Mosque tour

To my faithful (and patient!) followers, I apologize profusely... I've fallen behind in my blogging and I have no excuse except that I've been too busy and too tired to post anything new.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it! I wanted to get out of the dreary work rut I'd fallen into in Montreal and that rut is so far away now, I can't believe I was ever in it ;-) I miss my friends (and friends who used to be students) in Montreal deeply, but I don't miss the former CCL in the slightest! My current students tire me out with their immaturity, exasperate me with their inability to focus on work for more than 10 minutes at a time and irritate me with their multitude of cellphones, but they also charm me with their innocence, please me with their delight in seeing horizons opening to them through school and amuse me with their ability to laugh at themselves without rancour.

That being said, I've had some adventures since I last wrote here. The latest one was a tour to a mosque and the chance to see what happens during a prayer time, as well as to ask any questions I had about Islam. I went on October 1st and the tour was organized by a government body called the Qatar Islamic Friendship Centre, known as Fanar.

This is their headquarters, a lovely spiral building near the older part of Doha. We were met there by a group of volunteers who were very pleased to have the chance to share their beliefs with us. We were reassured that the purpose of the the tour was to make us feel comfortable living in a Muslim country and to help us understand that Islam means to the average Qatari. So don't worry, I haven't been converted to Islam!

And of course the women on the tour had to wear headscarves and the black robes known as abaya.  This photo shows the four of us from the group of newbies who went on the tour. Our nickname is the Doha Wives' Club, as we've gotten into the habit of going out with one or two of the married (or otherwise attached) men amongst the newbie group, thus creating the illusion that we're married! From left to right, you see Hilary, Nikki, myself and Desiree. Don't we look oh so Qatari??!!

The abaya didn't bother me at all, but the headscarf wouldn't stay on my head no matter what I did! Some of you reading this entry will be laughing because you know how much I hate wearing anything on my head ;-) Ain't this quite the picture?! I should try to find one of my photos of me wearing a kimono in Japan - they'd make quite the matched set of "Jennifer looking ridiculous in traditional costumes"!!

The group was taken by bus to a mosque in Al Wakra, which is just outside of Doha, not too far from the coast. This is the minaret and some of the detailed work on the exterior. Our tour guide told us that the funds for the construction on the mosque had been given by the local Toyota factory's owners and that most of the public facilities of the city of Al Wakra had been funded by private businesses.

Our guide explained to us that this protrusion can be found at the back of any mosque. Usually they're round; this one is unusual. The reason for the protrusion is so that if the congregation has filled the interior of the mosque, people can pray outside and know two things: which way is east so they can pray facing Mecca and where the imam will be inside the mosque. No-one can stand in front of the imam during a prayer service!

The guide also explained the interior features of a mosque, stating that there's nothing in the Koran that mandates what the architecture of a mosque must include. The features we know - the minaret and the dome - were developed for purely functional reasons. The minaret allowed the muzzein (caller) to be able to send his voice out over the village to let everyone know when it was time to pray. The dome is a natural amplifier, so everyone in the congregation can hear what the imam is saying. I thought that was really fascinating!

This is what the interior of the mosque looks like, before we all sat down to hear what the tour guide had to say. He also taught some of the more agile men how to do one prayer cycle with himself and two of the other volunteers. It was interesting to see the ritual of Muslim prayer and to know that the five prayer times per day are not all of the same length. There are long ones and shorter ones. At one of the Friday prayer services, the imam speaks to the congregation; the men pray here on the ground floor, while the women sit in the balcony, shielded from view by the arabesque. We didn't get to see a live prayer here, but did back in the Fanar building later in the day. It was quite moving to see the men and women going through the rituals. Our tour guide told us that men rush to get into the mosque and as close to the front as possible, as the angels pray three times for those that stand in the first row behind the imam, only once for those in the second row and not at all for those in the other rows!! What a great way to encourage being on time ;-)

And how do the faithful know the time for prayer? Traditionally it was by the position of the sun. In these digital days, there's a display board inside the mosque (this one, anyway!) The five prayer times are known as Fajr (pre-dawn), Shorooq (sunrise), Zuhr (noon), Asr (afternoon), Maghreb (sunset) and Isha (night).

