July took me back to Calgary for my annual visit home. I spent four weeks reconnecting with family and friends – and it was a very busy time indeed. I joked about having to go back to Doha to recover, and that was not far from the truth. It felt a bit odd to be at home for a while, partly because my house is also home to two boarders who have made their imprint on the place. I had to remind myself that I was there only one month out of twelve and it was their home, too. I felt I was a bit of an intruder, even though neither one of them was there for the majority of the time I was there. Bruce works during the summer months up at the Columbia Icefield and Greg was on vacation for a week and works out of town a fair bit. Bruce got home for one day so I saw him briefly, and I didn’t even see Greg until the third week I was home.
The first morning at home, my wonderful next door neighbors had me and some other neighbors over for breakfast. Pork sausages – yum!! That night I had dinner with a group of dear friends who I see only rarely, but who are such a wonderful part of my life. I spent as much time as possible with my kids and grandchildren, trying to absorb every memory of their wonderful faces and adorable personalities. I took a side trip to San Diego to visit my mom who is doing great! My calendar was booked nearly every day with meetings, appointments, and socializing (breakfasts, coffees, lunches, dinners with friends and former work colleagues) – it was wonderful! When I returned to Doha and turned the page on my calendar, the Augusst page was blank!
Returning to Doha, I walked off the plane at midnight into what felt like a slap in the face with a wet towel. It is extremely hot and humid here now – in the mid-40’s Celsius every day with humidity in the 70% range. I only go out to go to work or to get groceries – cabin fever! Most UCQ staff (my social network) are still away; except for work, I spend lot of time alone. I have a great pile of books, some movies/ TV shows I have downloaded, and have done some cooking to have things in the freezer.
Ramadan started earlier this week (Aug. 11th). Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar which is a time for fasting and prayer. It is illegal to smoke, drink or eat in public between sunrise and sunset, which means no coffee or water at my desk at work. The cafeteria at work and all restaurants are closed until sunset so there’s no running out to grab a bite during the day. I have never been great at brown bagging it, but I’ve had to change that habit. Many Qataris are still away for the summer so traffic is lighter.
The other night I was picking up a friend at another apartment building. As I waited, a man approached my car. I rolled down the window to find out what he wanted. (I know, you’d never do that in Calgary, but Doha is different.) He was in tears and said he had only been in Doha for 20 days and that he has a “urine problem”, and then he starting lifting his shirt to show me something. I shook my head and told him "no" and rolled up the window, but I felt so bad. The ex-pat workers live in conditions we would find deplorable and work so hard. By comparison our lives are so privileged and I was feeling really awful for saying no to him. I could easily have given him some riyals to go to the clinic and it would have made so little difference to me. This came on the same night as the news report of how little humanitarian aid was going to the victims of the flooding in Pakistan. My heart was bleeding. I felt so awful, but I just wasn’t sure how I should have handled the situation. The next day at work I was telling our CAO about it – he has many years of Gulf experience. He smiled and told me it was a scam – and apparently a very common one at that. Since Ramadan is also a time for Muslims to be more charitable, some scam artists know this and approach unsuspecting foreigners (very white me-types) with sad tales. He told me the guy was likely showing me a colostomy bag (or some reasonable-looking fake) with apple juice in it. I still felt bad about the Pakistan situation and immediately got on-line and made a donation – I hope you did to.
Not much changed in Doha while I was away. Construction is still going on everywhere and it doesn’t appear that much progress was made in my absence. The cats that are usually everywhere (usually in the garbage bins) have slunk away to find some cooler places to hang out. People drive around shopping centre parking lots forever to find the parking spot closest to a door so they won’t have to walk too far in this heat. One thing I’ve noticed is that the sky seems less polluted – likely the result of fewer people being in town and spewing exhaust.
Since things are rather dull right now, I look forward to Florence, Italy where I will be in less than a month. Six of us will be winging our way there on September 10th. We need to get going on our plans for what we want to see/do, and to make some reservations for the museums so we don’t spend hours standing in line. I’m very much looking forward to this trip since almost everyone I have talked to who has been there absolutely loved the Tuscan region. So stay tuned for updates of my next adventure.
