Visiting the Katara

On Friday, my day off, I visited the Katara with some friends.  This is the cultural and fine arts area in the city which also has a large beach on the "Arabian" (what we call Persion) Gulf.  It was a warm day, so we found a Turkish restaurant on the beach boardwalk and sat down in the shade (it is always very comfortable in the shade).  We ate a variety of very delicious foods with fresh, warm puffed up pita bread and I had a "mocktail" of grapefruit juice, 7-up and some kind of fruit - it was called the Sultan's Dream.  It was dreamy.  We walked around for a while and made our way towards the Amphitheatre in the middle of this area.  It was hands down, AMAZING.  I can't wait to attend a concert or performance in the space.  See the photos!  

Entrance to the Amphitheatre




The entire Amphitheatre is faced with White Travertine Marble. 



Stage view of the Amphitheatre from the audience.

View of the audience seating from back of stage area

Amphitheatre hall detail
.



These are gigantic birdhouses on the Katari Site.



Covered Walkways

The water is a very beautiful turquoise color - lighter than the Carribean and Hawaii which I think are a deeper blue.  It is almost like blue crystal. 

This area has a lot of fun buildings connected with these outdoor covered walkways.  It felt very Qatari.  We found the Qatar School of Music and I inquired about renting a cello as I don't want to lose my "skills".  I called today and will go there sometime next week to pick out an instrument.  The most difficult thing will be getting it into my private driver's car.  He drives a Honda Civic.  Should be interesting!  One of the men at the office drives an SUV - I may have to ask Mohammed to assist me on this venture. 




Beach Time with a view of "The Pearl"part of the city!

 

The beach was full of families and most of the women were wearing full veiling. I don't know how they do it!  My friend and I wanted to put our toes in the water to see if it was warm and we learned we needed to purchase a ticket for 25 QAR (about $6.87 USD).  We waited in a long ticket line to be told that there were "too many women on the beach" and we would have to wait.  Also, bikinis are not allowed and they really want the swimsuits the women and girls wear to cover the shoulders and upper thighs (kind of looks like a short-sleeved scuba suit).  Most of the young girls were wearing a swimming outfit that looks like an old fashioned ice skating costume with long sleeves, skirt, leggings and a mock turtleneck. made out of swimsuit material.  I read an article yesterday saying the Qatari females are being treated for a dangerous lack of Vitamin D (which makes sense since you get Vitamin D from the sun).  Enjoy! 

The Veiled Women and Qatari Fashion

I promised a blog about what I am wearing in Doha and the veiled woman's explanation.  There is a lot of variation on fashion here - Westerners can get away with a lot, but I haven't seen many in shorts (women or men).  The women generally have 3/4 length sleeved tops, no spaghetti straps, and long skirts or pants.  On the job site, I dress business casual and always have a scarf handy for dust if I am on the job site, which is almost every day.  It hasn't gotten too hot here yet, in fact, the weather has been really lovely and evenings are completely wonderful.

The veiled women are very interesting in their fashion and VARY greatly.  I am including some photos from web sites as it is rude to take their pictures without permission.  I obtained most of my knowledge on the subject from a couple of Arab women in the office and online. 

When women are outside the home, or present with males who are not relatives, their hair will normally be covered, which is in obedience to Mohammed's command that women should cover their "shameful parts".   The shameful parts seem to mean hair, elbows to knees and everything in between, although if someone is wearing a veil or head covering (Hijab - pronounced hi-job) of any type, they are also covered to the wrists and ankles.   The term hijab in Arabic means a ‘screen’ or ‘partition’ but in everyday use, the word hijab has come to mean anything from the general idea of modesty as it pertains to Muslim women, to the actual headscarf that is worn by observing Muslim women as an emblem of their faith. A Muslim woman who dresses modestly and covers her hair is said to “observe hijab” or “practice hijab” and also referred to as a “mohajaba” or “hijabi”.



