Qatar...

So, I am sort of up to date with everyone now..., so here I am in Qatar (about to leave).

Qatar, where is that? That was my first question too! - It is in the Middle East, a Gulf country, that is next to Saudi Arabia:

Funny old place it is too! Basically, it is the Milton Keynes of the ME - they have just fabricated a city out of the wasteland and put a load of roundabouts and funny buildings on it. They are counted as the mini-Dubai and are building some amazing buildings.

I have a pic that I took that is similar to this, but Google's one is better, so here it is!

I was asked to come here to be involved in an International Deaf conference, which was a real eye-opener for me, for several reasons. Due to the State's love of monitoring emails and internet activity, I can't really go into a lot of what I was doing, thinking or such, but hopefully I will see each of you at some point to tell you all in full. Suffices to say, that this place is a challenge to live in, but can be very worthwhile.

One of the upsides was that I was being hosted by the government, so I was housed in the country's swankiest hotel - the St. Regis:

The plush surroundings helped to take the edge off of the 30 hour trip from Guyana to Doha! The downside was that due to the amount of work we had to do, we got to enjoy very little of the amenities. I did manage to employ my personal butler (yes, seriously) with silly tasks that made me feel all self-important. Not really! He was a really nice dude from India who was so gracious and friendly, I felt bad asking him to do anything for me.

Once we had finished working like dogs and been paid very little, lol, it was across to another challenging environment. I had been asked to remain by an English deaf guy who is doing some work in Qatar. He had meetings planned and was not getting very far on his own with lip reading and such, so asked me to stay and do some work. So, that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks. Annoyingly, as in America, I have not been able to see that much of the country due to the work on my plate. The working week here is different too (Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday off), which has thrown my internal clock immensely. Oh, I did manage to attend an Arabic Sign Language course (for two of seven classes but they said I passed the exam anyway), so I now have Level 1 in Arabic Sign Language too! Looks good on my CV doesn't it!

Regardless, I have managed to take a few pics:

The MIA - Museum of Islamic Art (I think) beautiful place

Really bad picture but was a funny thing - having a tour at the museum, given in Arabic and rendered into French Sign, Arabic Sign, American Sign and British Sign all at the same time!

Some arty stuff from a long time ago...

A rare picture of ME!

This is a chess piece from the 18th century 

A souq, or market. Reminded me of Guyana in ways, but smelled nicer and was less rubbish on the floors

Not chocolate, but an Arabic version of chess

A really cool lady from the conference. The hat is mine, someone bought it for me!

Cool building but asking around, no one knows what it houses. Thats quite common here, as many of these ultra-chic buildings are empty

Our guide to the desert one night - Abdullah a lovely deaf man

Bedouin tent in the desert that took hours to reach as we kept getting stranded in the sea of sand - arrived at about mid-night

These guys are deaf from around the Gulf

A Venetian shopping centre complete with gondolas and a canal!

A pearl fishing festival - Dhow festival

The old and the new

Captain goes down with the ship

This summed up Qatar for me - old and the new slapped together.  Obviously, the facia is supposed to look old. Passed this most days and was tres impressive.

So, that is about it... Some of the sights have been amazing and as usual, everywhere I travel I met some amazing people with amazing hearts. I am flying back home to Guyana on Saturday, for another 30 hour trip. That said, my client is asking me to stay another week to finish some meetings, so watch this space.

Sorry about the lack of coherent sentences, just trying to get this done whilst I have ten mins to 'chat'. 

Will try to do better.xxx