Fun Weekend Times!

We had a busy weekend! And it was great!

Friday we went to the wholesale markets (just to the fruit & vegetable one) with a new friend from Houston (and she is Doha newbie too having arrived on Aug 12). She doesn’t have a car yet, so we showed her the Corniche, West Bay and the Pearl as well. (Casey isn't a fan of shopping in the 40+ degree heat!)

(West Bay from the Corniche)

(In the Pearl-Qatar - the man-made, Riveria style Islands see more HERE)

We picked up some wonderful fresh fruit at the marketin to take with us to the “Wii Challenge” that night at the home our friends F&R. They made a brilliant dinner and we played Wii for hours! It was so much fun – unfortunately though I am as bad at virtual sports as I am real ones! (with the exception of Wii bowling oddly enough…).

Saturday, we met our new friend at her compound and we had a “pool day”. Lounging around (in the shade with two applications of sunscreen and my hat!) and playing in the pool and chatting.

Later, we met another Canadian and got our tickets to the Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner & Dance in October. She was so friendly and we chatted for two hours before we left!

The community of people we have met here has been incredible. The kindness and hospitality of people who are essentially strangers is amazing. We are doing things here that we would never do at home – emailing and meeting up with people we have never met and know nothing about. Attending events and stepping way outside our comfort zone to talk to different people and get to know them.

It makes me think…hence the picture below…why don’t we do this at home? Is it because we are comfortable in our friend groups and in our life? Doha is about the same size of Calgary, and I am sure that there are as many newcomers to Calgary each month as there are here.

But when was the last time I made yourself available to a new person? When was the last time I reached out a newcomer and offered to drive them around the city or show them the best grocery store or anything? Has this unique (expat?) culture developed because there are so many people who are just not from here?

I guess newcomers to Calgary find their own “cultural” groups in the city and reach out to them… there are big communities of every nationality I guess. But especially in Canada, are any of us really “locals”? Do we need to force our newcomers to stay marginalized to their own cultural groupings?

I don’t know. But I do know that we owe lots of good karma back to the world. So the next time I come across a new person back home, I will remember the kindness we experienced here. Hopefully next year, we can even offer some help to a newbie here!