Santa in Sand-land

We set out this morning to drive into the city and visit the Gold Souk to pick up a few Christmas gifts. We knew exactly where it was located and anticipated some traffic but it took us over an hour to get there and then we drove around for 35 minutes before my husband was comfortable parking his new car in an available space! Then I could not remember exactly which building a particular store was in so I called to ask for directions. Our conversation was so language challenged that when I finally figured out that he was amazed that I couldn’t remember his shop and was telling me to go in any store and ask where “Magic Diamond” was and they would direct me. That of course was absurd – they chased us down the alley with handfuls of pearls to buy! Once we figured out how to get inside the huge building – it was a piece of cake – we found exactly what we wanted at a really fair price. For the next two hours we spent looking for a shop to buy linen. We had three souk names and a GPS and we still couldn’t find one! During the ride, I made some notes about some of the interesting and hilarious things we saw on a simple drive into town.

Driving down one of the back roads we passed a great street sign – instead of the drawing that tells us to be careful - children crossing street – there was one for women crossing – an outline of women dressed in abayas and hijabs holding hands and walking (I am sure it is difficult to check both ways when veiled).

We saw a Land Cruiser (the national automobile) with colorful prayer beads for every day of the week hanging from the mirror along with a set of – I swear – FUZZY DICE!! We passed the new medical clinic – a building the size of a small hospital in the states – it has a huge sign across the front – FUTURE MEDICAL CENTER and for six months we have waited for it to open – we found out that it has been open for years and since the influx of expats living in this area there now is a canvas sign hanging beneath it that says in red letters – NOW OPEN (apparently we weren’t the only ones waiting).

We followed an Arab ‘Fred Sanford’ for miles. We never could pass, as there was a line of cars behind us that would speed up to our back bumper and then fly around both of our cars. He was driving his dented dark green Gallant Explorer circa 1960s; wearing his haj hat and with a grizzled gray beard driving maybe 20 miles an hour in rush hour traffic. Gripping the steering wheel for dear life he navigated the roundabout on the inside lane and basically edged along – stopping quite often (usually straddling two lanes) before making a right hand turn. The horns and squealing brakes were unbelievable until final everything pretty much came to standstill as everyone watched him carefully cross three lanes of traffic and putter down the middle of the two-lane side road. He never made eye contact with anyone – he never took his eyes off of the road in front of him. It was the only time we have seen anyone stop the buses of workers and the hordes of Land Cruisers in their tracks.

The best had to be when all the traffic was bogged down at a construction merge “give way” area and we couldn’t figure out what the problem was until we got closer and I swear that a small white car (a Sunni- smaller than a KIA) had run into a Land Cruiser and their bumpers were locked together. We think that the Land Cruiser was pulling the smaller car along to get out of the traffic before they stopped but here in Qatar – it is quite possible that the driver of the Land Cruiser was on his phone and never noticed the little car attached to his bumper.

There are school buses that have obviously been shipped here to use in the construction sites. It is a little disconcerting to pass an old yellow school bus with everything written in English full of small dark-faced workers dressed in french blue jumpsuits with colorful scarves tied every which way on their heads. If they are on their way home, they are all obviously exhausted but if they are on their way to work – they all (a quote from my beautiful Italian neighbor) “stare quite strongly”.

I read on a blog here that the only drivers scarier than the local Qataris are the expat women who have to drive everyday. There is probably a lot of truth in that statement – shades of carpool lines. Aggressive inattention is the name of the driving game – no eye contact – cell phone to ear – going as fast as possible between the speed cameras is all in a days driving!