A Bliss to the Family

me and Jacjac when she was only
 few months old

Oh, let me first greet here my one and only niece, Jacqueline Rae (JacJac as we commonly call her) on her 4^th birthday, today – January 17. She is really an angel and more than enough-blessings to us especially to Ate Jean (my eldest sister is her mother) and Kuya Ritchel (her father).  May u always wear the cutest smile as we always witnessed during your 2 years stay with us in San Ramon. Your tito really missed you and I am looking forward to see you on 2013. We, your Tita Mean, Tito Mike, and I, your cousins and your Lolas love you very very much. Have a happy birthday and always be a good girl to your parents. Again, have a wonderful celeb in uncle Sam's place! ♥♥♥

Why not try Qatar?

To be exact, I have been working in the State of Qatar for 9 months and 15 days already. I worked here as an occupational health nurse in a certain construction company. This was my first time to work outside the Philippines. My first few weeks here were kind of awkward, I was very cautious, and I rarely went to the city proper to roam around and make friends to some fellow Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).  My mindset for Arab countries such as Qatar was extremely strict in terms of their culture and religious laws. However, this proves me wrong during my early few months stay in this country. Qatar is not like any other Arab countries in the Gulf. This is an open Muslim country just like some other republican or democratic countries we known.

Just an overview, the State of Qatar is ruled by the Al Thani family since mid 1800’s. It has a population of 848, 016 (July 2011, estimate) excluding the expatriates. Mostly, expatriates here are Indians, followed by Pakistans, Syrian and Iranians, then Nepalese and Filipinos.  When Amir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1995 and resolved its border issues with the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in 2001, the progress of the country tremendously grew up due to gas and natural oil revenues. In 2007, the country was among with the highest per capita income in the world. It is interestingly to note that, Qatar was never affected by the uprising political turmoil happened in its fellow Arab countries like Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Yemen, Libya, and Syria and so on in 2010-11. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, Qatar has now the richest country in the world in terms of gross domestic product and per capita income surpassing the Luxembourg in 2010. Besides, Qatar has been tagged by the United Nation as the safest country in the world (together with Malta), according to its Annual World Risk Report for 2011. And how about knowing this little country is hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022?

Personally, my stay here as a company nurse is generally safe and easy. I have to work eight hours for six days in a week and an off during every Fridays. That is the Muslim’s weekend. Every days off, I have the chance to visit my friends here or do some relaxed walk in Doha, buy some good stuffs in the Souq (market), eat biryanis in a Turkey resto or “nilagang baka” in a Filipino resto. Most of the time, I do this with a company, but sometimes I do it by myself. That’s the good thing here; you could walk around the city alone without the hassle of being robbed, without any security threat. People here, especially most of the expatriates would never do harm against you. They rarely steal others belongings. But, since this is a country of expatriates of different races, there are very few incidents of racial discriminations, some robberies, and isolated rape cases. Some cases were resolved and some were unresolved. Most of the expats involved in such offensive doings were the Pak*&$@ns (I am not generalizing them). On the other hand, local citizens (Qataris) were also involved mostly in traffic violations and confrontations with other drivers. Other than that, the state is generally peaceful and orderly. 

Taken near City Center, Doha at 5pm. People are still at work
that's why no  people could be seen in the highway.

Are you a Christian, or a Buddhist or Hindu? Then, Qatar may be a good place for you to exercise your religion even in public. The government respects each and every one’s faith to God as long as you have to respect also theirs. As a matter of fact, they made one place where all the religion’s churches/temples/shrines were built. Here’s a glimpse of the Holy Rosary Church in Qatar:

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Qatar

Different races of the same belief gather here every day. Different languages were also delivered in a scheduled-mass basis. Thus, no one is deprived to his own religion. Last December 2011, I attended the Christmas mass in the Holy Rosary and I saw a large volume of people (mostly Filipinos) inside and outside of the church. It’s a great feeling to express my love to God wherein no one hinders you from doing it so. Feels like I am home in the Philippines.

How about transportation and communication? Public transportation here is solely run by the government. It’s called Karwa-Mowasalat buses and taxis. There is no light rail transit here. So obviously, if one doesn’t have a car, one may take a karwa bus or taxi. Fares are accepted either as cash or as by smartcard. Smartcard is a fare card pre-loaded with certain amount of money and is swiped in the computer (near the driver’s seat) before and after riding the bus. Once you ran out of loads, one may go to the nearest authorized card re-loader. Trips to all destinations by buses lasts only until 10 at night while taxis are available 24/7. Waiting areas are designated to a certain place for picking up and reloading of passengers. This policy lessens the traffic and gives orderly to the streets. Personally, I usually use the Karwa bus whenever I go to Doha because it is much cheaper and safer than metered taxis.  By the way, take extra caution in riding to car lifts (private vehicles hiring for passengers) with Pak*&$@n’s driver (as what I have mentioned earlier, they are mostly the law offenders here). Usually, I do prefer Indian and Filipino drivers. Indians are very kind and polite while Filipinos make your trip safe, always. These are how buses and taxis look like:

nature-inspired Karwa buses and taxis 

There are only two mobile network registered in Qatar. The most widely used is Qtel and the other one is Vodafone. The mobile code of the country is +974. Personally, I am using a Vodafone sim because of their free internet mobile usage unlike Qtel’s which charges for every minute of internet usage. Text messaging (SMS/MMS) and calling are almost with same charge, locally and internationally. But when it comes to wireless broadband internet, Qtel’s service is widely used by the people. Presently, I am using the Qtel’s mobile broadband internet USB. This gives me the chance to be online wherever I go.

Why not try Qatar? To my fellow Filipinos planning to work overseas, I highly recommend giving a shot to the Qatar. Especially the engineers of all fields, nurses and other medical practitioners and skilled workers, the country may be the best place for you to start and build your dreams. Due to Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the infrastructure and construction here are on the boom. Hospitals, football stadia and gymnasiums, commercial buildings and apartments, the new airport and proposed light rail transit are on the rise. These are only few of the many opportunities the country has to offer which is worth grabbing for. Inshaallah!

Population and other Qatar facts were taken from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/qa.html

Starting my Mafih Mukh Ideas :)

I have known blogging few years ago and tried once when Friendster was still on its cloud nine status. However, when Mark Zuckerberg's creation became viral and was the talk of the town, Friendster succumbs to Facebook and it made a total overhaul to free online gaming. The bad thing, in my part, I wasn't able to retrieve my blogs and pictures in there. By then, I disregard my personal blogging for a while.

But now, here I am, trying to write and express my thoughts online, once more. So what should I supposed to write? It might be anything under the sun, from my own non-sensible topics and point of views, real life experiences and perception. So, why it’s mafih mukh ideas? This is to warn my future readers that, I, frankly, was not born as a writer. My ideas may not be appealing to anybody, or my point of view to some issues may not be as intellectual as the columns in Philippine Daily Inquirer, or my experiences may not be interesting enough to some, I just want to share my mind to anyone else. Mafih Mukh is an Arabic term in which Mafih means “None” and Mukh means “Brain.” So, would you still take time to read my Brainless Ideas? I hope you do!

Please bear with me if one might find errors in grammar. As what I have mentioned above, I am not a good writer. :D