JOKE’S ON ME – HAHA NOT FUNNY AT ALL
So yesterday I had a bit of a morning from Hell. The night before, I planned to be a good girl, finally go to bed early (this getting up at 6h15 business is kind of not what I’m used to, especially not when Greg stays over at my house, because God knows he doesn’t like to get up early and reacts to his alarm like a teenager does – and I mean that in the nicest possible way). Anyway, I started to get ready for bed at around 22h00. I’ve been using my ipod touch as an alarm clock – but for some stupid reason, every time I connect it to the computer or to the external speaker (which also charges it) the time seems to get pushed back an hour (it’s like daylight savings time every day!). So every night, I double-check that the time is correct before going to bed.
Every night except that night. My alarm went off yesterday morning at 6h15 and I could barely open my eyes, which I thought was kind of weird. I also thought it was kind of weird that it was darker than normal at that hour in the apartment. In any event, I ate my juice and cereal and had my coffee and made my lunch and then thought I should check how much time I had left before Abdullah was going to arrive (he picks me up at 7h30). I turned on my mobile phone only to find that lo and behold it was 6h00. I literally swore out loud – man was I ever pissed. I tried to go back to sleep, but who can sleep right after drinking 2 cups of coffee and getting all angry? Instead, I played video games on my ipod and did a little research about this problem. Apparently, it’s kind of common. But talk about annoying!
WHO THE HECK IS IN MY CLASS ANYWAY?
So I was truly exhausted all day. Oh, and today I only had 2 students: Sarah and Stephany. Oh wait, let me back up – I just realized I haven’t really explained what UCQ and my job and my class are like. First things first: my students. Hmmm, to be honest – I’m not really sure who’s in my class. I was originally supposed to have 18 students, but a number of them failed the pre-requisites. Then I was supposed to have 9 or 10. Then 7. Two of which approached Sondra Hutton (in student services) and told her they didn’t want to take my course because they don’t like biology and they didn’t like it in high school. OK – let me get this straight – you don’t like biology, but you want to be a nurse. Interesting. Actually, it turns out, many of the students at UCQ are only doing this because it’s what their parents want them to do or to have some way to pass the time. So the first day of class, 2 students showed up: Stephany and Merdh (pronounced Merda). Merdh is Qatari, Stephany is Malaysian, originally from Sarawak, which is on the island of Borneo. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I’ve never met anyone from Borneo, which is the place I want to visit more than anywhere on Earth. Anyway, I didn’t end up giving the lecture, figured I’d give the students another day to turn up, instead I talked with the two of them and got to know them. They are both delightful. Stephany’s parents have lived in Qatar for many yrs – her dad’s a professional. She and her sister lived in NZ for several yrs (her sister is still there) but she came to Qatar about a year ago.
When Sondra found out how few students showed up, she tried to find me new students and managed to scrounge up 3 more. All of them are in the foundation program (it’s kind of like a freshman year). Their names are Safa, Wafa and Garyhian. Safa is Qatari, Wafa was born in Qatar, but her family comes from Sudan and Gahryman is from Turkmenistan. They showed up on day 2, along with Stephany, Sarah and Mahsa, (born in Qatar but family from Iran, speaks perfect English). Day 2 was awesome. I taught them about Darwin’s theory of natural selection, some aspects of which go against the teachings of Islam, but I made it clear that they were free to retain their beliefs, but that I was teaching them the scientific view of things. It went fantastic. These students are sharp. Plus, Sarah, who’s a total attention-seeker and talks all the time out of turn, but still has relevant things to say, came up to me at the end, told me she really enjoyed my class and presented me with a sandwich that she bought me. White bread (crusts removed), butter, cheese, lettuce. Told me it was delicious. I thanked her profusely, ended up giving the sandwich to Abdullah, because of course I can’t eat anything with milk (so no white bread, butter or cheese). However, Merdh did not show and hasn’t shown up since. As for Gahryman, he was there, but after 2 hrs of a 3 hr lecture, he stood up and asked to be excused because he had to go do something for his mother.
On day 3, I had everyone from the previous day except Gahryman and the lecture was pretty much all about the origins of macromolecules and of life on Earth. Again, it went great. On day 4, which was a lab/tutorial orientation (yesterday) only Stephany and Sarah showed up. Sarah asked me what was going to happen to the other students that were absent. I told her to concern herself with her own performance and not that of her classmates and not to worry, I had things under control.
THE HUMAN HIERARCHY – BEING QATARI IS GOOD
So you see, I really don’t know who is in my class, i.e., who will show up on a given day, but apparently this is normal. Now, I realize you may be wondering why I gave all the details as to where every one of them is from. Well, I thought you might be interested to learn about the hierarchy of people in Qatar. It’s all about where you’re from. If you were born here, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a Qatari. It seems that Qataris are only considered as such if their lineage is Qatari.
These people are the uppermost echelon of society. These are the filthy rich folks I was talking about. Sarah told me some interesting things. We were talking about the unrest in this part of the world, especially Syria, Lybia, Bahrain, Oman. She said that won’t happen here because everyone loves the Sheikh. I asked why. She explained how wonderful he is, mainly, I gather because of the distribution of wealth. She told me (and I verified that this is all true) that Qataris (and only Qataris) enjoy free utilities, health care and post-secondary education. Furthermore, upon graduation, a position will be waiting for her, whereas poor Stephany (her words) will have to look for a job. Oh, and don’t let me forget: while she goes to school, she earns a salary. She told me the minimum is 8 000 QR (the equivalent of about 2 125,00 $ CDN). I said: “per year?” She laughed and said: “no, per month”. But she earns much more than that, this is just the minimum. When Qataris get married, the government buys them a piece of land and/or a house. Yes, life for Qataris is very easy. No such thing as poverty.
