Water conservation in Doha

Sadly, the post title is a bit of an oxymoron. I regularly see people washing the street in front of their house with a hose, or washing their car with a hose that they leave running as they scrub, or just plain leaving a hose running for no apparent reason. Considering that it's illegal to use potable water for any purpose other than drinking, bathing, or washing indoors, and it's rumored to take the energy of 7 gallons of oil to produce one gallon of desalinated water, these are pretty blatant abuses of the system and the environment. But one of the most irritating ones that hit really close to home for me is our neighborhood's automatic water tank cleaning system.
Once a month, each villa in our compound gets a waterfall off its roof as a pump (at least partially) empties its rooftop water tank of between 100 and 200 gallons of potable water. Supposedly this is to prevent buildup of sediment in the tank, which is believable--but also wasteful. So I went on my roof one day while we had our monthly waterfall and found the hose out of which the water was spraying. I put a 30-gallon storage tub under it, and then another, and then another, and I'm sure if I had gotten there just as it started, I could have filled four of them easily. As it was, I still caught some water as it flowed off our roof, and that's when my neighbor drove by and got this shot:

So then I bought 10 meters of hose, a hose connector, and two hose clamps, and now we have the drain hose leading down our house into these tubs, and we can water our garden and wash our car all month with this saved water!

Packing and shipping advice if you're moving to Qatar

This is mostly from an email exchange Rachel and I had with one of the new recruits coming to my school next year:

What type of items should I ship? Food? Toiletries? Dvd's? Sheets? It would be great to get a list like for summer camp.

Don’t worry about whether you can find most things. I think the only things Rachel hasn’t found are certain ingredients for baking and certain medicines she prefers to the local alternatives. If you’re okay with switching your diet to a more local diet, you can avoid buying the more expensive imported foods. But if you’re going to want your breakfast cereal (or insert other comfort food here) every day, shelling out $8 a box will just be an expense you have to live with unless you want to devote shipping allowance to a whole crate of that. The same sort of goes for toiletries, but it’s easier to find the same brands of toiletries here as in the US without as much increase in price.

Generally, first choose things with sentimental value that you want to have with you instead of in storage. That includes wall art, framed photos, etc. to make your house a home. You might bring certain bedding if you’re particular about sheets or pillows or mattress toppers, but you can buy pretty much anything here. There aren’t libraries, so DVDs might be a good choice, and DVDs purchased here can’t be viewed on DVD players from the US, so don't bring one, but plan to buy a universal-region one here instead. You’ll be able to access any online subscription services (like Netflix, Amazon Streaming, etc.) via VPN with no trouble. If you have kids, bring their favorite toys. You can find most familiar toys here, but they’ll all be full-price. There’s basically no such thing as bargain shopping here.

I eat dairy free and gluten free. Will it be difficult to find special flours?

Not difficult to find necessarily, but probably relatively expensive. You’re probably used to that issue in the US, too, but it’s even more of a price difference here. And many items are not consistently available even if you do find a store that carries them, so buy all you can whenever you see it on the shelf.

What type of items can you ship? What type of items are not allowed?

Pretty much everything that isn’t explosive or corrosive. They said no batteries. Don’t try to bring in pork or alcohol or multiple copies of religious material that they might think you’re using to proselytize. Some people said not to bring even a nativity scene (if you’re Christian), but we know plenty of people who had no trouble with that. You can buy every other kind of Christmas decoration here but those.

How do you ship? UPS? Or airline?

We shipped through a logistics company called Experts Logistics Services. http://www.expertslogistic.com Our HR person will send you a list of other companies people have used. This company's rate was relatively low when if you shipped by boat, but we shipped by air, and it was more expensive than we expected. They calculate the price based on some combination of weight and volume. I’d say ship by air, whatever company you choose. We've been told horror stories of shipping containers being washed off boats by big waves, or plastic items melting in the heat while the container sits in customs for possibly weeks. You’ll make up the cost of shipping by air pretty soon if you live somewhat frugally for a while here, and the peace of mind alone is probably worth the price difference.

Rachel had a few things to add, too:

I do have a few things to add...

Items to ship- If you use chili powder, bring a few with you as that is a spice blend and I haven't found it here.  And what is labeled chili powder here is actually dried chilies ground into a powder, not the same.  We found that out the hard way. :) But you can find most everything.  If there is a specific item you're wondering about, I can see if it's here.  But the store near us is good about getting items requested, at least so I've been told by people who have requested things.  I haven't done it myself. You can find deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, in brands that you'll recognize (Herbal Essence, Tresseme, Colgate, Crest, etc), along with others.  Be careful with sheets as the bed sizes aren't always the same to the ones at home.  I know of some people who brought sheets with them in the size they were told the bed would be and they don't fit.  But you'll be provided sheets, and like Steve said, if you don't like the ones in your apt/villa, there are plenty of options to buy different ones.  

Gluten Free/Dairy Free- There are a number of dairy free milks here such as soy and sometimes I see Almond milk.  And of course, there's plenty of coconut milk. I watch a girl after school who is allergic to dairy and she's doing just fine here. 

Shipping company- we shipped by air, not boat.  The shipment came about 3-4 weeks after we got here. Our neighbors shipped mostly by boat and they didn't get their shipment until close to Christmas. Air shipment costs more but is quicker, by boat is cheaper but takes much longer. 

