Author: Christine Cogger

Things have gotten slightly batty here lately, hence the lack of posts.  I tend to end most days in a mild state of disbelief, fatigue and usually with a major case of the giggles.  It’s all good!  What follows will no doubt make little sense and be completely disjointed, but it’s all par for the course here at the 2011 Arab Games.

It’s a bit hard for me to put into words what the experience here has been like.  I suppose it could be summed up by saying this: if you can’t be flexible here, you might as well pack your bags and get out.  Every day we get thrown curve balls but it hasn’t phased me all that much.  I am enjoying the challenge of trying to keep ahead of the changes and thankfully my sense of humour remains intact.  If anything, I find things are getting funnier and more ridiculous by the day.  As much as I am really looking forward to rejoining my family and life at home (9 days – woo!) I am having a good time.  It helps that I am surrounded by incredible people and I am thankful for that every day.  I can’t say enough good things about our crew here.  Despite the frustrations, chaos and weird organization, I have made some lifelong friends and colleagues, rekindled old relationships and have laughed harder here than I had thought possible.  It’s an honour and privilege to work with such an experienced and talented bunch and hope to have the opportunity to do so again some day.

There are so many things and stories that have happened here that are not “fit to print”.  You’ll just have to wait till I can sit down over a glass of wine so I can fill you in!  Believe me when I say it would all be worth it.

The Games officially kicked off a few nights ago with an opening ceremony that, unsurprisingly, started about 45 minutes late.  It was entertaining nonetheless and I’m happy to have attended. Falcons, horses, LED lights oh my!  Produced by David Atkins, the ceremony held quite a few touches reminiscent of Vancouver 2010.  Except for, you know, the camels.  And machine guns as part of the “traditional dance”.

The events themselves are running fairly smoothly despite low attendance (and by low attendance I mean 8 people at the tennis final.  I believe the spectators were all related to the players). Organizers have now made all the events free access which will hopefully encourage some people to visit us!  It’s a little weird doing a ceremony and all this production for an empty stadium.  Despite this, our team is still delivering such quality work that it still makes it fun to do.  I kind of think of it as practice for next time!

I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast this experience in Doha to my international experience in Vancouver.  A few examples… First, Podiums.  In Vancouver, these were hand made from wood imported from across the country, a top secret design unveiled during press conference.  Stored under lock and key in venues.  In Doha, they are spray painted plywood, branded 2 hours prior to ceremony.  Stored under some stairs!

And how about Medals?  In Vancouver, they were made at the Canadian Mint in Ottawa, engraved per event, hand packed and counted by management, delivered by armored vehicle, handled with white cotton gloves…  In Doha, although they were made at the Qatari Mint, they were delivered in the back of an unlocked pickup truck!

Let’s chat about schedules…  in Vancouver, competition management sets the timetable months in advance.  Precise to the minute.  Changes require major involvement from all departments.  Doha sport management enjoys changes at a moments notice!   2 days of official competition squished into 1 morning on 12 hours notice!

Finally, Medal Presenters.  In Vancouver, we received a book weeks in advance listing all possible presenters, including their titles, contact info, photo.  They were selected well in advance of ceremonies, we had plenty of time to meet and brief, they were honoured to be part of the event.  Doha?: No lists, names scribbled on napkins seconds before ceremonies, Arabic names being mangled by me into a headset to my producer.  But somehow we pull it off!  Oh – and they get super special parking.  The list can go on and on…  but I’ll save it.  These aren’t criticisms or complaints, just mere observations at how different it is here!

Oh wait – one more.  Beer.  Vancouver: Plentiful.  (though I was pregnant).  Doha: Expensive and a bit awful.

A few random stories about the past few days…

Tickets?

I went to buy tickets for the Opening Ceremonies at the kiosk in the mall.  Met a character named Hamid who told me they could no longer sell tickets.  I asked why – were they sold out?  Nope.  They just were told not to sell any more.  BUT!  Hamid took my number, said he was working the door, he’d call me and get me in.  And low and behold, he did just that, calling the day of the opening, delivering tickets to my hotel and calling later to make sure I got in!

A smile gets you anywhere

At the Opening our “VIP” tickets had us sitting behind the stage – so poor visibility for the show.  We got up, walked clear across the stadium and somehow talked our way into the media section.  I hadn’t brought my accreditation (rookie!) but I smiled, Dave kindly introduced me as his boss when we were stopped by security – and voila!  Access granted.

