Have you seen this man?

Awarded Best Moustache 2013

THE CHAMPION

THE COMPETITORS

A sure sign that you are in Qatar is when...

...every single DQ employee of the month is Filipino or East Indian!

ISLQ Brawl 2013

I drive Aislyn and Nate home every Tuesday because school finishes at noon.  I am walking towards the gym corridor and I notice a small crowd start to gather and then quickly a large crowd begins to form.  My good friend and teaching colleague is in the midst of a group that is beginning to scuffle...some grade 8 Qatari boys and grade 11 non-Qatari students.  He is trying to break the two groups apart and I remember him saying, "Let go of my arm.  I am a teacher."  I couldn't hear it at the time, but one of the Qatari boys told him that he didn't give a #$%k and took a swing at his face!  My colleague ended up getting a little roughed up.  A few other teachers, a number of parents and I helped out as well.  All the while, there are little kids leaving school and fists are flying.  I grabbed one of my grade 9 Qatari boys, put my arm around him and told him to breathe with me.  He must of thought, what is Mr. Piva doing?  Is he crazy, there is a fight going on and he is telling me to breathe.  It must have worked because he missed the fight completely.  There is still some question as to what is going to happen to the boys involved.  In fact, some of them came to school the next day!  Situations such as this are handled much differently here.  There is a general concern for the powers that be, and if the wrong move is made, it could be your last wrong move.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

The Four Wheeler Incident at Lulu Hypermarket

I am going to make a long story really short.  I wanted to buy this four-wheeler for Aislyn and Nate.  The first weekend, Lulu only had one floor model and the wheel was broken.  The salesman told me that he would order one in and call me.  He never did!  The next weekend, they had one in an open box, not assembled.  The same salesman said that he would put it together for me and have it ready for 4pm.  The kids had their nap and we were all pumped to pick up their four-wheeler.  We showed up at 4:23pm, the floor supervisor had no idea what I was talking about and my pot started to boil over.  He was defending his employee's actions which I took offence to.  I told him that I wanted a refund immediately.  He frustrated me so much that I one point I knocked a stack of boxes over and walked towards to customer service desk.  The lady behind the desk would not refund our money unless she had a stamped copy of the receipt.  You see, the security here rules the roost apparently and they have to stamp everything and staple your bags shut.  So in the midst of all they tension a random security guard shows up with my original receipt.  I think that he was sweating it out as I turned green like the Incredible Hulk.  We got our money back, in cash, and hit the road!  What a crock...loads of frustration...nothing to show for it...typical Qatar.

Feeling Homesick.....

Today I stayed home from school because yesterday I just about coughed up my lungs.  I visited the doctor, got some meds (they give out just about anything here) and rested today.  As the day went on, I felt more and more depressed, and feeling the need to get on a plane and come home.  Not sure if it was the fact that I stayed home and had time to think about life here or if it was the fact that I have had enough of the countless, useless, redundant meetings we have each week at school and no time to plan or the fact that today I actually gave a Qatari guy the finger and honked my horn at him.  I know many of you reading this are like "yup, sounds like something Lindsay would do" but I'll have you know it is not a common practise by expats here as the Qatari's are assholes and will run you over in their massive LandCruisers or pull a gun or sword out and off you if you piss them off.  Laws don't apply to them so my "finger" was quite a balsy move.  But, I don't care.  I think everything about this place is making me crazy.  The way the Qatari people treat others, their ignorant, over the top, fake lifestyle, the way the traffic makes it impossible to get anywhere, the useless and annoying meetings at school, my inability to be a good teacher because I have no time and the fly infestation that has taken over my villa and compound.  I have been smashing flies into the windows and sweeping up dead ones for days.  The recent rain has created a breeding ground for annoying flies.  Really, everything is bugging me and I just want to go home.  I miss Canada.....I miss my school, my friends, my family, the snow, Starbucks, Swiss chalet, Harvest Moon breakfasts, my students, my house, my car, my bed, my couch, my crazy Serbian neighbours, report cards, my Uggs, my Christmas tree and decorations, the market, Superstore, Zehrs, Tim Horton's, saturday drives through Beechwood.....I miss my life back home.  Not sure how I will make it to June.  We have decided not to travel at Christmas so that we can save money and do a big trip in July on our way home but I keep thinking - Christmas in Doha?  How is that gonna work?  God I hate this place.

