Ramadan Kareem & Eid Mubarak

Happy Ramadan everyone! Ramadan is almost over and we haven't run out of booze. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. During Ramadan, as some of you may know, muslims fast during the daylight hours and break the fast at sundown. It's a period of reflection, prayer and forgiveness. All religions have this sort of time. And it too, is commercialized. There are Ramadan decorations on the stores - flashing lights and stars and crescent moons - and even limited edition Ramadan Diet Coke cans and Ramadan Tide and Downy -white musk scent. Anyway, when the fast is broken -called Iftar- it's party time. For Iftar, many people set up big tents and have feasts, or go out to restaurants. We haven't really ventured out too much at night, during Ramadan, because the drivers are twice as crazy. There have been articles in the newspapers about the traffic accidents and ER room activity increasing during Ramadan. Iftar goes into the wee hours(as in 3 am), then everyone sleeps, works till noon, and then sleeps the rest of the afternoon to make fasting easier. Then they wake-up for Iftar and start all over. After Ramadan, there is a week-long holiday, Eid. For Eid, Tessa's school has a one week break. There will be fireworks, more parties, and and exchange of gifts. The best part of Eid is that the restaurants will reopen during the day. During the last month ALL restaurants have been closed during the day and open only for Iftar. You cannot buy a coffee, soda or chicken mcnoggins. To be seen drinking or eating in public is highly offensive and illegal. The other inconvenience is that you cannot buy alcohol. Only hotel restaurants serve here and you can buy it at the one and only liquor store in Qatar, the monopolistic QDC or Qatar Distribution Center. But during Ramadan, the hotels don't serve and QDC is closed. As you can imagine, there was a run on the liquor store the day before Ramadan began. We were there with all the other idiots, standing in a line that ran out the door. I think the drinking population is terrified the Emir will decide after Ramadan not to reopen the store. We saw people with 6 cases of beer and an a group of men with 8 cases of cheap scotch! We were hording the overpriced wine. The tax on alcohol is 100%. So an inexpensive bottle of grocery store wine becomes an expensive bottle of grocery store wine. But in the last four weeks we made only a small dent in our Ramadan stockpile.

