Humidity on Fire

humidity fog encircles Fanar

 

I'm inside my peaceful apartment when the alarm goes off. Get out get out get out! it shrieks.

 

Mid-September in Doha. Outside temperatures hover just above hell and death. Humid, boiling air shimmers, a pavement tornado. Hair wilts. Shoes melt. Water courses down buildings, fogs window panes, puddles on sidewalks.

 

Hot is sunshine, warmth, rosy cheeks. Humidity is clothing glued to slick, greasy skin.

 

Love the hot. The humidity? Not so much.

 

The boardwalk below my window is empty as a world of people seek relief from the boiling, burning steaminess in air conditioned interior Doha. Where always on AC's hum icy wind into corners. And temperatures range from cool-and-breezy to Alaska-meets-Antarctica levels. I huddle in a thick blanket wearing fuzzy socks and a sweatshirt. Goosebumps rise on my arms and legs. My scalp tingles.

 

I am polar ice wrapped in equatorial fire.

 

I turn off the AC and the ice in my nose melts. I remove the blanket, toss aside the socks. Comfortable - but only for a moment.

 

When muggy air stops moving, summer smells like warm bread and beach morph rapidly into moldy shower and old meat. Spicy food scents shuffle in through the ceiling and walls and make me sneeze. The kitchen vent bleats open/shut/open/shut as laborers toiling over yet another roof construction project allow sultry air in/out/in/out. Sweat mounts the hair on my arms and bubbles at my scalp. The wet tickles.

 

I flip the AC back on. But this time I also open the balcony door.

 

Sweltering air mixes with frosty wind like hot and cold tap water. Soon the environment is a perfect combination of winter's chill and summer's scorch. I move easily from the air conditioned balcony to the heated living room. I am a grassy bank in the American Midwest Fall, a trip to the lake in the Missouri USA Spring. Feet tapping cool water, skin caressed by the perfect breeze. Garnished with just enough hot.

 

I fold the blanket, toss socks and sweaty shirt into the laundry, dance across the living room.

 

The alarm is shrill and sudden, a horn in my ear. Lights flash at the intercom. Fire? The hallway outside my apartment is silent.

 

I search the single bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath, laundry space. No fire, no embers, no smoke, no place to hide.

 

I call the front desk. The receptionist yawns. "Someone will come," she says. In sha allah. "No worries."

 

Head throbbing from the shrieking alarm, I slam and lock doors, stumble down two flights of stairs, run across a garage, descend two additional floors and hurry through a hall to the front desk. "There's a fire in my apartment," I say. Maybe?

 

"He is coming," says the receptionist. She shrugs. "Never mind."

 

I reverse the journey, return to the apartment. The alarm is off. The frozen room hums. Let it go, it seems to say.

 

Twenty minutes later a single security guard arrives, wearing a coat. He wanders the apartment, peeks into corners. "Did you open the door, ma'am?" His voice accuses.

 

I nod.

 

He shakes his head, sighs. "It's the humidity, Ma'am. But do not worry. If it was a real fire, we would come."

 

I reach for my blanket, a clean pair of fuzzy socks. Another sweatshirt. The cold never bothered me anyway, I think.

 

Only…it's not true.

 

 

Read more about (my experience with) Doha's weather: 

On 86% Humidity

Hot and Hotter: Doha Weather

Inside Day

Upside Down Moon Watching

Qatari Moon, 2012

photo credit: Mary Toula Bacandreas Gentile

 

 

Sun casts a shadow on the moon

As the earth spins round and round.

Sometimes it seems the moon smiles up

Sometimes it grins upside down.

 

 

The moon looks different depending upon where you are in the world.  In the northern hemisphere, light shines on the moon from a clockwise direction, causing it to wax and wane from left to right.  In the southern hemisphere, light shines counter clockwise resulting in the opposite movement.

 

In the northern hemisphere, the first quarter looks like a growing D

while in the southern hemisphere it looks like a C

-PrimaryHomeworkhelp

 

In places near-ish the equator, like Qatar, the first quarter of the moon grins upside down in an "n" shape while the last quarter smiles up in a "u."

 

What does the moon look like where you are?

 

Moon over Qatar
February 16, 2014

 

poem copyright 2014, Lucinda H. Kennaley

top photo credit to the illustrious and talented once-an-expat, Mary Toula Bacandreas Gentile.  Thanks, Mary!!

