GIRL SCOUTS OF DOHA

Girl Scouts at the Al Thani Farm - my scouts in red shirts

Had a great time this past weekend on the Girl Scout Campout. All 14 girls in my troop came - but since we also had a total of 5 adults helping with the troop we did just fine. The girls earned the Camp Together and Cook Outdoors badges. With that cooking badge we did lots of eating - I actually gained weight! Girls also went on a scavenger hunt, made an edible campfire, and learned how to start and put out a campfire from one of our Mom's (who is a certified firefighter). Weather was perfect - last year it was so windy that several of the tents had to be chased and tracked down! Peacocks roam wild on the farm - and aside from their lovely concert at 12:45 am Saturday morning they were a delight to see. My family is going camping again this coming weekend - Andy is guiding a group from the Embassy. Hope the weather stays nice for us.

Andy got a call yesterday from the police that he needed to come to the station to sign a statement regarding the accident. I went with him - out of pure curiousity. Unbelieveable! We get there at 7 pm. They ask us to wait 5 minutes - OK we sit in the waiting room. Every 5 minutes or so they tell us will be just a few more minutes. Then, after 20 minutes they move us into an office. After 5 minutes I peek out the door and see why - they are waiting on a Qatari woman who came in after us - can't take us before her but don't want us to see what is going on. Police guy #1 sees me peeking out the door (no doubt with a disapproving look on my face) - comes running over and says just a few more minutes. (Both of the police we dealt with did ask if our son was OK - I will give them that.) Statement from the Qatari that hit Andy is on the desk. 3 full pages of handwritten Arabic (Why so much? did guy give his life story? list all the important people he knows?) Finally police guy #2 comes in with a pad of paper and makes like he is going to take Andy's statement (I guess?). Anyway police guy #2 takes Andy's ID and basically freaks out - you are from the Embassy! Andy says yes - guy #2 runs out of the room and gets guy #1. Guy #1 then tells us that another police officer said Andy left scene of accident before police arrived - Andy (forcefully) tells guy #1 that he did not leave the accident until guy #1 got there - guy #1 says Yes, but - then tells us that they can't take a statement from Andy because he is from the Embassy (which they knew before). Guy #1 makes mistake of telling Andy accident was his mistake - Andy tells him it was not. Little exchange here where guy #1 insists (while smiling - I swear he was trying not to laugh) that accident was Andy's fault. Andy gets up and we leave. We were there for 40 minutes - for what?

So what did they really want? Were they going to ticket (shake down) Andy for leaving the scene before the police got there? Did they want Andy to sign a statement of apology for the Qatari that hit him? (sometime the Qataris insist on this) There are, on average, 70 traffic accidents a day in this country - don't these people have something better to do?