Frustrated, But Amazing - Doha Update

I'm sitting outside on the corniche (the walkway that goes along the water) at 8am and it's 100 degrees and they have wireless internet for the entire "i-park."

This place is a little ridiculous lol

I don't have the energy to write about everything yet, but I'll just throw out a few facts about why I'm both amazing and frustrated.

My bags didn't make it with me to Doha when I arrived two nights ago. In fact, they never even left New York. I officially HATE Continental, because this is on top of the fact that the entire flight from New York to Paris I was stuck in a middle seat even though I was one of the first people to check in (2.5 hours early) and was told that NOTHING could be done about my seat selection.

{Ok to further compound the weirdness of this place a guy is totally cruising me -- he's physically walking over here now...yikes!...we're going to ignore him}

Ok so my bags didn't arrive, and I was told that that I would have to wait 24 hrs *!) for them, because rather than getting them to me any way they could, they would have to send them on the same flight path I was scheudled to be on, but the next day.

{Ignoring worked}

So I was totally screwed because I had NOTHING to wear...I mean not even jeans.

My transit time was nearly 24hrs when all was said and done, and so I wore track pants and a t-shirt with a hooded sweatshirt so that I'd be comfortable for the trip, and everything else (including my toiletries, because of these new liquids regulations) was in my suitcase.

I think it goes without saying that you can't attend a speech by the heir apparent of the state of Qatar wearing track pants.

I got to the hotel at around 9pm night before last, dropped my backpack off in my room, tried to call Shakira to see if she and her sister were here, and then IMMEDIATELY (this is where I'm amazing) walked to the City Centre mall, which is about 1km away (not to far at all).

Because the Lonely Planet map of Doha sucks and neither my hotel nor the City Centre are on it (great map, huh?) I just had to ask people where to go. The people at the hotel were like "you should take a taxi, it's really hot and humid" (really?) but I absolutely refuse to take a taxi 1km. I mean, I don't care if it's 120 degrees or there is a blizzard, 1km is just NEVER *that* bad.

Anyway, I made it to the mall, which was closing at 10pm, without a map and just talking to different people along the way to ask for guidance, but the only shop there that had men's suits was a fake Pierre Cardin store and they told me they had nothing in my size and couldn't have anything tailored by morning.

I was pretty dejected, upset that I'd been traveling non-stop, in a middle seat (except the Paris-Doha leg, which was WONDERFUL on Qatar Airways), and even though I was given total VIP treatment at the airport (no immigration, personal escorts from the gate to the car that was waiting for met, etc.) I still felt pretty beat-up, and was upset that I hadn't gotten in touch with Shakira and was going to miss first (most important) day of the conference.

Shakira showed up to my room around midnight, and basically told me that she thought I should go to the ceremonies and working groups anyway because anyone who shows up dressed like I am clearly had his bags lost. We agreed that maybe I woul go back to the mall in the AM before the opening ceremonies began and try to at least by some pants and a sweater or something that would be less inappropriate but not the hassle of a suit.

Well I am DAMN impressed with myself lol, because I was up and at the mall before it opened at 8:30 -- again walking the distance in the 100 degree heat (I can't believe how early it is hot here!) -- and by 10am I had found a dress shirt, tie, slacks, belt AND shoes and was on my way back to the hotel for a quick change and registration for my working group before the opening ceremony at 11am. Oh, and the entire outfit cost me about $50 :)

I get to the hotel, rush up to my room, and then total disaster: the pants are not at all the size printed (WAY too tight) and the shirt, when I got it out of the packaging and unwrapped it, was SHORT-SLEEVED!

I almost freaked-out, except the odd thing about me is that even though I'm high-strung about day to day things, I feel like in REAL crisis situations I'm super collected and can't be fazed.

I went back downstairs, this time asked where to get a taxi since I literally had an hour to exchange the purchases, find a new shirt and pants, get to back to the hotel, change, AND register before 11am. They told me (I HATE this about hotels!) that I couldn't get a regular taxi and would have to take one of their Mercedes (for ONE kilometer!?), and I said no (although I now realize that I think the conference will basically take me anywhere I want with their own even newer fleet of Mercedes) and so I physically ran back to the mall.

My third trip in 12 hours, the heat, running with my bag, etc. I was exhausted but determined not to be defeated, and made the exchange, got a new shirt and pair of pants, and was back in my room by 10:40.

The pants, untailored, were way too long, but I took the pins that were holding the folded shirt together and made a makeshift hem and was good to go.

I was really proud of myself, and I have to say the outfit didn't even look THAT bad.

When I got to the conference hall, which I have to say was gorgeous, Shakira somehow saw me through the back of her head and we sat together with out earphones on for the translation writing notes to each other.

