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Settling In It was hot – over 90 degrees and very humid – when I landed in Doha, Qatar. And this was around 11 p.m., so I couldn't imagine what it must be like during the day. Well,after working in Abu Dhabi five years earlier, yes I could.
After picking up my two duffel bags at baggage claim and going through customs, I was met by a friendly CPO driver from India named Ravi, who drove me into downtown Doha. I tried to explain to him where I was from, telling him that Portland is the world headquarters for Nike shoes. But Ravi had never heard of Nike, so I tried to explain to him the "Swoosh shoe" but got a blank stare. Lesson learned: not everyone in the world knows about things we Americans take for granted.
Ravi dropped me off at a modern apartment tower called Asas (pronounced “Asses” – hopefully not a reflection on its occupants), located about a half-mile from the CPO office building where I would work. Atkins had reserved a room for me in a three-bedroom apartment at Asas until I could find my own place to live in Doha. It was close to midnight and both of my roommates were apparently asleep in their rooms, so I quietly found my bedroom, shut the door, unpacked a bit, and after not getting much sleep for the past 50 hours (I can’t sleep on planes, unfortunately), I collapsed into bed.
The work week in the Middle East is from Sunday through Thursday, with the weekends being on Friday and Saturday. It’s a good thing this was a Thursday night and that I didn’t have to start work until Sunday because I was utterly exhausted. I slept soundly until Friday morning, woke up and ate some food that had been kindly placed in my room by Atkins, including British crackers called "Digestive Biscuits" (boy, that sounded appealing), then I slept for another 12 hours. Saturday was a bit better and, although my head was still spinning, I was starting to get my bearings. I felt good enough on Saturday afternoon, in fact, to walk a few blocks over to City Center Mall, a four-decked affair and the largest mall in Qatar. As I learned later, City Center Mall is one of the main social hubs for the city of Doha – and the entire country of Qatar, for that matter.
On Sunday morning, the first day of the work week, a CPO van picked me up at Asas and took me to the main office of Atkins, where they processed my paperwork. The van also picked up a guy at Asas who was about 40 years of age, named Nafez, who was also starting work at CPO that day. Nafez told me that he was Jordanian by birth but had lived in Sacramento, California for many years, a city I know well. He was the new IT Specialist at CPO and would sit straight across from me in the open-seating office, so he and I became good friends during the ensuing months. Above the short partition, we would share numerous conversations and jokes about America and commiserate about our challenges in adjusting to life here in Qatar.
The Central Planning Office, where I work, occupies three entire floors – 14, 15 and 16 – of the MMUP office tower in downtown Doha. The MMUP (the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning) is the main land planning agency for the Qatari government. The 150-person CPO, which is comprised entirely of Atkins staff, is essentially an extension of the MMUP.
The CPO sprang up almost literally overnight last year. Atkins, a British engineering firm, has been working in the Middle East for many years and is one of the most prominent engineering consulting firms in Qatar. A few senior Atkins managers met with the emir (i.e., leader) of Qatar in 2012 and explained to him how Qatar needed a central office to plan and coordinate the many transportation projects in Qatar. The emir agreed and told Atkins to come back in a few days with a proposal, so Atkins worked all weekend, met the emir again a few days later and handed him a written proposal for a "Central Planning Office." The emir was impressed and agreed to pay for the office, so a week later Atkins began staffing up and within a month, over 100 people were working here.
That's how things happen in the Persian Gulf countries. If someone with power wants something done, it gets done very quickly. It's not like in the U.S. where there are committee and discussions and meetings, followed by more meetings and committees that drag on endlessly to decide some trivial issue. Here, it's "BAM – do it!"
I’ve been working on a variety of tasks at CPO during the past seven months, some of which I can tell you about. One of my biggest projects is creating a large, fold-out map for the new shuttle bus system that will run through Doha, known as the West Bay Bus. Over 20,000 copies of the map will be printed and distributed to the public and it will be, to my knowledge, the first map of downtown Doha available to the public that shows detailed information, including building names and street names. You might think that a map showing street names isn’t a big deal, but most people here don’t use street names to navigate. Instead, they use buildings (like City Center Mall), parks and other landmarks. Street names, apparently, are a fairly new concept in Doha.
I’ve also been working on a project to greatly expand the public bus system throughout Qatar. That’s a huge task that recently started up, and I’ll be working on it for at least another year.
Overall, it’s a good environment, we’re getting a lot done and I enjoy working at CPO. Living in Qatar is stressful at times and I’ve had to adjust to the cultural differences, given that I interact with people from many countries around the world. But overall, I’m quite content and am very glad that I moved here because, more than anything else, it’s been an adventure.
Above left: The Asas apartment building in downtown Doha was my home during my first five months in Doha. Above right: And here's my room at Asas. I shared this three-bedroom apartment with a rotating group of Atkins roommates, who shuttled in and out.
Above left: The kitchen at Asas. Above center: And my bathroom. But what's that thing by the toilet? I had a lot to learn about living here. Above right: I ate my first meal in Doha here at one of my favorite restaurants. And in case you're wondering, a Whopper in Qatar tastes exactly like a Whopper in America.
Above left: The City Center Mall is the largest mall in Qatar. Malls are very popular in the Middle East and are a focus of social life here, being air-conditioned and enclosed, proving families with children a safe place to roam during the hot summers. Above center: City Center Mall has the only skating rink in Qatar. Ice is a foreign concept to many desert-dwelling Arabs (except in their drinks). Above right: The entrance of the City Center Mall. I buy my groceries and just about everything else I need here, not having a car, so it's my home-away-from-home.
Above left: One weekend, my boss, Bill, drove me over to a new, ritzy development called "The Pearl," about 10 miles north of Doha. These apartment buildings, which are 95% empty, were constructed a few years ago with a "If you build it, they will come," philosophy. Above right: The Central Planning Office (CPO) office on the 14th floor of the MMUP building in downtown Doha. My cube is on the right side.
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