Be Careful What You Wear in Qatar, and about Sharing Your Faith says US Embassy
This is from yesterday’s Peninsula. What is equally interesting is the article placement – front page of the newspaper, above the fold.
Recently, several families received notice that their employment was no longer required – or possible – in Qatar. All were members of the same church. They had 30 days to leave. The embassy got involved, and shortly before the required departure, the families got a second letter, this one saying “never mind.”
This is a conservative country.
Be careful with what you wear in Qatar, US tells citizens
Web posted at: 7/13/2009 2:28:8
Source ::: The Peninsula/ BY SATISH KANADY
DOHA: The United States has advisedd its citizens living and visiting Qatar against wearing revealing and ‘provocative’ clothes. It advised US citizens not to go about on public beaches in bath towels. The Mission also discouraged sleeveless shirts and blouses, halter tops and shorts.
Western bathing attire must be worn only at hotel pools and private beaches, it said. US citizens must also avoid visiting labour or work camps, an updated and revised country specific information for Qatar posted on the embassy website said. The warden message that reminded US citizens that it was Islamic traditions that provide the foundation of Qatar’s customs, laws and practices said: “Foreign visitors are expected to remain sensitive to Islamic beliefs and practices and not dress up in a revealing or provocative manner including wearing of sleeveless shirts and blouses, halter tops and shorts. Western bathing attire is to be worn only at hotel pools and private beaches”.
The embassy also cautioned US nationals about discussing religious issues, or answering questions about a religion. The warden message has strictly warned against conversion. “Religion and religious practices are quite sensitive issues in Qatar. Therefore, discussing religious issues should be treated with care and sensitivity. Proselytizing is illegal in Qatar. Attempting to convert a member of one religion to another, “sharing one’s faith” with someone of a different faith, and similar practices can be deemed violations of Qatari law, with deportation or even prison the consequence,” the embassy warned.
The embassy also issued strict guidelines to US citizens involved in charitable activities. “Charitable activities, both religious and non-religious, must be approved in advance by Qatar Authority for Charitable Activities (QACA)
THE PENINSULA
The Low Tech Solution
Two days ago, a cleaning crew came and cleared out the pigeon nest entirely and cleaned up the area. The parent pigeons are gone – I think they found a more congenial dwelling elsewhere. The adolescent pigeons still like to spend the night in our entry.
My husband thinks we need a board with longer nails. The maintenance crew suggested taking out the center light in the entry, the one they perch on, sleep on, and from which they poop-bomb our entry. It is a brilliant idea – the low tech solution. They said they have tried it in other houses in the compound and it works.
We don’t want to be mean to the pigeons, but we sure hate pigeon poop in our entry! I have a shower curtain rod that I bang against the center light, and I bought a squirt bottle (there doesn’t seem to be a water pistol in town; where is Toys R Us when you need them??) and squirted the persistent adolescent who wants to nest here, but . . . he LIKED it! Curses, foiled again! I am guessing taking out the central entry light will do the trick; that seems to be their favorite perch.
Qatteri and Kuwaiti Gazingas
We’ve lived in so many different places and dealt with so many currencies, you’d think we’d be used to it by now, but there is always that confusing time at the beginning, when you are mentally trying to multiply and divide and figure out how much things cost. Generally speaking, we call it the gazinga problem, gazinga being our family generic term for whatever currency we are currently using.
I think the cost of food in Qatar is cheaper, but to figure that out, I have to think what it costs here, translate that from Qatteri riyals to dollars, and then to translate that to Kuwaiti dinars. For example, the Vanilla Caramel coffee stuff I like is 2.250 in Kuwaiti dinars (when I can find it) which is about $8.25, and in Qatar, it is QR 15.50, which is $4.25, a significant difference.
Life in Kuwait became much simpler when my Kuwaiti friend told me “Just think about a Kuwaiti dinar being roughly equivalent to the dollar. Otherwise, you will go crazy.” He was right. When I would go grocery shopping and just think of it in dollars, life became much simpler. Every now and then, when I would multiply by 3.65 to figure out the cost in dollars, I would gasp and put the item back on the shelf. Life is simpler if you just go with it. Mostly, I would look for locally produced vegetables, eggs, etc., and that kept grocery costs down. It’s the imported stuff that gets crazy.
