It feels like it has been a while since I last posted, so there is plenty to catch up on. As you all know, this week was Thanksgiving. This is the first major holiday that I have missed (aside from JMU Homecoming of course) while being out here in Doha. As my Dad kindly pointed out, this was my first Thanksgiving not being home with my family. I definitely missed not being able to see friends and family, but more than anything I missed not going Black Friday shopping with my brother. We have made it a tradition the last few years and it was disappointing to not go out at midnight to witness the chaos of Black Friday. We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving in our own way here in Doha. My supervisor, Melissa, hosted a Thanksgiving meal on Friday and it was really nice to get together and share a meal. I made my now world famous pumpkin cheesecake and a co-worker Jimmy made one heck of a Turkey. The night ended with a little Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on the TV and my day was complete.

On the topic of giving Thanks, one of the MANY things that I am thankful for is being in Qatar. I truthfully feel that Qatar is one of the most unique places on the planet that I could be living. It is incredibly diverse, offers access to a very high quality of life, hosts many global events, is incredibly safe, and more. Having now been here for three months, people like to ask "How do you like it so far?". When I respond that I love it here and feel privileged to be able to call this home, they look at me as if I am crazy. And while I may be crazy, it never ceases to amaze me the things that people can complain about. Can traffic be bad in Doha? Yep. Is it easy to get the exact foods or products you may want? Nope. Are the policies and procedures in the country efficient? Not exactly. But in the grand scheme, all of these are such trivial issues. Anywhere you live will have its flaws and Doha is no exception. But as I reflect on my time here to this point, I can honestly say I hit the jackpot when moving out here. Hopefully my opinion doesn't change in the coming months and years but I would say we are off to a good start. 

 In other big news, the Doha Tribeca Film  Festival took place this week. Many of you are familiar with the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC and this is a branch of that. During the festival directors, actors, and actresses from all over the world come to Doha to show off their work. I was able to attend about five different screenings ranging from comedies, to documentaries, to dramas. My favorite was the Reluctant Fundamentalist and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. Another cool part of the festival was being able to see an interview with Robert De Niro, although the interview itself was pretty boring. At the end of the day, it's ROBERT DE NIRO. Who cares what they talk about? I really did have a great time at the festival as a whole and especially enjoyed some of the afterparties at the W hotel, one of those moments when you ask yourself...How is it that I end up at a film festival after party in Doha, Qatar with world renowned film makers?

Let's talk a little sports now. Just finished up a basketball league last week. The league was suprisingly competitive and gave us some great games. Our team wasn't exactly the best in the league but it was a great group of guys to play with. During our last game of the season we were warming up for the game and I noticed people gathering in the corner of the gym. At first it was only three guys and they begin to pray, as it was time for the last call to prayer of the day. Upon seeing this, men from all of the gym put down their basketballs and went over the join them in this final prayer. After a few minutes there were a dozen or so men praying together in the gym. I thought that this was fascinating and an incredible display of humility and dedication to religion. Those who weren't Muslim continued to warm up and after a few minutes the games began. In addition to basketball I started taking golf lessons so next time I'm at Top Golf I can have a better showing. I also signed up for a work out boot camp that starts this week as a change of pace to the work out routine.

Last major note is that Movember is quickly coming to a close. There is still time to donate and I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive all month. Our team is currently #51 in the whole US and we have raised over $12,000! If you want to donate go to http://mobro.co/EvanWitt.

That should about cover it for now. This week Doha is hosting the COP18 United Nations Sustainability conference. The city is expecting about 20,000 visitors and we are already being advised that traffic will be a challenge for the whole 2 week long conference. Next weekend I will be going dessert camping for the first time in Doha and am planning a road trip to Dubai the weekend after. So plenty more to come. Talk soon!

Eid in Sri Lanka: The World's Most Random Trip

As all of you know I spent the week of Eid holiday in Sri Lanka. This was a trip that I went into not knowing what to expect. I planned the trip with my friend Ahmad with the priceless assistance of our work colleague Annette who lived in Sri Lanka for 14 years. In writing about this trip I will be leaving out a TON of stories. I think the best way to do it is to break the trip down into four parts. Keep in mind we traveled 1,500km during this week and were doing non-stop activities! The four parts of the trip were history/culture, adventure, wildlife, and paradise. So here goes nothin'...

