I took this picture of a rose in the planter box outside our house today. For those of you who know how much I love taking pictures of flowers, you will appreciate the fact that this is the first flower picture I have taken in Doha. Pretty amazing since we have already been here 2 months. If this were springtime in Utah I would have 2-3 rolls of film taken by now. Anyway...this one was worth the wait.
We are doing really well. Things are sorting themselves out one step at a time. In case you haven’t heard me say it lately, things move in baby steps here. We are learning to relax and be patient and just be grateful when progress is made. It isn’t all bad…a slower pace is probably good for my stress level and it makes you more grateful for everything that does happen.
Quick update on what has happened since I last wrote: The offices are making progress, but are still a ways out so I am mostly working from the office at home. Work at the Institute is continuing to keep me busy. The Kenyan conference is over and now we are working on the conference in Sweden at the end of March. Jon has been busy looking for a job and working with our ward. He went to Bahrain for a day to go to Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting and really l
iked it. This meeting was the only one where more than one ward met together. Our Stake covers the whole Gulf region, so all the wards don’t gather for Stake Conference. Instead, some members of the Stake Presidency travel to each Ward with a member of the Area Presidency. Stake Conference is also usually held in the evening during the week. We had the youth meeting, then the adult meeting, a break for a pot-luck dinner (picture right) and then the main meeting. It was different, but a good experience.
It is hard to know what to write in our updates. I never know what will be interesting to read because each day just seems normal to me. Everyone please email with questions you have about Qatar and our lives here. I will do my best to answer them.
Today I am going to write about a couple of my first impressions of Qatar.
I think everyone’s first impression of Doha can be described in two words: pleasantly surprised. As Americans we have ideas and images in our head of what the Middle East looks like. Most of us haven’t had that much exposure to what the people here are really like. The media only highlights what they consider “newsworthy” and this only includes the extreme, the unusual and the controversial. We don’t see what normal people do everyday: go to work, go to school, grocery shop, go to the mall, go to movies, and spend time with family and friends. Even the images we do see are of Iraq and not much else. Qatar is a fairly new country (by historical standards), but it is part of a very old and very rich culture. The people here are educated and interesting and have a good sense of the world and modern issues.
One of the first things that you realize about Doha is that the ENTIRE city is under construction. It is growing so fast that the construction cannot keep up with itself. Construction here LITERALLY runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I doubt that there is a place in the entire city where you cannot hear or see construction. There are currently 40+ high-rise buildings under construction downtown. A lot of this is because of the Asian Olympic Games that will be hosted here this December. (The Asian Games are regional Olympics. It is a big deal and everyone is really excited.) The skyline is changing everyday. The main section of downtown that is now the Doha skyline didn’t even exist 4 years ago. It is amazing. I honestly don’t know how the city is sustaining it. (Picture to left is the construction on the road to our house.)
The second thing I felt was how similar…and yet at the same time…how different things are here. It is almost like a twilight zone episode…everything in the town looks the same…only something is a bit off. For the most part everything looks generally as it would at home: there are streets and traffic, restaurants and fast food, malls and movie theaters, 
schools and parks. It almost surprises you that people dress differently than you are use to or that
the news is in a different language. For example, the traffic signs are the same, but the stick figures are dressed differently and the deer crossing signs are camel crossing instead. (Here are some random road signs I took pictures of near our house.)
It also surprises most people how friendly and warm everyone is here. The Qatari people (and Arabs in general) are known for being wonderful hosts. They will go out of their way to make you feel welcome and make sure you have everything you need. It isn’t just the Qatari people. Qataris make up 20-30% of the population. Foreigners (they are called expatriates here) make up 90% of the workforce. Doha is a very international city. I think that the fact that everyone here is in the same boat (away from home, away from their families) makes us more willing to reach out and help people we don’t know. I think I felt this the first time I stepped off the plane here. I instantly felt at home.
