Ramadan in Doha

Sorry for not doing this update sooner, but with my typing skills, anytime at the keyboard takes work. First, let’s talk about Ramadan; this is the month in the Muslim religious year where Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown. In Qatar that is from about 5:30am till 5:19 pm, that means no water, no food, and no nothing. This also means that all the people that use coffee and cigarettes during their day have not had any, they get a little cross. That makes it hard on students, well maybe everybody, trying to work or concentrate during the day. Most business is conducted from 8:00am till Noon/1:00 then everything closes till after Iftar (the evening meal), which is normally huge. We are still waiting on our home ADSL line, during Ramadan is not a real good time to get anything done. Oh, after Ramadan, there is a 7 day holiday to mark the end of Ramadan, so that is another week where the phone company will not get my DSL line installed. By around 8:00pm everybody is out with friends, stores are open, etc. This goes on till early morning hours, which means that a lot of people are at their best the following morning because they have been up till 2:00 am+/-. There is also an early morning meal before the fast starts (4:00am), which means that some people are up at that time. Talk about schedules being screwed up.

It also means that there are no restaurants open during the day, except in hotels, and some of the schools (ours) and you are expected not to eat or drink in public. For someone who likes to get out on the weekend, this causes a few problems. The only place to get breakfast is one of the hotels, which is pricey. The Ramada has a deal, when you get their Breakfast/Brunch, you can use their pool and facilities as part of the package. We have done that with some friends but it is a little steep.

Driving during Ramadan is also a treat, at about 4:30/5:00; everyone is rushing home for the Iftar meal. When they drive in Qatar, everyone is in a rush during a normal day, during this time it is worst because these people have not eaten for 12 hours, their judgment could be questioned. Because of the traffic problems before and after Iftar, we have been careful to try and get out during the time (5:00 to 7:00) when everyone is having their meals and they are not on the roads.

We decided to visit some other parts on the country during the weekend. It is only an hour’s drive to cross from one side to the other. Come to find out, there is almost nothing on the other side, a couple of Oil towns with only company housing and a beach. If we think Doha is boring, the people working in these towns are down right in the middle of “NoWhere”. They are an hour from the nearest store, restaurant, etc. We did get to see a lot of camels, and a lot of desert but nothing to write home about.

Next will be our search for a Villa and our exit from apartment living. We are also on Fall Break in Jordan so that update will come soon.

Time for an update

Things are going fairly smoothly, our broken clothes washer has been repaired and returned. I can go back to doing the washing instead of taking things to the local laundry. We have to water our outdoor plants twice a day because of the dry heat, besides being hot, it is very low humidity most days so the plants dry out during the day. Our new (used) car has finally been transferred to my name, that wasn’t easy either. Took about 2.5 hours at the local traffic department and the guy I was getting the car from spoke Arabic. I hate to think how it would have gone if I was on my own. They say that all of these government type things are getting moved to the Internet, we shall see.

Our house boy has reached the end of his work visa and will be leaving the country the end of October. This is really too bad because besides being good and dependable, he was reasonable. Just one more challenge in our daily lives. Another challenge is dealing with the employees of the local state run phone company. We finally got our land line in the apartment which allowed us to order our high speed ADSL Internet connection. We were told that it will be two weeks before the install. That is all well and good till I talk to another teacher who has been waiting for over 6 weeks for the same service. The phone company just had an article in the local paper about better customer service, it is not happening yet at our place. This is important because it will allow us to “phone home” with Skype at reasonable hours instead of having to do it from the office. I will also be able to get the UT football broadcasts live, see I told you it was important.

Our activities seem to stay fairly busy, for a place that is the most boring country on the planet, what with plays and entertainment (Doha Players), sailing (which I did Friday), book clubs, golf, spa treatments, shopping (we found the Gold Souq), garden club, etc. During our upcoming Fall Break, we are going to take a trip to Jordan, with a couple of day’s layover in Dubai. This break comes during the last two weeks of Ramadan, which does not allow eating, drinking, smoking, etc. during the daylight hours. It is probably a good thing to shorten our students’ schedule, no food or drink from sunup to sundown can make for some grouchy people, teachers included. If we want to eat or drink during the day, it has to be done in private. This will be an interesting time.