17 July 2006

Hi Everyone:
Procrastination-Patti here. I have been working on this draft e-mail for more than a month. I just need to send it. This is not literature, I just want to describe what it's like here in Qatar. Here goes...

We live in a new compound called Green Village. It's not very green, it's more beige and brown. But we will have some green soon enough as we have a gardener, Mr. Kareem Mohammed, who has planted some things, indian jasmine, hibiscus, omani lemons, palms, oleander and others. Mr. Kareem (everyone here uses 1st names with the title, so I'm Mrs. Patti) is from Pakistan and he's very soft spoken, slightly dishonest, and wears a UNC baseball hat. Now it's so hot, we're really gambling to plant anything, but Mr. Kareem assures us if we water, everything will be OK. The leaves on a lot of our plants are sun scorched. Sept-April is prime garden time. The temps now are regularly 110 degrees and humid. Speaking of names, there are some classics here - along a row of auto shops there is "Al Sharky Car Upholstery" & "Al Joker Mechanic, " but the all-time winner is Mr. Aushit, who came to hang roman blinds in the kids rooms. It's pronounced the way it's spelled; poor guy has to deal w/snickering expats like myself. We have also met a lot of nice people on our compound - a couple of americans, a lot of danes and australians, some french and germans. There was a pool party and the Australians cooked shrimp, on the barbie! Rob and I have been giggling about that for a week.

The kids are very happy now that their rooms are set-up. Our container arrived a couple of weeks ago. I knew Tessa would be happy to see all of her things, but I had no idea that the babies would be so happy to see their cribs and old familiar toys. We unpacked some oddities, a ceramic pot full of salt (salt in the packing papers), an empty water bottle from Whole Foods, a menagerie of flower vases and coffee mugs and a full garbage can from rob's office - we really needed that junk mail shipped to Doha! Anyway, now that the toys are here, we can try to get the kids away from the bidet. It is a constant source of amusement. Tess loves to tattle on the babies, "Eve and Eliza are playing in the hiney washer!" The babies are motoring across the floor. Eliza is close to walking. She also pretends to talk on the phone, eat with a spoon from an empty bowl and will take a doll and rock and pat it on the back. Eve, although very roly poly, can beat Eliza to the top of two flights of steps, loves to eat fresh peaches, flaps her arms like she can fly and babbles all sort of nonsense.

I have been keeping myself busy searching for things for the house. The rooms are very big with high ceilings and it's a challenge to make them feel cozy. We painted the living room, dining room, entry and the bedrooms. Also purchased a pair of Iranian tribal carpets for our big entry area. Found a cool console type table for the entrance made of wood reclaimed from old Indian sleeper railwaycars. I met a very nice British lady who is a textile designer & decorator and knows where to find everything here. She took me to a great shop where I purchased lovely Indian wedding saris to hang over the diningroom windows. Rust and Red - the saris are very special- with gold threads, beading and sequins. I know what you may be thinking, but they are very dramatic and the work that goes into them is simply amazing. For the living room the decorator found a crisp white linen with fine, oatmeal-colored, embroiderery. The Indian fabrics here are wonderful. I'm in love with it all right now.

Shopping is a favorite past time of the Qataris. The big airconditioned malls are relief from the heat and blowing Doha dust. Grocery Stores are inside the shopping malls. So can take your week of groceries/cart and all and go look at TVs, clothing or whatever else the mall sells. I really get a charge out of the swaggering teenage boys in their thobes. They fuss with their headcoverings (I forget the arab name), their ipods, cellphones and some seem so uncomfortable, yet proud. Sometimes I think, "dude, get over yourself - you're hanging out at the food court." You find a lot of American products at the grocery stores, Tide laundry deterget, Cherrios ($7 a box!), Diet Coke, even Washington State granny smith apples! The best produce is from Lebanon - great tiny little cucumbers w/no seeds, baby eggplants and herbs and very spicy arugula. However, given what's happening in Lebanon/Israel now, I'm not sure if we'll see any of that produce for a while. We actually know a few people who were visiting relatives there and had a difficult time getting out.

While at the grocery, Tess and I ran into a young man on R & R from Iraq. He was just buying a few things, some fresh squeezed OJ and candy bars. According to Rob, these guys, when they get R & R, just want to do something that seems normal like tool around a mall; well, OK. Anyway, this young guy said he was on his last day of R & R and remarked, "I guess we’re doing the right thing." I asked him how everything was going and he said no one from his unit had died. We talked a few more minutes and he tried to shake hands w/Tess and she- in classic 3 year old fashion- turned away. I was embarassed and thought how he probably does the same thing to little Iraqi kids and they (I hope) are happy to shake his hand. I told him to take care of himself and asked Tessa to say bybye to the nice man. I hope he’s OK. He was so sweet and so sad all at the same time.

I'm driving a lot here and am proud to say I don't get lost anymore. There is no consistent signage, telling what road you are on or what road you are about to cross. The signs are directional, like, you are headed toward the airport. It can be quite maddening, so how we all give directions and find our way around the city is by the names of the roundabouts. Most are named after some odd-shaped concrete monument which is in the center. There is the rainbow roundabout, which is a big arch that is covered in blue&white tile. Someone told me at one time there was water running over it, would be quite pretty actually, but it’s not working now. Then there is Sports roundabout, which is a pyramid shaped thing with a mosaic depicting a different sport on each side. There is Civil Defense Monument roundabout, which is know as “brontosaurs ribs” to myself and Rob. It is a creepy brownish/reddish colored wing that really looks like the big side of ribs that was put on Fred Flinstone’s car on the intro to the Flintstones. There is Burger King roundabout, it has no monument, there is just a burger king on the corner. My favorite is Smelly roundabout. This roundabout has been under construction for a long time and when you approached you were overwhelmed with sewer smell. However, this has been repaired, but everyone still calls it Smelly.

As I have mentioned, construction is everywhere. On the sides of the roads, you see men in blue coveralls digging trenches, operating machines or just hanging out in the Doha dirt. They all have scarves or T-shirts over their faces so they don’t have to breath in the blowing dust. Very much like Syriana, for anyone who has seen that movie. They must be incredibly hot in their work clothes and with their heads covered. At the end of the day, you see large groups of them waiting at the side of a road for a bus that comes to take them to the labor camps. I can only imagine the conditions. Rob said these guys make $6 a day. The skyscrapers that are being constructed are mostly garish, mirrored things. There are a pair of zig-zag buildings, a hotel in the shape of a torch that will have a real flame at the top (yikes!) and a copy of the transamerica building. They all seem to scream and compete with one another. Thank goodness someone had the brillance to hire I.M. Pei to design the Islamic Museum which should open next year. It is so simple and the right scale.

I could go on and on, but will save it for the next installment. Please forward to anyone who might be interested in our adventure here. I'll write more when we return from Italy. We're going for one month to hang with the grandparents, celebrate Eve & Eliza's 1st birthday and eat a lot of proscuitto! Also looking forward to showing Tessa, Botticelli's Birth of Venus @ the Uffizi.

I miss you all!
Love Patti