One example: when we first got here, we didn’t have a car (not that we really have a car now…we are sharing a pool car with the rest of the staff.). The bus system is really new here and only runs in certain areas, so we took taxis everywhere we went. There 
are three types of taxis in Doha: orange taxis (older cars that are the cheapest taxis with drivers that usually only speak Arabic and drive crazy), turquoise taxis (newer cars that are a little more expensive and often have drivers that speak English, but are new to Doha and have no idea where anything is), and Limos (unmarked sedans that are the most expensive but have drivers that always speak English and are very dependable.) Unless we were at a mall or on a busy street that made it easy to catch a taxi, we usually used Limos. Limos are great because you can call them on a phone and no matter where you are, you can be picked up in 15 minutes or less. It is also nice because they are dependable, you don’t have to worry about communication issues, and they are still relatively inexpensive. You can go almost anywhere in Doha for 35 Riyals or less (approximately 10 US dollars.) We used one driver almost exclusively. His name was Renny. Originally from India, Renny has worked in the Middle East for over 20 years. Renny is friendly, helpful and funny. About the third time we drove with Renny, I took the car alone to a meeting. The first thing he asked me was where Jon was. I was amazed that he had remembered Jon’s name. Renny gave us a lot of our first introductions to Doha. As we drove around he helped orient us with the city, its history and landmarks. It was comforting to knowing that no matter where we were we could call Renny and he would take us home—that he knew where our home was even if we didn’t! One night, after we had been driving with Renny for a couple of weeks, I started listening to Renny on his cell phone. It was a particularly busy night and Renny received a lot of calls one right after another. (Renny manages 3 drivers. His cell phone is the central number people call and then he calls and coordinates his closest driver.) Most of his calls were from Americans or Europeans. The speaker on his phone was up loud enough that I could hear some of the conversation on the other end of the line. Each caller said hello and identified themselves by name. They always said something like, “at 8:00 I would like you to pick me up and take me home…or to work…or to the gym.” Renny would reply with, “Yes Madam/Sir, so pick-up from Qatar Foundation to Al-Jazi compound”…or something else that specifically identified that he knew the caller and the location of their home, office, and other regular places. I started paying attention to how many of these calls came in. It was amazing. I have no idea how he kept track of everyone and kept their schedules straight. I never saw him write notes or consult a book. He acted as if he was the personal driver for each person. This is when it occurred to me…Renny (and other drivers like him) are a security blanket for new Westerners to the area. No matter how much information they had to prepare them before they came, everyone is a little nervous on their first trip to “The Middle East.” Renny provided some familiarity and stability to someone feeling totally lost. We were lucky that we had church members here to act as our extended family, but most people don’t have that. Having Renny helps you feel secure when you feel totally cut off and lost from the world you know. We often called Renny and said, “We need to buy (fill in the blank)…can you take us somewhere we can get it?” Renny took care of us no matter what we needed. After a couple of weeks always calling for a driver became frustrating and the costs really started to add up, so we were grateful to get a pool car from Qatar Foundation so that we could drive ourselves around. I enjoy driving because it makes me feel like a part of the community—like I am no longer a tourist. There is great satisfaction in getting from point A to point B with out getting lost and having to pull out the map. But part of me misses Renny and wonders how he is doing. I am sure that he is smiling, making the same jokes, telling the same stories and making the next set of “newbies” feel right at home.
iked it. This meeting was the only one where more than one ward met together. Our Stake covers the whole Gulf region, so all the wards don’t gather for Stake Conference. Instead, some members of the Stake Presidency travel to each Ward with a member of the Area Presidency. Stake Conference is also usually held in the evening during the week. We had the youth meeting, then the adult meeting, a break for a pot-luck dinner (picture right) and then the main meeting. It was different, but a good experience.
One of the first things that you realize about Doha is that the ENTIRE city is under construction. It is growing so fast that the construction cannot keep up with itself. Construction here LITERALLY runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I doubt that there is a place in the entire city where you cannot hear or see construction. There are currently 40+ high-rise buildings under construction downtown. A lot of this is because of the Asian Olympic Games that will be hosted here this December. (The Asian Games are regional Olympics. It is a big deal and everyone is really excited.) The skyline is changing everyday. The main section of downtown that is now the Doha skyline didn’t even exist 4 years ago. It is amazing. I honestly don’t know how the city is sustaining it. (Picture to left is the construction on the road to our house.)
