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Qatar in a nutshell
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Hello friends, today im going to tell you about my trip to Doha Qatar, the capital of the country i was able to take a break in, this was the first time I have been able to experience something like this and I found everything I learned very interesting.
The trip started out at the animal market, there were goats, sheep and camels for sale mainly, it didn't take long to realize i was really at the butcher shop. People would come up and pick out a goat, and just across the street form the market was the slaughter house, all of this was a bit surreal at first because we were in town, there are cars driving by and city buisness going on around this place, a gas station just down on the corner, and here they are killing animals in the middle of it all for tonights supper, so culture shock hit right away.
Next stop was the fish market, fresh fish brought in, layed out on ice and on display for shoppers, smelly place with all kind of seafood, crabs, squid, octopus, big fish, small fish, stingray everything you could think of that you would want to eat...not! I like popcorn shrimp from TGI Fridays, these people don't know what they're missing.
After that we stopped at the fruits and vegetable market, I bought a pint of strawberries for a buck, they had everything here as well, I had never seen a sea-cucumber before until this place, families live together in the arabic culture, by that I mean if a son gets married, he lives on the family plot with his other brothers and parents, the families share meals, i saw a guy buying that weeks groceries and he had a pushcart with a crate of corn on the cob, a crate of lettuce, a crate of this and that, he was gonna fill the back of his SUV. when they buy groceries they buy for many mouths to feed.
We then went to the hand crafts market, this place was one of my favorites because of the narrow walkways as you walk among all the different shops, clothes, spices, pottery, even a falconers shop, the rich buy falcons as pets, they dont keep dogs as pets as they are considered an unclean animal.
After the markets we went to a restaurant and were treated to a buffet style setup of a lot of the common foods there, I tried a little bit of everything, I don't know what I was eating half the time but it was really good, i washed it all down with a coke.
We also were able to go downtown for awhile and visited the Doha city mall, a 4 story structure with an ice-skating rink in the center, I never played Hockey but Im from Minnesota, I have spent some time on skates, these people have never seen snow fall, watching the people skoot along on thier skates I fought the urge to rent a pair and skate circles around them, I could picture myself skating backwards and everyone in the mall clapping and wanting thier picture taken with me, but I decided Minnesota was best represented by me behaving myself....and not giving them all "T-Dawg on Ice". Besides, some little Qatari girl mighta gotten jealous and sent her brothers out to club me in the leg...take me outta competition.
So, a little about Qatar, they are wealthy. Before the discovery of oil, fishing and pearling were the money makers for this country. The discovery of oil reserves in the 1940s changed everything, Qatar produces 800,000 barrels of oil a day and it is estimated they have 15 billion barrels yet to be pumped, they also have discovered liquid natural gas in the 1950s and they are sitting on one of the biggest pools of that resourse of any country, so Qatar citizens live very well, thier standard of living would compare to any european nation. at the mall I saw that most people drove very expensive vehicles, I saw porches and SUVs like land cruisers and escalades.
Only 25% of the population of Qatar is actual Qatar citizens, the other 75% are ex-patriots, or people from other countries there to work the oil industry, or other work industries as needed.
There is excellant education here as well, free education from kindergarten to university, and there are branch campuses from texas A&M university, and Georgetown university there, In fact the present Emir (Qatar version of thier ruler) has a second wife who has been a key influence to the great education benefits in Qatar. they have free healthcare, and do not pay taxes.
So I guess thats about it, fun trip for me and I learned alot, besides it was a nice break from what I have been up too lately. Hope you all learned a little something, I found it all very interesting. Ok my friends, take care. Troy
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Its Groundhogs Day!
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Have you guys ever seen that movie groundhogs day? thats is kinda what its like here. I wake up in the same place every day and do the same thing over and over. I finally got a break from that routine though, soldiers are being allowed to go on pass to an air base in Qatar. Qatar is a small little rich country and the air base there serves as a place for soldiers to go on R&R. my turn came up a little over a week ago and i had a little over 5 days there.
At the air base they have a Chilis restaurant and outdoor swimming pool, a small theatre (I went to see the movie Eragon), and in the evening you can have 3 beers at one of 2 different bar/restaurants they have there. The thing I liked the most though was we could wear civilian clothes and no one was keeping me to any particular schedule, i slept in, took afternoon naps, fell asleep on a couch watch movies in a TV room and basically caught up on sleep and quality alone time for Troy. There isnt a whole lot to do on base but thats exactly what I wanted to do...a whole lot of nothing, and it was wonderful.
