Visit Home and Planning a Wedding!

Kristal and I just returned from a two week trip home to the US where we visited our respective families in NY and MN. We got a lot of good quality time with the family and were plenty of highlights. Spent the 4^th of July at White Lake (NY), sang happy birthday in person to my mom for the first time in years, saw Kid Rock and Foreigner in concert,  celebrated Blair (Kristal’s cousin) and Lynn’s wedding in Minnesota, and to top it all off we got to do some in person wedding planning! Here’s a few highlights from the two weeks stateside.

Ever since Kristal and I got engaged in January we have been planning a Minnesota wedding remotely. Up to this point we have secured a venue, band, photographer, videographer, and caterer all by choosing from different online options. Last week we had the chance to actually visit our venue and talk with our wedding planner in person. We were a bit nervous at first since we booked the venue sight unseen, but we were amazed when it was even better than we thought!

One of the benefits of planning a wedding abroad is that you are forced to make decisions. You don’t spend two months doing wedding venues, or countless meetings with wedding photographers, because in the end you will have to decide based on limited information. For Kristal and I this has actually made the process a lot less stressful because we have been able to focus on what is important to us and not stressing over the smaller details.

Our venue is in Crosslake, Minnesota where we will have a lakefront ceremony followed by a lodge reception down the road. It is shaping up to exceed what we could have hoped for and the countdown has begun! Below are a few sneak peaks of the venue and some of the planning we have done so far! You can also check out our new wedding website at theknot.com/us/sawittzkewedding 

What is EBDA?

As summer enters into full swing here in Qatar, it is a great time to reflect on the past year. This year I had the opportunity to launch a new leadership development program here for Hamad bin Khalifa University under the sponsorship of Maersk Oil Qatar. It has been an incredible opportunity that has provided me experience working with Corporate Social Responsibility, challenged me to think of innovative ways to educate students, and has taken me to many places along the way.

EBDA is the name of the leadership program we launched and the website can be found at www.ebda.qa We also spent a lot of time this year on promotional videos for many of the programs we run. In total we developed films for the Desert Challenge, We are Leaders @ Kilimanjaro, and Outward Bound Oman. Each film captures the essence of the experiences of our students. I am including our main EBDA film here to see some of the work we got to do this year. It is a program I am incredibly proud of and look forward to the next year of EBDA!

Does living in Qatar require a moral compromise?

In the midst of the fallout from the most recent FIFA scandal, Qatar once again finds itself under a microscope. Allegations of bribery and continued human labor abuses in Qatar have dominated international headlines. I won’t go into my own views on FIFA and the 2022 World Cup, although I will say that if an organization (FIFA) puts an event up for sale and it is paid for I blame the seller not the buyer. I would rather discuss what it is like to live in Qatar, a place often criticized.

A recent article entitled “The Moral Conflict of Living and Working in Qatar” has generated a lot of discussion within the expat community here in Qatar. It can be found in full here:

http://thebillfold.com/2015/06/the-moral-conflict-of-living-and-working-in-qatar/

(Please read it in full before reading my comments because it would lose context)

The more time I spend thinking about this article, the more thoughts I have. I commend the author for sparking conversation that I think doesn’t happen enough for expats in Qatar, doing real critical reflection about what it means to be here and why they are here in the first place. A lot of what is in the article resonated with me, not to mention the author is a twenty something year old, American male, who worked in education in Qatar for three years. On the whole I can’t say that I disagree with the article. It brings up many valid points and eloquently captures some of the everyday things that happen here. What I think it lacks to capture is the complexity of the place that is Qatar.

First off, as an expat we are a guest in this country. We are invited in to help support the vision that the country has. Whether you want to be part of that or not is a personal choice. As a guest we will often not understand the full picture of what is happening in the country so it is important to hold judgment as we get only one piece of the story. I think too often expats, specifically western expats, are critical about what is happening in Qatar as it is an easy target. We are not here to “fix” it and we are not here to “enlighten” people but more to provide support where needed. If we want to “fix” things we should stay in our home countries because there is plenty of work to do there too.

Now some could say I “drank the karak” in terms of my views on Qatar because I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt. Friends will often make fun of me for how highly of a regard I have for Qatar. When it comes down to it, Qatar is a brand new country and society. It has not had the benefit of hundreds of years to develop its own practices and identities, yet it is held to the same global standards of countries like the USA and UK. Many of Qatar’s challenges are not only its own, for example human labor issues that are rampant throughout the GCC and have roots in the home countries of many of these workers. This is not to make an excuse that we shouldn’t be better, we should. But it is complicated.

I believe that Qatar is a change agent but change also takes time especially when it is cultural. While yes, we have not seen the progressive labor changes that we would like recently but this should not come as a surprise. Qatari cultural is conservative and slow to change. While there are many great Qatari leaders who are champions for change, getting buy in from the local community takes painstakingly long.

