A Day at the Camel Races

We were number three in a four car caravan – not difficult anywhere else in the world but HERE – a true challenge - on our third attempt to see the Qatar Camel Races at a track out in the desert. All of us had seen pictures or reruns on TV but we always seem to hear about them after the fact. Today, Cristina actually had a phone number to call and verify everything. She called twice and two totally different sets of facts were verified – the first phone all said the races were at 2PM, there would be refreshments and grandstands to sit in. The second phone call said the races started at 1:30PM and there would be no grandstands but there would be buses. So when we showed up we were not exactly sure what we would find.

We drove for almost an hour through desert sand and rock – we passed a compound of tiny buildings with a huge sign that said “TRAINING CENTER” which was probably where the trainers lived. We saw a herd of nearly twenty small camels with one young man watching them off to right hand side – they were roaming freely and I saw one that was the tiniest I have ever seen. Then we began passing groups of three camels. Each group had one very tall camel with a rider or a man leading him and one small camel on each side of him. The middle camels always had their heads thrust forward as if to always be ahead of the pack so maybe this is a psychological boost before the race!

Until a few years ago, the tradition here was for three or four year old boys to ride the camels. There was a huge uproar I assume when tourists began attending the races and were horrified to see toddlers atop huge camels unsupervised much less following them around the track in a bus watching while they held on for dear life. The new process is much more humane. A tiny R2D2 look alike robot wearing the colored racing silks of the owner and holding a riding crop perches on top of each camel. He is remotely controlled from one of the hordes of Land Cruisers driving along the road that parallels the track.

Thirty camels are lined up at the starting point – pushed and shoved into place by small stable hands some of whom kneel off to the side with a rope in their hand that is looped through a leather strap around the camel’s nose. Not all of the camels have a string attached – thank goodness – because as the starting gate is raised and the camels fly out – the small men that had been holding the ropes yank one end free and dive under the fence along the side. One came through right next to me – startled me to say the least. And filled my shoes with sand and probably left over camel poop. The animals are huge and to watch that close up is fascinating.

The finish line is only fifty meters away from the starting point so the usual process is to watch them start and then walk down and watch them finish. The first few races were the younger camels. Hilarious to watch - occasionally one would run a few hundred meters and apparently just decide this was not much fun and would make a U-turn and amble back ignoring the colorful swatting robots on their back and the waving stable hands who were trying desperately to get them to turn around and RACE. By this time, I was feeling a little sorry for the animals as they ran along with their lower lips flapping and foam spewing from their mouths. I actually enjoyed assuming that with the crush of Land Cruisers filled with men driving along honking, screaming and clicking their remotes, that there was no way the owners of the reluctant camels could do anything but continue to drive around the track. We never could find out what the radio range of the remotes was.

After watching two starts, we got on the bus to watch an entire race. A twenty seater packed with our group and an Asian family pulled into the maniacal traffic just after the camels were off. We merged with cars that were FULL of men screaming, honking (regardless of all the signs with a big red line slashed across a bugle), aiming and clicking their remotes out of the windows and many standing in the open sun roofs – thobes and headgear flapping!

We did two races in the bus taking photos – my friend’s daughter took the best ones as she is young and was not at all afraid to sit on the windowsill and click away with all of our cameras. With each race, the camels got larger and faster – there were no programs or signs but we did hear that there were ten races but after five – we felt we could leave without missing much as the announcements were all in Arabic so we couldn’t understand the racing commentary.

At the end of the day my favorites were the colorful blankets, tassels on the bridles and the little silk jockey outfits on the robots. The people watching was interesting as there were no local women but men of all Middle Eastern nationalities. We did see a Mercedes (according to one of the men in our party- the most expensive one on the market) with bodyguards all around it.

While waiting to race the camels all wore muzzles (I keep hearing that they spit at people) that were simple woolen colorful things – some decorated and some not but all beautiful. The very best was my thoroughly engrossed spouse pointing out the “nose warmers”!

Expat Friends

Packing the bags for Cairo – sounds pretty amazing. I just checked the currency rate and I realized that I have gotten used to checking money that is not in US$. I will have exactly 22 hours in Cairo with my daughter and her new roommate from Chicago. I have been looking for anything I can find regarding “what to do with 24 hours in Cairo” and the souqs and food seem to top the list when I factor in arriving at 5:00PM one day and leaving at 4:00PM the next – especially arriving on a Friday which is like landing in London on Boxing Day or the US on a Sunday.