Hot and Hotter: Doha Weather

Bob sweats in out at the dunes

June, 2012

 

First, it's true what "they" say about Doha July and August.  The sun rises at 4am and is fireball hot by 9am.  Heat and humidity mingle to waterfall down the sides of buildings and puddle into a moat outside doors and windows.  Skin bubbles with wet as you step outside and freezes into dandruffy crystals when you reenter.  The sea doesn't boil - not exactly - but a dip in the simmering Gulf doesn't offer relief from the crushing, microwave-like, skin, hair and eyebrow burning sun.

 

The hottest day I've experienced is 129F, with humidity.  I went for a run; crawled back.

 

There is a plus: many locals and others leave the city in July and August, so historically there's very little traffic.

 

In March and April, the wind picks up.  Sand blows in horizontal lines across the horizon, obscuring the sun, hiding buildings and the bay outside my window.  Gritty stuff creeps under windows and doors, coats patios and living room coffee tables.  Sand drifts in great blizzardy mounds across the road and everyone - everyone - covers faces.

 

patio sand writing: awwww!

 

In May and June the sun takes first steps toward its great, grand summer crescendo.  These brilliant-skied months feel like California, USA beach and pool season - but the danger is deceptive.  Burning rays will baste basking skin.  Wear sunscreen.  Lots of sunscreen.

 

Predictably unpredictable, hot, sandy, sweaty, dangerous.  Until…one day in September you notice your clothes aren't as wet as you walk across the parking lot to your car.  The air conditioning doesn't seem as arctic.  There are trucks full of rich, black, life producing earth rumbling toward roadway medians.  Men with shovels dig flower beds outside government offices.  Branches covered in rose hued blooms cascade over walls.  And there are…people.  Walking the Corniche at 11am, feeding the ducks in Aspire Park at all hours.  There are families about on Friday, children on the Ramallah Park swings, evening activities in Heritage Park, women strolling the boardwalk under my window late into the night.

 

It's Winter in Doha.

 

a family picnics at the Corniche, November 2012

 

Doha winter is payback for July and August, compensation for March and April, a daydream wish on a sweaty June day.  It's the longest running, most beloved Doha season, spanning September-ish into March-ish.  Doha winter is a blue skied, floral filled wonder.  It's Christmas and Easter, first and second Eid and a family wedding rolled into one great, grand celebration worthy offering.

 

There is beach sun from 11am-2pm.  The sea is cool and refreshing.  There are flowers in pots and along the sides of the road.  The daytime sun is warm and inviting.  It's jogging, sweater, let's go dune-bashing/camping at the Inland Sea weather.

 

And sometimes, when the people have been very good - like this year - there's…RAIN.  Which means: TRUFFLES.

 

"…Every year, if there is sufficient rain early in the winter season, truffles form just under the sandy or rocky desert surface, and searching for them is a local family pastime…"

Frances Gillespie, Hidden Delicacies of the Desert

 

Of course, warm, like cold, wealth and what constitutes an acceptable serving of Blue Bunny Chunky Chocolate Chip ice cream - is relative.  If you're accustomed to thermometer readings that zoom toward 129F, temperatures in the 60s and 70s (Fahrenheit) may feel like winter coat, hat and glove season.

 

too busy enjoying the beautiful Doha winter to take pics of guys in coats

here's a racing camel instead

 

But if you've been parked in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, where winter means negative double digit cold (without considering wind chill!) plus snow and ice and an endless season of no-sun, chubby-making indoor activities…temperatures in the 60s, 70s - or even 40s and 50s (Fahrenheit) - under a clear, slate blue sky - or rain!...feels like a vacation.

 

pretty Doha winter day

Looking forward to playing outside again!

 

On Missing Eyebrows (and other Doha realities)

Missing Eyebrows

 

The well put together local woman sports perfectly shaped, beautifully manicured, smooth, dark, thick, salon tended designer eyebrows.  She covers her skin with abaya and sheyla, and stays indoors when it's hot.

 

Expats wog, wander and hang at the beach where the only thing warmer than the water is the scalding white sand.  The respectful foreign guest covers from shoulders to knees, minimum, and protects remaining exposed areas with sunscreen 45.  But in a place where temperatures regularly exceed 120 muggy "real feel" degrees, roasted skin and sun bleached hair, including eyebrows, happens.

 

I paint the missing color in.