Just published today

Giving up on Doha dream, cab driver hopes to pay off debt and head home

By: J. ZACH HOLLO | 8 HOURS AGO | November 23, 2013

The plight of migrant workers in Qatar has been written about exhaustively at home and abroad over the past few months. Documentation of dismal living and working conditions is spreading far and wide, prompting growing international condemnation. In response, some argue that the issue is becoming politically motivated – and that it is convenient to blame Qatar at a time when it is in the spotlight over the2022 World Cup.

Stepping away from the big picture for a moment, Doha News recently sat down with one man to listen to his problems with the system. From his experience, it is clear that the flaws in the employment chain are numerous and complex, beginning with the inflated promises of a recruitment agency at home, and exacerbated by harsh treatment from his sponsor in Qatar. Here’s his story.

Bad start

Lahiru De Silva, a 24-year-old private taxi driver whose name has been changed to protect his identity, met his future wife in grade school when he was 10 years old; they grew up as best friends. After graduating from high school together, they wanted to get married.

But both sets of parents were against the idea, saying the couple was too young. De Silva and his beloved disagreed, and eloped three years ago. Since then, the couple’s parents have refused to speak to them.

Like his two older brothers and much of Sri Lanka’s youth, De Silva had not been able to find work since graduation. But when his wife became pregnant, he found an offer from a recruiting agency at home promoting jobs in the Gulf and a paycheck of QR1,500 a month too good to refuse.

But to become employed, he would first have to incur an initial debt of QR5,000. Like many low-income Asian expats, De Silva took out loans to cover the fees, which the recruitment company said was to pay for “insurance” and a plane ticket to Doha.

When De Silva arrived in Qatar in April, ready to work, he said he was hit with additional fees that the recruitment agency had not mentioned: QR1,250 for a Qatar ID, and QR2,050 for a driver’s license.

But he had no means to foot the bill, so the private taxi company that was supposed to sponsor him (which De Silva and his roommates asked not to be named) did not give De Silva any work.

Setbacks

Instead, the expat was taken to a building in Doha’s industrial area where Sri Lankan employees of the cab company live and told to report back when he had the funds to buy the ID and license.

There, De Silva found a small room with six other men who let him sleep on a mattress on the floor. The room was a mess. Yellowing white paint peeled from walls littered with insects. Suitcases lay on the floor, either discarded for lack of a closet or serving as impromptu tables. The air was rank with humidity and smelled of evaporated sweat, as a wall-mounted broken AC unit dribbled water into a bucket below.

Without a bedframe, De Silva was more vulnerable to the room’s cockroaches, and the bedbugs already infested in the mattress. But he made do. In just two months, his wife was due to give birth to a baby girl. And he knew they’d be counting on his paycheck for food.

Qatar’s industrial area is home to thousands of South Asians like De Silva who are attempting to escape the poverty that is rife in their home countries. As preparations for the 2022 World Cup swell the country’s low-income migrant worker count to 1.2 million, Qatar now boasts one of the highest expat-to-citizen ratios in the world.

Only about 5 percent of those migrants come from Sri Lanka, while the majority hail from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Last week, Amnesty International released a report detailing human rights violations to which this imported workforce is commonly subjected.

“The Dark Side of Migration“ showed widespread abuse of construction workers in Qatar, often involving harsh working conditions, non-payment of salaries, and abysmal housing accommodations. According to the report, migrant workers commonly suffer from psychological distress due to debt burdens and an inability to support families back home.

Many of these men don’t speak up about their situations for fear of losing their jobs and being deported, one of De Silva’s roommates explained to Doha News:

With no salary from the taxi company, De Silva set out working odd jobs around the building, like scrubbing toilets and washing cars. Housemates would pay him, usually QR10, for each chore he did.

After six months, he made enough money for the ID and license, and was hired by the company. The job was more grueling than he expected. Drivers at his company work 12 hours every day, with only one day off per week. But it was still better than the employment limbo he’d been in before, and he was finally added to the company’s pay chart.

But relief proved transient, as getting behind the wheel of a cab turned out to be another debt trap. According to company policy, any time a driver is at fault in an accident, QR2,000 are deducted from his pay.

During De Silva’s first month operating a cab, he got into two minor accidents. Both times, De Silva had been switching lanes and clipped another car. He said no more than small dents and scratches were left on the car, but the company insisted on docking QR2,000 per accident.

“It’s not fair that he has to pay QR2,000 for the accident,” a roommate of De Silva’s toldDoha News. “We could have gotten it fixed for QR150. The damage was not bad.”

The roommate further asserted that the company has insurance for the cars, and gets them fixed practically for free, so the money that it takes from workers is unnecessary.

