It has been an exhilarating week, full of new experiences, sights, and great hospitality. Qatar is an extremely wealthy country, the 2nd highest per capita income in the world, and no words or images can really convey the scale of development here. It is like nothing I have ever seen. Not exactly the hardship posting I had in mind, for which I am grateful.
These are photos of one of the most upscale developments in Doha, The Pearl, a man-made island with luxury villas and apartments, wonderful restaurants, and designer stores. When completed, it will resemble a string of pearls with a number of small islands available for individual purchase. Maybe I will buy my first pair of Jimmy Choo's! (Just kidding, Bill.) This week I had a lovely dinner there with the Dean of the Qatar University College of Law, his wife, and precious one-year-old triplet daughters. Needless to say, I advised boarding school for their adolescent years.
Doha has been a study in contrast so far. A couple sitting down to eat behind a screen in a Lebanese restaurant, the woman dressed in her burqa with full veil...and just before the screen was closed, I saw her whip out her Blackberry to review her messages. Sipping coffee in the City Centre Mall, the largest mall I have ever seen, and suddenly hearing the Muslim call to prayer echoing through the halls, a beautiful plaintive reminder that occurs five times a day here. I always open my hotel window to hear it from the nearby mosque.
A true melting pot - less than half the residents here are actually Qatari. I have yet to meet a cab driver (and I have met many) who isn't from Pakistan, the Philipines, or another Gulf country. Qatar is engaged in the process of Qatarization, training its own people to take over positions now occupied by ex pats. For example, most of the faculty members at the large number of university campuses here are not Qataris. Obviously that will be a generational undertaking.
Speaking of taxis, I've literally been taken for a ride by a few. Last night I asked to go to a bookstore that should have been within a mile of City Centre Mall, and 25 minutes later, we arrived at a suburban branch of the bookstore. When questioned, the driver told me he had taken me to the "smaller" branch because it would be more manageable for me. ("Thank you, Sir!") I bought a printer, and then the kind people at the bookstore hauled it out to the main highway on a dolley and hailed a taxi for me. That driver took me for a scenic tour of the Doha suburbs and then asked for 50QR (Qatari Rials, around $15USD). He immediately succumbed to my sharp questioning ("Excuse me, Sir, but was this the most direct route?") and lowered the price. So I still have an enormous amount to learn about where I am, where I am going, and how to get there...not much different from the U.S.
Today I move into my apartment, and my Skype is connected, so write, call, or visit! Don't know whether I will get into this writing thing or not, but I'll let you know when I've posted something new. For now, I need to find a bank, get a driver's license, and find a way to watch the Project Runway finale, not necessarily in that order. I miss everyone, most of all my family, but will be home in seven weeks for Christmas (pray for snow!)