 

 

But I don't pluck:

 

With regard to dyeing the eyebrows or a part of them with a blonde colour or a colour similar to that of the skin, there is nothing wrong with this, as was stated in a fatwa issued by our Shaykh 'Abd al-'Azeez ibn 'Abd-Allaah ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him and raise his status). He also stated in a fatwa that it is permissible to remove hair growing between the eyebrows because this is not part of them, but he stated that it is not permissible to trim the eyebrows if they are not troublesome or causing harm.

islam-qa

 

Bananas go from green to yellow overnight

 

grass green yesterday

 

In Doha, hard, green, just bought bananas are soft and yellow by morning, banana bread ready in three short days.  If anyone you know likes a banana a day to replenish minerals lost after climbing 12 flights to the sky on a sunny, muggy, hot-air-pummeled Doha jobsite…buy a bunch!  But just 3- 4 at a time.

 

You say: "Shukran" she says: "You're Welcome"

 

There is no bookstore at Qatar University.  No game day tee shirts in Arabic, school pens, mugs, water bottles.  Looking for an Arabic language tee shirt to take home to the fam?  Good luck - because it's all English in Doha.

 

Cashiers, sackers, managers and stockers, service and salespeople at Carrefour, H&M and Zara, Asian cleaning crews, strangers on the street, hawkers at the souq, the covered lady in the bread aisle (she's not necessarily Arab):  there are three times more expats than locals in Doha and they all wake up expecting to spend the day in English.  There are a few phrases every nationality seems to understand and an Arab busy thinking in English appreciates: "shukran" (thank you), "ma'a salama" (good bye) and "wayn al hammam?" (where's the bathroom).  But - expect the response to be in English, no matter where the queried person is from.

 

Afternoon Siesta

 

There is morning, where office clerks file, take calls, fill orders…shops are open and it's possible to get business done.  Then there is Doha afternoon:

 

Katie and Kimber attempt to shop the souq one afternoon

(if there were crickets, they'd be chirping)

 

At 1pm, an unsuspecting reader (me) is asked to leave the Qatar National Library.  A mall bookstore closes and the clerk waits for shoppers (also me) to notice.  All over the city, workers rush home to eat, sleep, pray, sip tea, pet the falcon.  This is family time, when non-worker night-living people are (finally) out of bed and worker bee types break.

 

Hey, it's doggone hot in the afternoon (see above).

 

Some (Middle Eastern flexible) time around 4pm, shops unlock, libraries and bookstores reopen.  Locals parade through souq shops and Arabic is heard on the street.  Fast moving Suburbans flash lights in rearview mirrors, teenage boys chase one another through traffic in Porsches and Camaros, traffic snarls around fender benders...and worse.

 

We tend to stay home at night, wrapped in fuzzy blankets, watching Conan (O'Brien).  We don't hear a lot of Arabic this way (see above), but it does keep us alive.

 

Shoes

 

Sports Day, abaya, children, sand

silver shoes, henna

purty shoes a must

 

There is Drinking in Doha (but not at The Pearl)

 

Once upon a time there was alcohol at The Pearl.  Every night a live band played to sellout crowds at the restaurant below our balcony and it was standing room only at the billiards and sports bar beside the terrace pool.

 

Then "something happened": an "incident" involving an expat, too much drink and an outdoor space.

 

*Snap* no more likker at The Pearl.

 

Today in the evenings, a scattering of tourists and locals wander the first curve of the Pearl's boardwalk where lonely salesmen and women (check facebook, send email, play games on phones and ipads) inside gleaming upscale shops selling $1,000 dresses and $700 shoes.

 

The rest of the resort is quiet.  Security guards wander empty boardwalks under tarp covered, unfinished towers that circle the bay.  Nights, Bob and I wog in the darkness beside docked yachts as Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" pours from speakers tucked in the palm trees.

 

Margaritas are available at international hotels in West Bay or the airport and mix (and other stuff) may be purchased with a license at the country's likker establishment.  But there is no more drinking (shoppers, diners, buyers) at The Pearl.

 

Threshold Pools

 

Inside Doha is cold:  freezer-chill Suburbans drop moms wearing ski pants at the mall where babies in snowsuits enjoy ice cream cones at indoor amusement parks.  Expats in sweats and double socks huddle in fuzzy blankets and sip hot cocoa while warming hands over steamy dinners.  Water transforms to ice on kitchen counters.