Some Qatari women wear the hijab further back on their heads (these women wear colored hijabs), others allow a fringe of hair to show; MOST cover their hair completely.  Other Qataris choose to cover their whole face. Even here there is variation; eyes may be showing (and heavily decorated with makeup), or covered with a thin, see-through cloth.   Ironically, I read online that there is debate in the Muslim world over whether covering your face is allowed under Islam, and certainly when women perform the Haj: a pilgrimage that forms one of the five pillars of Islam it is forbidden to cover the face.  It seems to me that the more covered they are, the less colorful - usually all black is the norm.




I have seen young girls wearing this type of thing a lot - but most look to be around 10-12
years old when they do begin to wear it. 

  
 

This photo shows a woman in the traditional Hijab (head covering) with a face veil
and a traditional outer robe called a Thobe.

I don't know for sure, but it seems to me the younger women don't put the face veil on until they are married.

This is the best photo I can find of the Niqab (face veil), but the women here wear the
 hijab with the face veil so you cannot see anything except her eyes.



Abbayah (long modest dress)







Usually the head of the household (father or husband) decides whether or not to cover the face.  I have seen some young women COMPLETELY veiled (head to toe) without eyes showing.  The material of the robes and veiling vary - the older women seem to wear fabric that seems stiff like cotton, but the younger women use much more flowing fabrics that have a small amount of sheerness to them.  There are only two women from the Qatar Foundation who visit our job site and they are completely veiled with only their eyes showing.  The men are instructed not to look them in the eyes at all, which is harder than you think apparently.  If it does happen, the woman apparently just looks away immediately.  I have heard that the women don't mind and fully support wearing it in public.  They don't wear it at home usually at all.  The two women I have talked with at the office wear regular clothing underneath the outer robes (jeans, pants or leggings with short sleeved tops) and are fully supportive of wearing it, but they do get hot and seem uncomfortable sometimes. 

Sorry this go long, but it is an interesting topic!  I will do another blog about the men's clothing some other time.

The Project Update

I finally got safety training (which mostly consisted of watching a graphic video of injuries sustained on construction sites - yuk) and made it onto the site today.  It was warm walking over there, but the AC was on in full force in the building.  Some interesting facts about the site....

There is a traditional historic Qatari home and ancient graveyard the hospital is literally being built around.  The home and graveyard both have some personal significance for the Royal Family.  It is amazing that they were able to construct this huge hospital around these two precious objects.  See my photos below - both are really close to the structure! 


View of Historical Site from 5th floor of hospital building

This is the historic site looking out the main entry way. 







This graveyard will stay in tact - some families have removed their ancestor's remains, but most have chosen to leave them as they are.  There will be landscaping and a private wall built around the site, but visitors will be able to walk through if they wish. 
his is the first time I have seen a graveyard on a hospital site - I am not sure how I feel about it!




Interior shot of 1 of 3 atrium spaces



There is scaffolding all over the job site with these little tin lunch pails.  The workers cannot even have water on the interior of the building (due to infection control) so they hang their lunch pails on the scaffolding.  I am not sure how they tell them apart!



I don't look it, but I am roasting!   It is a bit warm today....the scarf is to help with the dust and the long sleeves are required of women on the job site.  



Museum of Islamic Art and the Corniche

Today (Friday) was a fun day off and we had beautiful weather.  I visited the Corniche - a city park along the sea that is stunning.  So much green in the middle of the desert!  There was an Afghan Kite Festival event today to promote the new Afgan Art exhibit in the museum.  It was fun to be around families enjoying an outing together.  Friday is like our Sunday with prayers at the Mosque in the morning and family time in the afternoon.  There were Arabs and Westerners alike enjoying the kite flying.  I was even a victim of a wayward kite dive bombing me and witnessed a very upset veiled mother scolding her small boy for hitting me with it.  He apologized most correctly then tore off and tried it again. The cushions and rugs people are sitting on are provided by the park - but I did see some folks carrying around their lawn chairs like we do in the states!  The men in white seem to congregate together.  The veiled women were much more likely to mingle and talk to Westerners...Interesting!

