So, as you know, I stopped dog walking. We have continued with the laundry. Some advice if you want to donate linens to a shelter-towels are the best. Fleece blankets hold onto hair like an insecurely balding man. (Sorry, couldn’t help it.)

Phase 2 of helping out at QAWS started today with kitten transport.  D and I picked up 3 4-month old males at the shelter at 7:15 this morning. We drove to Education City to drop D off,  listening to a kitty duet that sounded just like D imitating a distressed cat x2. The third cat was eerily quiet.

It took me a while to get to the Animal Health Affairs Ministry. On the way, I found 2 of the cats were very sweet and friendly-kneading, asking to be scritched and flipping onto their backs and rolling around. The other one lay in his cage like a sphinx, and then took a bath.  We got there around 9, which is late since spay and neuters are done Sunday-Thursday 8:30am-10:30am. They were able to do the boys though, since neutering is quick and easy.  If I had brought females, I would have been turned away since spaying is a more complicated operation.

Thank goodness an English woman was there, who just happened to have been the Neuter Taxi driver for QAWS before she started Cats in Qatar (to go along with Dogs in Doha) recently. She and a friend are now trapping, nursing and rehoming strays near their homes and places of work to try and take up some of the slack. Ay ay ay! Anyway, she advised me on how to fill out the very simple, undated even, form; introduced me to a couple of the staff; helped me bring the kitties inside and kept me company while we waited. As she is an archaeologist,  we had an interesting chat.

Here comes the graphic part though-They anasthetize the cats in the group they came in-so her 3 were all done at once and then my 3. They shave their little ball sacs, put them on a square 2-tiered surgical steel cart–one cart had 7 cats so both top and bottom shelf–line them up on one side of the rectangular table in the open operating room–people are wandering in and out continually–snip, yank, snip x 3, shpritz them with iodine, then put them back into their cages. The next batch is already been put on another side of the table, and ready to go.

One side of the table is for other operations, like abcesses or injuries, and I did see 2 of those, and one dog getting shots. Other than that, all I saw was male cats getting neutered-about 15 of them in 1/2 hour. And they had 12 more to be done, waiting in the hallway in traps. These cats had been caught in the Ministry’s  Trap Neuter Return (TNR) program, which brings us to the hopeful, positive part of this post and my trip.

The Ministry offers the TNR program for free, and anyone who knows of a feral cat colony in Doha can ask for their help, tho of course there’s authorization and paperwork to get through first. Also, they are starting a registry of microchipped animals, and best of all-a pet passport program. This would mean that to bring a pet into the country, you have to register them, and consequently,  if you try to leave that pet in Qatar when you repatriate, as so many assh, oh I mean, people do (I know I don’t know their circumstances, but a LOT of people do this, the bastards,) the Ministry has your number so to speak. These are all really great programs and will help so much. The only piece missing is educating the natives, some of whose behavior towards animals I have described before and will not disturb you with again. So, while the visit this morning was tough and frankly, a little shocking I know neutering is the easiest, most effective thing to do to keep the population down and to keep the boys from cutting each other up-which some do regularly and thoroughly. The boys and I got back to QAWS at around 10:30 and one of the men who works there helped me unpack them, poking one and saying–”This one dead, I think” haa ha haa–but they all were fine. The archaeologist hasn’t “lost” one in the 9 months she’s been doing it and lately she’s been going @ 3x/week. So, I am pretty poomped about my new assignment.

And now for something completely different. Have you ever seen one of these? They carry them at one of the markets here-Roman Cauliflower. Gorgeous, no?

Each day we go “the new way” to the shelter–yes, we’re still doing pestilential laundry–we pass by this van, and a pile of used carnival ride parts. Well, the other day I decided, dang it, I gotta take pictures of those, and what the hey, while I’m at it, I’ll take a picture of the van too. So, I pulled around off the road, and while there was an unhappy-looking woman sitting in a van next to the lot, and someone was blowtorching something in a building nearby, there was no one to actually ask for permission to take pictures. So, I started with the van, and moved on to the other pieces.

Well, 2 minutes later a young man comes out of a majlis to my left. He says something like: You like my van? I said: Its yours? Do you want me to stop taking pictures? Do you want me to erase the ones I’ve taken? No-he says-that’s okay. So I keep snapping the carnival ride trash.