A Qatari Wedding Party

My school's assistant principal invited me and some other western guys from work to his nephew's wedding party. The wedding ceremony itself probably happened in the Sharia Court with just a few members of the family present to witness the signing of the marriage contract, without much pomp. So around 7:30 I drove to a gigantic empty field of crushed rock and dust (the native state of most of Qatar's wildlands) where 4 separate wedding parties were being held. Each party had a big sign announcing the family name of the groom in front of a greeting area of about a quarter acre of persian rugs with upholstered chairs facing inward around the perimeter, along with flood lights. The smell of burning incense was strong. This was in front of the enormous white tent (about the size of a soccer field, and two stories high) with a transparent plastic front and chandeliers hanging from the top. Inside, a queue led directly to the groom and his receiving line. The bride and her invited guests were elsewhere at an invitation-only party at a hotel that I assume was something like this. But this party, like most grooms' parties in Qatar, was open to anyone who felt like coming in, as long as they were dressed in traditional Qatari dress or at least semi-formal western dress (slacks and a button-up shirt, plus nice shoes and maybe a tie or jacket). The tent, like the outside greeting area, had persian rugs with upholstered chairs around the entire perimeter. For every few chairs, there was a coffee table with dates, nuts, tissues, and water on it. Live musicians provided entertainment and a chance for anyone interested to come dance (someone else's video) with a sword in hand. The singers (all men) faced one another in two parallel lines about 20 feet apart, with a circle of drummers in the middle. They sang songs of battle and glory in Arabic. Party guests grabbed a sword from a pile and stepped in rhythm slowly around the circle hoisting or shaking or twisting or bobbing the sword, each in his own unique style. A crane camera recorded their performance while the rest of a full camera crew recorded the receiving line and fed it to a projector that showed the view from alternating cameras on screen near the entrance. After greeting the groom, guests usually mingled and found other friends, then made their rounds along the perimeter, touching noses or kissing foreheads (for especially honored friends). Around 8:30, everyone rushed to the adjacent tent, perpendicular and connected to the first, where 80 round banquet tables sat laden with roasted goats on trays of saffron rice with white raisins and boiled eggs, surrounded by small bowls of salad, pitas, and hummus, as well as sodas and bottles of water. Seating was a free-for-all, almost like musical chairs when the music stops, with only the groom's table--with its roasted camel--off limits to most visitors. At each table, the person of highest social standing or most closely connected to the groom ripped off hunks of meat with his bare hands and distributed them to the other guests, who helped themselves to the rest of the food and ate just as often with the silverware as with their right hands.

Before entering the eating area, I talked with the performers. They were from Saudi Arabia. The only thing they asked me about America is whether we keep falcons as they do!

It was a great night, and I'm very grateful to my host for inviting me. Now that I know I could go into any wedding party here and receive the same treatment, I think I might go out driving on weekend evenings all dressed up more often! I didn't take any pictures, but this post from a stranger has some that look just like what I saw. And here is an interesting Al Jazeera article with commentary on the current state of Qatari wedding traditions.

Second ultrasound for new baby

Our insurance pays for one ultrasound every month, including the cool 3D ones. So today was the second one, and here are some pictures. Still too early to tell the sex yet, but fun to see anyway.

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The coolest part, though, was that on the CD with the photos was a file that turned out to be a 3D snapshot. I found the ultrasound terminal's program here and installed it on my PC, and pretty soon I could look at any slice of this 3D scan I wanted to! Now, granted, they're still not all that detailed because the baby is so small, but what excites me is that I now know I'll be getting this same file each time we visit. I'm pretty sure this is the exact file that people can send off to have their babies 3D-printed before they're even born. So now the only question is: does anybody have access to a 3D printer they'd like to try this with? (Yes, that's a link to the 3D file, so you can view it yourself if you want to download that program linked above)

A bit of advice on getting a car in Doha

This advice is intended primarily for other people who work for QF, since you'll be in generally the same financial situation as we are.
American cars aren't unheard of in Doha, but they are more rare than Asian brands like Toyotas, Nissans, Kias, Mitsubishis, etc. BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis are common, but naturally more expensive than their Asian counterparts in general. For American cars, that means spare parts are harder to come by, and you'll have to get most of your service at the dealer, which can mean a lot more expense and a long trip down to the industrial area. But a mechanic who knows where to look could find you parts for pretty much any Asian make of car without much trouble.
If you're into leasing cars, that's a viable option since your monthly travel allowance is high enough to lease a small sedan during your two-year contract. Selling cars isn't hard, though, so you could buy one at the same monthly rate and likely earn at least half of it back when you leave. If you want a bigger car than just a sedan, you could combine the travel allowance for a working couple and afford a used SUV from the last few model years. Or, if you really prefer to get a used car and deal with the risks that involves, you can get one for far less than the travel allowance and still sell it later. But the headaches (and unexpectedly high costs) of getting your car serviced are probably not worth getting a car as well-used as you might consider in the states.
We bought a used minivan for pretty cheap and have since regretted it due to the many trips we've had to take to get it serviced. We've replaced the fuel pump, some fuses, the radiator, the shifter/transmission cable, all four tires, both front wheel bearings, the windshield wiper sprayer pump, and had to have the engine tuned up. We've also had trouble getting its registration renewed because of the repairs it has needed, as they won't renew a car that has anything significant wrong with it.
So if we could travel back in time a year and a half and give ourselves some advice, we'd tell ourselves to buy a used car that would use close to our whole travel allowance for the next two years rather than one that uses less than half of it.
A few good sites for finding new and used cars, in order from best interface to worst (in my opinion):
http://www.carsemsar.com/en/qatar
http://www.qatarsale.com
http://www.qatarliving.com