De Silva’s first payday last month, meant to be QR1,500, came and went. He received nothing, but his negative balance with the company shrunk from QR4,000 to QR2,500.

‘Come home’

Now, seven months after moving to Qatar, De Silva has not sent home any money to his family. And at this point, he’s afraid he never will.

“When I talk to my wife on the phone, she tells me, ‘just pay off the debts and come back home. I can’t be without you,’” said De Silva.

J. Zach Hollo

His wife lives in a province in northern Sri Lanka called Vavuniya, where a friend of hers lets her stay at her house for free. She also depends on friends for food and other essentials.

De Silva said phone cards for calls to Sri Lanka are expensive, and he can only afford one per week, which lasts only a few minutes. He said each rushed conversation is pretty much the same. “I miss you,” she says. “Come home.”

Not at all impressed

Qatar's population is increasing by 20 people every hour. Most of those arriving in the country are low-income construction workers from Asia. These migrant workers have been recruited to help build massive projects worth up to US$220 billion, as part of Qatar's drive to create a regional and global hub. Many of these projects will contribute, directly or indirectly, to the staging of the 2022 World cup. 

This news video was produced to coincide with the Amnesty International report, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar's construction sector ahead of the World Cup. It looks at how a permissive legal framework and complex contractual chains in Qatar allows unscrupulous employers to exploit and abuse migrant workers - in some cases amounting to forced labour.

Please take a moment to view this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVPiZsEKFv4

Amnesty International

The beauty of the Doha skyline masks many sad stories of exploitation. 

Migrants make up 94% of the workforce in Qatar and many are forced to 

live and work in extremely poor, sometimes fatal, conditions.

Migrant construction workers often work excessive hours, 

sometimes up to 14 hours a day or seven days a week.

For example, it is 10 pm here and there are still 

construction sounds outside of our compound.

Poor conditions at the PCSI workers’ labour camp in Doha’s Industrial Area. 
PCSI Specialties Qatar (PCSI) is a construction company.

This accommodation was being used to house old paints and waste materials, 

which were stored alongside workers’ bedrooms and the kitchen, October 

2012, Qatar. Old construction materials littered external areas and corridors. 

Discarded electrical cables and what appeared to be spilled oil were left in the 

corridors inside the accommodation. The conditions which Amnesty International 

observed were potentially very dangerous to the health and safety of the workers, 

as well as impairing the basic quality of life of the workers.

A cooking area in a migrant labour camp in Qatar.

In Qatar every worker is supposed to have four square meters of personal 

space. Despite this, many are crammed into smaller, often unsanitary quarters.

All photos and text courtesy of Amnesty International, 2013.

Mo...

As Movember draws to a close, I have mixed emotions.

I reflect on the importance of the cause.  At my school, our Mo-Ganda fund-raising campaign is raising money for men's health awareness and a village in Uganda that is in need of numerous upgrades.  Half of the money that we raise will go to cancer research and the other half will be used to build a health care facility.  Who would have thought that facial hair could change the world?

However, despite all of its good qualities, the stache gets a little annoying around this time of the month.  It seems as though the hairs a beginning to invert and grow back towards the lip.  Don't get me wrong, I love looking like this, but the 30th seems so far away.

To all of you out there growing whatever variation of the same thing, keep calm and Mo' on!

Ed

Rain...in Qatar!!!

The Gulf Times - "Heavy Rain hits Qatar"

Qatar residents welcomed a generous rainfall accompanied by thunder and lightning yesterday, though it flooded many stretches of streets and roundabouts, making motoring a difficult task.

The weather office has forecast more rains today.

Throughout Doha, children were seen enjoying the shower which arrived all of a sudden at about 1pm and continued to pour intermittently until late in the evening. Hailstones also fell in some parts of the country. There was a significant drop in the day temperature though the level of humidity went up.

“This isn’t a place one would think of buying an umbrella and honestly, I’m glad I don’t have one. This is so refreshing!” said a bystander in Dafna. “Hey, how’s this for a rain dance!”

“It doesn’t rain often in Qatar. This is the best downpour I’ve witnessed for years. This is just great. Even the birds aren’t taking shelter,” said an excited American . “Rain in May is a double miracle!”

The Qatar Meteorology Department has warned of more thunder, lightning and rain with strong winds offshore. Skies should clear up only by tomorrow, Met sources said.

While it seemed like a time to celebrate for many, it also brought about some questions regarding the city’s  drainage system.

“I just got my car washed!” laughed a woman. “But really, there are some parts of town where the water is taking a bit too long to drain off the streets.”

New Pics...

A little slice of home.