Below Qataris are other Arabs. Next come the expats, which have their own hierarchy. Whites are at the top – they occupy professional jobs. Next come Philippinos – they typically occupy white collar jobs or are in the service industry. After that are Indians – like my driver Abdullah. Many of them come from the same state as he does (Kerala) and they occupy labour positions, like drivers, cleaners, etc. Next come the Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. At the bottom of the heap are the Nepalese. And these people, the Indians and below, are treated openly as lower class. No wonder Abdullah loves Canadians so much. To me, this is the ugly side of Qatar, one of the most racist, classist societies I have ever seen.
SOME FACTS ABOUT WOMEN IN QATAR AND ISLAM
I also wanted to explain to you about the dress here. People in the west seem to think that the niqab and the abaya are signs of oppression, and that these women are meek and mild and beaten down in a way. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, whether a woman wears an abaya (face showing) or a niqab (cutouts for the eyes) is totally up to her as an individual. She only removes the garments in front of her family and other women. These girls and women are definitely not meek. They are typical semites (essentially Israelis and Arabs). Outspoken, pushy, impolite by our standards, but totally genuine – and to be honest, I quite like them. Wearing these garments is not a matter of religion, but rather a matter of culture. Oh, and I learned something very interesting about Islam. I noticed that Abdullah doesn’t wear a wedding ring, despite being married. I asked him whether they exchange rings in India. He told me that he gave his wife a ring and a necklace but that he received a watch. I joked that he got the short end of the stick. But then he told me that wearing gold is forbidden for Muslim men, but didn’t know why. It turns out that gold is deemed to be for women (as is silk, by the way) and that the Qur’an forbids men to “act like women” and vice versa.
MEETING NEW PEOPLE
They had a gathering yesterday afternoon for international nurses' day and to welcome me. It was interesting - i met one guy, John, who is also very into music, knows Los Morenos from Calgary, plays guitar, he was like "we should jam sometime". I laughed. Earlier, I met this other guy, who's in charge of IT on campus. He also plays guitar, told me all about his custom 1978 Les Paul. So I showed him a photo of Greg's guitar and told him that I also play a Les Paul. He suggested I sing with him and a few other guys at this end of the year chili cook-off thing they're having at the end of june. We'll see. Well, actually he suggested I play my guitar and sing. I laughed. Hard. Although, last night, for the first time ever, I managed to play a 3 chord song without looking at the guitar at all. Right now, I'm trying to learn "Yellow" by Coldplay, which has a bloody barre chord (F#minor), but it's actually going not too badly, although the strumming pattern needs serious improvement.
BIRDWATCHING
OK, so my day today: well, I was already exhausted, so I figured, why not get up at the ungodly hour of 4h15 and then leave at 5h00 to go birdwatching in the desert with Eric Tull, his wife and a couple of British gents? I know, I’m crazy. Qatar is, of all countries, the most impoverished in terms of wildlife habitat, being the only country to have no open fresh water. So where to go birdwatching? A farm in the middle of the desert, where they grow forage for camels, followed by a trip to a lovely sewage lagoon. The farm is interesting – small, a few groves of some kind of tree (maybe olive?), and not much else for habitat, other than the electric wires and some irrigation puddles. One thing you notice in Qatar: a constant parade of sewage trucks on the highway – bringing raw sewage to the lagoon. Guess who drives these trucks (yes, that’s right, Indians). Anyway, I wanted so badly to see rollers and bee-eaters, and I saw both. So here’s the list:
Larks (crested and hoopoe); Spanish sparrow; bush robin; doves (collared and namaqua); pallid swift; European roller; spotted flycatcher; white-eared bulbul; common nightingale; black-crowned sparrowlark; shrikes (red-backed, isabelline and southern grey); common redstart; greater flamingo; black-winged stilt; tern (either little or saunder’s – couldn’t ID); pied avocet, little grebe; common moorhen; collared pratincole; dunlin; little stint; ruff.
Plus, I saw camels, uromastyx (although I believe I may have caused the death of one – don’t really want to discuss that) and a gerboa (which apparently was very lucky).
This afternoon, for some reason (actually I know the reason, I just don't care to discuss it here) I felt super homesick and lonely. So I called Greg, crying. As usual, he made me feel better and as usual we ended up laughing and having a good conversation. Not surprisingly, when I phoned him (9h45 MST) he was still in bed. Haha. Oh God, I'm so in love, it verges on nauseating - or maybe I'm still jetlagged. Kidding! Seriously, what's really good is I'm way less stressed than I was when I first got here about him cheating on me while I'm away (although I suppose that fear is totally understandable given, well, wait - if you know me well enough, i don't need to spell it out for you). I can tell he totally misses me.
OK, that's it (long enough for you?). I miss home, but don't worry about me. I love Qatar.
PS: ugh, looks like i'm on the hedgehog/nocturnal insect night waiting list.
much love and peace to all,
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