Are we liking it?

It seems that has been the question on the minds of many friends and family these days, so I figured I’d try to put it into words. The answer is yes, on the whole, we like living and working here. Our home is comfortable, we have been able to find ways to entertain ourselves, meet new people and had some great first hand intercultural experiences. The other day we were talking about how we actually GOT to the choice to move to Qatar. By the end of our job search it was becoming clear that we would likely have ended up in Iowa City. I had a job offer and Curt had a very promising job opportunity. If we had gone with what was much safer and chosen the Iowa City option, both of us feel like we would have always wondered what we would have missed if we hadn’t moved to Qatar. As it is, we know what it’s like to live in IC (and it’s wonderful!), but it doesn’t fit in with our hopes to live closer to mountains or being able to travel like fiends. So yes, we are happy here.

On the other hand, there are some things that are frustrating to the point of infuriating at times. Like how people couldn’t tell us when Ramadan would be over (when the new moon is "official"), and hence when the Eid would begin and stores be shut down. Or how you can’t go to a grocery store and get pretty much any thing you need or want - you need to go to three or four places to get everything on your list. Or how crazy the drivers are here. Curt has had to implement the “Silva Driving Method” – when you lay on your horn when another driver does something too rude or unsafe to just let go. It's not a place where either of us feel like it will ever feel like "home" - two or three years will be plenty of time living here.

One of the most significant experiences to date has been living here during Ramadan. For a short history lesson, Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. During this month devout Muslims do not eat, drink or have sex during daylight hours. They also have additional prayer time, some which last through the entire night. This is a moving holiday since they go by the lunar calendar, and it comes about 11 days sooner each year. Living in an Islamic country, they observe this month very strictly. It is illegal, whether you are Muslim or not, to eat or drink in public. I guess the sex in public is just assumed to be illegal. :) All restaurants, except those in large hotels, are closed during daylight hours. The fast is broken by the “Iftar” dinner. We have been to two of these at the hotels. Basically it’s a gorge fest, and some of them don’t even begin until really late at night because some Muslims use them as their “Sohour” meal (the LAST one they will eat before daylight). We were at an Iftar until 11:30PM which allowed reservations for people until 2 AM and we were the ONLY ones getting up to leave.

Now, the good news is the professional work day is MUCH shorter during Ramadan. Our official hours are 8 AM to 1PM. While it’s great to have shorter work days, it doesn’t mean the work load gets lighter (so we often stayed until 4 or 5, but the office is a ghost town unless you are a westerner). With that said, it is also very difficult to go that long without drinking anything. In some ways, just knowing you can’t have it makes you want that bottle of water even more. Being non-Muslim means I can drink/eat in private, so our offices basically become “dens of slack” – westerners come together to eat their meager lunches in private, or they hide their water under their desks in the event a Muslim colleague/student will walk by or come in. Several of our Qatari/Muslim colleagues have said they don’t mind if we are in a meeting and we’d like something to drink, but out of respect for them, we don’t. Others have been very clear that they don’t like even knowing that the Americans are eating or drinking in their offices during Ramadan. Curt and I fasted for the first day of Ramadan. We went from about 8:30AM until 6PM (sunrise was too dang early). Again, the food thing is hard, but the drink is MUCH harder, especially when it’s still close to 105 degrees during the day. We ended the first day of fasting with a student event and speaker. The keynote was a former Christian preacher (from Texas) who had converted to Islam. Let’s just say he was crazy. He made wild assumptions about Christianity, and was borderline offensive to some people in the audience (we were told the day before he asked all women to sit at the back of the room and all men to move to the front. Several people left that speech). Curt leaned over to me at one point and said “If George Bush was a Muslim, this is who he would be” – I laughed to myself for about 10 minutes as this man struggled through his loosely connected speech and his randomly repeated affirmations of Muslims.

The thing that I find troubling about this month is its impact on non-Muslims in the country. It seems strange to me that this becomes legally enforced piety. If denying oneself food/drink during the day is meant to cleanse the soul and purify the body, for me it is less pious because it is legally enforced on everyone else. In many ways this enforces for me why I don’t want the US government to be closely linked with any religion. It would be outrageous if the Catholics forced people to only eat fish on Fridays, or if people were forced to not eat chocolate in front of friends who had given it up for lent. So for me, sometimes this piety feels like a lot of show, but not necessarily with as much substance to it. The other thing I find troubling involves the “unskilled” workers here. While I get to go home nice and early, and many shops are closed in the late afternoon hours, malls and restaurants are then open until close to 1 or 2AM throughout the month, for the ENTIRE month. I guess when shopping is the national pastime, they need to make sure it can happen as much as possible. Qataris put Americans to shame in this area.

One book we read that is interesting for westerners is called “Understanding Arabs”. It’s written by an American woman, Margaret Nydell, who has been studying Arab culture for decades. Thus far I have found much of it accurate and helpful in our transition here. The close relationships of family members, the hospitality of the people and the constant references to the Muslim faith are hallmarks of this culture that the book covers. It also clears up why we have some issues of policy as the US tries to become more involved in the Middle East. We recommend it if you are interested in learning more than the 30 second sound bite on US news reports.