One of the difficulties I have faced in Qatar is getting a work visa and QID which is the residency card. No QID means no ability to rent my own flat, no bank account, messing around with driving licenses, queuing for an age at immigration, no beach access, and constantly needing my passport in case I’m questioned at a bar – more on this later. Ultimately, I don’t feel welcome, and life is unnecessarily difficult. After 30 days of being here my tourist visa was at an end and my work sent me to the visa office where I could apparently get my tourist visa extended by another 30 days. As has been the continual case here, I’ve struggled to catch a break. To get the visa extended I had to have insurance. My company provided the insurance but it expired four days before I was due to fly out for the week, therefore the visa would be issued to the expiry date of the insurance and I would have to fly out a few days earlier and work from home, fantastic, sounded perfect. I walked into the visa office, handed over my paperwork and passport to a typically grumpy Arab that occupy such positions who quickly passed on the paperwork to his equally grumpy mate who tapped some keys on his keyboard, looked quizzically at the screen – I assume wondering why the insurance didn’t extend to the full 30 days – printed off a sheet of A4, handed everything back to me and waved me away all without looking at me for more than two seconds. I took longer to park than get my visa renewed. And the icing on the cake was that they gave me the full 30-day visa regardless of the fact my insurance ran out almost a week before thus depriving me of a few bonus days out of the country. That was mid-June, it’s now mid-August and I still have no QID.

Doha – Qatar

In the previous blog I mentioned that Doha isn’t pretentious which is great, but there is a cost. The country needs to attract foreigners, the only way to do this is to offer big salaries which they then need to recuperate while giving the foreigners something to do. however, there’s not a lot to do, and the country is adamant about holding onto its culture which I actually respect. The problem is, as we all know, Western/European capitalist ‘get your tits out sells’ culture doesn’t fit well with conservative Islamic culture. Therefore, living in Doha is like living in an IKEA showroom. You get a feel for the lifestyle you want and expect, but actually you can’t move in and make yourself at home. Similar to visiting a strip club with lots of sexy stuff and bright lights but touch anything and a bouncer will stamp on your head. This has made my original plan to make Doha my home extremely challenging. I have tried to push myself personally, experiencing living in a city for the first time ever, living in a high-rise apartment, city driving, even living with flatmates in search for a New Girl’esque friendship group. But it’s all a bit meh, and flat sharing is bloody awful, but I have no choice because I have no QID. 

I spent a lot of time stressing about what to do when Rut comes to visit as sharing a roof with a non-family lassie is still a bit of a taboo here. However, since moving here, I have never shared a flat with less than two women so that eased my worries somewhat. But then, when Rut did turn up, the apartment building made it so difficult for us knowing full well that I couldn’t complain because they would have been well in their right to call the police and get us deported. I could be being a little melodramatic but almost everyone will agree that you don’t push it out here and you have to be a little smart about it all. I signed Rut in at reception as a guest when she arrived and was told she could use the swimming pool and gym. After a few days they suddenly said no more and she could only enter the pool with a resident, which would be difficult as I would be working the majority of the time. When we did finally go together, I used my electronic pass to go through the doors where I was immediately greeted by a security guy who asked me to sign the register before entering the empty pool. The pool has a lovely BBQ area complete with big signs warning against the consumption of alcohol. You may think I’m being petty. We went to my local bar where I drink with workmates most Thursday evenings. This was a Tuesday night when we had looked at a fountain and a fancy mall and planned to treat ourselves to a pint of Guinness and dinner afterwards. ‘QID or passports please’. We had neither (as they’ve never been required before), well, copies on our phone but no, access denied; the bar was empty. I took Rut up to the farm on Friday to see the public viewing gallery but security wouldn’t even let me through the carpark barrier. The same guy who lets me in and out of work every bloody day. Apparently, I needed to get my boss to call his boss to get permission to go into my own office and the public viewing gallery because it was Friday. I went to investigate the resident’s beech a short walk from where I live and when I stood on the sand a young chap immediately reprimanded me for not having a beach pass. It was 5.45am, the beach was empty. My landlord said my room key was enough but no, I need to go into town to the beach police and apply for a beach pass with passport photo and proof of a QID. 

I’ve never had 5G before, but Qatar is blanketed with the stuff. Shame then that I need a VPN to be able to talk to anyone outside of the country, and for some reason messages are so slow to send and receive at times. VPNs are a pain in the ass. Even Saudi never needed a VPN for FaceTime or WhatsApp calls. A coffee at the airport costs more than the parking so you can arrive nice and early to collect someone because of cheap parking but you fill that extra time drinking overly priced Costa Coffee. I’ve given up on the usual stuff. I devour plastic straws, I pack all my imported food into as many single-use plastic bags as I can and I drink out of the smallest single-use plastic water bottles I can find, all of which I throw down my happy place – the garbage chute. I’ve embraced excessive eating. I love a brunch, and we discovered an all you can eat fancy fish buffet a few weeks ago that I shall be making many repeat visits to. The food is excellent and no doubt about as sustainable as setting fire to your own home once a week. The best thing is they can usually be found on buy-one-get-one-free offers, thus a £65 all you can eat extravaganza becomes £32.50. Great until I realise Rut doesn’t live here and my friends all come as couples. 

But I have to remember that my life in Qatar could be much much worse. The reason it feels like a large open-air prison is because all the staff I’ve mentioned who have made my life miserable are simply doing as they are told and trying to reduce the misery of their own lives. What’s more is the fact I don’t actually need to be here, they do. If they let me stand on the beach without the correct pass or stray into a pub without presenting the correct ID, they will be sacked and deported, instantly. It is the work culture that really sucks here, the opinion that staff are disposable (at all levels and nationalities), that staff are owned by their employers and the assumption that the employee has no life beyond work. As per usual, it in fact has little to do with religion and everything to do with money and power. Qatar is no different to what it seeks not to be which is sad, because with a bit of passion and investment for the long term, Doha could actually be a very lovely place to live. And besides, despite all of the rules and pettiness, I left for a week’s holiday back in a slightly saner country and returned to find my can of WD40 had been taken from my bathroom. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That can of WD40 symbolised my freedom and ability to fix a squeaky door, it genuinely made me happy, as did the HP fruity brown sauce I found, and the post-stick notes I purchased that allows me to write lists, thoughts, and reminders; you know, ordinary things that make life comforting. I know I sound like a crazy person, but would you dare steal a man’s WD40 from his prison cell?

16^th August 2024.