 

I might be exaggerating - a little - about the ice cubes...but it's true that if you spend much time indoors in Doha it's easy to forget just how hot it is "out there."  Where pudding air shimmers over a charcoal and barbecue pavement.  Heat melts the soles of tennis shoes, burns up generators, fries car batteries, sears nose hair, bleaches eyebrows.

 

And moisture fogs glass, transforms into liquid that rolls down the sides of buildings, collects in moat-worthy puddles at thresholds.  (Wear shoes, step wide…)

 

fogged glasses, fogged camera

Oh the Hawtness

Qatar's Water: is it safe to drink?

rooftop water tanks, business location overlooking Doha's West Bay

 

A 60-year old maintenance worker was cleaning inside a neighborhood water tank.  The ladder broke.  He fell:

 

"A dead body was found…inside a water reservoir at a residential building in Al Wakra, after residents there complained that murky water had been flowing through their faucets for at least two days…The water was smelling very bad - So bad that the smell spread throughout my house..."

dohanews.co

 

Qatar is a peninsula country, surrounded by water.  Lots and lots of water.  Yet clean, sweet, drinkable liquid is a precious commodity - for three primary reasons:

 

Location:  the country inhabits a desert near the hottest part of the planet.

Moisture:  Rain is rare.

Content:  the sea surrounding the country is very, very salty.

 

Salty enough to:

• burn eyes
• dry hair and skin
• clean wounds
• pickle a cucumber, season a kiss

 

dhow: pearling vessel

Once upon a time, Qataris were Bedouins who herded camels and goats in the desert.  They subsisted on camel milk, dates, imported rice and locally caught fish.  Fresh, sweet drinking water was shipped into the country from Bahrain.  Seafarers rationed potable liquid for long journeys into the Gulf, where pearl divers leapt into the sea as many as 100 times a day for months at a time.  The briny water burned hair off heads, dried skin, carved wrinkles into sun browned faces.

Life was hard.

Then one day there was oil and gas.

 

And people.  From the West, East and everywhere in between.  With cars that needed roads to link neighborhoods full of buildings with kitchens, bathrooms, gardens, pets and vegetation.

 

All of which needed water.

 

It was quickly determined that the odd well, aquifer or country-to-country dhow service wouldn't satisfy the needs of the rapidly growing community.  A water treatment system was required.

 

Here's what I've learned about Qatar's water production and distribution system:

 

The country continues to rely on groundwater as well as recycled water (ie, "treated sewage effluent") for irrigation and other purposes, but desalinated (a process whereby the salt is removed from sea water) liquid is its primary resource for drinking water.  Since 1995 (when, coincidentally, former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani succeeded to power, expat population expanded and urbanization increased) use of desalinated water has tripled in Qatar.^[1]

 

Desalination plants usually do not treat raw sea water, but "brackish water" or water drawn from alluvial wells near the sea.  It's lower in sodium content, has less organics, and is thus easier to treat.

- Curtis Gentile

 

In 1953, Qatar had five sea water desalination plants with a total capacity of 150040 gallons/day.  Today's plants have a capacity exceeding 327 MIGD ("million imperial gallons per day").^[2]  The desalination plant at Ras Laffan opened 31 May 2011 and uses a "multi-effect distillation/thermal vapour compression" system.^[3]  At the time it was the largest power and water plant in the country.

 

Doha's drinking water is primarily a bi-product of the gas-to-liquid conversion process at Ras Laffan.  Condensing the gas generates lots of heat, and raw sea water is pumped to the reactors for cooling. The sea water evaporates (boils) in the process, and the condensate is captured, treated and pumped to Doha through multiple water mains.  Pretty ingenious, huh?

- Curtis Gentile

 

In May 2013, development of a new sea water distillation plant began in Ras Abu Fontas.  The plant will produce 36 MIGD of desalinated water and is expected to open in 2015.^[4]

 

Today Qatar rides the fast track to modern.  That means a place that little more than 60 years ago had one main street market now boasts high rise office buildings, apartments, villas, tennis courts and spas.  Residents live comfortably with electricity, cell phones, malls, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, flushing toilets, hot and cold running water, ice cream, lush gardens, a zoo and a water park.  Even the most rural desert bound tent dweller has a generator, internet and cable tv - with boxy air conditioners affixed to the canvas-like fabric.