Flashmob

The worst kept secret in Doha, our Flashmob almost didn’t happen!  We were meant to do it on the 8^th but technical difficulties meant we couldn’t do it (no one tested the giant speaker that was wheeled into the mall in a shopping cart).  Nonetheless we ended up doing it in the bar that night and got it done – with great success I might add! – the following night.  I didn’t dance but had a great time filming it and then bolting from the scene.

check it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phb8UX-iV3Y&context=C24e26ADOEgsToPDskLh34YMNUSmwIYlmO6ZW6Hn

Bodybuilding

By far the weirdest experience so far has to have been working at the bodybuilding venue.  Although it’s not my venue per se I’ve been helping out there when I can.  The Federation there pretty much does whatever the hell they want and we just kind of adapt and go with the flow.  Those people are some freaky looking dudes…  the fact that they were greasing each other up, smoking and eating baby food in the back of house did nothing to improve my opinion of the “sport”.  It was eye-opening to say the least…

I can come up with about a zillion more little episodes like this but should get back to it… and I don’t like how disjointedly crazy this is all making me sound anyhow!  I think it’s going to take me a little bit of time to take a bit of a step back and get a better perspective on what this has all really been like.

9 days!

When I arrived in Doha, I had a pretty firm (uneducated) notion in my head of how I should behave, speak, act, etc – particularly around men.  I was told that things are done very differently here, relationships are not what they are in Canada.

From day 1, I did what I thought was expected of me.  My first 10 days of work here I was quieter, meeker and much more deferential around my Arab counter-parts than I would normally be around colleagues.  And guess what?  I was getting nothing done.  People were ignoring my requests, talking around or over me, addressing my male colleague when I had asked the question.

So I gave up.

I went back to being my normal self, treating everyone as equals and throwing high-fives all over.  You guessed it: my old self is killing it.  Everyone is helping me whenever they can, I’m catching rides home from venues with Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mohammed calls and checks in nightly and Mr. Vikram bends over backwards to fix my podiums on the spot.

See?  Canadian friendliness is UNIVERSAL!  HIGH FIVE!

On another note, we successfully completed rehearsal number 1.  Really looking forward to the real thing!

I walk to one of my venues as it’s faster to walk than drive.  I have seen a grand total of 1 other pedestrian and 1 cyclist with a death wish on my last 4 walks there.  I shot this little video which should illustrate why jay walking here is dumb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlvWoPbqusk

Look both ways, kids!

When I first got here and was about 8 days into this contract, I was whining to my colleagues that I was missing home because work wasn’t keeping me busy enough.  Well.

Didn’t that little comment come back and kick me in the ass!  Of course I still miss my family and home, but now I am generally doing so whilst trying to decide which of the 3 places I have to be in at once will actually get my physical presence!  It doesn’t help that it takes about 45 minutes to get from point A to point B, regardless of where those points may be on a map!

I am not complaining about being busy – in fact, I quite prefer it – but the frantic pace and disorganization that seems to trickle down from the organizing committee is both comical and frustrating.  Luckily, our team of contractors is an amazing group of international talent who don’t seem to get phased by much and is generally able to roll our collective eyes at the ridiculous requests and changes that crop up hourly.  The fact that we can procure wildly overpriced beer in our hotel bar at the end of the day helps, too.

For the last 3 days we’ve been assembling and training our teams of medal bearers and escorts.  When these people first arrived on day 1, I had very little faith that we’d be able to pull this together.  Cast members (as we call them) were recruited by a temp agency and sent to us with no screening.  99% of them had no idea what they had signed up for.  Let’s just say that the woman running the show on their end has a management style that differs wildly in my own and we ended up losing several cast members in the first hour.  To be perfectly honest, if someone treated me the way she treated them, I’d be the first one out the door.  Anyhow…

Miraculously, by the end of the first night, we’d managed to not only build 11 separate teams but they were all able to execute some pretty decent ceremony run-throughs.  I was  astounded and pleasantly surprised.  Even more so when they all showed up for day 2!  I suppose the real test will be to see how many show up for in-venue rehearsals in a few days.  I am finding that bribing them with chocolate and promising mobile phone breaks seems to work wonders as these kids simply cannot function unless they are texting at the same time as they are doing something else.  If you are looking for your next business venture, I think thumb physiotherapists could make a mint here.