And just as we were leaving the mosque to return to Doha to see the prayer in Fanar, the sun was setting and there were some actual clouds! I haven't seen too many clouds since leaving Canada, that's for sure, so these were even more beautiful :-) As was the dusk silhouetting the minaret, below. It was a fitting end to an enlightening visit.

 

For me, personally, the most interesting part was when the British-accented English-speaking wife of the tour guide invited the women to our own eating area for a snack after the prayer and took off her niqab (the full face veil). She turned out to be a British convert to Islam! She converted in order to marry her husband, so she had some fascintaing things to tell us about her life in Qatar and visiting England as a veiled woman. I don't have a photo to show you of her, as most women who wear the niqab and abaya don't like their photos to be taken. In fact, the tour guide told us at the beginning of the tour NOT to take photos of the women.

All in all, it was the most thought-provoking activity I've done since coming to Doha. I hope you've enjoyed reading about it as much as I have writing about and remembering it!

Apartment Update

As it's the Eid vacation for the College (though not the Muslim world yet!), I have some time to make some updates to this blog.

For example, Mark Hartt, one of my new buddies, came on the first day of the holidays to install the shower rod in my bathroom, so I can now take proper showers. The problem was that I needed an L-shaped rod, which wasn't easy to obtain. In the end, I bought three different shower rod kits and we made something workable out of two of them. For those of you who'd been to my apartment in Montreal, you'll recognize the shower curtain :-)

To give the rod extra support, Mark looped a cord around the light fixture, adding a dash of colour ;-) Thanks for your handyman experise, Mark! 

The other update to tell you about is that I had a roommate until this afternoon. Meet Jorge the Gecko!

Jorge and I had been startling each other in the various rooms of the apartment since I moved in. One afternoon after work, I found him in the kitchen sink, so I took the opportunity to snap some pix of him. Then I realized that he couldn't climb the stainless steel walls and was trapped. So I put one of the shower rod kits into the sink and hoped he'd use it as a ladder to find his way out...

He did, but then seemed to like the kitchen alot and was hiding under the stove (which was okay with me) and the coffeemaker (which really wasn't!) So this afternoon, I got Hilary, another of my new buddies, to remove him from my apartment using a plastic container. So now she's Hilary, Gecko Buster! Who're ya gonna call - Gecko Buster ;-)

The Ramadan Tent

Welcome to my third blog entry, in which you'll finally be able to see something that you might have expected to see when I told you I was going to the Middle East.

As you're no doubt aware, I arrived in Doha during Ramadan, Islam's month-long religious ritual of daytime fasting and nighttime celebration. Here in Qatar, it's against the law for anyone to eat, drink or smoke in public during the fasting hours, which run from sun-up to sun-down. Once the sun goes down, Muslims break their fast with a few dates and some water, then go to the mosque to pray. After that, the family celebrations begin and can last until sunrise the next morning.

The college arranged for all the new staff to experience what the celebrations can be like by taking us to the Ramadan tent in the Ritz Carlton. To give you an idea of how beautiful this hotel is, go to:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Doha/PhotoTourPop.htm?p19=DOHRZ

I took a few photos in the lobby, as I was astonished by the beauty of just that area. This is the chandelier that hangs over the lobby and some of the gorgeous flower arrangements there:

The "tent" was set up in the ballroom and was decorated in what I can only describe as Arabian Fantasy style. This was the VIP area, but nobody in attendance that evening was VIP enough ;-)

The rest of us ate at tables like these:

Sorry there aren't any photos of the HUGE buffet that filled the outer room attached to the ballroom... I was too busy stuffing my face with all the delicious European and Middle Eastern food!! My favourite offering was dessert: white chocolate and dark chocolate fountains with marshmallows to dip into the rich flowing decadence!!
 At the entrance to the ballroom anteroom was an exhibtion of Middle Eastern handicrafts. I loved the pashminas and this tea?coffee? set:

My apartment

Welcome to my second posting, everyone! And as the title says, this is going to be about my new apartment. The building I live in was recently given the name of "La Palace 5" and I can attest that it deserves that title :-) The floors have marble tiles on them, the furniture is quite comfortable and the owner really is trying to make the place into something worthy of living in.

To start with, here's what it looks like as you come into my apartment, #204:

This is the dining/living room. To me, it looks like something from a hotel room, but the longer I live here, the more I'll make it my own!