So, irrationally, when I have 500 riyals in my pocket, I feel RICH. I feel secure and protected. (500 riyals {$138} is approximately equivalent to 35KD {$128}). I can’t tell you the number of people who come into town in Qatar and offer to take us to dinner (we’ve learned – we always carry extra cash!) – and then when the bill comes, they are stunned – and embarrassed – that they don’t have enough riyals to cover the bill. It’s not that the places are that expensive – although some of them are – but that it all adds up so quickly, and a couple hundred gazingas may not cover a dinner for four.
In both Kuwait and Qatar, I make it a point to quickly learn where all the cash machines are, the ones for my bank, and the ones that you can use your US credit card in and get cash. You just never know when you are going to find something in a shop that doesn’t take credit cards, or find that you are low on cash and still have a couple stops before you get home. Like knowing where the clean toilets are; it’s a matter of survival. 🙂
In Qatar, 100 Qattari riyals is about $27.50, so when doing rapid calculations, I figure it is around $25, then I add a little.
We are working on getting rid of the pigeons. It took a while – when AdventureMan went to the management and said he wanted the pigeons gone, they didn’t understand him. We say “pijjens” and they say “oh! pij-ee-owns!” The cleaning crew came and cleared out the awful nest yesterday, and only one pigeon came to try to spend the night. I threw pencil erasers at him (I had to gather them all up this morning) and then clanked a big stick. Today I am going to buy a water pistol.
The cleaning crew asked if I wanted to have my windows washed, and oh, yes, I did. It really helps to have lived here before. I know that if you want your windows washed, you can go to the desk, they will schedule it and they charge you around 500 riyals – still a bargain, by stateside standards – about $128 for a two story house with some very hard-to-get-to windows. But if you ask the cleaning crew on the compound, they will come during their time off and charge about half – and all the money goes to the guys who clean the windows. I now have bright, shiny windows – I don’t think they had been washed on the outside since I left over three years ago. Now – they sparkle!
Banks in Kuwait and Qatar are way ahead of banks in the US with their use of technology. When I took money out of our bank account yesterday, AdventureMan called me immediately and asked if I had just taken money out of the account. They had SMS’d him what had been taken out and what was left!
My household goods were delivered two weeks ago today. There are still a few remaining little nests of things that need places, but – not much! We walk around the house with that satisfied feeling of knowing things are in their place, where we can find them insh’allah, when we need them, and there are no more boxes, no more piles – it looks pretty good! Even AdventureMan got his room all in order – Now he walks out of his room and says “Oh! It feels so good to walk in and everything is put away!” and he has a huge grin on his face.
Little Diamond arrives tomorrow night. We can hardly wait. 🙂
Quiet Saturday Lane Change in Doha
I was noticing this morning how quiet and calm the traffic is – after all, it is Saturday, and it is summer. Even so, there is considerable traffic on C-ring, and the occasional arrogant “get-out-of-my-way-this-is-my-country” driver, but not so bad.
At one of the busiest traffic lights in the country, now called the Ramada junction, or “where-the-Ramada-roundabout-used-to-be” the van in the far right lane needs to get over to the left turn lane. In Doha, this is possible. I don’t know how all the cars squeeze together, but the driver makes it across three lanes of traffic to the left turn lanes:
A Night at The Garden
A local well known (here they say “reputed” and I always think it strange, because if we say ‘reputed’ it implies that it may not be true, but here it is meant to say well-known and respected) restaurant, The Garden, is having a month long Indian food festival. It has Indian food year round, but during this month some specialities are introduced, different areas highlighted, etc.
I like this place because my niece, Little Diamond, likes Indian food a lot, and it is a good place to take her. They have a separate restaurant downstairs, purely vegetarian, and another restaurant upstairs that also serves meat.
We went to the purely veg one on Thursday night, and decided to try the buffet. The food was delicious. One curry was so complex that we agreed, adding meat to it would have added NOTHING! It was so tasty without it.