 

watering

In some areas, pipes carry fresh water from water treatment facilities to homes and businesses while a separate system of pipes carries waste away.  In locations where services haven't yet reached the neighborhood, a gravity fueled water tank provides potable water.  A convoy of trucks fill tanks with clean, sweet drinkable stuff while a separate system of trucks empty underground tanks of waste.

Sewage is stored temporarily in underground tanks before being sucked out with a Vac Truck.  Qatar does have waste water treatment plants. They don't yet have a comprehensive collection system (sewers, manholes, pump stations) to get the sewage there.

- Curtis Gentile

 

 

yum!

 

In 2011, Kahramaa (the country's water company) claimed that "Qatar may have the highest rate of water consumption in the world per capita, at 430 liters a day." ^[5]  Two years later, in January 2013, Qatar's Supreme Council of Health completed a study involving 3500 samples of Qatar's tap water.  With only traces of non-toxic dust and dirt the country's water was determined safe to drink. ^[6]

 

Distribution systems are often the source of water quality problems anywhere (not just Qatar). Qatar's water seems more susceptible to quality problems due to the many relatively small storage tanks located on the roofs of houses and buildings (baking in the sun).

- Curtis Gentile

 

While Bob and I do drink bottled water, we also fill mugs at the park, tip containers (glasses, coffee pots and ice cube trays) under the faucet and cup hands in the sink.  Generally speaking, Qatar's water is sweet, clean and safe to drink.

 

Unless it's brown and smells bad.  Then we don't drink it.

 

Our Cabinet Stash

Sources: 



Curtis Gentile is a civil engineer with many years' experience in management of  projects involving water and power supply, waste water, storm water, flood management and more in a wide variety of locations, including Doha, Qatar.


Photo: the fabulous Curtis and Mary Gentile in Doha

Other sources:

1 - Qatar is Booming, "Qatar to launch series of water saving initiatives," [http://www.qatarisbooming.com/2011/03/31/qatar-to-launch-series-of-water-saving-initiatives/], July 2103

2 - Fahad Tolefat, "Solutions for Water," [http://www.solutionsforwater.org/solutions/state-of-qatar-experience-in-seawater-desalination-2], July 2013 

3 - Desalination.biz, "MED/TVC desalination plant inaugurated in Qatar," [http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id=5939&title=MED/TVC+desalination+plant+inaugurated+in+Qatar], July 2013 

4 - Qatar Electricity and Water Company, "New Ras Abu Fontas Plant to Open in 2015," [http://www.qewc.com/qewc/en/index.php/qewc/81-other/127-qatar-projects-magazine], July 2013

5 - Omarsc, "Qatar's water usage 'highest in the world' per capita," [http://dohanews.co/post/19625088182/qatars-water-usage-highest-in-the-world-per-capita], July 2013 
6 - Shabinakhatri, "Despite new findings emphasizing quality of Qatar's tap water, debate continues," [http://dohanews.co/post/41187843071/despite-new-findings-emphasizing-quality-of-qatars-tap], July 2013

Cold and Wet in Doha

One day,  it rained.

Not just  a drizzle, not just for an hour.  All. Day. Long.  The sky heavy with low, fat clouds.  Puddle making, skin drenching, chill producing, wet.  Heaven opened flood gates wet.  Tears on my beach wet.

 

West Bay one foggy, rainy day

 

No stormwater system meant pool sized puddles filled streets.  Shoes, socks, jeans, underwear soaked, hair plastered to heads.

 

And still the rain came down and down and down.

 

Foreigners cowered inside under blankets but locals took to the streets.  Walkways were packed with happy groups of men and women in traditional dress, carrying umbrellas, wearing coats.

 

In Arabic class, Qatari Teacher's teenage niece texted her.  "Isn't the weather amazing?"

 

Teacher smiled.  "We prayed for it," she said.  "Water is the essence of life."

 

I shook my head and my life dripped to the floor.

 

Perspective is everything.

 

You see, when "normal" temperatures often exceed 115F - cold and wet isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

Winter in Doha is cool temperatures (mornings as whoa-low as 60F!), rare drops of rain, chill wind with spitting, stinging sand.

 

Security guards in heavy winter coats, ski gloves and thick pants shivering through 12-hour stand-in-one-place shifts. Workers in stocking caps and boots sweeping walkways.
 

 

Sand in teeth during a last time jog with run-everyday-no-matter-what daughter.

 

Long stretches without a Beach Day.  Brown roots showing in fading sun-bleached hair.

