The Saga of the Driver's License and the Car

What fun I have had getting my driver's license and car! Yesterday morning Mr. Saju, a man at work whose job I really don't know how to describe except to say that he brings everyone coffee and drives people around and is generally very helpful, drove me over to the transportation department to get my driver's license. My instructions were to bring my Alberta driver's license, copies of my passport, resident permit, eye test documentation [yes, you have to go to an optician to have an eye test - 30 QR (Qatari Riyals) = $10], a letter of no objection from my employer, 3 passport photos and 250 QR (about $80). I arrived, and pulled a ticket (they used Q-matics for those of you in Enrolment Services) and when my ticket was called it directed me to Window 5. The woman there pointed me to window 2 . . . . . oh, well, ok, I'll go to window 2. The woman there took my documentation and then asked for the computer card. "The what?" I asked. I had no idea what a computer card was. Well, thank goodness Mr. Saju was with me because he knew what it was (apparently it's something that verifies that UC-Q is a legitimate business) and said he'd go to the car to get it. I waited at the window thinking he'd be back in about 3 minutes since the car was parked right outside the building. Well, I waited and waited and finally the woman handed me all my documents and told me to go upstairs and see "the captain". I headed upstairs, found "the captain" who asked me to take a seat. He punched some numbers into the computer, looked at the screen (I couldn't tell what he was looking at since it was all in Arabic) and after 3 or 4 minutes handed my documents back to me and told me to go back downstairs. I went back to the same woman I had been talking with before, and she said a bunch of stuff (she was very hard to understand) that led me to believe that Mr. Saju had come back and given her the computer card she needed. After I stood there for a couple of minutes she pointed to the chairs behind me and said "Wait". I took a seat and a few minutes later Mr. Saju came in with the "computer card" which was really just a letter from someone attesting to the legitimacy of the University of Calgary-Qater. It was apparent to me then that he had driven back to the University campus to get the computer card. She took the letter and after another 5 minutes took my payment and handed me my driver's license! I have no idea what she said in our exchanges, and if it hadn't been for Mr. Saju, I don't think I would have gotten my license.

The next step was to arrange for a car. I had recommendations from some of the other people here and contacted 3 companies. Some of them will just bring a car to your apartment or the University. The one that CJ and I decided to go with required us to go to their office which is not too far from our apartment building. It ended up the CJ had to work late on a project so she asked me to look after the car acquisition. The fellow at the car place said he could send a driver to pick me up, but he wasn't sure where my apartment building was. Since the building is just off a main road with a bank on the corner, I said I'd go wait in the parking lot of the bank. On my way down the elevator I thought to my self, "What the heck am I doing? I'm in a completely foreign country, going to get into a car with someone I don't know, going I don't know where!" Anyway, the young man who picked me up was very pleasant and I had the first complete conversation with a person here that I could understand nearly everything said! When I got to the car rental office, I went in to meet Mr. Rezwan who I expected to be in his 40's but who appeared to be about 18! He had a Nissan Sunny to show me - it's about the size of a Honda Civic. The car was fine and then we got into the paper work which consisted of a form on which I provided my name, email address and phone number. He took a Visa number to put a pre-authorization on in the event at the end of the rental there is any damage to the vehicle. He then said I could take the car, but he would exchange it the next night for another car that was the same. I said in that case, I'd just have the driver take me back to the apartment and they could just bring the correct car the next night. I asked when we needed to pay for the car. Well, we pay for it at the end of each month, so we didn't need to make any payment until the end of November! Renting a car has never been so easy!!! So off I went back to the apartment.

All day long, CJ and I were anticipating getting our car. We had been warned that we should not drive after dark for our first driving experience. Apparently, drivers here seem to get even more crazy after dark! The car was to be delivered at 5:00. I called Mr. Rezwan at about 4:15 to remind him we needed 2 keys for the car. He asked if I was available then for them to come and said he would get in touch with the driver and call me back. An hour and a half later he called to say the car would be here at 6:00 on the dot. To make a long story short, the driver and car arrived at 6:50 and the car was nothing like what he had shown me the night before; it was filthy and the wrong colour (we definitely do not want a white car - EVERY car in Doha is white, it seems). I called him and told him the car was not acceptable. He tried to get me to take the car saying he would exchange it in a day or two, "without any problem". CJ was together enough to say that, no we would not take this car as it is likely there would be a problem in a day or two. So the driver took the crummy car back and we will phone Mr. Rezwan tomorrow to apply a little pressure to get the car that was promised. Ah, the joys of doing business in Qatar! Wish us luck - we hope to have a car by tomorrow night so we can start our practice driving on Friday morning!