Before we get to the four parts, we need to set the stage. Before arriving in Sri Lanka Ahamd and I had planned our trip very aggressively. To be able to accomplish this, we booked a driver named Aruna. Aruna was Annette's driver when she lived in Sri Lanka and was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He was incredibly patient, informative, and served as a father figure during the trip. The other major character in this trip is Jon Campbell. Jon is a first grade teacher in Kuwait but grew up in Canada. He was traveling solo but we met him on the flight to Sri Lanka over glasses of red wine in the back of the flight. Oh, and by the way, we literally had a party in the air on the back of the plane on the way! During said party Ahmad and I invited Jon to join us for our trip. He couldn't think of a reason not to so our trip went from 2 to 3 people in a matter of minutes. He was a GREAT addition to the trip and we're hoping to travel together in the future.

On the left, Aruna and our car for the week.

On the right, Jon Campbell during our wildlife safari. That vest cost him $2USD.

So let's begin with Part 1: History and Culture. We started the trip by heading to the cultural triangle which includes the Rock Temple in Dambulla, the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, and Sigiriya Rock. The two big highlights for me were Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. Polonnaruwa was the second capital of Sri Lanka, there have been nine in total. This was a massive civilization that was abandoned due to wars. There are incredible ruins there including many temples. We spent the afternoon exploring the various ruins with our tour guide Vicky. He gave us great information and even though it was raining (as it did for most of our trip) it did not stop of from getting an education in the culture of Sri Lanka. The following day we woke up early to hike Sigiriya rock. This massive rock is considered by many to be the 8th Wonder of the World. On the top of the rock, there is an ancient mansion of which only ruins remain. There are many different stories about the history of the rock. Our guide, Milton, shared with us that the temple was built by one of the royal families' sons. He built it to avoid the rest of the family and his brother who was trying to kill him. The grounds were incredible and the ruins on top of the rock were just amazing. It is considered to be a crucial part of the Sri Lanka culture.

 

Part 2 of the trip was Adventure. This included a treacherous drive to the top of a mountain in the tea country, white water rafting, and a terrifying trip to Adam's Peak. During our visit to Sri Lanka, it was the rainy season. We saw sun on the first day and then it kind of felt like Forest Gump, "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months." It wasn't quite four months, but it was all week! So in the middle of our trip we had booked a Bed and Breakfast up in the mountains area. Because of the rainy season the fog, clouds, and rain roll in around 5:00pm. We spent about 3 hours driving up a mountain to reach our Bed and Breakfast through powerful winds, rain, and nearly zero visibility. All through this, Aruna had a smile on his face...what a guy! After our B&B night, we spent the next afternoon White Water rafting (which cost us $15USD each). From rafting we wanted to stay at the bottom of Adam's Peak. Adam's Peak is a hike that consists of the most consecutive stairs in the world. It has over 5,000 steps each way! It is considered by many in Sri Lanka to be a sacred site and it was something all three of us desperately wanted to do. Since it was rainy season, the weather in that part of the country was VERY dangerous. On the road to Adam's Peak we were met by trees blocking the road, downed power lines, and pouring rain. The hike Adam's Peak it is recommended to go at 2:00am to be there for sunrise. Once we finally reached our hotel, which had no power for the night, we woke up at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 hoping the rains would slow but they did not. We ended up not being able to hike the trail but it gives us something to go back for!

Part 3 of the trip was Wildlife. Although we saw a lot of wildlife through the trip (ie. gangs of monkeys, elephants crossing the road, etc), I will concentrate on our wildlife safari in Udawalawe National Park. Udawalawe is known for its' elephants. In total there are over 400 in the park as well as many birds, deer, jackals, gators, water buffalo, and more. We were able to find a guide easily when we arrived at the park and went out in an old school land rover. The trip was incredibly exciting, although a bit of rain slowed our adventure a bit. There are no roads in the park, just dirt travels. Many of these trails are met by water crossings. During the dry season this is no issue but in the rainy season there are a few more obstacles. As we approached one river to cross, our car entered from the bank and immediately died. We tried to start it a few times to no avail. We called for someone to pull us out, but that's when the rain started. Within minutes the river level started rising and now the car was nearly completely under water! Another truck came to pull us out and was unable to move us even an inch. We had to wait on a tractor to pull the car from the water, which took about 2 hours in total. After waiting in the part for 2 hours, we got on the back of the other car and headed out of the part. No more than 5 minutes later, THAT truck breaks down. Now we are stuck in the middle of the park with two broken down vehicles and a tractor. What do we do? Attach both vehicles to the tractor and get pulled out of the park. We had a caravan through the park and even stopped to see elephants, deer, and birds on the way! It was an unbelievable experience and frustrating in the moment but hilarious looking back on it now. The safari was supposed to be 2.5 hours...ours was over 5!

