Villagio Mall

About two weeks ago the Villagio Mall was on fire.  It was a story that ran through the town very quickly.  In this small country of Qatar and its capital city there isn't much to do for entertainment.  In the modern Arab world the mall is the center of activity - dining, shopping, entertainment, etc.  The Villagio is probably the best Qatar has to offer. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18243136


It opened in 2006 in time for the Asian games and it was labeled the largest mall in Qatar.  It was beautiful as malls go.  If you are familiar with the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, its interior was modeled after it, down to the Gondola ride.


The fire two weeks ago was a tragedy in many ways but most importantly the loss of 13 young lives that will never know what life will be like.  In that loss there is a lot of pain for the families that lost their children, like the parents of the New Zealand triplets - Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes.  God bless them and protect their families in their time of sadness.


http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16243466


http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16238809


I don't know what will happen with the mall, it has been closed since the fire.  I'm sure a lot will take place before it reopens - arrests have been made, investigations are taking place and damage repaired.


When I first arrived in Qatar I was taken there as an example of what Qatar had to offer.  In the rest of this blog I want to share some of the photos of what the mall had to offer.

Signs

Cathy and I are fascinated by the country we are living in at the moment.  It is a pretty plain place with lots of western amenities and activities.  Qatar is a small country, smaller than Connecticut. Doha, the capitol city is a relatively small place.  A lot like my home town of Baltimore, it doesn't take long to get from one side of town to another.  You can travel to the furthest points of the country in about an hour.

Lots of desert to explore and plenty of oddities to observe, which brings me to the purpose of this entry.

In this blog I want to share some signs we've photographed lately.  I want to start by saying, early in my career I worked for a boss that was very peculiar and particular about wording in memos and signage.  As time has passed I've developed the same peculiarity, always correcting junior staff on spelling and sentence structure, even in SMS messages and IM's - who knew.

Anyway, on to the adventure we had that day....

When we saw these signs we looked at each other and said....

I hope the Road Works, by God I'm driving on it...

Can someone tell me what this means, please...

Now I know where to go if that landlord of mine...

Of course you need to know what the store is on the corner...

Not your father's Saloon for sure.  Is it Saloon or Salon?  

The Brits even looked puzzled when I ask.

Finally!! I found 'em.  I guess you can pick up a few Taliban here.

Now I'm on the look out for them damn Al Qaeda.

Oh well, there are many more oddities and signs that make you scratch your head and other body parts and realize there are about 20 different cultures here....

Doha Pearl Man

There are opportunities for adventure in Qatar.

Each weekend we try to take the opportunity to explore and find something different about the city or the country.  It isn't a big place, but there are a few gems to discover.

In early December we heard about the Pearl Man.  A lady we met told us about the man and the general location.

If you know anything about Doha or the Middle East, that is about all the information you ever get.  Most things are passed by word of mouth as very little is recorded, except about the major malls and ministries.

All we knew was go two round abouts past the Oryx Round About and make a U-turn.  The park is on the right.  He is in a small white building.

So, off we went in search of the Pearl Man.

In Rumailah Park there is a long water feature with a pool at each end and a long water canal.  Between the two water features is a row of shops.  Shops that at one point must have been very nice and in service.  Today they are mostly vacant and will be demolished when the Doha Grand Park is built.  We entered the shops from the south side and walked all along one row of shops to the end.  Not seeing the Pearl Man we started up the other side.  Almost near the end where we entered, we spotted a Qatari sitting inside a shop.  We asked him about the Pearl man.  He came out and pointed two shops down to an arab that was standing outside smoking.  Ah, could that be the Pearl Man.

We walked down and asked "Are you the Pearl Man?"  With a nod we knew we had found him.

The Pearl Man's Shop Door

He explained he travels around the world to find pearls (mostly Australia and China).  He has them made into strands and sells them to the "market" and in his shop.

You won't find a better price anywhere in Doha.