I hope to see the Pyramids on the flight in. I am planning a longer visit next month and will see them up close and personal! I am trying to talk various friends into joining me!

Fred the Cat is doing well although he sits in front of the window and looks like he is pining away for the wild life. He eats a bit of food every time he wakes up – I think he is just checking to see that it is still there. He does love Arabic bread (don’t we all?) and hopefully will have the very expensive nasty eye surgery soon.

Hummus is a mainstay here and I am going to post my friend Judy’s recipe, as it is so good, so easy and better than any of the premade stuff I have tasted plus it is easy to add extra garlic.

Judy’s Hummus

2 cans of drained chickpeas

1/2C tahini (buy the good stuff and check the date)

Lemon juice

Garlic – mashed and diced

1 ½ teaspoon salt

Put it all in the blender/processor and serve with a little olive oil drizzled on the top. A few black olives or a little chopped fresh cilantro on the side.

I have discovered that one of the difficult things about living this expat life is saying goodbye. It seems we do it quite often – both to friends that we know we will see again and worse - to friends that we have met and grown to love that live outside our home stomping grounds! We know we will make the effort to see them again but they don’t live on our regular Southeastern USA route (otherwise near a child or grandchild) so we know it will be a trip in itself.

Twice now in a new country I have been lucky enough to meet someone who makes me laugh, doesn’t care that I am a hopeless housekeeper, enjoys the food and atmosphere and can enjoy a glass of wine while wallowing in the “now” of being so far from home. Someone who realizes that this is temporary and something to be enjoyed as thoroughly as possible but also understands there are ‘blue-I would love to be somewhere where I hear my own language with a familiar accent’ days.

We have made so many friends but I think the first thing I heard about expat friends is very true – they need to be “quick, deep and transitory” to be unforgettable.

One-Eyed Fred

Rumor has it that we find dogs and cats find us. I have never wanted a cat. My friend in post -Katrina Bay St. Louis actually had seven cats at one time – one of which still loves me. The feelings were only sporadically reciprocated. The idea of having a pet sleep with me was totally put to rest when Peanut (greatest sleeping dog ever according to all of the kids and their friends) actually had a chance to sleep in the bed with me before we moved to Singapore – it lasted all of two hours before he was snuggling back in his kennel.

On the flip side – watching the animals in our new country could break your heart. People here do not see pets in the same light as we do in western countries. I could understand that in places like Vietnam where people struggle for enough to eat and dogs are in the food chain. I could kind of understand it when we were in Singapore and people collected pets that were cute and then dumped them when they grew up. Here there is a coldness towards animals that I don’t quite get. The idea of kicking a dog just for fun seems outdated in most of the world but here it doesn’t seem to faze people that bored teenaged boys could actually do that and no one say a word to them much less try to stop them. I would like to think that this story is an urban legend but I know it could very well be true. .

Qatar is developing fast and the government seems focused on the important issues such as infrastructure, quality of life issues and education. Buildings and roads are built in the blink of an eye but projects are also started and then dropped just as quickly. Huge construction projects seem to have been affected by the Dubai World reorganization. There are issues with foreign workers who are not protected from overwork and abuse. The animal issue is understandably way down on this list and seems to have become an issue at all only because of all of the western expats that live here.

One night recently I walked my friend Patsy to the front gate of our compound and we met a white cat that was meowing loudly. He looked like he had been on the losing end of a catfight. One eye seemed seriously damaged although it wasn’t profusely bleeding but it was incredibly gross. When I stroked him – he started purring and rolled over on his back. Patsy laughed and said “Uh oh, you are going to have a cat if you don’t watch out!”

He followed me home and sat on my front porch meowing. I took water outside and he actually tried to come inside. He was filthy but friendly. My neighbor had asked me to go to the nearby shopping center and after my daughter offered to babysit her 18-month son – there was no way of not going! She enjoyed the break but was not happy about me possibly feeding the cat and joked about dropping the cat food I bought into a trashcan on the way to the car. When we pulled up to our townhouse – the cat was sitting in my window! Curled up six feet above the ground waiting. I fed him and tried to contain him in my tiny backyard. He had water and food and a box with a towel – he ate, crawled into the box and crashed. The next day was a national holiday so we ended up keeping him for another night – he spent most of the day in my other next door neighbors yard (also not happy about a cat) after somehow climbing over the wall without breaking his neck and hiding under a rug hanging outside while it rained. I fed him and left him alone most of the day as it seemed the driest spot available. That night I actually let him into the kitchen while we cooked dinner and he sprawled out on his back and fell asleep! He spent another night in the box with the towel while I spent time online looking for his owner. I was so sure he had to belong to someone.

