Right Outside Our Door

Our compound is a group of 140 houses plus a really awesome pool/clubhouse surrounded by a wall (all compounds and many houses are surrounded by stucco walls).  Earlier this summer, management announced it was going to make some improvements, including the addition of a convenience store for things like milk (yea!). Well, our actual house (here they are called "villas") is two doors away from the main gates.  And literally right in front of where the little store will go.  As in, you will be able to walk out of my front door, go straight 30 steps, and be at the milk-buyin' place. 

Construction on these improvements started about a week after we arrived.  Included in this activity is TEARING UP ALL THE ROADS IN THE COMPOUND.  I mean literally bulldozing them to the dirt and repaving.  It is going to be fantastic when it's done, but for now it is a hot dusty loud mess.  For the last how-many mornings, I have been awakened at 6 AM by the "beep beep beep beep" sound of large machinery backing up...or the window-rattling rumbling of the steam-roller thingy compressing the new road base.

Did I mention that construction in a Doha compound is nothing like construction in the US?  There are no designated detours or pedestrian walkways.  There is just the huge construction zone, the cars, the people, the God-bless-them-how-do-they-work-in-this-climate workmen, and a lot of required patience.  Here are some pictures.

I'm standing at the base of the road rubble in front of our house.  The pile was maybe 6-8 feet tall?  This is when they were ripping up the road surface.  Behind the pile is our house and driveway.

A picture from the driver's seat of our car...I mean SUV...which has four-wheel drive.  That pile is directly in front of our garage, which is barely one car-width wide (two cars deep).  You had to put the vehicle in 4 WD to get over the edge of the pile of rubble (while also driving on the sidewalk).

 

The construction as of yesterday morning, when Hannah had her adventure.  The road will remain across the bottom of what you see here.  Starting at that curb and going back to the clubhouse will then be grass, a fountain, a play area, and back to the left (where you can see the concrete blocks in a small pile in front of the front end loader) will be the store. This photo is taken from the window in our master bathroom.

Some of you saw on Facebook the mention of Hannah's early morning walkabout.  Here are the two versions of the story, with mine first because it is much less interesting.

7:10 AM: John leaves for work.

7:15 AM: Hannah comes in, gives me a kiss (I'm still in bed), and disappears in the house to play.  She often will go get in bed with Hank or Jack and even go back to sleep...or sometimes she and Jack get busy playing video games or "baby tiger and the tiger trainer" (our game of the moment).

7:17 AM: I am back in some la-la land of mostly asleep but occasional consciousness...typically when the front end loader or steam roller is backing up and making that beeping noise.

7:45ish AM:  The phone rings.  I am confused because (1) this phone doesn't ring like a "normal" phone and (2) no one EVER calls us on our home number.  I don't even know our home number.  So it takes me a minute to even know what that noise is.  I have to get out of bed and walk to the next room to answer:

"Hello?  Misses Nancy?  This is the front desk.  Your daughter Hannah is here with us in the club house.  Can you please come collect her?"

Of course my first thought is the damned beeping steam rolling earth moving child crushing heavy machinery and big rocky sandy hole between here and there and immediately picturing my bare-footed, pajama-ed tiny little four year old somehow wandering through that by herself?!?  I get dressed, run over, and collect Hannah, who is looking a little shaken but otherwise just fine...sitting with a gentleman named Chito (yes, pronounced Chee-to) and having a cup of water. I don't ask many questions, but just apologize profusely and thank them 100 times and avert my mascara-smeared, sleep crusted eyes, and move back towards the door and home.

And now, Hannah's version, as told to me twice (so although she isn't sitting here reciting, this should be pretty accurate).

I wanted to go out and look at the pretty flowers.  And so I went out the door [to the garage].  And then I looked at the flowers and came back to the door.  But the door was locked [it was too difficult for her to open it from the outside] so I went to the backyard and sat down and cried.  And then a man was in our backyard and he could walk and sit on the wall! [They're putting decorative lights on the compound's outer wall, and a man was at work accomplishing this on our part of that wall.]  And the man saw me crying and he asked me what was wrong and I told him I couldn't get in the house because it was locked.  So then he left and I went to the other place [front porch?] and then a beautiful beautiful lady came wearing a skirt and it had some pink on it [we have no idea who this was] and she took me to the club house and they gave me a drink of water and were nice.  They asked me my name and I said Hannah and I don't know my last name [?!?!?] and then they called you and I sat with a man named Chito and then you came to get me.

This whole walkabout was performed in her Dora the Explorer pink flannel nightgown, pullups, and barefeet.

All I can say is that I have never been in a situation where my four year old could have possibly been any safer, even with the earth-moving equipment and complete lack of "designated pedestrian areas"
 and significantly different languages spoken.  That is a pretty lucky thing to say.

And yes, she has learned not to leave the house without a buddy or parent.