The Time Shift

I experience time differently in Qatar.

First, there is the time shift. Qatar is 11 hours ahead of Seattle time. I am on the almost exact opposite time of friends and family. When they wake up, I have already experienced the full day. I am finishing dinner while they eat breakfast. My US colleagues send emails while I am asleep. Since I manage two work inboxes, I wake up to emails from US colleagues just as my Qatar colleagues are starting to send theirs. This has been difficult to manage (so I apologize for the missed emails!)

The work week is also different. The Qatar work week is Sunday to Thursday. Friday prayers take place on Friday morning so EVERYTHING closes on Friday morning, even mass transportation like the metro stays closed until 2pm. Saturday is a day of exploration where everything is open and everyone goes out. The metro runs every 3 minutes (versus every 6 minutes on weekdays). The roads are crowded. The time and work week shifts mean that when my colleagues log in on Monday morning, I have already worked two days. And when I log off on Thursday afternoon, they have two more days of work before the weekend. That means that if I want to make connections with my US colleagues, our shared work days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Additionally the work and social hours are different. Work hours for government offices range from 7am to 2pm, with many offices closing for lunch at 2pm, and then often not opening again. Due to the heat, most people stay inside until after dark, with people going out after 7pm. Since we go out so late, the locations stay open late, so its not uncommon to stay out until 11pm or midnight. On weekends, most places stay open until 2am. And these places are crowded until late. 

I have experienced this time shift for four months now, I'm still not used to it, but I am developing new habits. On Friday mornings, I sleep. I really rest. Nothing starts until 2pm, so I spend Friday morning sleeping, reading, or cleaning. 

When I first arrived, Fridays were difficult. I felt completely stranded in my house, especially since it was too hot to run or exercise. I wanted to go out and explore. I could call an Uber to take me somewhere (Uber is readily available here!) but where would I go? Everything was closed! But now, I look forward to that quiet time, time when no one will disturb and I can just rest. Then on Friday night, I feel ready to head out and explore, able to stay up late visiting the museums or markets or drinking tea.

This is a different feel from the US, when the first day of the weekend, Saturday, is often packed with events or things to do. I am already exhausted from the week, and doing things on Saturday morning just wore me out more. Sundays are the sleepy day, where I recover from the week and weekend, resting just enough to start preparing for the work week. In Qatar, since I sleep on the first day of the weekend (Friday), Saturday is more enjoyed. Saturday has just as many activities as in the US, but I am less tired. 

The other shift is my night time. In the US, I typically work late, go home, and then sleep. Here, I teach until 5pm (which is very late by Qatar standards). I often try to get home by 6pm, which leaves me the whole evening. I don't typically fall asleep until midnight so that leaves 6 hours to do things! Sometimes I work, trying to get ahead on work. But now that the weather is cooler, I'm trying to fill my evenings with outdoor events, like walks in Oxygen Park. 

Since so much happens at night, the city lights up all of the buildings. So the bright buildings are transformed into vibrant skylines. See the photo of Doha West Bay at night. The bright lights encourage me to stay up and engaged. 

I don't really have a point to this, other than to share that my sense of time is completely distorted right now. Its just weird. 

Changing Perspective (Part 1 of X)

 Part of the reason I applied to come to Qatar is because I wanted to shift my perspective. I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone, to challenge myself to think differently. 

I am still figuring out what has changed so bear with me as I share unfinished thoughts. 

Two months in, I can start to see a shift. For one, I am disturbed when this area is referred to as the Middle East. Did you ever take a moment to think about why we call it the 'middle' east. Middle of what? According to the Indiana University Center for Middle Eastern Studies- the term comes from a Eurocentric definition of geography. This is the same world view that describes the US as the 'New World' or 'rebellious colonies'. The USA has been around for over 200 years, so I would hardly describe us as 'new'. The Europeans defined Japan and Korea as the 'far east' because at the time you had to travel a far distance eastwards in order to reach the countries. The countries of the Mediterranean (Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, etc) were called the 'near east' because they were nearer. The Arabian peninsula (now containing Saudi Arabia and Qatar among others) was a middle distance away, so they were called the 'middle east'.

For perspective see the picture below. This is a map in Portugal showing the path of a famous Portugese poet (whose name I can not remember). This map shows his journey from Portugal, below the southern tip of Africa, to the Arabian Peninsula, India, and China. You can see me pointing at where Qatar should be (it is a tiny peninsula not shown on this map). Its in the 'middle' of his journey. However, the majority of the world's population lives in the 'middle or far east'. So if we try to define the world in terms of where the population is (India and China), Portugal would be called the 'far west' and the US would be called the far east.

