Headwear - Omani style

I am always fascinated by the style, fashion and dress of the Middle East. So far, my favourite for men is definitely Omani headwear. The "kuma" is a small round cap which delicately rests on the head, the other is of a turban style where a scarf is wrapped around the kuma. The men here all wear these for every occasion and they vary slighly in shade or design. They are worn with thobes, mainly in white but unlike Doha, here an occasional daring rogue seemed to boldy venture into other muted shades of browns and greys. It is safe to say, and myself included, that Australians know very little about Qatar. Before I came to the only country in the world which begins with a Q, the most asked question I had was whether I had to cover my hair. Definitely not in Doha as it is such a cosmopolitan city with over half the population from somwhere else. However, in the smaller, less explored areas of Nizwa, Oman it seemed like a good idea - especially during this holy month of Ramadan when we are encouraged to dress more conservatively. As you can see Ella loves any excuse for sparkle or dress ups and adopted this scarf for a skirt and later a headscarf. The locals seem to adore her attempts to dress more like them. (Just slightly more colourful!)

The Art of Henna

We all loved this. I had been promising for ages that during Ramadan we would find somewhere to have henna tattoos. I remember I had this done here a few years ago and the next morning Ella, at 3, had covered herself in permanent marker to copy the envious designs on my hand. It is an ancient form of tattoo (temporary) dating back thousands of years which uses a crushed up powder from the henna shrub leaves (one of the few plant varieties to grow around here I am sure). It creates a rich mahogany paste which dries and fades to a terracotta tattoo for weeks. It is very popular in this region as it is in India. It is particularly used for women and celebrations such as weddings etc. We have Eid coming up to celebrate the end of Ramadan so the girls and I relished the opportunity to have our hands and feet decorated.

View from our street

Here are some pictures of our home. As you can see our garden consists of a small grassy patch at the front of our house. But in the first few weeks of arrival the girls would still play out there in the early hours of the morning. Our first girl has always been very observant and sensitive and here we have discovered she is also extremely culturally sensitive. In the first few weeks we were here she came out dressed to go out as pictured. The black top (mine) that she is holding was actually covering her face - but I suggested that it might not be necessary. The mosque is our local mosque which we hear throught the day and night calling everyone to prayer. Actually there are several very close by but this one is only a few hundred metres away and we pass it on our walk to the local shop. Okay, so I have never actually walked but the girls and Andrew do often before or after dinner for milk. However, they do deliver even as little as one egg so I don't think I will ever walk in this heat!

I am an official Qatari resident now!

So, today I finally received my Qatari residency permit. Andrew was particularly stressed and excited about it. I was not quite so worried, as the consequence of my visa expiring....– not such a problem. S o here’s the list of requirements - blood type tests, chest x-rays (where 100s of women, predominantly housemaids plucked from villages in the Philippines and India knowing barely a word of English or Arabic , were lined up with me waiting for their name to be screamed out –with no idea what was going on), finger printing (???not sure why any of these are necessary and interestingly our blood test types are not the same from 4 years ago anyway???). This residency process required several aborted and repeated trips to each venue because: opening hours randomly changed (very common here), the national computer system was down, (also very common because of censorship), it was prayer time (this happens a lot), we needed to go and get a stamp from the office across town before we came (of course the office across town does not know this and sent us back to our original destination), you must pay another fee, blah blah blah. We were one of the lucky ones as apparently this process (ordeal) can take a lot longer. But a Qatari colleague to whom we are very grateful had a friend or cousin at nearly every venue which helped immensely, so he kindly escorted me to each place. Although, mostly the places were women only so he had to wait outside with the other men in the heat. My first trip with him I had just arrived a week earlier and I didn’t have a mobile, even know where I was or who I could call and I walked out of the women’s only building to a sea of white men in robes and I was searching for a man named Abdullah wearing a white thobe. Unfortunately, I am not very observant and since you are not supposed to look a person of the opposite sex directly I had not really taken much notice of what he looked like. But apparently in this crowd I am easy to spot. So we were finished and nearly there but when we went to pick up our documents they said we had to start the process all again including pay the fees again because there was an error. Very annoying especially since we had already pointed out that my surname had been left off and my middle name was misspelt but we had been told “no problem, no problem or my favourite saying “this is not a problem” – which usually means it is a BIG problem but no one can be bothered trying to fix it. Anyway, thanks very much to Abdullah I have my visa under a different name. But no one seems to mind. This means I can now officially drive these crazy roads with my license from 2006. Help!

