7 November 2009

7 November 2009, Saturday
I have been a bit busy! The moving company delivered our shipment on Monday, 2nd of November. Everything went very well. There were six people unloading the container. The front feet on one of my Dutch antiques was broken, but Jim is fixing it himself. I'm not sure how well the worker bees would do with it. The worker bees are mostly from China, Philippines, and Pakistan. The unpacked all the furniture, set up the beds, place the 50" TV on it base and unpacked all the kitchen glassware.

We are still unpacking and trying to put away our winter clothes. I am still hanging up my summer clothes. That means that I probably have too many summer cloths. However, when I leave the compound I "should" have my arms and knees covered. Most of the time I do, but occasionally we go to the mall and for some reason I did not know we were going. Most of the time it is because I am wearing shorts above my knees. I usually get a few smiles from the men, so not such a bad thing.

On Wednesday, November 4th, I had to go to the Shell office for an appointment at the Hospital. They told us the appointment was at 9 AM, but we did not leave the office until 9 AM. It is very interesting that the women and the men have different sides to enter the hospital. Men are NOT allowed at all on the women side. I think that it may be one of the few times that they can go out someplace without the men. I was there to have another blood test and chest x-ray. There are no appointment times! It is somewhat organized, but I cannot understand why they did not split up this huge group of people, having one group doing x-rays and the other group doing blood tests. No, that would have made too much sense. The x-ray room was rather comical, as there were only two changing rooms and all these women in burqas. This group of french women talked me into changing out in the open (everyone was wearing a t-shirt anyway) and I definitely received a few dirty looks from the nuns (at least that is what the women in burqas remind me of), but I was not showing any inappropriate flesh.

We arrived back at the Shell office around 11:30 AM. I had an eye sight appointment at 1:30 PM, so I got to hang around the office for 2 hours. Jim came over to the Shell office to see if we could go next door to get my bank card, but they needed a letter from Shell stating his salary. We did manage to get the letter we needed, but by the time we got back with the letter the bank had closed only 30 seconds before. They close at 1 PM. Now that is pretty good hours!

I went back to Shell and got in an elevator with two Arab women (their faces were showing) and an Arab man. The elevator arrived at the Arab man's floor first and it was more than a few moments before the guy knew it was his floor. Once the elevator door closed the two women started laughing and of course, I knew what they were laughing about, so laughed with them. One of the women said, "he wasn't sure how to act being in the midst of three beautiful women at once". It's little things like this that catch you by surprise a little.

When I was getting my eye test an Arab woman came in, escorted by her man. He face was fully covered, however, once she realized that there were only women in the room, she completely unveiled herself. I was asked to read two lines, that's it! She was required to read several lines both in Arabic and English.

The next day I went back to Shell to get my temporary license. I will get my permanent license after my residence card.

Friday, Jim got me to follow him from the transient flat to our villa at 9 Pearls. Driving on Friday is not as bad as other days of the week. Friday is like Sunday for them, and major prayer time is 11 AM til Noon. Jim thought I did very well. Driving is definitely the big challenge here. Most of the time they don't even yield when entering a round about. If you hit them, then it is your fault. So, why should they care.

I am sure my friend, Sue and I could get into a lot of driving trouble here. We sure did in Holland, and it is easy to drive there. Sue, there are some cameras here that we have not yet had go off for us. Getting caught by a camera here works a little different here. They don't mail you a ticket, mainly because there is no mail home delivery. It is your responsibility to check the website to see if your account is clear. After you get so many "marks", they suspend your license. If you have a ticket on your record when you go to leave the country, they won't let you leave. You have to go to the police station to settle your fine. Then, reschedule your flight. If you have a non-refundable ticket, too bad ....you lose.

Last night was our first night to sleep at the Villa. As I was filling up the bathtub, the water got darker and darker (rust in the water). I must say it reminded me of our time in Nigeria. The hot water heaters need to be replaced. Jim spoke with the maintenance men today, and they will replace one tomorrow morning at 9 AM and another one at 3 PM. Then they will have three more to do, but they are in the process of replacing all of the hot water heaters for all of the compound. The villas have 4 bathrooms and a maids quarter bathroom shower. Some have 3 bathroom, also with a maids bathroom shower. That is a lot of hot water heaters!

The maintenance men here physically go around and turn on peoples sprinkler systems everyday! Actually it turns out that they visit each persons yard three times a day! They turn on the back on the first round and the front sprinklers on the second time around. Then, they have to make another round to turn off the front ones. Wouldn't it be easier to have them on timers?

I am really enjoying the nice warm temperatures. The humidity gets to be a bit much in the middle of the day, but in the evening it is very pleasant outside. It's fun to be able to see the sunset and the moon rise everyday!

Sunday is the first day of the work week. Jim goes to Dukhan on the other side of Qatar in the morning. It's a great road with speed cameras. That's a good thing in an Arab Country.

I hope everyone is well! Send me an email if you have time. Email is hrhholland@gmail.com

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