September

The world/Qatar is treating us well. We think the blast furnace has been turned off, so now it’s just hot. Highs are around 100 – 102, but it now cools off a bit in the evenings. It would be great if the humidity would go away.

We have survived a second Ramadan, and basically it is now out of our lives. Ramadan moves forward 11 days each year, so next year we will have a long summer. School will start after Eid, the holiday celebrating Ramadan’s end. We don’t intend to be here in 2015 when it will start effecting the end of the school year.

Our boxes from Napa have not arrived at our villa yet. (There’s a strong possibility that they are sitting at customs.) However, we have settled into our house and routines. One of the HUGE improvements from last year is our kitchen. It’s very open with plenty of counter and cupboard space. I have been cooking more and baking bread. I am still learning the vagaries of foreign labeling on flours, but the bread still tastes good. We have several large grocery stores where most of us shop. There are some corner shops, but they are not that close to us. We’ll see if they seem more convenient when the temp drops. By chance, I met a lady from Berkeley while at the meat counter of the “western” grocery store. I happened to mention Dean and DeLucca, and she commented on hers in Napa. What a small world.

The rest of the schools in Doha start this week. We figure we’ll start seeing Doha at its normal self. In other words, the Qataries are back from the their summer travels. We are expecting much more traffic. I’m not sure it will effect Alan and me that much. We live awfully darn close to school, and we go in at 6:45am. Traffic seems to be at its worst after 9:00 pm. The plus side to traffic is that congestion slows everything down. And, it still does not compare to the crazy driving in Kuwait. Here we have city streets with far too many roundabouts for my taste; in Kuwait most of our diving was on freeways – much, much, much faster!

The other difference I’ve noticed is the number of women fully veiled. The abayas, black coverings from head to foot, are far more prevalent here. However, they are not necessarily as closed and often hair is showing around their faces. It seems that at least half of the woman are completely covered or only have eye holes. Much younger girls are also in abayas. It’s very intimidating. I just saw a book written by a lady from the Mideast about “being behind the veil”. I need to read it. I think it’s one of our major misunderstandings.

Our social life is still flourishing. Alan and I have joined the eucre group, given up on the whiskey tasting group, and trying to join the Rugby Club group. One of the big adventures here is going to the Inland Sea. It involves “duning” out in the desert while trying not to get too lost and ending at a nice beach area. One group ventured out last week, but it was too hot, and we had other dinner plans. The day turned into an adventure – 1 flat tire, cars getting separated, cars getting stuck. Obviously, a very successful day for them.

As always, I hope all is well.
Love,
Carol and Alan