Monday, July 9th

Hello again. I need to update you on my happenings . Those of you that think these are going to show up every day are probably going to be disappointed. It takes me a few days to sit down and actually write these. They might get a little boring, so I apologize, but it is going to act a work diary for me as well.

So Friday here is kind of like Sunday in the States. Religious day, not much is open until after 400 in the after noon, etc. So I slept in, (still trying to get adjusted to Qatari time) went to lunch and then got a good workout in. Cleaned up a little in the room, worked on some paperwork and then headed to 23. Basically ate dinner, drank with the doc and nurse and welcomed a new doc and his wife to our little group. It wasn't a late night, but we had a good time. Went to bed kinda early and had a great night's sleep.

Saturday, Doc K and I headed to furniture stores. Since this is something I am going to have to do soon, and he asked me, I tagged along for the experience and to get to see more of the city. We hit a bunch of furniture stores, they are like hot spots in Morgantown, they are everywhere. One of the problems is that we also have to shop for wardrobes, as none of the housing here has closets built into it. Luckily we found some bedroom suits that had matching wardrobes. Our company and the sponsoring company are both putting up some money for us to furnish our villas. I think I am going to go with a gold and blue theme...hmmm..... We came back after lunch and I headed to the pool. I basically just wanted to try the outdoor pool, which is curves all throughout the rear of the hotel. Plus there are hot tubs scattered throughout. The pool is actually a little chilly. I heard from the general manager of the hotel (Terry, a French guy) who knows me by name if that surprises anyone, that they actually have to refrigerate the outdoor pool water. It gets too hot with just the sun and the ambient temperature. FUN FACT TO KNOW! I moved to the indoor pool and swam a few laps and then went to try the indoor jacuzzi. It was neat, but I wasn't really in the jacuzzi mood, just trying everything out. After dinner, which was amazing, roast beef that was just awesome...we headed to the Souks downtown. These are large complexes of shops and stores with people peddling their handmade and other goods. They are about the size of a medium/large office and have a variety of things in them. There are alleys that you go down back into these big complexes to get to all of the stores. The ones on the main alleys you avoid, as they are a little more expensive. You also have to barter with these people. The stated price is not what they want. Doc got 2 awesome items that were carved out of camel bones. They took almost 100 riyals off the price in the course of bargaining. Then, the shopkeeper asked us if we wanted a drink. Since it is very bad to refuse any drinks in Muslim country we agreed and sat down on his couches. He came back with very tall fruit drinks. For lack of better term I would say there were strawberry and banana fruit shakes. Real fruit. They were awesome. We chatted with the shopkeeper and his son until we were finished and then moved on down the souk.

Small aside. That night I found out how prevalent Muhammad is. That name is everywhere. I found out more the day I went to EMS of my 600 staff, there is probably 50-75 Mohammad. We ran into 2 Mohammed's that night, which we talked about on the way to the souks. When we went into the store, we asked the boys name and he told us, Mohammad. Doc without missing a beat looked at me and said "Why do we even ask?" Quite Funny.

Sunday, which is our Monday, went to work at EMS. Sat in on their supervisor and head of department meeting. I think they all want to do well, but I can see some of the issues. The one guy reported that people were not turning in their check sheets properly, and when asked what he did when people were not compliant, he had no answer. Got another tour of the building and got to take a look around and talk to some of the supervisors. We stopped at one sub-station and caught the guys sleeping soundly in the middle of the day. Mon EMS people you should be happy. Everyone on earth knows we need more stations, but some of the sub stations I visited were sub par...I digress, I will get back to that. It was nice to see Chaker (that is the Senior Supervisor, the guy I am mentoring and sharing an office with. Really nice, knowledgeable guy.) jump into action and get after these boys. He has some of the same problems that we have. The guys were sleeping and they only had about 15 minutes of work to do and they could sleep, but...their truck looked like ass, the station looked like ass, trash everywhere, dishes in the sink, trash can overflowing, bathroom stinks, etc. Chaker told me that if everything would have been done, he has no problems with the guys taking naps. It just irritates him when they are being lazy and the place looks like crap. (That sounds way too familiar!)

After work, I headed to the gym and got a good workout in. After dinner I headed to the Giant store, which is like another super wal-mart. I picked up a few snacks and lunch items, along with some socks and aftershave. Notice, they do not have Caffeine free Diet or Regular coke in this county. If I keep drinking JD, I might have to drink the high test stuff. I headed home and went to bed.

Monday, the 9th. Chaker took me on a tour of some more sub-stations around town. Some of them are definitely short stay stations. One was really run down. It had 6 recliners, a small fridge, a small microwave, and 2 window air conditioners in the space about the size of Susie's office. No bathroom, no water, etc. Just a place to not be in the truck. (That is an idea!) They had to go across the parking lot to the government building to use the bathroom, if needed. Some of them are given to EMS, so like Mon EMS, they try not to complain.

I did go on a RT call which is their term for MVA/MVC it stands for Road/Traffic Accident. We got cancelled after BLS got on scene, but I still saw the guys packing and working on the patient. I know they have problems, but they were doing really well from what I could see. They were even splinting a possible broken forearm...they didn't use a pillow! That is amazing...did you know they made splints for that? Wow....

Also, Chaker gave me a token of appreciation for the work that I am getting ready to do. It is called the Hand of Fatima and Fatima was the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad and ...you know what I am getting tired of typing..you look it up!
It was a nice gesture. I think we will work well together.

So, you think Morgantown is booming. You should be in Doha. I can count over 25 Cranes just from my hotel. When you get into the city, just driving in, I can count over 30 more. They are building everywhere. It is crazy. Alot of it is poured concrete and rebar, and high as you can go.

Oh, before I get off of here. Chaker and I had to stop for gas today. All of you that will enjoy this, gas was .70 Riyals a Liter. Since I am such a nice guy, that converts to about .77-.78 cents a GALLON. How sweet is that? He told me that in the middle east, the liters rise quicker than the dollars, not like in the US and Europe where it is opposite!

Had our first weekly team meeting today. Basically just went around the table and told what we were doing, going to do, etc. Except for 15 people it took almost 2 hours. Luckily, its only once a week, and I am going to have a few weeks before I have to give a really in depth analysis.

So, I hope everyone has a good day and I will be talking soon.

Gotta give a quick hello to my friend in Chicago. Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoy it! Talk to you soon!