Having found a color that interested Cathy he sent her out in to the sun to see the real color.  No, no, no, you must go down there (about 100 yards away) to look at them in the sun.
Then he shoved another six strands in my hand and said go show these to her too.  I walked down to where she was standing and said, "He wants you to look at these also".  Then we looked at each other and started to laugh.  Where in the U.S. of A. would someone send you down the street with six strands of pearls "to look at them in the sun"???

So many to choose from

We went back to the shop and Cathy started to work her way through the decision making process.  I left to get cash, of course a transaction like this was "cash only".  When I returned she was having tea with the Pearl Man and looking over her final selections.

Oh, you are having tea I see.  Of course, like any good Arab, he offered tea and there was a cup for me.  Sweet black tea.  Very nice.

We left the store and half way back to the car when we returned to look at another strand.  The value was so good, you couldn't just leave with one purchase.  We were given a tour of the shop and his late father's art work.

In the excitement of the transaction, Cathy forgot she had put the pearls on in the picture and were forgotten until the Pearl man commented how nice they were.  After a brief moment of embarrassment the strand of pearls were returned to him.

We found the Pearl Man and he was happy to see us.  Another successful Qatari adventure.

Cathy and the "Pearl Man"

Arabian Sands

August 22, 2011

I just completed the book Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.

It was recommended to me by our former regional president as a way to understand the Arab.  The book is a slow start and in the end it does paint a wonderful picture of the bedouin arabs that traveled around the peninsula in the middle of the last century before oil became prevalent and the wealth of the region changed the culture.

When I first started to write this entry I wasn't sure what to write about and what the book meant to me.  As I was driving back to the apartment tonight I saw a billboard for the Qatar Film Festival in October.  On the billboard there were images of what I would imagine was the typical Arab in the time of Thesiger's writings.  A presumably lost culture as the result of oil discovery and the impact it has had in this part of the world.

The result of the wealth from oil has taken a tribal culture and changed it in many ways, most notably to me it has created a sense of entitlement far beyond what I would have expected.  It has also created a very complex life for the Arabs.  The country is a state that is based in a conservative muslim tradition, with the impact of westerners converging on them to build the country.

Christians are infidels in the book and should be restricted from entering the country at a minimum, but death was often threatened if Thesiger went into an area without the proper permissions.  I often wonder if the feeling today is the same towards the expats who are here to help the country realize its vision.  We are looked down upon as infidels, only here to deliver a product or service because of the money available.

Qatar and the greater Arab world is a strange and complex place.  Thesiger's book does provide a romantic view of the bedu culture before oil arrived.  The world I am experiencing now is the result of the impact the oil wealth has and is having on this culture.

Thesiger feared this change in his book and I would say his fears have come true.

Qatar - August 8, 2011

I have been in Qatar since June 30th.  I guess it has been five weeks since I left the States.

You could say a lot has happened since I've gotten here and in some cases, not much has happened.  Over the past two weekends I've gone to Abu Dhabi to meet our Project Director there and to Dubai to meet our project director on the Dubai Metro as well as finish a proposal due today in Qatar.

The trips gave me a chance to do two things.  One, and most importantly is connecting with the local staff and understand their personalities and issues.  Try to make that connection and help develop solutions to their problems.

The issues both have are finding the right staff willing to come to the region for the right price.  I need to understand the barriers for those folks, whether it is an HR issue, salary, housing, etc.  I know this is solvable, but I need to engage with them.

The second benefit of leaving Doha over the past two weekends is getting out of Doha for a day or two.  Primarily, this is a small town with little to do outside of work - for me.  If I'm here I'm working.  By going to the other locations I can still work, but it is a diversion from the routine.

The biggest issue I need to solve (or at least mitigate) is how to make sure this assignment is as equally rewarding for my wife.  Now that she has left her job to prepare for her move, the question of "What am I going to do when I get there?" comes up more and more every time we talk.  I have directed her to the typical expat wives websites .