- The name QATAR means "drop of rain."
Once upon a time it rained a lot on this desert peninsula. Now there's so little moisture that the country didn't bother putting in a stormwater system. When the sky does shed, water floods the streets until a truck appears with a great hose, sucks up the pool and hauls it off. (The city's sewage system consists of a series of trucks that collect waste matter and...take it away.)
Nine more random somethings:
- Most (as in: all but the most rebellious) Qatari marriages are arranged and inter-familial. Mom and Sis find Bro a bride - sometimes at family weddings.
- A woman is not allowed to attend funerals or burials. Nope, not for her children or husband, either. Because it's "a woman's nature" to cry - and her tears disturb the deceased's journey.
- Family and friends give money to children during Eid. How much? Teens may collect "a few thousand" Qatari Riyal while younger kids typically walk away with "a few hundred."
- Extended Qatari families live together in one big house behind a high concrete wall. A bride moves in with her husband's family, but she doesn't change her name.
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interesting door and gate surround an Al Khor home |
- Oil gets its own aisle in the grocery store. (Chocolate has its own aisle too but there were too many people there to snap a surreptitious photo.)
- Toilet paper, generally speaking, is not provided in public facilities. When toilet paper is utilized, it is disposed of in an open trash can, NOT the bowl.
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toilet paper wall dispenser; take what you need BEFORE entering stall |
- Actual restaurant napkins:
- It's acceptable to park near the front door of any random restaurant and honk your horn repeatedly. Someone will appear, take your order and bring it out to you.
- There aren't any palm trees on Palm Tree Island (a deserty mound in the middle of Doha Bay). Just one lonely Eucalyptus:
My head's over occupied this week: there's that Arabic final coming up and a work thing to learn. And, oh yeah, Christmas, which we plan to spend with other wayfarers cruising Doha Bay on a dhow.
But mostly Bob and I are all-a-jumble-flump excited about the upcoming visit of our wondrous misses Katie and Kimber.
It's K TIME!
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