 

Space heaters (no central heat in the desert), blankets, leggings, shoes instead of sandals.  Whole rooms constructed of tile means it's colder inside than outside.

 

But then...Doha Winter is also planting, fertilizing, digging, weeding, watering.  Happy flowers.

 

 

Desert camps, falcon events, dune bashing, truffle hunting.  Crowds running the Corniche until 10am.  Beach sun between 10am-2pm.

 

winter camps under a blue desert sky

 

Brown dish-dashas.

 

 

And one day, at least…rain.

 

rainy afternoon at The Pearl

Five Favorite Doha Somethings

In honor of the anniversary of Bob's first year in Doha (October 16, although he didn't actually arrive until nearly October 18) here are five of my favorite somethings about the country:

 

The People

 

Family Day at the park

 

It's hard to meet Qataris.  Women cover with niqab.  Locals live in walled compounds, rest in the  mornings, and do what they do in the afternoon, evening and overnight.  Women and men (officially) don't mix so I won't be able to tell you much about the men.

 

But the women?  The few I've met in a personal setting are smart, kind, hard-working, interested and interesting. They work in education, politics, travel and family…and roll their eyes at the Western notion that Men Make Them Cover.  I like them.

 

Seventy years ago Qatar was a vast expanse of sparsely populated land with Bedouins meeting seaside for summer pearl diving and doing the camel and goat raising thing in the winter.  Drinking water was shipped in from Bahrain.  The country's first schools weren't built until the 1950s.  Oil and gas was discovered in 1939 but took ten years to produce since the British were busy with WWII.  Even then, the people didn't share in the wealth until Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani came to power in 1995.

 

That's not even twenty years ago! Qatar hasn't had time to produce its own experienced architects, engineers, contractors, lawyers…there are no local professional mentors and internships, as we (ie, Americans) know them.  Rules are inconsistent because Qataris are still figuring out what works.  Some say that the under-30 generation has been handed too much too soon too fast - and that subbing out the lowest level jobs (ie, starting their kids out at the top of the food chain) hurts the country in the long run. 

 

Yet, somehow, in under one generation Qataris have gone from this:

 

my photo taken of a museum video, early pearl diving and fishing in Doha

 

to this:

 

West Bay from the Pearl's beach today

 

I think that's pretty amazing.

 

Call to Prayer

 

There's a saying: the family that prays together stays together. What about a whole country of people worshipping side by side?

 

Once upon a time the muezzin climbed to the top of the minaret to announce prayer. Today, a select few who've learned the recitation rules called Tajweed intone from a microphone inside the mosque, broadcast to the city through speakers in the minaret.  Sometimes individuals recite from boats, sitting cross-legged in a park, standing alone on a street.  Prayer times are determined by the sun and moon, but the moment the muezzin steps up or the individual begins varies slightly.  The result is a sonorous, peaceful sort of musical round that coats the city five times a day.  I always stop to listen.

 

minaret from inside the Grand Mosque

 

West Bay at Night

 

No worries over the light bill here.  Empty buildings and those under construction are lit too. It's doggone purty.

 

West Bay at night via Cindi's little camera

 

Corniche

 

A green-lined boardwalk that circles the water overlooking lighthouse Fanar, funky cool Islamic Museum, step pyramid Sheraton Hotel and Palm Tree Island with its one lonely Eucalyptus.  Where dates hang in heavy bunches from palm trees and dhows wait for passengers.  It's a scenic, popular, marked 6000-meter run/walk that spans West Bay and leads into downtown.  Ladies in abaya wearing red adidas stroll alongside Europeans in shorts and tank tops.  Children ride bikes, pull wagons and toss birdseed for flocks of pigeons.  Awesome.

 

Plus, if you park close to the Sheraton, there's free internet.  :)

 

 

Winter

 

While folks in my homeland (Missouri, USA) toss ice-melt on the driveway, crank up the heater and haul out the snow shovel, we're waking up to Spring breezes, California beach sun and endless (constantly tended) rows of flowers.  Survive July and August - and, okay, September…and, yeah, most of October…winter is the payoff.

 

But the best thing about Doha in the Winter?  When these two endure the two day journey (again, soon!) to give me a holiday squeeze:

 

Christmas 2011 in Doha wit' me gurls: happiness redux very soon!