Next thing I  know, the young man’s standing at the majlis door with a friend saying “would you like some tea?” and gesturing inside. Now, you may have heard me kvetching about lack of opportunities to meet Qataris, (how did I know these men were Qataris? They were in a majlis at 8 in the morning, wearing thobes and headdresses,  with their custom van parked outside and they were in a position to invite me in. Even during Ramadan, which it was, other people would not have been dressed like that AND have a custom van  outside AND been the owners of the majlis at the same time,) and if you’ve read about Gulf culture, you know that hospitality is very important to people. So, I screwed up my courage and in I went.

There were 3 young men in there all wearing white thobes, 2 with the white scarf, knit cap and gutra and one with just the cap. 2 were kind of chunky but my host reminded of no one as much as Michael Jackson being pale & thin and having long blow-dried dark hair.

The majlis was a white tent about 16′ x 10′ with low gold and white embroidered cushioned benches to sit on and rectangular pillows to lean on. There was a small low table in the middle of the space that had some pastries on trays covered with a handled plexi dome and several drinks in pitchers. All this even though it was Ramadan.

I did not want hot tea, so I asked for water, which MJ poured for me. (I did not “get” there names.) Silly me, I sat on one of the leaning cushions on the floor, because it was not on the benches where the men were sitting, but it was not so far away that I couldn’t hear them. Also, it put the table between me and them which seemed important at the time.

MJ showed me the “Terrorist” in action on his cell phone, and told me it would be repaired in 5 days, as one of the tires was blown out. He races at Qatar Speed, a raceway that seems popular with the “Gulfie” guys. We then talked about how old we all were-they’re in their early 20s, that I work as a teacher at the American School of Doha (librarian and volunteer were not words we could make each other understand) that MJs brother goes to elementary school there.Then we talked about hair–that mine was so short and that his was so long and no, its like that naturally. I left with many thank you’s, sweating almost more than I had been outside in the scrap heap.

We all drove away at the same time and parted with an enthusiastic wave goodbye. Whew!

BTW, here are a few carnival ride photos-they didn’t come out great, but hey, like the visit described above, at least I went through with it!

It really looks  like this-spectacular!

Went to the hospital-thank goodness the “school nurse” from SFS-Q went with me. Got there 15 minutes before the app’t. Had to register, pay, p/u my registration, all at 4 different women’s desks-men have separate areas. Only then could I get my number-kind of like the registry. And even though we were more than on time, there were 7 people ahead of me with the same appointment time, for the same doctor! I did get a prescription-which you take to one desk, you pay at another desk, then take your receipt to a third desk to show you paid, then back to the first desk to p/u the prescription. I dropped off the prescrip a week and a half ago and have been scared to go back by myself. I am not kidding. Not just for negotiating the layout, but also for parking. D is going with me tonight.

One of the reasons it was so crowded there is because its Ramadan and they have reduced hours. Ramadan has been kind of a bummer-it doesn’t seem very religious, more of an excuse to eat a lot at night, lots of things are closed and you are not supposed to eat or DRINK anything in public, even as a Westerner. My perception is certainly due to lack of education about the holiday and lack of entry into the Muslim “world.” It has not been fun or festive. Oh well. We did get to go to a very lovely iftar at the Ritz-Carlton–gold and wine colors everywhere, beautiful tables, good food, good (LOUD) music and a performance of  tanoura. It’s like the dance a whirling dervish does, in that its a man in a costume turning, but this man was wearing 2 multicolored skirts that he moved up and down his body and whirled over his head to make balloon-like forms. Also his hands were not in a fixed position and there didn’t seem to be any religious significance to it.

The new GU building will be opening soon. We got to go on a tour and see D’s new offices, the gym, the theater, etc. Think big, new hospital and you’ll get an idea of the size of the place. Wow! More about it later after all the paint and decorations have been put up, the furniture and all the computers and accoutrements moved in.  

Other than that-we went to a What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up party last week. I went as a back-up singer for David Bowie. Weirdly enough, I had dropped my camera earlier that day and when I looked at the photo D took of me in costume, the date on the photo was December 31, 1979! Dooduh doo doo dooduh doodoo! David went in shorts and t-shirt and told people “I didn’t want to grow up.” The best costume idea was very simple-wear dirty clothes with money pinned onto yourself and go as filthy rich! Hah!