The other big event here in Doha are the upcoming Asian Games. Olympic class atheltes from all over Asia will come to compete from December 1-15. Will be very interesting from many aspects - 1) will it actually take place? The Games committee has threatened to move the games to another city if the roads and stadiums are not finished. There is one month to the start of the games and, uh, the roads and stadiums are not finished. Rumor has it the Emir and Heir apparent are freaking out that they will not be able to pull it off - could be very embarrasing. 2) will anyone watch? ticket prices are incredibly low, like $2-10. Of course the spectacular opening and closing ceremony tickets are in the $100s. But if timing works, I would love to take Tess to see some events, perhaps equestrian, swimming, gymnastics or softball. I'm also very interested to learn more about cricket. Rob's company driver, Mr. Salim, is a huge cricket fan and I would love to see a match with him. 3) most important - what will the traffic be like? The airport roads were gridlocked this last weekend when many left for Eid. Everyone is wondering how we will get kids to school, go to work and function when there are events around the clock at the stadiums that are scattered all over the city. Sounds skeptical I know. I want it to succeed for Doha, but we have for the last 6 months watched with bewilderment, the progress on road in front of our compound. It is the main road to Kalifa Stadium, the largest stadium and 3 smaller stadiums/arenas where events will be held. Half of the road is not paved, 2 major intersections are closed and they have spent an enourmous amount of time and manpower installing medians and patterened brick sidewalks that no one will ever use. We wonder often about the planning here and have come to the conclusion that there is none. When you drive around the city you see multiple styles of street lights, different height curbs and many of the skyscrapers that are under construction have no parking. Hmmmm. But enough on how "doha" it is here. On to more interesting things like...
People - our Green Village gate guards are, on rotating basis, Mr. Krishna and Mr. Rana. Both are from Nepal and couldn't be sweeter. Mr. Rana is my favorite and I want to find a manufacturer to make a Rana doll. He's a little pudgy and gives an Benny Hill salute and smile when you drive through the gate. Krishna gives a less enthusiastic salute/wave thing. There are the maintenance guys, Samid and Ravi with the dynamite smiles. Samid is super. He's from Sri Lanka, very cool in a Kangol hat, wrap-around mirror shades and can fix anything. I purchased a lamp to replace the copper and silver monstrosity that hung in the dining room. Samid thought for a while and used bicycle brake cable to hang it at just the right height. Pretty clever I thought. There are Ann & Warren, the american drs. who live on our compound. Warren is a surgeon and Ann, an ob/gyn. This might sound corny, but it was nice to hear an american accent when we first arrived. They have 3 kids, the youngest is Tessa's age. They have been very supportive and are patient to answer medical questions in a place where we're all a little uncertain about the quality of care. For example, Tessa, Eve and Eliza were given a wrong vaccine. Fortunately it was not something that could hurt them, it's just that their TB vaccine scar (the one we all have on our shoulder) will be on the inside of their forearm. However, the implications are terrifying. They could have been given an incorrect dose of something that might have really made them sick or worse. The vaccine mix-up was a major crisis for the ministry of health. There was an investigation, we were briefed at meetings attended by the head of the hospital, his lackeys and a bunch of ministry of health people. They said, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that we thought 13 children received the wrong vaccine, but only 3 got it. The bad news is it was your 3 children who got the vaccine. I was in tears. Warren said, "It's the 3rd world w/paint." They might have the spiffiest hospitals with the latest equipment, but they just don't have the protocols and staff. So needless to say, we are thrilled that Warren and Ann live just a few doors away.
Ok - two more goofy Doha tid-bits and then I need to wrap this up or I won't send it until Thanksgiving! Drove by a shop with a great sign "King of Toys." I thought, "finally, an alternative to toys r us." Went in and was amazed to find the real land of misfit toys; the only thing missing was Charley-in-the-Box. The boxes were faded, looked like they had been warehoused since 1970. Anything pulled off the shelf for being hazardous had to be there. Rickety ride-on toys, poorly designed slides, creepy dolls. I'm getting the willys just writing about it. So let's talk about scarry food instead. Mega Mart has become our favorite grocery because they have more European & American items. You can get decent meat and they have a good bakery. One funny thing this store does with things like cereals, snacks etc is that one month before the expiration date, they mark the price way down. So at one point this summer, Tessa and every little girl we knew had stockpiled Princess fruit chews when they were down to $2 a box, from $6. You must be careful however. Rob was snacking on some of Tessa's cereal last week and said, "these are awful." He looked at the date and it had expired in June.
At Carrefour, another grocery here, in the meat department there is a freezer with a window. Through the window you can see hanging, very dead, skinned sheep, heads still attached. Tessa finally noticed them one day when I was at the meat counter. While I was waiting for the butcher to cut some steaks, another man was stocking the freezer with the sheep. Their heads were in plastic bags, tounges hanging out. And this guy walked behind the steak man 3 or 4 times with the carcasses on his shoulder. Tessa's eyes were huge. She waited until we were a few aisles over and said, "they don't talk anymore, do they." She doesn't like to go to Carrefour and if we go, I promise not to go near the sheep.

Speaking of Tessa, she's adjusting to her school. She is very proud of her school uniform and is working on using "listening ears." I had my 1st parent- teacher conference. She's 3 1/2 -Yikes. But she is enjoying it and I think she is happy to be busy. She has picked-up some british-isms, like "tomato" with a short "a" and calling a raincoat a "mac." Eve and Eliza, where to begin? Eliza is close to running. She likes danger. She eats everything. Waves, imitates and unfortunately, likes the Wiggles. Eliza is Tessa's biggest fan. Eve is standing very well and has, just this week, taken 3 steps and discovered clapping. She says, cat, dawg, up, "one, two, go." and "go, go, gooooo." She loves the TV and the swimming pool. She has a sweet tooth and is more solitary, will play by herself. Which is good, because I'm usually chasing after Tess & Eliza.

I want to send photos, but we are having software issues. Will have to figure-out something.
We miss you all.
Love- Patti
xxoo