A month without seeing a cloud. A month without rain. A month of no deadline being met by anyone. A month without foam topped nectar nor fermented grape nor distilled grain. As the month of Ramadan ends. Still no cloud nor rain. Few deadlines being met either. And alas little affordable foamed nectar or fermented grape come to that as Orange Socks still needs a liquor licence. Excuses for delays; ‘Sorry, it’s Ramadan’ is simply replaced with promises of ‘things’ will return to normal after Eid. Eid being the ten-day holiday after Ramadan. New to the Middle East, Orange Socks and Missus are left wondering; what is normal?
Orange Socks and Missus are now in procession of their residency permits aka ID cards. Getting them has been a long grueling process. The process involved the Ministry of Interior establishing that Orange Socks and Missus had no undesirable disease nor criminal record. They then recorded their blood type as being, not surprisingly A+. All this took a long time. Long even by Qataris standards. Other new faculties’ details were being processed faster than Orange Socks and Missus. It transpired that Orange Socks and Missus’ medical results had been kept on the bottom of some clerk’s in-tray at the Ministry. Subsequent daily cohorts were added to the pile and processed before the previous day’s cohort. This was not that surprising given that some new recruits had the wrong name on their medical cards or the correct name but the wrong photo. The Ministry managed to lose one of the new faculties blood sample. Other delays frequently resulted due to the ‘system being down. Seasoned ex-pats soon learn that this invariably means that the operator of the system has more than likely gone home. This often also occurs while trying to conduct banking transactions whether at a branch, ATM or online.
With an ID card it becomes possible to rent a villa, get internet connection, obtain credit cards (despite being told that one would be issued in the second week) and an interest free car loan from the University. And more importantly a liquor licence. Obtaining this licence was thwarted before Eid as a salary statement from the University was needed, which naturally will only be available after Eid. ‘After Eid’ of course being anytime in the future.
Towards the end of August Orange Socks and partner found a five-ensuite bedroom villa with a sixth bathroom, laundry room, lounge, dining room, bar area and large kitchen plus reasonably sized garden front and back; and roof patio; a five minute walk to the beach and only a twenty drive to work. All that was needed were air-conditioners. All this in a small village called Simaisma (various spellings found). This turned out to be too good to be true.
Apparently, an Arab considers it impolite to say no or refuse someone something. This can be confusing for the Westerner and/or a lot of wasted time as a ‘no’ will be expressed as ‘come back tomorrow’ or ‘after Ramadan’ or ‘Eid’ or in some cases ‘the system is down’. Sometimes one might be referred to some else who happens to be away that day.
After having the two or three obligatory ‘getting to know you’ coffee meetings with the future landlord and giving him copies of ID card, marriage certificate – it’s illegal for unmarried people to live together in Qatar – a salary statement from the employer and twelve post-dated cheques. A date was fixed to visit the regional municipal office to register the agreement. Two days before the prearranged date the landlord calls a meeting where he says he could not have the villa ready in time so he needs to return all the documents and cheques. Inshalla (God willing) it would be ready after Eid. It is after Eid and no contact has been made since. Though there seem to be many villas available and quite a few being built. Disappointingly it looks as if the Missus and Orange Socks face staying in the university compound a little longer. Whatever a little longer may mean.
