I'm Exhausted

1 year on and it is exhausting. I have started teaching in the small emirate of Qatar, a nation of about 1.5 million located in the Persian Gulf. As an English teacher at a post-high school bridge program I have been attempting to prepare the locals for the rigors of Western universities. Now, my job would appear not all too strenuous. I have two and a half months off in the summer and another four to five weeks of vacation during the year.

Acclimating to Qatar isn't all that hard either. The heat may be unbearable six months of the year but you rarely find yourself outside of an airconditioned building or vehicle. Only the most sensitive untravelled hillbilly could experience culture shock in a place where Americans seem to outnumber the natives and almost any ingredient on an American mom's shopping list, excluding pork of course, can found at some store or another.

Despite the ostensible ease of expat life here I am more fatigued than I have ever been. Hell, I wouldn't even be writing this post if my wife hadn't forced me to. So what is it that is burning me out? Qataris. To be honest they are a lovely people with great family values and a good, wholesome, and genuine care for others (that is if they are not behind the wheel of a car). I have grown to admire their respect for their elders and have been impressed by their communal spirit. That said, they are bereft of any intellectuality and, aside from a few anomalies, devoid of industry. So, in the classroom things can get quite exhausting. Every class is a veritable tapdancing performance in which I try to excite my languid students to pick up their books and read.

There are myriad reasons for the indigence of Qatari intellectuality. Sixty years ago four out of five Arabs were illiterate, and I'm willing to bet that percentage was considerably higher in Qatar. Then there is the difficulty of reading for Qataris. Their Gulf dialect differs markedly from the Modern Standard Arabic they need to access a wealth of literature in their native language. Then they have to learn English on top of that. Effectively they are stuck learning two foreign languages, Modern Standard Arabic and English, and never develop a facility with either that would encourage them to read for pure enjoyment.

Culturally they have never been strong readers, but it is the life of plenty that is not earned but endowed by a rentier government sitting atop some of the largest petroleum and natural gas deposits in the world that really debilitates my students. They may eat with their hands but they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Furthermore, there is little incentive for achievement when wealth, praise and acclaim are bestowed by tribal benefactors rather than earned through individual exertion.

I could go on and make this a more incisive review of Qatari culture, but I will end with this: I'm exhausted. Maybe my expectations are too high or perhaps to imperialistic. Who says we need to turn every Qatari into an industrious workaholic American prick? Why not let the good times role while the price of oil sores and the need for natural gas is increasing exponentially? After all, my students are good people. They do care about each other and they even care about their foreign teacher that is always busting their balls. Next year I hope to be more appreciative of what my students have and focus less on what they have not.