Finally a blog from Qatar!

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Hey loyal readers!

So this plan has kind of failed due to a lack of internet since I arrived, and I am now half way through my placement! But I have been keeping a kind of journal on my laptop so I can upload some bits from there. This was from my first day (the rest will not be so long I promise!)

Monday 04/06/2012

Got picked up from the airport (to my genuine surprise and delight) and dropped at my apartment on Saturday night. Then had Sunday to settle in and had to go pick up my pass from RasGas Doha headquarters, also managed a short (but hot) walk to the City Centre in town. It is a massive mall and managed to get a Qatari sim card and some food shopping from the Carrefour. Nobody walks here, as in there are no pavements and the roads are almost all dual carriage. Crazy drivers too, can’t decide if it is safer to be inside the car or on the street?

Anyway so I bought some random bits of food and walked to the front of the mall following a sign reading “Taxi”. Someone walked over to me and asked “Taxi?” and I said yes, thinking this was excellent service. Got a bit more suspicious when he started leading me inside the car park... So it was a less than legit taxi but he was very nice when I couldn’t find my apartment and made him drive around the whole of the area (Mansoura) I was staying in, I decided it was worth being ripped off and he gave me his card to call him again (not likely.)

Woke up at 4am today to get to work as the bus left at 5.30am and I wanted to be ready in plenty of time my first day. Good thing, too, because the bus arrives at 5.28am and leaves at 5.30am on the dot. Have to change buses in the Doha Golf club which fills with buses at 6am. I wasn’t aware of this change but eventually after asking 3 bus drivers I found the right one, again just in time! They do not wait for you here, I do not want to miss these buses or I’ll be phoning my taxi friend from yesterday and paying a month’s wages for it!

After the hour commute we had to show our security passes at the gates, a good mile or so from the actual offices. Someone else on the bus who seemed to know what she was doing had a temporary security pass like me and you have to get off the bus to show and leave some ID in exchange for a visitor pass for that day. Fine, and the woman who also got off left her bag on the bus and so I thought obviously the bus would wait for us. Wrong. Collected my pass and turned round to see the back of my bus which had my blazer on my seat. Also, the woman was nowhere to be seen. This still confuses me. Thank God I took my bag with me though! So I went back to the security and asked where to go (I have been doing A LOT of that in the last 2 days) and they told me to jump on any bus, so I did. Managed to get my jacket back at the end of the day though so not quite the Belfast Jacket Disaster but a close call none the less.

Got my PPE and met the people in my office, got a free lunch and some information on RasGas and the LNG process. Everyone I work with seems really nice and I am signed up for safety training tomorrow and I am told that will take all day! I was also told I need to bring a passport photo tomorrow so I can get a permanent pass. Great, have to get another illicit taxi after work when I just want to go to bed! I asked the reception/security at my apartment where could I get one of these? He told me just a 5 minute walk and proceeded to give me directions. Ignoring the fact that it was well into the 40s I smiled, thanked him and began the walk- hereby known as the hike of hell.

So I was not 2 minutes into my 15 (not 5) minute walk and a car pulled up beside me. I am used to this already so when he asked if I needed a lift and could he drive me etc. I said no thank you I am happy to walk. He wouldn’t let it go and legit drove beside me for 5 more minutes as he was in such disbelief that I was fine to walk. Sweat literally dripping down my back at this point I had to feign happiness as I repeatedly told him no thank you, no thanks. It goes along the lines of:

“I want nothing more than to drive you”

“It’s not far”

“I will take you”

“No thank you”

“Really? No it’s too hot”

Sweat rolling over my face “I want to walk, honestly it’s fine”

“I don’t know if you’re shy or scared of me but I just want to help you”

Waaay too late to get in the car now. At this point he gives me his card and says “call me sometime”. (When I say card, it was literally a small strip of card with his number written on in pen, no name.) So I refuse some more but begrudgingly take the card to get rid of him.

He drives forward and I am relieved, but only a few metres forward. So I walk past his car and he says “Is too far, you still walking”. Totally lost my patience now so I just keep saying no, he doesn’t get a thank you anymore. Finally he says he is waiting for my call and drives off. Awesome. Now just 5 more minutes in this blistering heat and I get my passport photo taken. The man in the shop genuinely photoshops the shine off of my face without me asking, it was an awkward few minutes. Made more awkward when I look up at a mirror in the shop and realise my maxi skirt is completely see through in the sun. Now I get to walk all the way back with that knowledge. Superb.

Julie

XOXO

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