So much of what we talk about in the US is from the Eurocentric perspective. For example, most chemistry textbooks start with the ideas of the Greek ' Democritus' who proposed the idea that matter consists of small particles.  We ignore the fact that the first chemistry lab in the world was actually found in a small cave in South Africa. Over 100,000 years ago, the coastal people mixed 'chemical's to make a new compound that we call 'ochre'. The Blombos cave is the first example of 'chemistry' but this is rarely mentioned in chemical books in the US. This is images of the reconstructed cave in the Natural History Museum in Capetown, South Africa.

What is also ignored in the west, is the root of the word 'chemistry' which is derived from the Arabic term 'alchemy'. Part of the adventure here is discovering the Islamic stories of scientific discovery that I may not hear in the US. For example, the research complex at Qatar University has a huge two story mural showing pages from the world of Al-Jibbr- one of the founders of optics. The mural shows examples of geometric measurements and an apparatus for distilling substances (which separates one part from another part.).

People in the region to themselves as part of the GCC, the Gulf Cooperative Council. I believe very strongly that we should strive to call people by the name they desire, so a first step is to shift from thinking about this place as 'middle' and more in terms of the region is resides. 

The Gulf Countries are defined by their dry, sandy climates, their proximity to the calm salty shores of the Gulf (Arabian Gulf if you are on the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf if you are in Persia/Iran). Many (but not all) have large oil or natural gas reserves that are easily accessible. And the predominate religion is Islam (but there is a large minority of other religions too). History shares that the worlds first university was founded by a Muslim woman in Morocco - University of al-Qarawiyyin. The school was called a madrassa - an Arabic used to define an institution of higher learning. 

So, I'm learning a lot about a different culture. And learning how to better support my students from this region in the US. That's where I end for now, so I can wrap up and make it to the rest of the conference today on Sustaining the Oasis in the Gulf. 

Its raining, its pouring, the PM 2.5 is blowing

Its the start of 'winter' in Doha. So far, this means that the temperature cools slightly (from highs of 120 degrees to highs of 92 degrees). It also means that rain becomes much more likely. 

The first big rainstorm came while I was out of the country - it was a massive rainstorm (for Qatar) that lasted about two hours. 

Doha is in the desert, and it is NOT built to handle rainfall. Most of the roads do not have drains and if they do, the drains are not that big (it rarely rains so why would you need them?). This meant that during this massive 2 hour rain storm, many of the streets flooded - which led to the formation of rivers in the street. Cars became boats! People used Kayaks to get down the street. 

Apparently the parking lot near my housing flooded (but thankfully my apartment did not) and the campus lost internet for two days. I arrived shortly after internet was turned on and the water receded, but I saw the impacts on the parking lot near my street. Mud everywhere! 

The rainfall provided such much needed water to the region and also helped to clear the skies from some of the PM 2.5 particles. The air quality dropped from 163 (Unhealthy) to 81 (moderate) for two whole days!  When I arrived two days later, the air quality had already increased back to unhealthy levels of 150. 

Thankfully, its still rainy season so the rain keeps coming. The rain has been hitting in mid-to late afternoon, as the warm humid temperatures lead to build up of storm clouds in the region. The entire peninsula of Qatar is about the size of Rhode Island - only 99 miles long and varying from 35-40 miles across. So even the smallest storms take over the peninsula. 

Today, I spent the afternoon working in a coffee shop in a new town built in Qatar - the area of Lusail. This area is slightly north of the capital of Doha, and along the coast. Most famously, Lusail is home to the stadium for the 2022 world cup final. 

I found a coffee shop with excellent windows so I could enjoy the storm in all of its glory. As the storm approached, the sky became darker, which is normal. However, the darkness was a slightly more orange quality that I am used to. I was curious about this so I stepped outside to take a photo...when I was hit with a massive wave of nasty tasting air. 

I then realized that the wind was blowing all of the sand and dust from the desert into the city. That's what the weather report said - rain with blowing dust. 

Thankfully, a lovely thunderstorm hit with a lot of rain and washed most of the particulates out of the air. Now the air quality is much better and it is blue skies all around! Watch a video of the storm at this link. 

I'm really lucky to be able to experience these changes, and hope that the rain continues to keep the skies clear so I can enjoy my time outdoors. For the meantime, I will use the time to get work done inside.