FEBRUARY IN THE DESERT

Greetings friends and family.

 It’s been a while since we last wrote.  This is partly because we have been very busy, both personally and professionally with the university.  We enjoyed our four week visit to the States in December-January.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t kind us.  It was freezing in Pennsylvania, which is to be expected.  But it was downright cold in California during our visit there, too.  Even our children’s friends were sorry that we were there during such an expanded cold spell, as there was actually snow near LA, on the mountains.  Southern Californians don’t have heaters in their homes.  But the cold weather could not dampen the joy we had in visiting with our children, grandchildren and the friends with whom we spent time.  Our visit was in a word: delightful.

We arrived back in Qatar after tearful goodbyes with our children and grandchildren, particularly.  We found it more than chilly in the desert.  Nevertheless, I swam our first weekday back.  The pool worker was wearing a coat, winter hat and gloves and astounded that I was in the pool at daybreak.  CMU’s associate dean was impressed (Edna says that “impressed” is a synonym for thinking that I’m a nut!).  I later struggled for a couple weeks with a cold.  Edna was sick while we were in the states.  The weather changed recently and has been picturesque, sunny and warm with blue skies, as our Pennsylvania family and friends have unfortunately been hit with snow storms for the ages.

It is an especially busy time for the Admission department as we gear up for a March 1 deadline for applications with myriads of interviews, phone calls to prospective students, and a Winter Institute for prospective Computer Science students.  Edna has helped the dean with personnel changes, dinners and the like. We’ve also had a couple dinners with the Admission folks, co-workers, visitors from the USA, as well as a lunch with the tax experts.  As you might know, USA workers in foreign countries have different tax rules.  While I hate taxes more than death, I’m happy for these folks who make it their life’s calling to know the rules and keep us lawful.   Life in Qatar has been busy but rewarding.  We’ve been enjoying our worship experiences.  We are also hosting a study for the Anglican Church.

We brought my Mom back with us to Qatar.  She is appreciating the desert weather for a couple months.  Our daughter-in-law is coming for a week at the end of the month for work with CMU.  They will fly back together. We have taken Mom to several malls and outings.  A friend has taken her to a few Christian ladies outings.  We have done a couple of city tours, one to the middle of the country and desert.  She’s experienced new foods,   met all types of people, and seen animals she’d never seen before.  Our driver from Sri Lanka treats her like his own grandmother. 

I thought that I’d stick with a theme this time, an aspect of Middle East life that elicits more of a question and response than nearly any other from our Western friends; CAMELS!  We have learned that there are two kinds of camels.  The “dromedary” camels are the ones with one hump.  They are the only kind in Qatar and all of the Middle East.  The “bactrianus” camels are the ones with two humps.  They are found in Central Asia, Pakistan, India and other parts, and are much more of a pack animal for labor purposes.  From what I gather, archeologists wonder if historically, there were camels with more than two humps or less than one.  Camels are related to llamas and other animals, and share similar faces from what I’ve seen. 

In the desert of Qatar, there is actually camel race track that we recently observed.  During races, the riders are robots, after many years of being small African children who frequently were killed in the line of their work.  Our Father Emir banned the children drivers and a few years ago, robots replaced them.   

Evidently, camels can race up to 40 mph.  Additionally, they can live up to 40-50 years if given the opportunity.  Most aren’t given the opportunity.  For the races, which are major international events, the drivers and trainers are Sudanese.  As a guide told us, Sri Lankans have a natural gift to train elephants, Qataris have a natural way with falcons and Sudanese have a gift with camels.  A camel’s racing career is between the ages of 3-5 generally.  Because it is not their nature to naturally run, they are trained to run, as a string of trainers run experienced mother camels, as the babies, up to ages 3-5, run beside their mothers, with reigns and blankets, running.  Often these camels wear masks which prevent the camels from eating sand (which they would do as they failed to decipher the plant from the sand).  Sand is not good for the camel’s digestive track.  The best (and therefore only) racing camels are white females.  The Emir Cup is the big race that draws people and owners of camels from many countries.  No one watches an entire race, because it is quite long in distance.  Therefore, the only seats are at the finish line and are reserved for the royal family.  The winning camel receives a Lamborghini.    Second place is a Ferrari.  Every camel that makes the field wins a vehicle.  They range from Land Rovers to small pickup trucks.  Last year, the winner of the Lamborghini was Qatari.  34 Land Rovers were shipped to Dubai winners. 