I’ll be interested to see whether our military partners come through as our flag bearers.  Lucky me, my flag supervisor at my venues doesn’t speak a word of English.  When I asked him – via translator – if he enjoyed being part of this and doing ceremonial flag stuff, he deadpanned: “No.”  Ok then!  Look forward to working with you, sunshine!

A few random thoughts… Since our “hotel home” is so western and I am surrounded by 98375 other nationalities, I sometimes forget I am in the Middle East.  That is, until we were told that the Sheikh (don’t ask me which one, this country has a few) was introduced during a venue tour to a woman in a v-neck t-shirt.  She was given 24 hours to vacate her job.  So!  I never leave home without a scarf.  Just one of those little cultural differences I sometimes forget…  On the flip side, I was standing curbside waiting for my shuttle when one of the Qatari venue managers spotted me.  He wandered over and asked what I was doing.  I replied that I was waiting for my bus.  His response: “No.  I do not like you waiting.  Get in my car, I will drive you”.  And so, one quick Cadillac Escalade ride later, I was deposited on my doorstep by Mr. Abudullah Abdullah.

The next few days will be interesting and yes, busy.  Rehearsals, deliveries, training, start of competition…  provided we can get a start list… The competition manager is still waiting for confirmation as to which countries and players are coming.  The tournament starts in 4 days.  Fun times and long days ahead!

Or so they say!

The past few days have been an exercise in flexibility, patience and humour.  If your schedule says black, then you can be pretty certain that in twelve hours it’s going to get changed to white.  Or grey.  Or hey, wait!  Green could be pretty cool!  No wait, black.  Black’s good.  Let’s go with black.

It’s nothing if not entertaining and at the end of each day we usually have a pretty good laugh over how everything is coming together.  We are in the final lead up phase prior to the opening of the Games, which is on December 9th.  Our typical days are made up of spreadsheets, scheduling, venue visits and meetings, workshops… Soon we’ll be moving into rehearsals and then finally, competition!  We are hoping to go to the Opening Ceremonies which would be pretty great.  To give you some perspective, tickets to the opening ceremonies at the Vancouver Winter Games cost around $1100 for the “fancy seats”.  Here, we can buy tickets in the VIP section for 150 QR (about $50).  So let’s hope it doesn’t rain!

I’m getting more accustomed to the pace of life here – I’m even able to tell when a cab driver is jerking me around!  I can usually negotiate a few dollars off of the rate which I am pretty proud of.  I even negotiated some prices at the Souk the other night!  I’m practically a local!  (A still very pasty white local who only speaks 7 words of Arabic, but still…)

My camera died a few days ago so I missed a few days of pictures but thanks to the good folks at the Carrefour grocery (where they sell just about everything) and $65 later, I am back in business.  Insha’allah I’ll have more exciting stuff to write about soon!

It’s been pointed out to me that many of you (you know, at least 3 of my 4 readers) don’t know why I am here.  No, I am not competing.  I got the opportunity to come here to work at the 2011 Arab Games.  It was a 6 week contract that I just couldn’t pass up!  Many of the same team from VANOC are working here so it has been really great to re-connect with those people.  It’s quite an international crew as our “division” of the Games – which is Sport Presentation and Victory Ceremonies — has been sub-contracted out by a French company which hired the team I am in.  Confused yet?

So I’m in the desert planning medal ceremonies for all  things Aquatic and Tennis.  My venues are absolutely amazing and it all seems to be coming together.  The pace of work here is quite different from what I am used to, but we’re adjusting.

The tag line of the Games is “Doha: where it all comes together”.  I might add “insha’allah”…

I finally ran outside this morning!  (Mum – I felt perfectly safe and no one ran me over, so don’t worry).  I felt how I imagined an animal feels when it escapes the (very comfortable, nicely air conditioned) zoo.

I certainly didn’t set any records as I think  I stopped every 8 feet to take pictures.  That being said, I enjoyed every minute of it.  I was grinning like an idiot, looking around and enjoying the wind and sun.  The Corniche is a wide boardwalk which runs along the waterfront for several miles.  It kind of reminds me of the seawall only there are no trees, it doesn’t smell like the ocean, cars are constantly honking and fighter jets are flying overhead.

Sidebar: Those fighter jets scared the crap out of me.  You hear them long before and after you see and they fly in pairs.  No one around me was phased at all.  I, on the other hand, nearly hit the deck when they flew overhead.  I have since learned that there is a major American military airbase nearby and the planes are simply training.  No biggie.

