The Qatar Blog: The Moorman's Experiences in Qatar

Friday Feb.15
We arrived safely in Doha at 7:00p.m.Qatar time which is 11:00 a.m. N.C. time. A lady from the airline helped us get our temporary visas and luggage and took us to our driver. He whisked us to our new home, an apartment in Al Zuhoor Complex II where visiting professors and guests of the university reside. He agreed to meet us the next morning to take us shopping. We quickly understood why we needed to go shopping. We needed sheets, towels, cleaning supplies, and food. Someone left us some soda, water, cheese, and bread. We found a little convenience store to pick up a few other snack items and paper towels so we could at least shower after our 17 hour trip from Boone to Qatar.

Saturday Feb.16
The driver dropped us off at Villagio, a mall that was designed to look like Venice, including a man-made canal. It also had every fast food place known to the U.S. as well as many shops you would recognize. It also had some very nice restaurants, European shops, and an ice skating rink. The ceilings are painted to look like the day and night sky. We ate at a little French café and shopped at Carrefours which is like a Super Walmart. This evening we went out to dinner at a Thai place with Nancy one of Gary’s colleagues from Texas and her friend Hans from Germany. They also live in our complex. Later that night I came down with the stomach flu and was laid up for the next two days.

Sunday Feb.17
This is the beginning of the Islamic work week. Gary went to the university to begin planning for his classes that were to start next week. Much to his surprise, he was directed to his class and was expected to begin at 8:30. Needless to say he had to wing it. He was expecting to do staff development and instead he is teaching an education foundations class to women who already have degrees in other areas, but want to improve their English and get a license to teach in the primary schools in Qatar.

Wednesday and Thursday Feb. 20 and 21
I accompanied Gary to the university and participated in teaching. There are presently 8 women from Algeria, Sudan, and Syria. They are friendly, bright, and highly motivated. I read some children’s books to them and we discussed the vocabulary and also how they could be used to teach math. I would have been happy to just volunteer to help Gary with this class, but Dr. Hissa, the dean of the education department told me that I will have a job. I will be working with the principal at Al Shaqab, a girl’s school helping teachers learn strategies for working with children who are having trouble learning. I look forward to the challenge.

Friday Feb. 22
Friday is the holy day and Friday and Saturday are the weekend. Friday evening we went to the Old Souq (marketplace) with Gary’s friends Ahmed who is an Egyptian who was raised in Britain and Raleigh, N.C. and his wife Anita from Iran and their baby Farid who was born in Raleigh. We ate at a terrific Morrocan place. Then we strolled through the souq shops, watched a Qatari woman making flat bread, and listened to Middle-Eastern music.

Saturday Feb. 23
Nancy picked us up and took us to the camel races. It turned out that there were no races, but we got to watch them training the baby camels. Then we went to Dukhan all the way across the country from Doha and saw the gulf. The water was a beautiful turquoise and was remarkably undeveloped. There is road and building construction everywhere in Qatar. That evening we went to dinner in a great Indian restaurant with Mickie, another new friend and colleague of Gary’s. I am really enjoying the cultural diversity and hospitality here in Qatar.