The base also offer 5 different tours you can go out on, one is golfing on a PGA golf course, one is a beach picinic, one is a boat day cruise, one is jet sking/water sports, and the last one was a cultural tour. I went on the cultural tour which I will write about in my next blog, but it was my first real exposure to an Arabic culture even though I have been deployed and in country for almost a year now.
It was a much needed break and I can tell that I feel better having gotten away from here, even if it was for such a short time. I hate being here and I would take any break from here offered to me. The 2 pictures are me at chilis sittin by the pool and a picture of downtown Doha, Qatar (thier capital). Ill be following this blog with a litttle of what i saw and learned about Qatar in a couple days, feels good finally having something new and positive to write about. Take care everyone, Troy
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The Trivial Pursuit of Happyness
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Hello my friends, I know I don’t write often, at least as often as I used to, but there is only so much a person can write about when he has been in the same box for a year…Same Sh*t Different Day as the saying goes. I thought I’d talk about one of the ways I and many others help relieve stress here.
There aren’t many options to grind out stress here, one way is to work out at the gym here. I seem to go to the gym for a month, then I’ll slack off for a month, then get all gung ho again and start up…not very regular, I like running on the Treadmill, running fast but going nowhere, much like this deployment but I feel better after running. Another way is through use of the Internet. This tool is pretty new to the war zone, but I’m very thankful it is allowed. Every single day (when there isn’t an information blackout) I hop on the Internet highway and floor it, most of my time is spent webcaming with my girlfriend back home, I like hearing about all the errands ran to the store or people she visited that day…for me these are mostly things I’m familiar with back home, so when she tells me she went the grocery store to pick up cat litter, the store and all the isles of groceries and the meat market with its selection of hotdogs and bratwurst pop into my head, and I picture myself doing the shopping with her. It is a way to take my mind out of this place, and for a little while, I’m sitting on the couch next to her listening to her tell me about her day. One thing about the webcam is it allows me to see the smile that I can hear when she is talking to me, or the furrowed brow when she is feeling sick. The Internet/webcam has helped me feel closer to my friends and girlfriend back home by being able to see or talk to them every day. Nothing seems to help take some of the stress that can build up here more than the great communication I have been fortunate to have with my friends back home.
That’s it for now…I will try to get better about writing stuff, even if it is trivial. Take care everyone. Troy
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Grab a Snickers
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Well my friends, maybe you have heard the rumors, they aren’t rumors anymore. The red bulls have been extended so I’ll be here a bit longer. Of course this means rallying to the finish line is over so the rally ‘stache came off right away…but at least I’m in a can living in better conditions than I was a month ago. Guess I don’t know what else to say about it. We are gonna tighten up our belts and drive on until our mission is done. These 2 pictures pretty much say everything else I couldn’t.
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Rally 'stache
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I swear it has been busier here than normal! I’m sorry that it has been so long since I have written but there is some great news to share. First we are completely moved into a new building for our clinic, so more room to work, and another thing knocked off the list of things to do before going home.
Also some even better news, on Christmas day I was moved to a can. The best lodging a soldier can hope for here. The temperature is controlled, only 3 roommates, plenty of room for all my junk, and……I have internet in my room. So convenient. I’m living with Hackett, Mayfield and a swell guy from Supply…Spc. Blackburn. We only get to live here for about 50 days then we are moving back to tents, but I don’t care about that, because that is in preparation for the people replacing us to be able to move into those cans. I say let ‘em move in early, the sooner they are here the sooner I’m out of Iraq. You will notice in the picture that I am working on the “Rally ‘stache”. I’m growing a moustache and trying to convice others to do it as well, as we come closer to going home. I call it the Rally stache trying to get everyones moral up as we finish this job. People can tend to get unfocused near the end and mistakes can get made, so I’m trying to promote the spirit of team involvement. I think everyone back home that can grow a moustache should start growing one now (except the women that can grow one, you guys can stop shaving your legs or something) then if someone asks about it, you can tell them your growing a rally ‘stache until the troops come home. I guess I’m also doing it because I heard that a certain someone high up in the leadership hates moustaches, but since the army allows it, and Goober cant stop me from growing it, I’m gonna nurture that caterpillar like a loving father. If I can get enough people to do it I’ll get a group photo.
That’s all for now people, make sure you grab an ass or 2 today, keep peoples spirits up, the time is ticking by and we will be home soon. Troy
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