The Qatar experience

Since I've been home I've been reflecting on what made Qatar such an amazing experience. I came to the conclusion early on that it was he tangata, the people but it's deeper than that. If it was just about the people then those who challenged me would have made this a more negative experience. Not so, in fact they made it a strengthening experience. 

It's more about belonging. In our lives we all have groups of friends, people we have known for years and people we come in contact with through work, sport, children's activities; but we seldom achieve the closeness of a truly shared experience with them. We have outside influences moderating those friendships. Those influences can be our whanau, our spouses, the expectations of others in our lives, others we have to consider on a daily basis. 

We don't usually live on the same floor of an apartment building; we don't usually share a car to work; we don't usually have to rely on each other so heavily through the tough times; we are not usually living alone, away from our usual support systems, in a different country. What develops in this situation is a closeness that can transcend other aspects of our lives.

I believe that when we experience that level of closeness with others, we go back to the times when we were part of a village. When closeness was part of everyday life with communal cooking and food gathering; communal decision making within the tribe. Closeness was survival. During our time in Qatar we had to pull together, to make the situation we found ourselves in work, to succeed. I'm sure that for most of us, this was a life changing experience, an experience that lingers to be reflected on, smiled about and relived through conversations with those who were there. This can be difficult for those we left behind as we come back a little changed, wanting to be in contact with people they have never met and talking about places they have not been to. 

Over a coffee a group of us talked about writing a play to share how we felt, what we experienced. We decided it was a bit like reality TV, just when you got used to one way of doing things, another was revealed. Surely experiences worthy of sharing with a wider audience!  

The photo is of some of the whanau at our last party at Lyn and Kerry's place.