 I made my way over to the Museum of Islamic Art which was designed by I.M.Pei.  It is a simple, yet beautiful structure which he designed after a small mosque in Qatar.  The exhibits were most interesting  - my favorite was the new Afghan exhibit which featured young Afghan artists who had been hand picked to create a piece of new art from an ancient piece of art.  The exhibit had a display with the old piece and the new creation.  They were stunning and very beautiful using rare materials and ancient techniques.  My favorite was a pen and ink design that was decorative calligraphy in the 8-pointed star naming all 90 of the Islamic names for God.  It was stunning.  The sun sets rapidly here and usually pretty early (around 6:00pm).  There are loud speakers all over Doha which a singer chants for the 30 minutes during the sunset.  This happens every night.  It really reminds me that I am a country that prides itself in its beliefs.  

8-pointed star fountain in the main level of the interior of the Museum of Islamic Art

Interior of the Museum of Islamic Art

The fountain of eternity leading to the entrance of the Museum of Islamic Art

Side View of the Museum with the Persion Gulf to the right!



The sun has set - time for me to find Noussad, my driver!

  

Off to Sight See!

Today is my first day off so I have decided to do a bit of sight seeing and get familiar with one of the more picturesque parts of Doha. I will be visiting the Museum of Islamic Art and going to an Afghan Kite Festival in the park nearby.  I have made a reservation to attend a lecture at the Museum this evening called, "Clothes and Fabrics of Turkestan".  Sounds interesting and will fill my day for sure.

I hope to have time to visit the Souq (market) which is nearby.  If not, I will plan that for another day. I think I will have time!

I just received some information about the various traditional women's clothing.  I will write an entry or two on this subject as it seems SO varied.  Some women have their entire bodies veiled while others seem to wear the outer garmet only without any head veiling.  I have deciphered some of it with the help of a woman I have befriended at the office.  She is very open about it with me and has been so kind to answer all of my curious questions.  More on this later!

Its raining sand today!

Weather forecast, partly cloud with a chance of sand ...it's true!  I was walking to dinner and a shower of powdery sand started falling.  I asked someone in the coffee shop near by and they said when rain is coming, the clouds generally expell the sand before it starts raining.   You just don't get a good sand storm in Nebraska ever.  It does wonders for the hair and complexion.

The job is going well  - extremely busy today, but I like it that way.  It makes the 9-1/2 hour day go faster.  Tomrrow is a short day (only 7 hours of work) and then I am off to look at new apartments for myself and the "crew".  One is called the Dunes and the other is called the Al Mana (I thought the gentlemen was calling AMANA like the Amana Colonies).   I am meeting with Akbar for these tours and he can't seem to get the hang of my name - apprently, my name doesn't have enought syllables for some here, so I am being called Ah-le-ah, O'Le-ah (sounds a bit Irish),or  Le-ah-ah.   I am getting used to the different pronunciations everyone has for Qatar:  The Americans call it "cutter", the British call it "kit-tar" and the Indians call it "qwatar".   I guess we are all calling it "home" at least for now! 

And the winner is...

...to the first "Guess the Photo" is Scott who correctly guessed the direction to "Mecca" within 30 seconds of the contest.  His baby camel is being air-freighted as we speak!  Congratulations to all our participants!

Guess the Photo!

Most of the places I have been have various forms of this orange arrow on the ceiling.  Can anyone guess what it's purpose is?

A free camel to the first person to guess!

The Job Site

Monday, March 18, 2013
I have been at the job site for three days now.  We have a small office, that Steve and I share.  It is a busy place and I am still getting familiar with the project and the different entities involved.  The hospital is called Sidra Medical Center - Sidra means Star or Starlike.  It is located in a new part of Doha called Education City.  Education City is an area that has state-of-the-art training facilities for engineers, doctors, nurses and professionals.  This hospital is the largest in this hemisphere (and they say the world).  I was at a meeting with another client yesterday and he told us that Hammad Medical Center was building the largest hospital in the world soon.  A funny thing I learned - Doha is hosting the World Cup in 2022, and all of these large projects need to be completed for it.  It is very similar to a city/country planning for the Olympics.  On our 10 minute drive to the job site, one can count over a hundred tower cranes across the skyline building numerous structures.

