can extend your journey enormously. Well I missed a turn and carried on. I didn’t quite reach Saudi but we did get to see a lot of the city of Doha in our quick trip down to pick up the paper. I have been reminded of my error as apparently a gender problem... you know... i don't need to ask for directions... i know where I'm going!And like wise it also conjures up the vogel's ad in the New York loft... Let it go Julia it's like, that was a week ago!

We have license we have cars

We all passed with flying colours (well sort of) and now have temporary driving licenses for the duration of our stay here. We have sorted out cars and after saying farewell to our drivers we have taken on the challenge of driving ourselves. I know I have written before about driving in this city but I think that most of my daily excitement will be as I travel from work to home. Driving is simply a series of near misses. Sometimes people don’t miss. We have automatics so that when we get to roundabouts all we had to concentrate of was driving. Now the first challenge is driving on the opposite side of the road. You need to have a little mantra each time you hop in the car. Drive right, look left as it is required to overcome the natural instinct or habits of left hand driving. Once you’re away it all falls into place until some big 4WD moves across the three lanes to exit doing 120kph with no indicator. It means there is never a dull moment.

And it rained!

It sure did. Not once but twice. It made the newspapers. There was a prediction of rain which we found strange. And then it happened. Random minute drops during the early afternoon. We were driving and it was like when you’re driving down the motorway and a car a couple ahead of you cleans their windscreen and your car gets this minor splatter of drops. Well that was it, rain. The next day it rained as well, not at the hotel but out in West Bay. Colleen and Julia were out there and they said the wind picked up and it got cool enough they then got goose bumps (the temperature dropped to 27 – we must be getting use to the heat) and they had a small group of big rain drops. They have rain here in January with a yearly average of 5-6 mm. Apparently in causes mayhem as the water has no were to go as there are no storm water drains and houses don’t have gutters. You just assume that all houses have gutters.

The other way

This is looking up towards the Dhow Roundabout in the souqs, near my camel food restaurant

One of the coolest parts of the city

Down in the souqs is quite stunning at night. This is a photo in the restored old souq area looking back at the Islamic Cultural Centre building at about 6 o'clock at night

My Essential Kit

A photo of my kit. You will notice both Berocca and other dietary supplements. You do need them here. We have been advised to supplement our water supplies with an electrolyte powder as you lose so much in the heat of the day. I have had to move towards the Fazza way. You will see some moisturising balm with my shaving kit. I have to use this now as my skin needs it. It has been pretty windy here the last couple of days and it is (I assume) like having a dermabrasion treatment. It is incredibly fine dust but it gets in your eyes and hammers your skin. So moisturising balm it is Faz. It’s not going to count cause you’re not here. Two other essential items which go with me is tissue paper and bottled water. You need to be constantly hydrating yourself. The tissue paper is self explanatory. Have been ill with a stomach bug the last few days and was down to my last segment. You may be aware form your own travel experiences that Asian and idle eastern men do a lot of clearly their nasal cavities and throats. They often make a “hoiking” sound. A lot of men also spit. Since the dust has picked up here I too am getting a build up of mucus in the back of my throat. A bit like you get sometimes when you have a head cold. My theory is that you are constantly inhaling this fine dusk and your bodies defence mechanism is to produce mucus… hence the problem of how to clear the build up.

Family Four… gone by lunchtime

The first of our group has moved out. The couples will go first as they cost more to house in the hotel. My name is last on the list so I maybe the last to go. We are all hopeful that we will end up in the same apartment block as some of us will share cars. We have become very familiar with our surroundings and the staff have got to know us. Many of the staff are filopino and we have found them to be warm and friendly people. They know us by our names, know what we like to drink and eat. They are really quite wonderful. They also work 6 days a week in 10-11 hour shifts

More on Driving

As we have been a month next week we will soon lose our drivers. They ferry us around during the day and are generally pretty reliable. Sometimes things are lost in translation and it is easier for the men in our group to make things happen than the women. Traffic moves quickly here and I sit in the front seat with my guy learning Arabic numbers by practicing on car number plates. (they have them in both English and Arabic so it’s a good activity to and from work). I can do this without glasses and the plates are usually very close in front of our car as we travel between 80 and 140 kph. I feel very safe although I would not be able to drive this way. Other little strategies I have noticed is the approaching and moving away from roundabouts. Many of the drivers approach the roundabout with the lane line directly in the middle of the driving path and exit the same way. This I have decided gives you the option to get into the lane with the least traffic to get in and out of the roundabouts quickly. Problem is when lots of people are doing it and both decide on the same lane at the same time it makes for interesting viewing. Horns and lights are used a lot. It’ll be us next week as we head out in our own cars. We went and got drivers licences this week after passing our examinations and paying over our money. We also got a small taste of summer as came out of the transport police compound. It was like walking into a blast furnace. Someone who knew said it was probably round the 40 degree mark. Roll on June, July I say. Kim and the kids will get to experience first hand the summer heat.

F1 Boat Racing

Last weekend we went down to watch the F1 Power Boat racing from the Corniche. We turned up and there was really no crowd at all so we could choose where we wanted to sit and watch. I understand that is the case for many events. Access is easy and often free. It was great to watch on a cool (low 30s) Saturday evening. I captured the image of this man with his children taking photos of the race on his cellphone.