Strawberry Shisha!!

One of my secret loves (well perhaps not so secret) - is shisha. It comes in tantalising flavours such as peach, melon (my favourite), apple and strawberry and with its very own shiny and bejewelled equipment, it is always tempting. The subtle scent of others smoking shisha is espcially divine. It is very calming and in a country where alcohol is pretty much prohibited it takes on an even more important status. When I took a friend in Melbourne recently with a busy life and a stressful job she commented that "THIS is what is missing from (my) life"! My friends and I chose this shisha cafe at the souq because it offered fans that sprayed a refreshingly cool mist every few minutes. Of course traditionally, it is only for men and so a lot of the shisha cafes are men only but it seems quite acceptable for women at more cosmopolitan areas. Or the people are just very polite.

Souq Waqif

Our favourite place in Doha has always been Souq Waqif. It is one of the few places that feels like we are actually in Arabia. And we are fortunate the girls love it too. Souq Waqif is Arabic for market stop and here they have different lanes for spices, oud and perfume, hardware, pets, materials, toys and trinkets and traditional souvenirs We were given some arabic coffee with cardomen and dates at our last visit buying spices and the girls loved the traditional flat bread served with honey as pictured. How she makes this in 45+ degree heat amazes me. I was sweating just standing near her.

Glittery Delight in the Souq

Souq Waqif might be a big part of the attraction of Doha for the girls. There is very little colour to be found outside. But inside this souq is a treasure trove of trinkets..... The girls love this part of the souq, especially with its shiny and shimmering fabrics. We said each girl could pick a material to take home to inspire play and after a week of waiting the fun was in the choosing. The littlest took the greatest of care in choosing her fabric.

My favourite things about Doha so far

Tea with fresh mint – amazing added to any black tea and transforms ordinary green tea into a far more exotic and fresh beverage.

Rosewater and lemon juice in my water each morning. I am trying to embrace the scents and flavours of the region.

Baklava by the tray from the local supermarket. It’s a delight all of the family share.

The call to prayer. So this is something which could also appear on the most annoying list (especially at 4:00am) - But there is something about it that always makes you stop and take notice.

The architecture – style, form, shapes of the buildings and the mosques. Grier’s favourite car game is to count the mosques. A very easy game as there is supposed to be one within walking distance wherever you are in the country. And there is.

Air conditioning – it thrills and surprises me every time.

The oud – everywhere you go there is an exotic fragrance emanating with touches of musk, sandalwood, saffron, cinnamon, honey, rose, amber...

What I have learned today

I learned something new today – you should never get blonde highlights put in your hair in a country where - a) the majority of the people have thick dark flowing locks and b) the majority of the hairdressers (read all) have thick dark hair. C) Where there is an enormous communication gap between hairdresser and client. Big Mistake! You will end up looking like a Barbie doll that was dropped in bleach. I guess I should have known “natural” doesn’t carry the same fashionable tone here anyway. One of my Arabic students had commented one time how colour was so popular in makeup in the ME and how quickly they learned to tone it down for us more demure Aussies. “We’re like rainbows” she told me. So whilst the hairdressing salon staff, and there were many of them, tried to convince me that my hair looked great and she had once done the same colour to an American woman and she loved it. I took a little more convincing. I knew to prepare myself as after her first failed attempt she told me in broken English as my hair was being washed - “I fix it. Madame, I am ashamed”. Not the words you want to hear from your hairdresser. So, now I am stuck at home whilst I learn to improvise on making my own headbands. I also learned that just because a place is called London Beauty Salon doesn’t mean there is any connection whatsoever to London anything. At least I was allowed to spend extra time observing the curious happenings of the local beauty salon where the local women cast off their burqas. (Well, some even here in this environment left their burqas, niqab and Pradas on to have their pedicure or get their threading (the most popular treatment by far). So interesting to watch. As the Filipino and Thai hairdressers and beauty therapists scream and laugh loudly at each other from all corners of the room. Such camaraderie between these women, shipped like cargo lots to this far away land to sleep, eat and work at the salon. How much fun they seem to make of what must be difficult circumstances. Probably laughing at my hair. As I write Andrew is off to have an “Arabic cut” facial shave at the local barbers with a knife. That might be tomorrow’s post.