As far as the impact on expats who live and work here. The reality is, your sense of “normal” does get skewed. You do get used to a lavish lifestyle you didn’t know existed before, you do get used to jet setting to a new country every month, you do get used to driving past abuses on a regular basis, you do get used to tax free incomes that are staggering compared to your earning power at home, and you do have to make some moral compromises to live here. Because like it or not, you are part of this system. A system that benefits you at the expense of others.

When I look around at the world though, I would say that moral compromise is happening for many of us. No country is perfect and you will be hard pressed to find a place where you agree with every political view and event that takes place. But I would say some countries are better at masking their issues than others. The last line of the article states “the thing about Qatar though is that it’s everywhere, it’s out in the open, and you can’t look away.” I really agree with that statement but I think it is a positive thing. We are trying to solve many of our challenges. And it won’t happen overnight. But my hope is that the global community keeps pressure on Qatar to promote positive changes but does so with patience and understanding that it will take time. And as we work towards the Qatar National Vision 2030 my hope is that it will build a better Qatar, one that I am proud to help support.

Maldives on a Budget!

Although it may seem like an oxymoron, you can in fact do the Maldives on a tight budget. It takes some homework and researching but Kristal and I just returned for an amazing 5 day trip to the Maldives which cost a fraction of the price at one of the resort islands. Here is how we did it.

First we cast a wide net. We explored all of our options including local options and resorts. We found that even the least expensive resorts would run about $300 per night plus the cost of food, excursions, and transportation to the resorts. Transport alone can cost several hundred dollars per person especially if you need to take a sea plane. We were able to find a local island, Maafushi, that was accessible by a $2 public ferry and offered affordable locally owned hotels for between $50 and $100 per night.

Maafushi is a local island that is inhabited by just over 1,000 people. It is accessible by a 90 minute ferry from Male or a 35 minute speed boat transfer. There are lots of options for excursions and accommodation on the island and it is a fraction of the cost of a resort. The island was heavily damaged during the 2004 tsunami and is still developing its tourism industry. It was not until 2010 that local guest houses were allowed to open in the Maldives, before that everyone needed to stay at resort islands. While you give us some of the beauty of the resorts, you can arrange day trips to resorts from Maafushi at very reasonable prices.

 

While in Maafushi we stayed at the Kaani Beach Hotel in a sea view room which was directly in front of a beautiful beach. On the island we had tons of options for diving and excursions including those offered by other hotels. We did our diving through the Shark Diving School where I was able to get PADI certified in less than 3 days and they offered us world class diving at a $25 per dive rate! We did a day trip from Maafushi to the Adaaran Club resort which has rooms for $300 a night but we went for the day for $70 and that included unlimited drinks and a great lunch buffet! And finally we were able to take out a personal catamaran for snorkeling and visiting another local island for 4 hours for $60 total. All of these excursions were incredible deals especially compared to rates at resorts around the rest of the country.

 All of this is to say, the Maldives doesn’t have to be an expensive holiday. While the resort islands are incredible they can set you back. Maafushi and other local islands offer the opportunity to see incredible beauty that won’t leave you broke. Considering how cheap flights are from Doha to the Maldives we are already thinking about going back. It was fun trying to find ways to visit on a budget and if the Maldives has been taken off your list because of cost…put it back on at the top!

Going Outward Bound in Oman

There are many lessons that you can learn from nature. To start you learn how to appreciate the simple aspects of life, you learn how to take care of yourself and others, you learn organization, and you learn how to disconnect from the outside world. Last week I had the privilege of organizing another Outward Bound course for 25 college students in the Omani mountains. It is one of my favorite programs I get to organize and we were fortunate to have a great group of students who made the most of the experience. 

The course took place over 4 days and 3 nights but felt much shorter than that. Our journey began at 4:00am on May 10 as we departed campus for the airport and a 7:00am flight. We arrived in Oman around 10:00am and began to make our way to Jebel Akhdar (the green mountain) about a two hour bus ride from Muscat. People were tired, hungry, and ready to get started. Day one of the course focused on distributing gear, some basic team building, and learning how to set up camp. During the course students had to make camp, cook all their own food, carry their belongings on their backs, and hike each day. For many of them it was their first time doing each of these things and really stretched their comfort zones.

 

Over the time we had on the mountain students had some intense realizations about their own skills as a leader, how they interact with groups, some of the obstacles groups face in achieving results, and reflections on the privileges they have in their daily lives. Even for me as a course chaperone it was an opportunity to disconnect, reflect on the last year, and really appreciate all the things that have been happening in my life recently. For most of the participants the Outward Bound model of using the outdoors as a classroom is quite powerful. Opportunities like this are not common in the Gulf area so we are lucky to have this partnership in Oman.

 

This program marked the end of the academic year for me in Doha and the official start of summer. This year has been the most challenging yet most rewarding of my time in Doha. I am looking forward to the quiet time this summer to recover and spend time with great people.