The opening ceremonies were really nice (I mean you cannot compare the finish on this conference to anything they'd have in Egypt...even though this came together at the last minute, it really came together with polish, and from the recessed lighting, to the placards on the tables that were just gorgeous, to the huge two-story silk-screened banners it was a REALLY nice ceremony).

I was feeling really good at this point, and the plenary session was interesting, and I got to meet a lot of Shakira's really interesting friends during lunch and the breaks before the working groups. Actually, a lot of the people she collaborated with on this (basically the people who helped them help the Qataris actually make this happen) are from an NGO called No Peace Without Justice (www.npwj.org) out of Bruxelles, and I am absolutely in love with them. They are DELIGHTFUL. It's like almost surreal how they are all intelligent, really fun, straightforward, great people. It's almost bizarre. Anyway, the director of the organization has invited me to go to Kurdistan with them in July, and he knows a lot of people at the ICTJ, so that could be really awesome!

The working group on transitional justice was a total mess, though, because the intended chair, Sima Simar (the woman who leads AIHRC, where I worked in Kabul) was UNINVITED (!) the day before the conference (she's controversial, I mean quite controversial, as an female activist, but I don't really know what happened on the Qatari end) and we ended up (as was the case with several of the nine working groups) not having a translator.

This was frustrating, because as foreigno observers we were asked to prepare 5 page papers, and then at lunch (when I saw the protocol designed by NPWJ for our group) I found out that we were supposed to only make 3 minute "interventions" to assess the status of transitional justice in the MENA region (during the third meeting of the working groups this afternoon we move to prescriptive recommendations), and so after lunch, even though I was exhausted from waking up so early and all the emotional stress of the morning, I went back to my room and prepared comments on the status or TJ in Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Then to get there and not have translation, not present, and not know what the other members of the working group were saying for 2 hours was REALLY frustrating (although I did understand maybe 5% of what was said, which was more than I thought I could get out of my Arabic!). I've gotten a friend from Cairo to agree to do simultaneous translation for us today, so it should be better this afternoon.

Things went really well during the day, all things considered, and by dinner I was totally exhausted, but happy that my bags would be arriving at around 8pm.

I can't even get into all the phone calls and searches and everything that happened between 8pm and 11:30pm, but let's just say that I left no stone un-turned in tracking that suitcase, working with Qatar airways, airport security, the Sheraton, and the conference organizers. Finally, at nearly midnight and after I refused to leave the lobby while more people made more phone calls and promised to get back to me, they finally gave me a driver to go back to the airport and take care of things myself. I had been told that my bag had arrived, but that it hadn't registered in the system. What I *HATE* about so much of what has happened so far is that people just ASSUME that the bag is on the flight it's supposed to be on, so when they say "your bag has arrived" what they mean is "the bags of the flight it was scheduled to be on have arrived" and it's like people are not conceptually understanding the difference between the flight and the bag (I mean it didn't make it on the ORIGINAL flight, so I don't know why people assume it will many any other flight).

When I got to the airport I was unfortunately told that my bag did not make the flight from Paris (clearly my bag sucks at making flights) and would have to be on the NEXT flight from Paris, arriving at 6am today.

I dutifully woke up at 5:50, called the airport at 6 as I was supposed to, and was told that my bag AGAIN did not make the flight, and would arrive on the 6am plane TOMORROW (the last day of the conference).

I'm almost stunned. I mean, this just sucks and there's nothing else that can be said about it. I went to a really nice breakfast until 8 and then came here to the corniche to use the wireless internet that the driver last night had told me about last night when he took me to the airport (since I am NOT paying $30/day for the internet in the hotel, although we do get to use the business center computers for free) to update you about what's been going on.

The mall opens again at 9am, which is in 20 minutes, so I'm going to go back and get ANOTHER new shirt and ANOTHER new tie.

Luckily, the shirt and ties that I bought the day I left New York still have the tags on them, so I'll return them when I get back and will actually end up saving money because clothes here are so much cheaper (or I should say: the clothes that are available here are so much cheaper).

I'm just upset, though, to not have casual clothes more than anything, because I can't go out at night and do anything. I can't go swimming in the hotel pool, or walk around the lagoon...I can't go for drinks with Shakira and everyone else or do anything.

The people at the hotel (the conference people, that is) are theoretically tracking my bags and advocating for them to get on the flight from Paris tonight rather than tomorrow. If they come tonight then I'll be thrilled. If they come tomorrow then I'll be pissed.

Well that's it for now. I'm going to go back to the hotel, drop my computer off, check on my luggage, and then head back to the mall.

Remind me to write later about:

* the hotel
* the Qataris working the conference
* my new Moroccan husband
* substance of the speeches and working sessions thus far


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