Doha: a mis-spoken Homer Simpson-ism??

As promised… some answers to questions you may (....or may not) have about our little adventure.

"First of all... where the heck are you?”

In a little country called Qatar, which sticks off Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf like a thumb, next to the United Arab Emirates (most well-known in North America for the city of Dubai).

We are 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and do not have “daylight savings” here. Right now, we’re 6 hours ahead of Nova Scotia. When you “fall back”, it will be 7 hrs.

In land size, Qatar is about twice the size of Prince Edward Island. It is an Islamic country. The predominant language is Arabic, but most people also speak English. And most business is conducted in English. (I sometimes have to interpret for Kelly’s – his Caper accent can apparently be difficult for some people to understand!)

There are over 1.5 million people living in Qatar, and the majority of them are in and around the city of Doha. The per-capita GDP in Qatar is the highest in the world.

Which leads to….

“WHY the heck are you THERE?!”

1: Re-read the last sentence of the last paragraph.
2: 6-month-long winters suck!

3: Change and challenges can be fulfilling.
4: There are some exciting things happening here!
5: Why the heck not!?

“But… you’re in the MIDDLE EAST! Are you NUTS?!”

Maybe. But it has nothing to do with where we are.

Do we feel unsafe here? Absolutely not! The city (and country) is very modern and relatively progressive (though sometimes a bit backwards compared to what we might view as “normal”). People here are friendly and helpful. They believe in providing supreme customer service – almost to a fault. For example, I don’t bother confirming that a food dish I’m considering does not contains wheat. The answer (assuming they understand my query) will certainly be “No ma’am. No wheat”, yet it could be a pasta dish(!). But I feel safer here leaving a car unlocked, a house unlocked, or being out and about after dark - for example - than I did in Halifax.

“Ok. Ok. I don't have to worry. ...So, what are you doing there again?”

Mostly, the same things we did back in Canada. We’re working for Bristol Gulf, which is kind of like Bristol’s dusty, dry, younger cousin. Kelly is still an Art Director. And I’m working towards setting up Marketing Research here. While our jobs are the same in general, the work and clients we have are obviously different.

“Do you have any frickin’ pictures!? All I've seen so far are words. Give me pictures already!”

Here are a few that we've taken this time around. (There are also pictures from our visit in March/April on our Facebook pages.)

This was taken somewhere between Frankfurt and Doha:

This is the house beside ours (well, the one we're staying in temporarily while we work out permanent accommodations). No joke. This is someone's home! (This is the front)

This is the side of the house we look at out our back windows. Apparently the "vision" for it came to him in a dream.


Back yard. Yeah. Weird. I know. (But also kinda cool, eh?)


The street signs are different here. Some of them are pretty comical (I'll try to get some of those ones over time - they're hard to catch on camera). Almost missed this one. Their crosswalk signs are even different!


Sculpture along the Corniche (kinda like the waterfront in Halifax)


The city skyline, taken from the opposite end of the Corniche, which is a large semi circle.


Until next time... keep fit and have fun!