Oh, and I quit walking dogs, at elast for now. It was so upsetting, and I was getting worse and worse at it-choosing the wrong dogs to take out together, losing control of them, letting them get away from me. I’ve asked if they have something else ( read less heartbreaking) for me to do, and in the meantime there’s always  pestilential laundry to do for the shelter and garage cats to feed when the regular cat ladies are on vacation.

Going to Petra next week and to Madrid next month!!!

Might I mention here that on a follow-up phone call with the pharmacist (blessings upon him,) re: this rigmarole, he suggested we change insurance carriers?

So, on our second visit to the clinic (to ask for the note. The first was to get the prescrip. We are on our way to the third visit to get the doctor’s note to then take to the pharmacy. We are waiting till 6:15/after sundown to go so that the people who have been fasting for Ramadan and are therefore in a hurry to get to wherever they will be able to eat-and are driving even worse than usual, if that’s possible-are off the road…) we took Jack with us. We figured I would be a little while in the clinic, and that D could walk him around outside. As we drove in, we saw a car with what we thought was a dog in the front seat. Cool, let’s take Jack over to meet it. Walked around the car, and I s**t you not,  this was sitting in the front seat! With the window wide open! It was indescribably, absolutely gorgeous.

David took Jack right back to the car though.

The shelter continues to be a VERY hard place to be aware of, never mind participating in. I learned a lesson this week that makes my role that much clearer, so my time there will be even more focused. I am not there for the dogs, I am there to help the laborers. When I stop to clean vomit and diarrhea from a cage, fill a water dish or put a blanket or toy in a cage, I am not doing my job, which is to walk the dogs so the laborers don’t have to. Then they can concentrate on cleaning the cages, filling the water bowls and replacing dirty blankets.

 This is Thor. He is the dog in the photos of D and me volunteering at QAWS from right around the time I got here. You can see part of the office steps in the enclosed part of the compound, dirty blankets, the stones that make up the play area. He is a sweetheart. He had terrible excema and the flies tormented him. He’s been adopted! Yay! I include him now because yesterday was a bit of a turning point day in that not only  did I “get” what I’m doing there, but also found out that 2 other dogs have been adopted! Yay! And found out that 3 dogs who are there long term have owners. Yay! And was encouraged to walk only gentle dogs by the laborer that I take direction from when I’m there. It made a lot of difference in the number of dogs I could walk and the quality of our interactions. I think his advice was given because I lost control of 2 dogs on Thursday and the other laborer had to stop what he was doing because he thought I needed help. Oooh and, no laundry. The ”boss” wouldn’t give me any. Smart man. About that laundry-it still reeks and is a pain to do, but doesn’t make me itchy or retchy. And I aim to get to the shelter at 5:45, not 5, as described in an eaarlier post. So, still difficult, but not as tough.

When it gets cooler, I’ll take more photos, believe me!

For those of you kind enough to ask about Miskeena, the horse I wanted to work with, I have backed off. Her owners have a plan for her. Someone else noticed the shape she’s in and did strange things like bring in hoof maintenance tools and walk her around the compound (I saw him and thought nothing of it) without her owners permission.  Weird!

Also, just have to add, I found several dead ring-necked doves on the road the dogs get walked on. I asked one of the shelter directors about it and she said-”Nothing to worry about.” The sheikhs who own the farm the shelter is housed in shoot the doves on off hours when they know the staff, volunteers, dogs and other animals are not around. The doves are pests!Jesus Christmas!

In other news:

-I flunked my driving exam again. Boy, was I upset. I need to back up around a corner from a ramp smoothly-no stopping to see if I am going to hit anything. I have practiced  a little, but if I don’t pass a third time-I’m gonna have to take driving lessons. Or maybe I’ll just let it slide till I get back to the States.

-We are in the process of bringing the two cats I mentioned in the June 6  post into our home. Turns out one is male, one female. I am having fun trying to find appropriate Arabic names for them…

-Still no job-The Central Library says they still want me to work for them but they are still having difficulty getting my position classified for pay. Houston Community College is opening Qatar Community College here in September. I was all set for an interview with them when they told me they want people with Community College experience. I tried to convince them that a public library is a lot like, but no dice. So, I have offered to fill in on a temporary basis, since they are still advertising the librarian position. Also, in the July 4th supplement to one of the English language newspapers, the  American ambassador mentioned setting up kiosks in some malls to offer help to families who are looking to send their children to the US for college. I have not sent in a resume for that, but again, public library experience is great prep for something like that. And finally, the Academic Bridge Program (a one year program set up to help 6 to 7 hundred Qatari and international high school graduates “get up to speed” on English language and other subjects primarily so they can go to the colleges in Education City) needs substitute teachers! Hah! Public librarianship could well be a good lead-in for that, eh?

http://picasaweb.google.com/miriam.achenbach/20100628#

Swiss Chard Stems by M

 Again-the language. The local gas station has posted a letter to its “costumers. We went past a “grossery” store last night. Two nights ago we had “swess chart” for dinner.

