Qatar Hero

Well fine

I haven’t posted on Qatar Hero since late July, and that came after a seven-month period of silence. Some of you expressed displeasure with the gap. Well I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got thrown into mortal danger in Egypt and Libya and stood at the barricades with my Arab brethren and watch the world change. I’m sorry I was too busy standing at the cusp of history to hear your cries of anguish each time you refreshed the page only to find it empty again. Well hereforth I pledge to give you more regular updates on my life in this soulless prison of sand and high rises, even if it’s just a cell phone picture of me scrubbing the Emir’s bathroom floor with a toothbrush (as all residents are required to do once every two months). I suppose it’s interesting in its own way.  

For starters, I suggest you read this just-published portrait of Qatar by Hugh Eakin in the New York Review of Books. I know Andy is barely literate, but I think most of you will enjoy it.

A new year in Qatar

I arrived in Doha six days ago after spending what amounted to slightly more than a month out of the country (and not posting on here for what looks like at least a couple months). Multiple people - yes, more than one! - told me during my swing through the States that they actually read this little blog, so here’s a new post for y’all.

On November 22, I set off for Egypt to cover the impressively rigged parliamentary elections there; you can see my work - and the work of the rest of the AJE team - here. It was a great time personally and professionally. Every time I visit Cairo, I fall in love with the city again. I also felt like I was busier, and producing better work, than I have in a while.

I came back to Doha from December 2 - 4, just in time to witness the country celebrate the success of its bid to host the World Cup in 2022. Let’s just hope the country’s infrastructure improves in the next 12 years; if the roads can’t deal with the Qatari celebration, I shudder to think of what the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from around the world will look like. There’s a host of issues I have with Qatar winning the bid, but I do think much will change here over the next decade, and I’m happy the Middle East will finally host the Cup.

From December 4 - 27 I returned to the glorious motherland, and most of you reading this I’m guessing got a chance to see me. It was a wonderful respite from Qatar, and a reminder that San Francisco and Chicago and Madison, and the people there, won’t drift off into oblivion while I’m here in the desert.

The transition back to Doha has been a little tough, if only because it’s so hard to spend three weeks with all your favorite people and then have to leave them behind. I also had to go straight from the airport to an overnight shift, with time only to drop my luggage off at my apartment. But this transition certainly isn’t as hard as it was arriving here for the first time six months ago, in the middle of summer.

I spent New Year’s Eve in the office on an overnight shift but managed to slip out (with approval) for a couple drinks at a party. We nearly got ourselves run off the road on the way there by a thobe-wearing Qatari man driving a giant, black SUV. Once inside, though, we found plentiful beer (Corona!) and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on the stereo. An hour and a half later, back in the office, I had to write a story about a church bombing in Egypt. That’s New Year’s Eve in Doha, I guess. 

With the overnight shifts done, I’m back on the normal schedule. Due to the oddities of our rotation system, however, I have five days off coming up on the 6th. Nobody in their right mind wants to spend five free days in Doha, so I’m planning on scooting off to Sri Lanka; a direct flight to Colombo on Qatar Airways is only $250. The silver lining of living in the Gulf, I suppose.

Once I’ve truly settled back into work and Doha life, post-Sri Lanka, it will be time to dream up some new story and project ideas and get myself assigned out of the country again. Cross your fingers.

It might be rough to return to Doha, but I am feeling recharged and ready to serve out another six months here. On July 3, I’ll have been here a year. I think I can, I think I can.