A final thought about my run.  I went out dressed as I normally would when running in the summer at home: shorts and a t-shirt (I have been assured that this is ok), and found myself running towards a woman walking in her abaya and bushiyyah, her face and eyes invisible to me.  I couldn’t help but wonder what she thought as she watched me.  Did she think I was vulgar?  Did she think I was a silly American, showing off?  Or did she envy me and what I perceive as my freedom.  I guess I’ll never know.

I’m happy to be able to say that I am adjusting to the day to day life here in Doha.  My days are an interesting balance of living a very comfortable western lifestyle in our hotel while actively trying to seek out more traditional aspects of middle eastern life.  Finding those aspects hasn’t been particularly easy.

We are living in the downtown core of Doha – “the Manhattan of Qatar” according to our driver (a Manhattan in which walking is verboten).  Our hotel is happy to feed us at a steak house, an Italian restaurant, an american sports bar or a Brazilian steak house.  The grocery store in the mall is French.  You have to hunt high and low to find hummous or vegetables in any quantity on any menu.  I’d guess that 99% of the food is imported (and as such is highly processed and/or scealed and/or coated in something shiny).  Apparently there is a natural food store somewhere close by (which means 10-20 minutes in a car) so I will report back once I get there.

Despite being within arms reach of some of the world’s biggest oil refineries, I have seen exactly 1 gas station.  Gas costs about 8 Riyal a litre, which works out to a little less that $0.03 per litre.  Petrol is cheaper than water…

Driving is definitely an adventure; one I shall not be undertaking.  Just being a passenger takes some getting used to!  There are very few traffic lights, but many roundabouts.  4 lane, super fast, extremely scary roundabouts!  If buddy on the inside wants out, well, he’s going.  If he clips you, oh well.  Move along.  Mum – you would DIE.  Speed limits and lane lines are merely suggestions.  Texting while driving?  Of course!

Foreign visitors are expected to dress in a style that is sensitive to the Islamic culture.   We are expected to represent our employer by respecting this and as such, we are dressing quite conservatively.  In some situations we are more covered but when we are at our hotel, it’s just like being at home.  For example, at Venue meetings I am generally expected to cover my shoulders, upper arms and knees. No mini skirts and tank tops!  I am not permitted to initiate a handshake as a greeting but can shake hands with men if they extend theirs.  Surprisingly, it has been much easier to adjust to this than expected.

Work is starting to pick up steam which is great.  Too much downtime means too many chances for home sickness!  We had a fantastic party last night with all our colleagues so everyone is moving a teensy bit slower than usual today.  For those curious, yes we can have alcohol but accessing anywhere but the hotel (where it costs a small fortune) is tricky.  Conversely, shisha is almost everywhere.  I tried some last night.  Not my cup of tea but hey, it was worth a try.

For my triathlete friends, unfortunately there is no triathlon at these Games.  Training has been interesting – I have yet to run outdoors and have seen exactly 1 bicycle outside.  Our hotel gym is terrific and very under-utilized (I am generally the only one in there).  Our pool is a beautiful 35m outdoor pool, also under-utilized.  35m makes for interesting pool math so I just pretend it’s 25m and know that I am just getting in bonus mileage!  I will attempt to run down to the waterfront tonight which will involve jumping over medians, playing frogger in traffic and sweating.  I can’t wait.

My next mission it to go and take photos of all the weird food imports – like the Thanksgiving display in the Mall.  Stay tuned!

Today was a day that I never could have imagined experiencing.  If you had asked me a month ago if I thought I’d ever sit on a camel, drive through sand dunes or see Saudi Arabia while floating in the Persian Gulf, the obvious answer would have been no.  But on Saturday, I did do all of those things and it was an incredible day I will never forget!  I am so thankful that we are able to experience some of these adventures while preparing for the Games.

Speaking of which, we are inching towards the opening ceremonies and while the process is not without its challenges, it feels like everything will go smoothly (for now!) We are all trying to feel our way around the cultural differences and expectations and trying to establish a common ground.  The venue teams are all quite international so that definitely adds a few more layers of interest.

The next few days will be spent training our team and immersing ourselves into our Venue teams (some of which are very cohesive units and some of which… don’t exist yet).  It will make for an interesting few days!  As we are learning, Insha’Allah goes a long way here… God willing, it will happen…