The City

I thought I'd post some pictures of what some of the town looks like.  This is not what everything looks like, of course.  There are areas that are a bit more run down looking.  But the odd thing is that you can have a compound that looks a little beaten down and right next to it is a huge villa.  When we first came and were learning the back way to our compound there was a hut made of cinder blocks that someone was obviously living in as there were clothes hanging on a line by the door.  It was across the street from a beautiful villa that we've been told belongs to the man who owns our compound.  So there is a huge gap between the workers and the employers.  But that's a topic for another post.  

Doha is a city under construction.  Everywhere you  go you can see construction.  Downtown has a number of buildings under construction.  What's amazing about this, and also probably explains it a little, is that  my parents' generation (maybe a bit older) of Qatari's were still living in tents and traveling by camel.  So in not too many years they have built a metropolis and are now the wealthiest people in the world. (It helps that Qatar is above one of the world's largest natural gas reserves.) 

Some of the downtown buildings look like they came from a sci-fi movie, or maybe the Jetsons.  (I didn't take this picture, but I have seen these buildings.) 

Others are zigzags.  Yes you're seeing it right.  They really are zigzagged. 

 Here's a view of downtown from the "back".  So we're facing the bay and are more inland. Notice the orange and white construction barriers.  They are everywhere.

 Elliott calls this the "water rainbow".  It's the highlight of going home, or one of them at least. This round about is called "Arch Round About". We pass it on our way home from church every week.

 This is Elliott's other highlight when we are out driving.  This is a bit closer to home.  He calls it the "rainbow wall".  It's an underpass that we drive through that has tile murals on the walls.  He loves them and used to always ask if we were going to see them. He gets really excited when we drive by them.

 This is Sidra Hospital.  It is still under construction.  It is on the edge of Education City and served as a great landmark for us when we started driving.  If we could see this hospital, we could find our way home.  Sidra will be a learning hospital for the universities here that's supposed to have all the state of the art stuff.

So we really aren't in the middle of nowhere.  And it would be very easy to fall into step with many people here and have a house cleaner.  I've already had about 3 people knock on my door offering their cleaning services, 1 offering child care, and another offering ironing services.  Many expats have maids  and/or nanies, and many of the houses outside of education city have a maid's quarters.  At the gas stations (called petrol stations here) there are attendants who fill your car for you (I have to remember to have cash on hand at all times). In mall parking lot there are men in orange/red jumpsuits waiting to wash your car for a fee.  Since we don't have a maid, a housecleaner, or get our car washed in the parking lot (and don't plan to have/do any of these), our life style hasn't changed too much.