 

 The final part of the trip can be known as paradise. Sri Lanka is known for its' beaches, unfortunately we were there at the wrong time of the year for that. We spent our last day at Unawatuna beach, which was just amazing. The sun FINALLY came out and we were able to sit by the beach all day before heading to Colombo and getting ready to leave. I wish we had more time there, but with the weather we were just happy to have one day of sunshine! It would definitely be work a repeat trip to spend time in some of the sleepy beach towns in the south of Sri Lanka.

Overall, Sri Lanka was an amazing trip. It was quite an adventure and in many ways, the complete opposite of Doha. On the trip we saw rain, wildlife, jungles, agriculture, experienced rural poverty, ancient cultural history, hiking, and much much more. It was a refreshing and energizing trip. I feel very lucky to have had such a great experience and credit much of that to Aruna, Jon, and Ahmad for being great travel partners. As I mentioned earlier, this is not even half of the stories that I could share from the trip but it gives some sort of idea of what we got ourselves into. Check out a wider selection of pictures on Facebook and I look forward to sharing more stories with all of you soon!

Cars, Mos, and Sandy

It has been quite a while since I last posted and A LOT has taken place. For one, I spent a week in Sri Lanka for Eid. I will dedicate a separate post to that trip as it was chock-full-o-adventure to be sure. Even the blog post likely won't do it justice but I will do my best.

As for the Doha updates, the biggest news is the final stage of my transition: Transportation. It has taken me two pain staking month to get my own wheels here in Doha. As I have mentioned before, no public transpiration, limited taxis, and nothing within walking distance. So as you can imagine a car is vital to my existence here. I think we can all let out a sigh of disappointment that I did not purchase a car called the Duster (although it would have been AWESOME) and opted for the more luxurious and dependable Nissan XTerra. I could not be happier with this purchase and the idea of buying a new car is still surreal to me. I literally had to take the plastic wrapping off the seats as if I was opening a present. How did I pay for said car? Straight cash homie (ala Randy Moss). There was a mix up with the loan that I had originally taken out so I walked into the dealership, wads of cash in hand, put them on a desk and a few hours later drove off the lot. Arooj was kind enough to take me to the dealership and document the experience.

Other big news, MOVEMBER HAS BEGUN! Many of you got the fundraising e-mail I sent yesterday and if you are interested in donating to the cause check out my MoSpace at http://mobro.co/EvanWitt. For more information about the organization, where the money goes, etc check out us.movember.com/. The organization had over 800,000 participants last year bringing in over $140 million towards Men's health research. This year I am joined by a team of 45 other men and we have set out own fundraising goal at $15,000. We are well on our way and would really appreciate your support!

Another major update is on a much more serious note. As you all know last week Hurricane Sandy pummeled the east coast of the United States. While this was going on, I was half a world away in Sri Lanka. Helpless to support my friends and family. Technology never ceases to amaze me and I was able to contact my brother and parents to ensure their safety, and luckily our family came away from the disaster unharmed. There was no damage to our home, no loss of property. Many of our friends and family were not as fourtunate. Estimates in my hometown of Massapequa alone reflect damages to the tune of $4.5 billion. As I have reached out to friends and family this week I have heard stories of 5 feet of water in homes, lost cars, power outages for days on end, and homes burned to the ground. On this side of the world we are not hearing much about the devastation that took place on the east coast. It has been very challenging wanting to be supportive but not knowing how. Even though my direct family was fortunate to not experience any damage, the hurricane has still had a lasting impact on us. I know my parents have been trying to reach out to friends and family to support them over the week. It will take quite some time for things to get back to "normal" and I can only hope it comes sooner than later. Know that you all are in my thoughts constantly and I am inspired by your resilience in the face of this disaster.

On a final reflective note, I recently celebrated my two month anniversary of being here in Doha. This milestone means a lot to me, particularly because I feel that my initial transitions are coming to an end. I feel that I have somewhat of a pulse on the city of Doha and what life is here. I can happily say that the choice to move here was one of the best of my life. It has already been a life changing experience and I have grown a lot as an individual. This is not to say that Doha comes without challenges. One challenge in particular has been developing deep and meaningful friendships. Although I have met a LOT of people since moving here, and fancy myself to be quite the "Yes Man", it has been very challenging to replace the close family and friends I left behind in the U.S. I am incredibly lucky to have such great friends and family. I have been so appreciative of all of the texts, calls, Skypes, e-mails, Facebooks, etc that have come in over the last two months and this has played a major role in the success of my transition here. 

That's all I have for now and I will put together some kind of entry later this week about Sri Lanka. In the meantime you can all check out some of the photos on Facebook. Thanks for keeping up with me in my travels and experiences. I look forward to talking to you all soon.