Day 13: Al Jazeera

After a great weekend in Doha, I’m back in my cozy Holiday Inn hotel room. This last day was absolutely crazy, as we had 3 site visits before heading to the airport!

Our first stop of the day will probably end up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. We went to Al Shaqab Stables, an Arabian horse farm that is actually owned by the Emir of Qatar. They have over 400 horses total, and about 170 of them still compete in shows. None of those horses are ridden, but are carefully trained and groomed for their shows. Many of the horses even travel around the world for competitions. We saw all of the different facilities; let’s just say that these horses have a pretty nice life. The best part of all was when we were able to go through the stables that housed mothers and their babies! The foals were absolutely adorable – I cannot tell you how many times I was tempted to just grab one and run.

Stables

Baby!!

Definitely not camera shy...

New best friend - we bonded. 

Training facilities

Our next stop was another amazing experience and will definitely be one of my favorite experiences of the trip: visiting AL JAZEERA! As Professor Bailey explained, this is unprecedented because Al-Jazeera simply does not give tours. But, she was able to pull a few strings and get us an inside look into one of the most important television networks in history. We met Christina, a media associate at Al Jazeera English who is originally from Ohio, and she gave us a tour of the English facilities. I have to admit, it looked like a pretty cool place to work:

Newsroom

Live broadcast about Trayvon Martin

On the newsroom floor!

We crossed the street (literally) and toured Al Jazeera Arabic. The two offices work very closely together, and many employees are often moving back and forth between the two buildings at numerous points throughout the day. 

The first newsroom of Al Jazeera

Main newsroom

Live broadcast!

Al Jazeera Logo

Freedom wall dedicated to fallen
journalists/colleagues

Our last stop of the day before heading "home" to Kuwait was the Brookings Doha Center, an initiative of the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. founded in 2007. It undertakes independent, policy-oriented research on socioeconomic and geopolitical issues facing Muslim-majority countries and communities. We met the director of research, Shadi, and had an interesting conversation with him about three major issues currently facing the region and the world: Egyptian presidential elections, Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and Syria. Unsurprisingly, the discussion became pretty heavy at times, especially when we discussed the U.S. role in all of this. 

We headed for the airport and got on the plane to Kuwait. Unlike our trip to Doha, in which the plane was practically empty, this plane was completely full, mainly of expats who were most likely arriving to Kuwait for the first time. In the Qatari airport, you go through security and then take a bus to the airplane. While I was riding the bus and getting on the plane I could sense excitement on the part of the expats. I almost felt excited with them (or for them), but I also had to keep in mind how poorly some of the workers are treated here. What also struck me is that none of the expats had any luggage - they really do come here with absolutely nothing.

Well, since it's day 13, that means we're officially halfway through the trip. I can't believe it; in some ways it feels as if we've been here forever, and in others it feels like we just arrived yesterday! I miss my friends and family (and my pups) so much, and I know this next half of the trip will fly by even faster than the first! Whether that's a good or a bad thing, I'm not exactly sure!