We are on Day 3 now of the new school - happy to report that it is going well! Have a few kinks to work out. Main kink is the bus (have posted a photo of Grant and Erin getting on). No problems with morning pickup, but due to the crazy route the kids have an hour bus ride in the afternoon. Our compound is only 1 1/2 blocks away from the school! (You are probably asking - why don't they walk home? Good question. Answer: it is too hot and, even if it wasn't, Doha is not pedestrian friendly. Sidewalks and crosswalks simply aren't there.) We "Compound Mom's" figure we will give the school a week to figure this out before we make a lot of noise.Have also issued a photo of Andy's company issued transportation - a Toyota Landcruiser. It is the car of choice in Doha. Great air conditioning, and a built in refrigerator (big enough to hold a 6 pack of soda). Problem is most of the Landcruiser's here look exactly like this one (don't know if people just like that detailing, or it is all that is available?). Can make it hard to ID your car.
We feel like real tenants of the Compound now that we have had water leaks in the house (common problem and topic of conversation on the compound). Had water (slowly) leaking into the first floor family room. We turned off the AC in the bedroom above and that stopped the leak. Will give it a day to dry out, then try that AC again (this is what compound maintenance suggests). Big flood last night when Erin let the water out of a bathtub. The water started coming up through a drain on that bathroom floor - ran out of the bathroom, across the bedroom, down the stairs and into the foyer and living room. Called maintenance at 9 PM and had 12 men here within 15 minutes (how many people does it take to fix a drain?). Anyway, they fished around in the drain and came up with a chunk of concrete - must be leftover from construction and shifted to block the drain. I used that bathtub this AM and it is draining just fine now.
Finally got paperwork done and we received our personal vehicle yesterday (not a Landcruiser). Yipee! I even have a Qatari drivers license now (photo looks just as bad as the US one).
All for now,
CB
3 comments:
Is that really Grant to the right of the picture?! He was still shorter than me the last i saw him - which I doubt is the case now! How time flies.. :-)
I think it's common to have transportation issues everywhere. The stupid bus driver here tends to forget to stop... Takes a hour to get home even though the school is 5 minutes away. That is why most of us drive our kids to school here. Besides all th bus drivers have this crazed look in their eyes... I think it just might be from dealing with the kids day in and out...
Everything there is WHITE! Houses are white, buses are white, cars are white.... hope you went with some loud splashy color for your personal car!
Post a Comment