 We were at Al-Wakra beach-my favorite place here!-last Friday around 5 am. There were men from the “sub-continent”  picking up dead queen fish (at least that’s what D and I think they were) that were floating in the water and washed up on the beach. 

The ones the men were gathering were about 10 inches long-not like this one! Do the fish wash up every morning or is there a time of year that happens? And why was my initial reaction-Eeew? Those fish are a lot more like the ones swimming in the ocean than the ones in the market (even here where you pick out whole fish from an ice tray in the seafood room at the store, tell the person behind the counter how you want it prepared,  go do the rest of the shopping and come back to a plastic bag with your selection ready to go.)

Another “fish” story-I am always looking for shells at the beach, so I look down and walk slowly. I look for colors-orange pink yellow white-but I don’t pay much attention to straight lines since shells don’t usually have straight lines. This time I almost stepped on a skate! I don’t know who was more surprised-the skate or me.  Poor thing bonked into me on its way past. It was strong! Won’t say it almost knocked me over, but for a little creature it packed a wallop.

Finally saw a lizard – teeny thing, looked like a gecko-about 3 ” long, if that.

It’s a treat to watch the world cup in a place that is only one hour off South African time. I would say too that its a pleasure to watch with a multinational group, but I could do that in Boston, DC, Montgomery County, huh?

Oh, and about that driving test. This is a story that I will tell probably many times-it will be a good one to “dine out” on. If I get the writing bug, I’ll tell it here. For now, suffice it to say that David’s previous experience meant that I knew the road signs cold. But, it seems I don’t know how to back up around a corner.

I will be retaking the test June 29th, again, at 5:30 am.

The shelter is just as bad as I thought, and maybe even worse-the irresponsibility of people towards animals is awful-not just letting them breed and abandoning  them, or leaving them at the shelter as “boarders”-cocker spaniel puppies for 4 weeks, Rambo the Cat for 4 MONTHS, but ignoring veterinary care, leaving them on the base or the componds.  The conditions the poor darlings are living in at the shelter, tho its much better than being on the street, are not so good compared to the namby pamby places I’ve volunteered before-litterboxes cleaned just once/week, puppies not getting walks, an afghan with matted dirty hair and so many ticks.

But  the ladies who run the place on a volunteer basis, thank you very much! do all they can and bless them for it. All 5 of them have families and work full time.

The shelter houses a bull, a donkey, a horse, ducks, geese, a rabbit, hamsters, 15+cats, 30+kittens, 15+puppies, 40+ dogs. It doesn’t have a local sponsor so its tough for them to really raise money. Aaaargh its so frustrating.

But I am so glad to have the chance to help and can only thank David for the support he’s given me. I will be getting up at 4:30 am 2 days/week to be there @5 to walk as many dogs as possible so that the paid workers-all 2 of them-can clean the dog’s cages. So D has to walk Jack and not have a bird while I have the car before he has to leave for work. Also, the deeper in I get, the more upset I’ll probably be, but we’ll deal.

The worst part by far is the laundry though. I have vowed to bring some home to do every time I go. It costs a LOT of money to buy the water to do the laundry there (town water service? Uh-uh) so the towels and blankets the animals sleep on don’t get changed very often. The smell is enough to make you retch. I mean it.  I’ve been wearing a scarf around my face and rubber gloves to put them in the machine here and wash them 2x and they are still faintly wiffy and I would swear I am getting bitten. I am keeping it all in a big plastic bag so nothing and nobody gets to Jack. And I’ll run an empty cycle with Pinesol-type stuff in after every laundry marathon.  Aargh! 

But its a small price to pay to do what I feel is what I was put on this earth to do. I am so grateful to have the chance to really make a difference in these animals lives.

Now watch, I’ll get offered a great f’ing job…