The chef was making little crepe-like pancakes that you can roll food in, and then these little “paniera” made with the same dough, only with chives and savory flavorings in them:
This is what they look like up close:
The Garden is located at the corner of Al Rayyan and Kharabaa (also called Old Electricity Street). If you haven’t been in that area for a while, take your hard hat. A lot of the buildings are being bulldozed. I cannot imagine what the street will be like without Bombay Silk and Qatar Studios, but I see several stores have already disappeared.
Angel Wings
Every now and then, a blessing happens that is just so magnanimous, so unexpected, that I am just overwhelmed with awe at it all.
One of my sweet friends flew into Doha to help me unpack boxes. I was stuck; the room I was unpacking required lots of decisions, and I just couldn’t see my way to making them. I was just overwhelmed.
My angel friend showed up on my doorstep and whirled through the boxes, unpacking, shooing me out of the room, getting everything put away while I worked elsewhere. The room is now in order, and, as she says, I can re-order it to my liking a little piece at a time, but meanwhile, I can work in there without having a panic attack from all the boxes not unpacked.
When she had finished unpacking and putting away, she put her hand on her hips and said “That’s all??? No more boxes???” I was tempted to let her loose on AdventureMan’s room, but I resisted the temptation. LLLOOOLLL, I was so stuck, and she really rescued me.
Progress
The living room is now an island of sanity, but the women’s majlis has descended into semi-insanity until I get the book cases there together.
The kitchen remains an island of sanity, as does the guest bedroom.
The master bedroom has some insane corners.
The office and the quilt room are the big challenge.
One little Pigeon has flown, but . . . he doesn’t seem to be able to get back to the ledge. He is hiding behind a large flower pot on my porch. Theother one shows signs of being interested, but hasn’t taken the leap. I wish the little one on the ground would fly – until he does, he is just . . . cat food!
And in case any of you are really reading this far – I’m going to become a grandmother! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!
A Small Adventure in Qatar
Here is one reason I love AdventureMan. He loves to go exploring, and Friday mornings after church are our favorite time. I am showing him some new routes, because the street patterns have changed, and where the pigeon mosque used to be, and he notices that the GATE IS OPEN!
So here is what I love. The gate is open. There is no sign saying No Entry. To AdventureMan – and to me – that means that it is not forbidden, which means that it is allowed, right?
There is no guard on duty – it’s Friday. Maybe they are praying.
And the pigeon mosque is still there! I was so afraid they were tearing it down. I don’t know what the real name of this mosque is. There used to be parking behind it where all the Pakistani drivers parked their decorated delivery trucks, and those of us visiting the souks in that area parked there, too. Now, there is almost NO parking available unless you get there at like 6 in the morning. (Actually, if you get there around 0830 on Saturday morning, you can find a parking place.) We call it the pigeon mosque because all the pigeons gather on the roof there. The mosque has been totally gutted and is being renovated.
The rest of what used to be a place filled with cheap junky stores is gone. Demolished and carted away. It’s just a big empty space. No clue yet as to what is going in.
We will have to wait for another day when the gate is open – inviting us to come in. 🙂
Ready to Fly Away
The baby pigeons are up, walking around and fluttering their wings – until I open the window to take a photo, and then they go into the if-we-hide-our-faces-she-can’t-see-us-mode. Daddy pigeon makes noises deep in his throat which I understand to mean “Go away.”
This may be the last photo. They seem to me to be getting ready to fly, and once that happens, we will clean out the area and hope they don’t come back. I love the sound of their voices, but I totally hate pigeon poop.
The Qatteri Cat Kicks Back
While I am moaning and groaning about unpacking boxes, the Qatteri Cat just happy as can be. He hates air conditioning, so he is always looking for a nice warm place, and that place changes from time to time. Right now, he loves my favorite chair, which is fine with me because I’m not using it these days while I am unpacking. Every time we unpack a rug, he rolls around on it in delight, and says “Hey! This rug smells like HOME!”
This room has great light. When I need to do some work my hand, I can sit in this chair – that is when QC is not already occupying the chair – and put my feet up on the other chair. Once I get the boxes unpacked, and everything put away, QC and I will spend a lot of time in this room. 🙂
Just wait until this weekend – AdventureMan is going to put together his scratching post and his cat stand!
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