Steve got his resident's permit (RP) a few weeks ago, but it wasn't until last week that I was informed that it was my turn to do my medical. A "Medical" in expat lingo is a chest x-ray and a blood draw. The funny thing is that Steve had to have that done back home before we came and sent in the results, and then he had to do it again once we got here in order to get his RP. Seems like a waste of time and money to me. But if that's what we have to do, then I guess we do it.
There must be some sort of vibe around me concerning buses braking down. If you remember, when I went to take my driver's test the bus broke down very shortly after leaving. Well, the same thing happened on my way to do the medical. Only this time it was at 1:30pm instead of 4:30am, so it was hot.
I picked Steve up from school so that he could watch the kids while I went. Then I drove to the meeting place were a bunch of other people were waiting to go as well. We waited for about 10 minutes for a bus to come, then we all got on the hot bus, but there wasn't enough room on the bus for everyone. So we had to wait for 20 minutes for another bus to come. Why didn't they count how many people they were sending to get it done and how many seats were on the bus and plan accordingly? I have no idea, but that's Qatar for you. So after the hot wait, we set off, only to have the bus driver pull over just as we got out of Education City and say "There's a brake problem." Oh bother. We then had to wait for another bus to come. This one thankfully was much cooler than the first.
The place to get the medical exams done wasn't too far from us, but it was 2:30 by the time we arrived there, taking us an hour to get there. We were split up, men and women. The women went to the right and around the side to the entrance. We had to show the guard at the door our passports and other papers that we were given. Some women in front of me were from the U.A.E. I think and they were told to stand aside. When the guard saw my USA passport, I was waved through the door where I got a ticket to wait for the next available windwo, but only one was busy. I then had to wait for the lady who was helping me. She started working on my papers, and then just left. I have no idea what she was doing, but she came back and processed my papers and then I had to pay ( but apparently we weren't supposed to because when it was all done, I showed my receipt to a guy and he gave me the money back. Strange.) Anyway, we were sent down a hall were we waited for our turns to go in and get the chest x-ray, then we went and had a vial of blood drawn, and we were done. In all I think it only took 1 hour for all of us to get through, which for the way things go in Qatar is amazing. We were back in Education City by 4.
Now all I have left to do for my RP is fingerprints. Steve signed some final paper work for the kids' RPs. Hopefully by the end of the month I will be a legal resident, rather than a legal visitor.
There must be some sort of vibe around me concerning buses braking down. If you remember, when I went to take my driver's test the bus broke down very shortly after leaving. Well, the same thing happened on my way to do the medical. Only this time it was at 1:30pm instead of 4:30am, so it was hot.
I picked Steve up from school so that he could watch the kids while I went. Then I drove to the meeting place were a bunch of other people were waiting to go as well. We waited for about 10 minutes for a bus to come, then we all got on the hot bus, but there wasn't enough room on the bus for everyone. So we had to wait for 20 minutes for another bus to come. Why didn't they count how many people they were sending to get it done and how many seats were on the bus and plan accordingly? I have no idea, but that's Qatar for you. So after the hot wait, we set off, only to have the bus driver pull over just as we got out of Education City and say "There's a brake problem." Oh bother. We then had to wait for another bus to come. This one thankfully was much cooler than the first.
The place to get the medical exams done wasn't too far from us, but it was 2:30 by the time we arrived there, taking us an hour to get there. We were split up, men and women. The women went to the right and around the side to the entrance. We had to show the guard at the door our passports and other papers that we were given. Some women in front of me were from the U.A.E. I think and they were told to stand aside. When the guard saw my USA passport, I was waved through the door where I got a ticket to wait for the next available windwo, but only one was busy. I then had to wait for the lady who was helping me. She started working on my papers, and then just left. I have no idea what she was doing, but she came back and processed my papers and then I had to pay ( but apparently we weren't supposed to because when it was all done, I showed my receipt to a guy and he gave me the money back. Strange.) Anyway, we were sent down a hall were we waited for our turns to go in and get the chest x-ray, then we went and had a vial of blood drawn, and we were done. In all I think it only took 1 hour for all of us to get through, which for the way things go in Qatar is amazing. We were back in Education City by 4.
Now all I have left to do for my RP is fingerprints. Steve signed some final paper work for the kids' RPs. Hopefully by the end of the month I will be a legal resident, rather than a legal visitor.
1 comment:
You are so patient.
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