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An American in Qatar:

Moving to Doha 

Greetings from Qatar, a small, vowel-deprived country in the Middle East.  I moved here about six months ago but have been so busy adjusting to my new job and lifestyle that I haven’t had time to post any website updates until now.  With the Christmas craziness finally over – yes, there is some Christmas craziness here in this predominantly Muslim country – I finally have time to write and describe this most recent adventure of mine. 

Above:  The country of Qatar (highlighted in red) is about the size of Connecticut and borders Saudi Arabia in the Persian – uh, Arabian – Gulf.

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of semi-occasional updates about my life in the Middle East, a series that I call, "An American in Qatar."  It's like the old Gene Kelly movie, "An American in Paris" but with more sand, and a camel instead of Leslie Caron.

First, let me tell you a little about my newly-adopted home country.  Rich in oil and natural gas, Qatar is a flat, sandy peninsula about the size of Connecticut that juts out into the Persian Gulf – or “Arabian Gulf” as they call it here (despite what this map says).  Arabs aren’t fond of the word “Persian,” which to them is synonymous with “Iranian.” Surrounded on three sides by the (ahem) Arabian Gulf, Qatar shares a short, sandy border with Saudi Arabia, its only neighbor.  Nearly three million people live in Qatar, about half of whom live in the capital, Doha.

So how do you pronounce “Qatar”?  Most of the locals, known as Qataris, pronounce it “COT-tar” with a slight pause between the syllables, so that’s how I pronounce it, too.  Please don’t say “ka-TAR” (rhymes with “guitar”) like many Americans do, or “Cutter.”  And you’ll really make me cringe if you say “CAT-ter” like most of my Brit colleagues here.  There are no cats in Qatar, at least none that I've seen so far, though I have seen a couple mangy dogs (pets aren't as popular in the Middle East as they are in America).  Qatar rhymes with “water,” of which there’s very little.  It also rhymes with “hotter,” of which there’s a lot.

The last time I posted an update, in 2012, I was at my home in Portland, Oregon.  So, as the Talking Heads put it in their memorable song Once in a Lifetime:

You may find yourself in another part of the world.
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

So let me tell you about this once-in-a-lifetime adventure of mine and how I got to Qatar.

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