Here I was, this young newly-married housewife living in a foreign country, completely uncertain of what to expect and attempting to create a life from an idea. Regardless of the groups I joined or the classes I attended, it was hard for me to forge a real connection with others. I was not working at the time, and that meant that I needed to put in a large amount of effort to get out and meet people.
Doha is filled with people who are here for either a couple of months or a couple of years. Others have often said: “We’re going back home some day, we’re not here for too long” or “Our contract is only for two years”. This temporariness blankets this city in a way that made deep relationships hard to cultivate, and I remained uncertain of my own sense of rootedness in all this flux.