Here are two closer views of the living room. For those who know the TV I had in Montreal, take a good look at what I have now, which also has satellite cable:

As you come into my new home, on the left is the kitchen:

The kitchen is actually large enough to have a small table and chair set, but I prefer the more formal set in the open living area - closer to the flat screen TV ;-)

This is how small the washing machine/dryer combo is:

The drum can hold a bedsheet, a shirt and maybe a couple of pairs of underwear and that's about all! The washer takes about an hour, but the dryer can take up to two hours to get things nearly dry. The longest cycle is the cool down, which lasts forever and can't be skipped if you use the dryer function!

And on the right side when you enter my place, there's the powder room:

I haven't had the chance to make it more welcoming, but I did turn off the bidet water hose function on the side as I've been told by others who've lived here for awhile that the water tank feeding the hose can explode, gushing water all over the place!

There's a hallway leading to the main bathroom, guest bedroom and mistress bedroom. The main bathroom looks like this:

As you can see, there's an actual bidet in the main bathroom, and I've also turned off the water supply to that, just in case! I'm really paranoid about finding a foot of water everywhere in my place when I get home from work...

And this is the bathtub. Can you spot what's missing for the shower?

Maybe it's hard to tell with the door on the right, but there's no shower curtain! It's very hard to find a shower rod that fits this space, as it needs to form an L-shape. There are holes in the walls where another tenant has attached a rod, so it CAN be done. It's just a question of me finding the right shower rod on one of my many shopping trips!

And then there's the guest bedroom. Right now I use it more as a place to hang the laundry and store all the empty boxes from the small appliances I've bought, but if anyone comes to visit, I promise the room will be much nicer than this:

And here's the mistress bedroom. I've made it more personal mostly by casting my jewelry all over the top of the vanity. It actually has a stool! This bedroom is actually much smaller than the guest bedroom, but I prefer that because it's cosier.

And finally, just to prove to you that this is where I'm living, here's me this morning, doing a household chore:

And that's it from me for today. I hope you enjoyed this look at my new home. I will eventually take some photos of the outside area around my apartment building, but for the moment, it's just too hot and humid!! The forecast has been the same every day since I got here: sunny, hot and humid, with a temperature of 43 or 44 degrees celsius, with a humidex of about 50 degrees celsius. So you'll forgive me for not going out into the sunshine just to take photos ;-)

My first days in Doha

Hi there!
I know I promised to start this blog as soon as I could, and this is the time. I've been here for a week now and got a laptop on the weekend, so now I'm good to go.

The flights from Halifax to Doha took forever, it seemed. The flights were great, except for the one from London to Doha when I large family with several young children were seated right in front of me. All was well until near the end of 6.5 hours of the flight, when the kids got antsy and bored... only their cute Cockney accents saved me from doing some disciplining - the parents and cousins seemed oblivious to the noise.

All my luggage (even the one I paid extra to take along) made it all the way with me, which was a miracle. But I knew I wasn't in Canada anymore when my glasses fogged up as I walked from the plane to the bus taking us to the airport terminal. 

The first two days I spent in the Movenpick Hotel, which was heavenly. This was the view from my room window:

It's Ramadan right now, so these tents are set up where people gather to celebrate after sundown, when they break their fast. Apparently the college's HR people are trying to arrange for us to attend one of these celebrations soon. You can see the Corniche in the background, along with the harbour area.

And this is what I saw in one of the corners of my hotel room:

It's to show Muslims which direction Mecca is in! And as it's Ramadan now, it's illegal for anyone to eat, drink or smoke in public from sunup to sundown because devout Muslims fast during that time and we have to be respectful of their observances. So we all have to be very careful about finding a private place to take a sip of water or eat. At the university, they're providing us with an enclosed area where we can't be seen having coffee and lunch during the fasting hours. And Doha is very quiet now compared to what it's usually like... which is chaos on the roads, apparently! Once the Eid holiday is over, I'll get to see the real Doha.


What I have seen during the day is usually filtered through the heat haze. So everything looks like this:

This is the view from my hotel window, looking towards the centre of the city. According to what I've been told, most of these very tall buildings were built only in the past five years. When the college was originially set up here in 2001, there were only a few buildings higher than three storeys.


And that's where I'll end my first blog entry. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll let you know when my next entry is ready for viewing :-)