The second thing I felt was how similar…and yet at the same time…how different things are here. It is almost like a twilight zone episode…everything in the town looks the same…only something is a bit off. For the most part everything looks generally as it would at home: there are streets and traffic, restaurants and fast food, malls and movie theaters, 
schools and parks. It almost surprises you that people dress differently than you are use to or that
the news is in a different language. For example, the traffic signs are the same, but the stick figures are dressed differently and the deer crossing signs are camel crossing instead. (Here are some random road signs I took pictures of near our house.) 
are three types of taxis in Doha: orange taxis (older cars that are the cheapest taxis with drivers that usually only speak Arabic and drive crazy), turquoise taxis (newer cars that are a little more expensive and often have drivers that speak English, but are new to Doha and have no idea where anything is), and Limos (unmarked sedans that are the most expensive but have drivers that always speak English and are very dependable.) Unless we were at a mall or on a busy street that made it easy to catch a taxi, we usually used Limos. Limos are great because you can call them on a phone and no matter where you are, you can be picked up in 15 minutes or less. It is also nice because they are dependable, you don’t have to worry about communication issues, and they are still relatively inexpensive. You can go almost anywhere in Doha for 35 Riyals or less (approximately 10 US dollars.) We used one driver almost exclusively. His name was Renny. Originally from India, Renny has worked in the Middle East for over 20 years. Renny is friendly, helpful and funny. About the third time we drove with Renny, I took the car alone to a meeting. The first thing he asked me was where Jon was. I was amazed that he had remembered Jon’s name. Renny gave us a lot of our first introductions to Doha. As we drove around he helped orient us with the city, its history and landmarks. It was comforting to knowing that no matter where we were we could call Renny and he would take us home—that he knew where our home was even if we didn’t! One night, after we had been driving with Renny for a couple of weeks, I started listening to Renny on his cell phone. It was a particularly busy night and Renny received a lot of calls one right after another. (Renny manages 3 drivers. His cell phone is the central number people call and then he calls and coordinates his closest driver.) Most of his calls were from Americans or Europeans. The speaker on his phone was up loud enough that I could hear some of the conversation on the other end of the line. Each caller said hello and identified themselves by name. They always said something like, “at 8:00 I would like you to pick me up and take me home…or to work…or to the gym.” Renny would reply with, “Yes Madam/Sir, so pick-up from Qatar Foundation to Al-Jazi compound”…or something else that specifically identified that he knew the caller and the location of their home, office, and other regular places. I started paying attention to how many of these calls came in. It was amazing. I have no idea how he kept track of everyone and kept their schedules straight. I never saw him write notes or consult a book. He acted as if he was the personal driver for each person. This is when it occurred to me…Renny (and other drivers like him) are a security blanket for new Westerners to the area. No matter how much information they had to prepare them before they came, everyone is a little nervous on their first trip to “The Middle East.” Renny provided some familiarity and stability to someone feeling totally lost. We were lucky that we had church members here to act as our extended family, but most people don’t have that. Having Renny helps you feel secure when you feel totally cut off and lost from the world you know. We often called Renny and said, “We need to buy (fill in the blank)…can you take us somewhere we can get it?” Renny took care of us no matter what we needed. After a couple of weeks always calling for a driver became frustrating and the costs really started to add up, so we were grateful to get a pool car from Qatar Foundation so that we could drive ourselves around. I enjoy driving because it makes me feel like a part of the community—like I am no longer a tourist. There is great satisfaction in getting from point A to point B with out getting lost and having to pull out the map. But part of me misses Renny and wonders how he is doing. I am sure that he is smiling, making the same jokes, telling the same stories and making the next set of “newbies” feel right at home.