On 86% Humidity

When desert air is humid:

  

 

1.  Slog, don't jog.

2.  Cover your knees and shoulders (remember you're in Doha).

3.  Bring water, duh.

4.  Expect to sweat (wear inappropriate absorbent attire under tee).

5.  Sunglasses necessary.

6.  Carry a towel.

 

Because it's not just "hot."  It's not just "humid."  It's breathing melted cheese while jogging underwater inside a sauna.  It's a Phoenix, Arizona summer cuddled up to a Riverside, California smog alert.  Really, you shouldn't be outside at all when the air is this thick.  A few things about 86% humidity: 

• air is heavy, tangible, thick, wet:  99 fahrenheit with humidity equals 128 "real feel" degrees
 
• water blankets the city, shrouds the skyline, fills lungs
 
• moisture streaks windows, waterfalls to pavement, creates moats
 
• soaked cotton glues to skin, burps when tugged
 
• air pudding coats lung lining like cake batter in a bowl...complicates breathing
 
• slippery skin glistens with drops drip-drip-dripping from nose-elbow-fingertips (ick)
 
• enter a cold space and sweat crystalizes, flakes to the floor like summer snow (double ick)

• puddles form on concrete, ears clog, glasses and phones fog

• the world is a heady mix of locker room and air freshener - a sweet, acrid, salty perfume

This is the time of year that loosely worn abayas, dishdashas and gallabeas make sense.  Strangely, the more you wear the more comfortable you are: skin is sun protected, air moves, sweat dries, stains don't show.

As long as you spend most of the day...indoors.

Garangao!

A Doha summer isn't "hot."  It's sweat falling like a river from bare skin.  Waterfalls pouring off foreheads.  Wet jeans and soaked shirts. Understandably, people tend to stay indoors.  But not on "14th Ramadan" when the moon is full and bright.  Celebrate: Garangao!

Garangao moon over Souq Waqif

Kids dress in traditional garments and zip from house to house collecting candy, nuts and treats.  Or head to the souq, Katara, Heritage Village, mall, compound - or any number of other places around town where people distribute delights to giggling kids.

Halloween, but without the demons come to life thing.

Garangao is a Gulf tradition:

The origin of the word “Garangao” or “Gargee’aan” comes from the Gulf word “Gara” which is the sound of things knocking together, such as the sound of the nuts and sweets in the bag as children carry it around their neck, or the sound of the knocking of the children on people’s doors or even the sound of the stones that children carry while singing the Garangao song.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=522324&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Garangao is a great chance to SEE THE KIDS and TAKE PICTURES.  And experience something of Ramadan - which seems to happen fully behind compound walls this hot-glistening-dripping season.  If there were crickets in Doha, they'd be chorusing all day, all night, every-public-where in Doha right now.

Souq Waqif near Garangao site the week before

Garangao night post iftar, Souq Waqif bustles. Goody tents are arranged in a circle.  Brightly garbed kids - babies in arms to grade school age - race around filling sacks with yummies.  Costume characters and a man with a drum work the crowd.  Veiled women pose, kids beg strangers for photos: "Soura?" (Someone speaks Arabic in Doha!) Happy to comply:

goody baskets
 

Take our picture! Take our picture again!  One more time! Again!

costume character - love it

 

A screen reels a movie about kids preparing for Garangao.

Kids and parents circle a goody basket and wait, wait, wait.  Adults crowd for a photo of whatever-happens-next.

waiting

Huzzah Garangao!

parents place this darling on a bench so I might snap her photo; I'm in love

At Heritage Village - a remake of a traditional (pre oil) town I have previously been unable to access - kids play games like carry-the-egg-on-a-spoon and eat-cake-with-no-hands while Yankee Doodle Dandy blares from a loudspeaker.  Yes, really:

(forgive quality, please - not a videographer)

Meanwhile, away from the stage, near the full sized dhow, descendants of pearl divers display wares.

Bob and I did not get any candy.  What we did get: slick-hair, heavy-jeans, drain-every-pore wet.

Soooooooooo worth it.

Walkabout - Books, Books, Books...

It was 110F blazing degrees in the Arabian Gulf, but I wasn't feeling the heat.  Because after two days of searching I'd finally found

THE LIBRARY

(pic borrowed from: http://alittleoryx.blogspot.com/2011/04/qatar-national-library.html)

The Qatar National Library is housed in an wonderfully Qatari-like old building near Dar Al Kutub Roundabout ("kutub" means "books"), close to the massive Qatar National Museum (under construction).