Plans were set. I borrowed a carrier, Cicely came to help me catch and cage the cat and he was still trapped in my backyard. Then we saw a flash of white as he jumped up to one window and then over the wall into my neighbor’s backyard – remember these are ten-foot walls. I met Cicely in front of my house, handed her the carrier and tried to open the gate next door but it was locked. I had to knock on the front door and lie to the 6 and 4 year old girls who live next door as their parents didn’t want them to even know about the cat as they really want a pet not to mention the shock of the messy eye. Their maid was quick to help me duck out of the back door, shutting it before the girls could follow. I called the cat and he actually meowed. He was in the middle of the flowerbed using it as a litter box, having shoveled most of the dirt on the patio. I scooped him up and before he knew what happened he was in the kennel on the way to Qatar Veterinary Center!

I was surprised when the vet’s assistant looked at him and explained that there had been no injury. There is a rampant eye infection among kittens born in the wild here. Their eyes become infected before they are ever open and they lose the eye, as it is never treated. She said that even though he was friendly and purring that he was probably a ‘compound’ cat. These cats develop amazing social skills enabling them to live around humans who feed them but usually don’t really ever connect. I got the feeling she felt we should neuter and release him, not necessarily try to make him a pet. I was still sure there was a family out there missing their cat.

The veterinarian was very nice. He said Fred (I had to give them a name to even see the vet) was not quite a year old, basically healthy, had ear mites, needed to be neutered and vaccinated. He reaffirmed what the assistant said about the eye – said it had been gone for a long time and if he had had an owner – the odds were that they would have had the eyeball removed and the eye sewn shut. I agreed to pay for the neutering, etc and made arrangements to have him boarded until I COULD FIND THE OWNER! They didn’t laugh.

He was there for a week as I thought I had found a home for him on Christmas Eve but the young man did not back out until five thirty in the afternoon which was too late to pick him up. So he lived with them for a week and we picked him up and brought him home expecting a wild animal, especially after he howled in the back of the taxi all of the way home! He was anything but – he is more like a dog – he followed us around, he used the litter box, he has to have been around people before! He is just a cool relaxed cat – unless of course he is just recovering from the stress of surgery, kennel for a week, and being on the street for a while. I still think someone has to be looking for him so we have made a flyer and posted the information on every website I can find.

My husband got home in the wee hours of the morning and I let Fred out to meet him (he of course was out of town while all of this was going on but was clued in when his phone beeped in Singapore with a text message from the bank saying I had charged 1000QAR). Unfortunately he was hooked almost immediately. I hate to admit it but Fred will be with us probably until we can find him a home – I really do not want a cat. Hairballs totally freak me out.

One clue that he might actually be wild – he crept into the kitchen and the next thing we knew he was sitting in the sink drooling over the birds at the feeder outside. He didn’t even care if his feet were wet. He looked like a hungry shopper at the meat counter.

Three days and a lot of money later – my spouse has fallen in love with the one-eyed cat with the ‘Daniel Boone coonskin hat’ tail. He has bought a new litter box, (and changes it) a scratching post, lifetime supply of catnip, toys and has scheduled eye surgery for the middle of January. Expensive eye surgery. This I didn’t expect and I still really do not want a cat. Once we don’t have to guard the front door with a spray bottle of water so he doesn’t try to return to his home in the trashcans of the desert – Fred might turn out to be ok.

The Christmas card that I tucked into my traveling spouse’s suitcase had a cat on the front that looks great with an eye patch! I really didn’t expect him to become quite this attached to a stray cat.

Karma Cat fact - Cicely rescued a three-week-old black kitten stumbling around in the middle of a three-lane road. People slowed down but didn’t stop but at least they didn’t run over her while she was in the middle of a rescue that I would have loved to have seen!

We now are seeing cats everywhere and watching Fred find little places to creep into that he can watch us and we cannot see him makes me realize how many homeless animals there probably are. A short national program to catch, neuter and release would not be that difficult for the Qatari government and I can only cross my fingers that it happens soon.