Yvonne Ridley

Last week we hosted a speaker at CMU-Q named Yvonne Ridley. This woman used to be a British journalist, she was captured by the Taleban in Afghanistan in late September, 2001. She negotiated her own release 10 days later, and agreed to read the Koran when she returned to Britian. She then converted to Islam and became quite an outspoken advocate of her new religion, especially the role of women. Her basic point was that Muslims need to stand up for themselves and educate the world about the real religion of Islam, not the extreme version that is practiced by fundamentalists, terrorists, etc. What exactly she said was interesting, but more interesting was the reactions that students and faculty had to her.

The faculty and staff, most of whom are from the West, had reactions ranging from "She's an extremist nutcase" to "She made some interesting points, but at times I thought she went a little too far." (That second one was mine)

The student reactions, however, ranged from "I didn't agree with everything, but she was thought-provoking" to "She truly inspired me."

The disappointing thing was that the faculty and staff were surprised when they heard that the students responded well to Ms. Ridley. They assumed that everyone would have responded the way they did. There just seems to be a cultural disconnect there, and Java programming and calculus might be the same around the world, but if the dialogue about culture doesn't exist, I just wonder how the faculty is truly going to reach the students. Maybe that's a very anthropological viewpoint of mine, but I hope that the staff and faculty here understand that they have a lot they can learn from these students as well as a lot to teach them.

Exciting Opportunities!

This week has been busy already, and its only halfway done!

First, I signed up for Arabic classes. One is for reading and writing, and one is for conversation. They meet 4 mornings a week (2 mornings/class) before work and they're free! This is one of my highest priority goals for my time in Qatar so I'm glad that I'm starting right away. There are also classes available at the Qatar Council for the Promotion of Islam, so if I want to practice more, I can do so for a relatively cheap price.

Second, I was talking to Fadhel, our Government Relations Officer at CMU-Q, and I mentioned that my grandparents lived in Saudi Arabia a long time ago. I said something like "Its too bad I'm a single woman and I can't go into Saudi." He suggested that I have my father or brother take me, if they ever visit. Now I don't mind going to Saudi with my dad, but I'm not entering any country where they tell Drew that he has legal authority over me! And I told Fadhel that I didn't know exactly when my dad was coming. So he thinks that if a big group of men and women go, and most of the women are married to the men, and we have a guard with us at all times, they might let me go. He's going to talk to the Saudi government and see what he can do. Not many single American women would be excited about going into Saudi Arabia, and I wouldn't say I'm excited so much as intrigued. But I would totally take the opportunity to see what its like there, and it might actually happen!

Paloma memories...

The Paloma nostalgia of the weekend: On Thursday night, or as my new blogger friend Ryann says, T.A.I.T. (Thank Allah its Thursday), a whole group of CMU-Q staff went to a restaurant/bar at the Intercontinental Hotel. The place was simply called La Paloma Bar, so that didn't take a lot to make me think of my husband. (For those of you who don't know, Paloma and I got "married" during Las Vegas night at CMU sophomore year). Then, on Friday evening I turned on the TV and its Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit!!! Oh it made me want to dance! Also, they can't have Christian websites in this country, but they can have Whoopi Goldberg in a nun costume singing about God... curious...

I also went to a club at the Marriott on Friday night with Silvia, Erik, and Carla. In two nights I have come to the following conclusion: club music is exactly like the radio - techno, Arabic, hip hop, pop, oldies and both nights I heard Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." Yeah. Halfway through the night at the Marriott I remembered the State Department Travel warning that said "Americans should avoid hotels, bars, and other places frequented by Westerners." For a second I was concerned, then I looked around. FYI, State Department, the bars were overflowing with very non-Westerners. The majority both nights were actually from Lebanon... the Lebanese know how to party.

And here's where the weekend gets surreal... we saw some of our students at La Paloma. Our chain-smoking, beer-drinking, public-affection-displaying students who informed us that they do this every Thursday. I'm still recovering from the shock. Its just something about the name Paloma that makes people want to party :-)

Its the little things...

When you move to a country with a completely different culture from the one you're used to, initially there is a shock, where the differences seem overwhelming. Then you start to notice some things about your new culture that, even when they're annoying, kind of make you smile because they're just so, well, foreign...

Muslim countries with freedom of speech and religion are particularly interesting. On Friday morning, I left my Christian church service, which took place in an unmarked villa, to hear Arabic prayer being broadcast over the loudspeaker of the large mosque next door. Talk about something that's not likely to occur in the States!

Then a few nights ago I was driving home, listening to the ONLY English radio station. On this station, you can never be sure if you are going to get Frank Sinatra, British techno-pop, bad country western, or Pantera. Imagine my excitement when I heard that the next song was going to be Bohemian Rhapsody, one of my favorites! Imagine my disappointment when it was interrupted during the first verse by the sunset call to prayer.

I'm an easy-going person, and I had studied enough about the culture here that I was prepared for the big things, but every once in awhile (like when Queen gets ruined), you just have to laugh and remind yourself that its the little things that make a culture worth learning.

Starting work at CMU-Q

After what felt like an extremely long weekend of just hanging out in Doha, I finally started work on Tuesday. Last week was spent getting acquainted with the Student Affairs department and trying to figure out exactly what my job will be (more on that in a moment.) My boss Gloria, the head Student Affairs, is inspiring. She has such diverse experiences and is extremely committed to this project. And she seems genuinely happy that I am here, so that's always a good thing.

I've started meeting some of the students. The Orientation Counselors were on campus for training on Thursday and I got to meet most of them. Orientation starts tomorrow and you know me - Orientation is my favorite time of the year! I am very impressed with the Students so far. They want their projects to succeed and are really taking ownership of them. The culture here is vastly different (obviously), but those differences are compounded by the small number of students and the fact that most of them live at home with their families in Doha. I'm going to have to hold my opinion on cultural differences until I've really interacted with a lot of the students. While I don't know exactly how they'll play out, I certainly know that I'm going to have to re-learn many things about being a student.

As for the job itself, it is really difficult to be in a job that no one has had before. It is generally agreed that more people were needed in Student Affairs, but the title of "Community Advisor" just doesn't really translate from the Pittsburgh campus to the Qatar one. I will be organizing programming and advising student organizations, helping with larger Student Affairs projects, and doing other "community building" activities. Its that last part that I'm going to have to work out for myself. Step 1, I think, will be trying to figure out what the students need in their non-academic lives, and then I can figure out how CMU can provide that. That's the best I can do for now, but I do like a challenge.

I miss my family and friends, but I'm making really good new friends here as well, and Doha is actually a great city to go out in. The restaurants are wonderful, the shopping is amazing, and most of all, the people are nice. I will be calling home tomorrow to wish Drew a happy 21st birthday. I'm sure he doesn't think I'm going to let that one get by :-)

Well I have to be up early tomorrow for work. It is definitely still strange to work Sunday-Thursday (as if I weren't already confused about what day it is due to only working half a week...) Good night! Oh, and pictures are coming soon, I promise!