Up wide steps, through double glass doors - and heaven:  that dusty-sweet "old bookstore" smell and shelves, shelves, shelves of ancient tomes. The space is shaped like half an I-beam - Arabic volumes on one side, tables, glass display cases and exhibits along the straightaway and good stuff to read in English at the other end.  Plus rows and rows of actual card catalogue drawers - which I rummaged through as an exercise since virtually none of my catalogue selections were anywhere to be found.

Behind a circular shaped, strangely modern appearing reception desk, the male libarian wore a yellow suit, yellow satin tie and shiny gold rings.  Speaking Arabic, he indicated that some borrowed books just don't make it home.

Pretty windows

Three hours slipped out from under me.  I collected Arabic folk tales, ancient guidebooks, Caliph stories, histories of Qatar and nearby countries…

Lights flickered off, then on again. 

From approximately 1-4p every day, Doha shuts down for lunch, family, nap-through-the-hottest-part-of-the-day time. Blankets are thrown over merchandise, shutters cover windows. Some shopkeepers just walk away, but most people lock up before they leave.

The librarian?  A lock-it-up kinda guy.  He pointed toward the door.

Leave books on table.  Come back tonight.  But not tomorrow. No library tomorrow.

He handed me a piece of paper.  To become an official Qatar National Library card holder you must complete a form in Arabic and get it stamped by your employer.

Got it: finish the residency process, find a job, get a card.

Until then, I understand there are free newspapers downstairs.  And that anyone can wander in and read.

Old Gulf Guidebook

Inside Day

Bit o' sand in the air…

 

December 2011

 

June 2012

I'm behind the camera in pic #2, wearing long pants, long sleeves, head band and glasses, wishing I had a scarf.  It's an arctic 97 degrees F, so I'm not hot.  Truth: the locals have it right.  Surely even a black abaya is more comfortable than jeans in this weather…

The Saddest Day in Doha

Maybe I should write about the heat, how the sun rises early - at 4:30am - and bakes the air until molecules are full and thick and heavy.

Or about the food.  How everything's imported: apples from France, pears from New Zealand, cucumbers from Saudi Arabia.  Or how Australian hamburger from grass-fed (as opposed to U.S. grain-fed) cows tastes like…grass.

Or about the residency process, which I've begun.

Not something familiar, that crosses cultures and penetrates language barriers. Not something like grief.

All I can think about are the babies.

No warning, no quick evacuation: children sat eating in the food court inside Doha's popular, patterned-after-Vegas Villagio Mall.  Skaters skated on the ice rink, families gathered in the indoor amusement park - and smoke slid up the walls and massed along the sky-painted ceiling.

First person accounts say the alarm sounded like a doorbell…one shopper asked a guard about the buzzing noise and the guard shrugged. It's nothing.

One video shows black smoke billowing uncontained for long minutes before the first siren wailed. Notorious Doha traffic had to be rerouted to allow emergency vehicles through.

from Iloveqatar.com

 

Reportedly, sprinkler systems malfunctioned.  Rescue attempts were hampered by a lack of blueprints.  Firefighters were on site for 30 minutes before they even knew there was a daycare facility inside.  By then, access to the nursery was cut off by fire and thick, black smoke.  Stairs had collapsed.  One blogger described the nursery's location as "in the interior of the mall…a virtual rabbit warren of corridors..."

A hole cut in the roof.  A frantic, heroic rescue attempt.  Two firefighters died. But it was too late.

Trapped in the nursery, four teachers and thirteen babies drowned in smoke.  The children included 2-year old triplets from Australia, and three children under age 5 from one Spanish family.

The fire started either in the Nike store or in the nursery, depending on your news source.  Ours is Doha based Al-Jazeera - arguably the CNN of the Middle East…right here in Doha.  The day of the fire, Al Jazeera gave the horror about a minute and a half.

I drove by the mall yesterday.  Except for the empty parking lots, barriers and guards, there was no sign that a disaster happened here.  No blackened walls, nothing caved in.

Steel, concrete and tile - on the outside, anyway - don't burn.

All victims were from somewhere else - ie, not Qatari. But according to nowpublic.com, the nursery's owner is Imran al-Kuwari, daughter of Qatar's Minister of Culture, and (presumably) Qatari.  She was arrested, along with the Villagio's owner and director of security.

Her father described her as "the saddest person on earth."

Grief, like love, is a language everyone understands.