So yesterday, I decided to take a walk to the park, which is only a few blocks away. Walking is not easy in Doha. For one, there are no sidewalks. There are piles of construction rubble. This year, I have nice sturdy sandals, and I've always been pretty good at rock scrambling, so I'm OK, although having Thelma strapped to me does throw my balance off a bit.

The sturdy sandals are important. The other day, I saw a bevy of 3 girls, all dolled up under their abayas, giggling their way through one of these construction sites on the way to the mall. I could tell they were all dolled up, because they were holding their jet black abayas up out of the pale grey dust, revealing their tight jeans and outrageously high heels. The one who was talking on her cell phone stumbled and almost fell down into a 2-meter-deep pit, but was hauled back up by her friends, who had quite a giggle about it.

But I digress. So, I'm in my sturdy sandals, and I have a choice of walking through actual construction sites, or in the highway, which is very busy, and as far as I can tell has no speed limit. They don't seem to build anything narrower than 6-lane divided highways here. I walked along on the edges for a while, which meant jumping over these thick blue tubes, which are what they use to remove the groundwater and dump it into the sea, so they can build the foundations for all these skyscrapers. I pass some other pedestrians, who are almost always short, dark, skinny men, in blue jumpsuits. I know, I'm short, skinny, and dark by most American standards, but not by Qatari laborer standards. (These aren't actual Qataris of course. They're imported workers like Bob.)

I eventually got to a roundabout, which are what they have here instead of intersections. Cars never actually stop here, they just enter this vortex, orbit it for a while, and then whirl out in a random direction, sort of like when, um, it hits the fan. To get to the park, I had to cross a roundabout exit, an entrance, another exit, and another entrance. To cross each, I had to wait until all three lanes of traffic simultaneously had a gap. This took a while. There were some other pedestrians attempting the same goal at the same time. We had different standards for how big a gap had to be to justify a run for it.

I eventually made it all the way across, and was victoriously in the park's parking lot. After a short walk over baking blacktop, I was on grass. There were birds, two very small cats, and short, dark, skinny guys napping under palm trees. I sat under a tree with fragrant white flowers and unstrapped Thelma, who tried to eat dead fallen flowers. Our patch of shade, like the rest of the park, had a clear view of dozens of construction cranes.

In the shade, the heat was almost bearable, unlike on the walk I'd taken to get there. I eventually concluded that this pleasant patch of shade did not really justify the walk, although the air conditioning in the apartment did justify the walk back. So, I strapped Thelma on again, put my had back on, and set out to do the whole thing in reverse.

I'd crossed only one roundabout entrance, and was waiting for a gap which would allow me to cross the roundabout exit, when a car honked at me. I figured it was one of the informal taxis, so I just waved it away, but the guy pulled over anyway (although there was no shoulder to pull over onto) and rolled down his window. "Need a ride?"

No, I didn't need a ride, thanks, I was just crossing the street.

He got out of his car and proceeded to "help" me by jumping right out in front of speeding cars to try to stop them, so I would have a clear path to walk. Cars were honking and swerving. In these roundabouts, it seems like cars are always on the verge of colliding anyway, and he was pushing things over the edge.

I yelled at him to stop and get back in his car. Anyway, there was no way I was getting into traffic under these conditions. As he was heading my way, I kept backing away from him down the dividing median. He eventually gave up and got back in his car. I crossed when there was a naturally-occurring gap, which occurred soon enough for the patient.

I decided to postpone crossing the next street, but walk on the other side, which had a bit of shade from trees, and less-lumpy construction rubble. Then this same guy pulled his car over and offered me a ride again! He'd gone around the block to intercept me. Sheesh, when some boy scouts want to help an old lady across the street, they just don't give up.

I waved him away again, crossed the 3 lanes of traffic when there was a gap, hung out on the median for a while, crossed the next 3 lanes when there was another gap, and was on my home block. I walked into the ridiculously opulent lobby of this apartment building, full of crystal chandeliers and white orchids. I appreciated the air conditioning.