An interesting property close to our school.
Someone forgot to tell them that they live in the desert.

What happened?  The relics of an old factory by our place.

Nate's new toy...maybe?

Ais and Mouse.  The only cat in the compound that I
actually like.  Apparently he sleeps in a cupboard.

A day in the life of Ed.  No wonder I got shingles!

Brunch at the W hotel.  Very nice.

First rate service at the W.  This guy just loved the kids!

I am still alive!

Well...it was my idea to make this blog before we left for Qatar.  I had great hopes of updating it regularly but life here has taken me for quite a wild ride and this blog has suffered...at least from my perspective!  Ed has been amazing filling all of you in on what's been going on here but I feel that my ideas have been lacking!  I will update soon enough but I wanted everyone to know I am still alive!!!  We are surviving in Doha, enjoying our weekends and freedom from the chaos of work!  Only 4 weeks to Christmas!!!!!  More to come........

Shingles and Life

Dear all:

I have really thought about sharing this one...so here you go.  

I have been off all week on sick leave.  In my ten years of teaching, the only thing that has kept me away from work for more than two days consecutively is the birth of my children and a broken back.  After only three months of teaching in Qatar, I have been off work all week with Shingles.  Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the body in a dormant (inactive) state. For reasons that are not fully known, the virus can reactivate years later, causing shingles. I am not a medical doctor, but I do teach science and I know how to make inferences quite well.  I can attest that the virus is stimulated by a) poor environmental conditions or b) stress.  I have both of those things here in abundance.  

I first thought that I had pimples breaking out on my forehead and then I thought that I was allergic to walnuts.  The pain became so great and the "pimples" were spreading to my left eye brow, then my left eye lid, my left lymph nodes under my ear and then the back of my head.  

I checked myself in to the Doctor's office.  Here in Qatar, they have hospitals and clinics all over the place.  I went to a clinic, paid 50QR, grabbed a seat and thankfully ended up with Dr. Zahid, a fantastic GP from the UK.  He knew what was wrong with me right away and actually referred me to the eye specialist in case my cornea was involved, and it wasn't thank goodness.  We ended up having a long chat about why the two of us are in Qatar.  Interesting that he and I had many parallel things to share.  He put me on several medications including two pills five times a day, a topical cream twice a day and eye drops three times a day.

This whole situation has caused me to re-evaluate things.  Why am I here?  How hard should I work?  What is most important?  There is more that I would like to share obviously...but that will have to happen in some other forum at some other time.

I am recovering.  I have another Doctor's appointment today.  Hopefully everything checks out and I can move forward looking through an entirely new window on life here in Qatar.

Ed

Help for India - Follow Up

This is a follow up to my previous blog about our school security guard, Ali.  His home was destroyed and his family was displaced by Cyclone Phailin.  I have included the original blog below in case you missed it.  Our school through various fund-raising initiatives and donations was able to raise nearly 20 000 Riyals, enough money from his family to build a new home and get a fresh start.  He was a very happy man this week.  I talked with him on Tuesday and he was incredibly humbled and thankful for all of the support that he and his family received.

He is a little letter that he wrote to the staff at ISL - Qatar.  Enjoy!

Help for India

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in posting.  I am watching the traffic on our blog site.  To date we have had over 2000 visits!

As you probably know, two weeks ago a massive cyclone hit the eastern coast of India.

Here is a link to an article entitled, "India's Cyclone Phailin leaves trail of destruction".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24510464 (copy and paste the link to your web browser)

Ali is one of our security guards at school.  This guy smiles and waves to us every morning.  He is such a nice person!  Ali is from India and he is the only income earner for his entire family.  He had made arrangements to be married over the Christmas holidays, but his plans were dashed have due to the financial burden left by Cyclone Phalin.  The cyclone destroyed his home and his family is currently living in a shelter with many others who have been displaced.  Of course, the situation is compounded by the sub-standard living situations that existed in many parts of India prior to the arrival of the devastation cyclone.

So, my wonderful wife took it upon herself to hold a bake sale at school today in support of Ali and his family.  Muffins, cookies, brownies, and a whole bunch of other goodies were sold for 5 Riyals a piece and an incredible 6300 Riyals was generated ($1735.00 CAN).  This will certainly have a big impact on their recovery and we can't wait to give Ali the good news!

Ali, keep on smiling :)

Paint Ball Outting

My grade 12 Geography students invited me to go out paint balling tonight at Katara.  We formed a team of six and played another group of guys.  One of them was a professional paint baller that I just happened to snipe right in the face during our first game.  It was a nice opportunity to get to know the students outside of class time.