A nice tradition in the office is that each floor of the building has a "floor steward".  This nice young man prepares and serves you coffee or tea in the morning (prepared how you like it), then around 2:00, he comes around again with hot tea and biscuits for everyone.  There are three Pilipino ladies who run the front desk.   They are very quiet and polite, but over the lunch hour, they go into a private conference room and can be heard laughing uproariously.  The men in the office are SOOOO curious about what these women discuss  - they want me to try and infiltrate the group to get the scoop.  I told these nosy men that they were probably discussing the eccentricities of the men in the office.  The British fellows thought this really funny.  

I found out today that I am not allowed to go on the actual construction site without a male escort.  I was expecting something of this nature, but it was presented in a very serious manner.  There are about 10,000 men (mostly Indian and Philipino) working on this site, and they told me it would be “risky” for me to be there by myself.  The job site is protected by armed guards and MAJOR security checkpoints, so it is highly unlikely I would have popped in on my own.  One cannot just “stroll” over there to get a look.  You must have an appointment and be on the master list  for that day.  The protocols are very formal and strict.    The workers are all brought in each morning by bus from their work camp outside Doha.  They all wear the same blue jumpsuit  and their tools and equipment are strictly monitored and counted by the security team.  Apparently, the workers are paid fairly well, have all their meals, laundry, and lodging covered but they do work 6 days per week.  On Friday, their day off, they are bused into Doha for shopping and R&R but most of them stand in line at Western Union to send money back to their homes.

It is a very interesting place and I am getting the hang of living here.  I feel fortunate to have this experience.  More later!

Photos from hotel

Week One as an expat.....

Greetings from Doha, Qatar! 

I have sent out a few emails, but thought I would summarize my first thoughts in this foreign land as one of the MANY ex-pats that live and work here.  I haven't met any other Americans, besides the ones from my office, but have met a lot of Indians, British, Philipino and, of course, Arab folks so far. 

3-13-13 Wednesday evening:    After a LONG customs line in Doha (me and a thousand of my closest Pilipino friends), and a lengthier, find-your-checked-baggage line, I found Steve (a Leo A Daly employee I had never met) and our driver, Nasheed, and we traveled into Doha to our hotel, Le Park Doha.  It should be renamed Le Dump Doha!  It is really not great, but I have been told it is really cheap.  No Kidding!  I have already requested and received permission to look for better accommodations.  It is quite simply, dirty, and nothing works correctly.  Light switches don't turn on lights and I can only find one outlet that actually has power running through it.  One of the guys here said it needs remodeling.  I think it needs to be torn down!   I finally received internet access via a cable that stretches about 50 yards down the hallway into another room as my room's internet port isn't working correctly.   I am fine unless someone decides to trip on the cable or pull it out of the wall!

 The weather is nice - 70 degrees and pleasant.  The view from my hotel room is attached.  There is some kind of carnival going on across the street -  camel rides were being offered instead of pony rides.  I bought a very inexpensive local "mobile" as they call them here.  It took me a few days to convert the language to English - it kept reverting back to Arabic.  I don't have many folks to call here yet, so it wasn't a problem.  By the way, the "mobile" phone store is not that much different than the Verizon store back home, (same bad service), except the contract is written in Arabic, so I may have signed my camel's life away - not too sure. 

People are very nice and extremelty polite.  It seems pretty safe as well.

3-15-13 Friday Morning

So funny – today is their “holy day” like our Sunday, and I walked down to the hotel lobby and the desk staff is playing on the main television PULP FICTION, of all movies.  There are a bunch of small children sitting watching it.  It is playing in English with Arabic subtitles.  I hope it wasn't being translated accurately. 

This country is interesting - very sandy, and flat as far as the eye can see.  There are tons of different nationalities and people dressed in all sorts of garb.  Everyone speaks some form of English, and I am considered the one with the weird accent.  There is a big mix of US/British/Arab restaurants.  There will be an Arab place with a guy cooking lamb on a spit in the window next to a brand new Kentucky Fried Chicken (which was PACKED with folks).  I think the Qatari aren't quite sure what direction they want to go. 

Next issue - I will tell you ALL about the job site.  Fascinating.