... life goes on, bra
Not a whole lot to blog about. On my first deployment, I did a lot of what I considered 'interesting' stuff - exploring Bahrain, Iraq, and then Yemen was pretty novel for me. This time around, not so much... life is a lot closer to 'the norm'. That manifests itself in a quiet blog.
I attended my second Qatari wedding. I knew that the guy who invited me was pretty connected (and he is related to the guy who invited me to the other wedding...) but when he sent the 'pin' location of the event, it was in an empty city block. I expected a low key thing - the last one was in a nice wedding hall place. So I arrive, and besides the normal mass of Land Cruisers, there were some rather large, ornate tents - the tents had chandeliers in them... My friend greeted me and took me through the receiving line... lots of Ministers and Chairmen type folks, and the Minister of Defense eventually arrived.
 |
| Not just any old tent... |
 |
| Land Cruisers anyone? |
After the receiving line, I hung out and drank coffee and tea, snacked, and chatted with folks who came off the receiving line. Over the course of 90 minutes, I probably met and chatted with Ambassadors from a dozen nations - all stopped by to pay their respects to the family and socialize. It was also interesting watching cars pull up to the VIP drop off area - lots of Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and even the token Mercedes or two. But after a couple of hours, I had enough schmoozing. I really appreciated the invite, and the fact my friend spent some time chatting with me despite all of the family duties.
 |
| Having fun in the man cave |
Also went for dinner to another friends house the prior weekend. This gentleman is an up and coming member of another ministry and we interact quite a bit, so he invited a couple of us up for dinner. His house included a farm (with about a dozen Arabian horses), camels, bees (for honey)... and the house had a pool, a sauna, a weight room better than any hotel I have been in, a 'woman cave' (for his girlfriend) and a massive 'man cave' full of fun toys - including the shooting game pictured above. The cave was a brief stop - most of the evening was spent by the fire pit under the stars drinking tea and talking. Observation - there were several family members (brothers, uncles, cousins) etc in the house - maybe 20 - all male. Did not see a woman the entire evening. Just a different culture. Qataris are pretty conservative, but also pretty open - women are free to drive, work, serve in the military... and there are numerous women in significant positions in industry and government.
No comments:
Post a Comment