The most amazing part of the night, I didn't get lost on the way home...that's a first for me!

Doha RFC Quiz Night

We went to the Doha Rugby Club Quiz Night last night.  To start, there was a game between the Men's 1 Team and the Qatari National Team.  Final score 73 - 3 for the Men's 1 Team.  A complete blowout, but fun to watch.  The quiz lasted a couple of hours and had everything from music, to movie clips, the general knowledge questions.  I ended up scoring an iPod Shuffle through the raffle that they had.  Sweet!  The ol' fold the raffle ticket trick worked once again.  It was nice to get out and have some fun...it's just that the sun comes up really early and so do Aislyn and Nate! :)

No Line on the Horizon

Check out the view from my bathroom!

Big Accident on Shamal Road - Qatar's 401

Doha News

"Qatar residents have been complaining about traffic jams this afternoon following an accident on Shamal Road near IKEA.

It appears that construction equipment sitting on a flatbed truck tipped forward and crushed the cabin of the truck.

It is unclear whether the truck driver was injured. The accident happened around 4pm, according to commuters heading into Doha."

There was a birthday party in our compound tonight and one of our teaching colleagues left our place at 6:15 pm.  She texted us at 8:15 pm and told us that she was still on the highway and hadn't moved at all.  She ended up staying at a fiends place tonight because she couldn't get home.  

It looks as though the crane wasn't a secured load.  Knowing the crazy drivers around here, the driver must have hit the brakes pretty hard at speed and then the load shifted forward completely crushing the cab of the truck.

We have seen some pretty interesting driving here.  No signalling, misjudging the speed of other vehicles, drifting from one lane to the other, distracted drivers on their cell phones, speeding excessively, aggressive drivers, impatient drivers and poor vehicle maintenance.

Hold on a minute, wait a second, that sounds an awful lot like Toronto!

Life's a beach!

Darn interweb wi-fi thingy.  I spent an hour last night posting this blog and got up this morning only to find our that it didn't post!

We got home last night at 10:00pm from an amazing day at the beach.  We were just north of Al Ghashamiyah (see the map).  We were invited to go to a camp set up by an incredible family from Jordan.  Lindsay teaches their daughter and another teaching colleague of ours teaches their son.  So the group of us headed up to the camp around 12pm yesterday.

After a short one hour drive, we had to park our cars and head out across the desert on a 4 X 4.  The camp was a little more than what we expected.  A big wooded shelter with a palm leaf roof, equipped with seating for 20 or so, an RV, a separate washroom for men and women, two other big tents, one of them air conditioned, a volleyball court and helpers quarters.

We dropped of our stuff, made our introductions and the guys headed out for a little fishing excursion.  We set up a 90 m net about 300 m from shore.  The interesting thing to note was that there was an old wall out in the water that was used to capture fish as the tide went out.  It had a few holes in it, hence the net!

There was about 12 adults and 8 children in total. The kids played perfectly all day long.  It was such a nice day for all of us.

I stood down by the water for a bit with their boy from grade six.  He was talking to me about skipping stones and the fact that the only stones that were available to skip were the black ones.  I found that odd, since the rest of the beach is white.  Turns out, in the 1980s there was a huge oil spill that covered the entire length of Qatar's eastern coast.  The black stones are actually crude oil biscuits mixed with sand.  I cracked one open and it smelled just like Mike Piva's garage.  I started to look around and they were everywhere.  What a shame.  Not to ignore that fact that the spill would have been devastating.  Apparently there were a number of dead whales washing up on the shore after the spill.  The amazing thing that I found however was the ability of the Earth to fix itself.  Much of the oil had turned to stone along the shoreline.  Eventually the oil will simply be reabsorbed and disappear.

Later that night, we had a big dinner that was prepared in a traditional method using an Earth Stove.  It is an underground smoker.  There is a coal bed at the bottom and the heat is captured as the food sits on racks inside a round chamber buried in sand.  The chicken and baby goat (if you can believe) was very moist and tasty.  Along with some seasoned rice, it made for a very nice meal.

After an entertaining game of volleyball, we had our first, second and then third dessert!  We were well fed without question.

All in all a great day was had by everyone.  We have been invited back and I think that we will take them up on that offer!

Night everyone and Happy Movember!

Nate...I love that kid!

Aislyn with an oil biscuit.

Can I see myself inthis thing?

Nate unknowingly pointing to the hardened
oil that lines the entire Qatar coastline.

Hermit crab.

The thatched hut where we had dinner.

A feast!