 I posed with the winning cars.  Now, I’ve got to figure out how to get my own racing camel!  BTW, racing camels can cost $1 million or more.  (Do you think my friends in the USA could pass a hat?  It’s for a good cause!  I’ll let you ride in my Lamborghini!).  Mother camels are 12 years old.  After their racing and breeding careers, camels are used for butchering and food.  BTW, gambling is forbidden by Islam Quran, meaning that it is under the table.

Camels are domesticated by Sudanese Bedouins who live on camel farms in the desert.  During our stay a decade ago, I learned that the Sudanese farmer makes a certain noise with his mouth to get camels to lie down.  He makes another distinct noise with his mouth to get them to rise back up. There are other distinct noises that they make to get them to run and the like.  I learned to make the noise that commands them to lie down and was especially impressed with myself that the camel obeyed my noise.  I couldn’t make the sound to get them to rise back up.  I pondered that it was a gift from God to the camel that kept them from a perpetual motion of up and down to amuse myself with my newfound “talent!”    The camel also obeys the sound of the crack of the whip that the farmer makes.  I wasn’t able to duplicate this either, but a high school student in our party could.  I referred to the high schooler as, (wait for it…, wait for it…) “a young whipper-snapper!” 

Now if you’ve picked yourself off of the floor and dried your eyes from your tears of laughter, I’ll tell you a little more (note: I get a charge out of my own humor even when others bear a look of pain!).  In Qatar, camels also have other purposes aside from their benefits as working animals that transport heavy loads (and racing!).  First, they are used for milk.  Yes, Middle Eastern people drink camel’s milk.  I haven’t yet, but some have told me that it is sweet, while a Sri Lankan guide told me that it is nasty, because it is over the top creamy.  I’ll probably believe the latter.  A decade ago, a prospective student’s mother told me that Middle East folks use camel’s milk as an aphrodisiac.  I was floored.  However, when I shared this conversation point with one of our Qatari female friends and Edna, our friend was angry and told me that she’d never heard of it.  Further, she surmised that the lady was flirting with me in order to get her high school daughter, who was present at the time of the conversation, into the university.  Our friend became very protective of me. I don’t know.  (Hey, I’m just reporting what I witnessed). 

Second, and I’m sorry to offend some of you, and as I’ve alluded, camels are used in the Middle East for their meat.  (Orthodox Jews do not eat them).  I am told that they taste like lamb. Qataris use different seasonings and mixes to make them taste good.  I’m told that the hump is the best part, because it is the fatty part.  Folks don’t eat the stomach and the like.  Families buy the entire butchered camel for their families.  Even more, the Quran permits a male to have four wives (and thus families) at a time.  A camel will go to feed all four families.  The camels can be slaughtered at any time and I am told that there is a special delight in baby camels.  While the racing camels are smaller, the mothers can get very large (no going through an eye of the needle there!).  Some chefs and hosts like to play games with Westerners and tell them that they’ve just had their first camel meat, despite the fact that they didn’t, just to get a reaction, from turning sickly, to actually vomiting.  My son-in-law, upon seeing a picture of camel meat that we took at a market, said that he didn’t want lumps in his camel meat.

Camel Souks are markets.  They have the smell of the farms that we grew up around.  We visited the Camel Souk in Doha.  There we learned that camels come in three colors, brown means that they are from Sudan, white means that they are from Saudi Arabia, and black means that they are from Oman.  We also saw baby camels.  One camel was loose, but our guide advised against my approaching it for fear that i might “spook” it and be in danger.  The white females are the ones used for milk (I know you guessed the female aspect, and yes, I passed my high school biology!).  The others will be used in time for meat.  

In the autumn, Edna and I rode on our bus and passed a small truck with a camel lying in the bed of the truck, looking back at traffic as we passed it.  Our driver asked us to guess where it was going (the Green Mile). 

A decade ago, we visited a camel farm in the Qatar desert.  One particular camel was tied to a stake and blurting out a constant noise that nearly sounded as if it was wailing.  Other camels were within viewing distance of the ranch in the desert standing free without a fence (this is where the rancher snapped the whip and the camels in the wilderness came).  The “wailing” noise was constant and loud, unmistakable.  An American suggested that maybe the camel was in heat (is that an appropriate phrase for the desert?).  But the Sudanese farmer (expert) told us that the camel was a mother and her baby camel had died earlier that morning.  The “wailing” sound truly was mourning and the camel was segregated and tied up for her own protection, to keep her from harming itself.  Suddenly, we realized that this breed of animal shared an emotion akin to humans. 

Blessings to all of you, Bob & Edna