Daily Dose of Cuteness - Courtesy of the Pet Souq in Doha, Qatar

I was going back through photos of my travels today, and stumbled upon this collection from the Pet Souq in Doha's Souq Waqif. The Pet Souq is a small section of the maze-like market where you'll find all types of pets for sale--from fish and reptiles, to exotic birds (& dyed chicks), to kittens and puppies. While the animals were absolutely adorable, it seemed like the shopkeepers did not care much to ensure that they had suitable living conditions, and you can almost sense the sadness of these animals because of their poor treatment.

I recently read this article in Time Out Doha about the Souq. In the article it describes the reaction of one Qatari to the Pet Souq: "‘It’s very terrible, the Souq, for me. It’s something that embarrassed me a lot. When I have friends that are visiting me from somewhere else I try to avoid Souq Waqif as much as possible. I remember I had a visiting vet from Spain who came here to Qatar, and we passed by Souq Waqif and he literally teared. I was so embarrassed. I really felt horrible,’ he says. He’s not alone: al-Naemi says many of his Qatari friends are equally troubled by this portion of Souq Waqif."

Even though we in the United States still have a long way to go in terms of regulating animal welfare, we have really come a long way and do a lot to protect our animals. And even though those commercials with Sarah McLaughlin's "Angel" playing in the background and scenes of hurting animals can be particularly distressing, we are lucky that we have such causes in the U.S. to provide for the protection of animals.

Nevertheless, these animals are too cute. Can you too sense their sadness?

inside the Pet Souq in Doha... lined with cages

cuddled bunnies

dyed chicks.. not sure why they do this

Iftars & Vineyards

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is now half-over, and I have loved being immersed in the strong community that binds everyone together during this time. During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating and drinking anything (including water!) from sunrise to sunset, in order to cleanse their souls and remind themselves of how fortunate they are to have food to eat, when there are others in the world who are not so fortunate. It is also a time of being with family and giving to charity.

Amman slows down quite a bit during the day, when those who are fasting (mostly everyone) would rather stay inside and relax than go out into the Jordanian heat. Many shops and nearly all restaurants are closed during the day, when their owners are fasting and their customers are probably opting to stay in as well. The city comes alive around 7:45, when the call to prayer sounds from the mosques, meaning that it is time to break the fast. The meal held at this time, called "Iftar" usually begins with a large glug of water and dates. Restaurants are overflowing with people and the waiters move swiftly from table to table passing out dishes to the starving and impatient customers. Last night I ate Iftar with a friend at Mat3am Hashem, a popular and inexpensive restaurant in the heart of downtown Amman. Some of the best meals I've had here in Amman have been the most simple--with freshly cut cucumbers and tomatoes, olives, hummus and foul, and pita bread, it's hard to go wrong.

hummus at Hashem

For many, Iftar is also a time to pull out all the stops when it comes to food. Sometimes people spend all day in the kitchen preparing Iftar. This was certainly the case with another Iftar I attended last weekend, at the home of the aunt of a student on my program. His mother was in town, and she just happens to be May Bsisu, author of The Arab Tale, a recipe narrative. They may also have the most beautiful house I've ever been blessed to eat dinner at. The spread was absolutely incredible; I did not have nearly enough room on my plate even to sample the entire offering.

infinity pool looking over the hills of Amman

the Iftar setup

and the Iftar spread

our personal shawarma man

On a completely different note, I also went last weekend to the farm and vineyard of our program director. She is an American woman who married a Jordanian man, and they now own their own land near the city of As-Salt, where they grow their own grapes and bottle wine on a small scale. We were invited to visit the farm, pick grapes, and have a barbecue.

friends cutting grapes off the vine

bottling wine

cutting grapes

crushing the grapes

I had never really been to a vineyard before (how is that possible? living in Portland? I have no clue), so this was an exciting experience for me. We had a great time picking the grapes, bottling the wine and then partaking in the wine and delicious food for Iftar. The view from their farm was incredible, and I will never forget watching the sunset over the Jordanian hills, with Palestine not too far in the distance.

looking out over the Jordanian hills

A weekend in the Jordanian Badia

Recently I had the amazing and unique opportunity to spend two nights with a Bedouin family in the Jordanian Badia, in the north of Jordan near the city of Mafraq (and very close to the Syrian border). This trip was arranged by the CLS facilitators in conjunction with the SIT program in Amman. This was a cultural and linguistic immersion in a traditional Jordanian/Arabic home, and an experience different from anything I've ever done before and which I will truly never forget.


I arrived at my family's house on Thursday evening after a day of class. They welcomed me with a bowl of mansaf, the Jordanian national dish which consists of rice, chicken and laban (a yogurty liquid). The mansaf was accompanied by kibbeh, a deep-fried ball of semolina stuffed with chicken and potatoes. The kibbeh was incredible, and I asked my sister, Wujdan, if she would please teach me how to make it. The family I stayed with was relatively small compared to other Bedouin families--a mom, dad, 2 sons and a daughter. The daughter was around my age, and the two sons were a bit older than her. The oldest was married and lived with his wife and two small sons in the house next door, and I think the other son lived at home (though I barely saw him and wasn't sure if he stayed at night).

I spent most of my time with the daughter, who was 23 and had just graduated from a nearby university with a degree in science. She told me that she wanted to go work in Amman (about 2 hours away from home) in a private hospital laboratory. Although her father did not have a problem with this aspiration, her older brother was against the idea. I got the feeling that without sanction from her older brother, Wujdan would not be able to go work in Amman.

My second and only full day there, I spent most of my time with Wujdan in the kitchen. She was clearly the one who took care of the home instead of the mother (I did not see the mother lift a finger to clean or cook anything). Wujdan cooked every meal, cleaned the floors daily, and waited on her mother, father and brother. We cooked kibbeh, magloubeh (literally "upside-down" in Arabic, because eggplant, potatoes, carrots and chicken are cooked at the bottom of the pot with rice on top, then the pot is turned upside down onto the platter to be served), and an okra dish (okra, I learned, is "bamia" in Arabic). Everything was absolutely delicious, though I especially loved the bamia dish and kibbeh. I tried to help by rolling the balls of kibbeh, but after one my sister took the semolina mixture away and told me that I had "other work" to do.

There were a few difficulties/oddities surrounding living in the Badia for the weekend.

1. The bathroom. The hammam, as it is called in Arabic, was located in a small hut outside the house and was basically a hole in the ground (Google search "Turkish toilet" and you will see what I mean). I won't go into too much detail about it, but it was certainly tricky and quite uncomfortable.
2. Eating. Everything in the home is done on the floor. There are no couches, instead there are simply cushions around the wall of a room and everyone sits on the floor. Even preparing food in the kitchen might be done on the floor instead of a counter. There is also no table to eat at, instead they spread out a mat and the food is served on a large platter with everyone sitting around. Bread is served with every meal and distributed at the beginning to each person. From the start I had to come to terms with the idea that my bread would be on the floor near everyone's feet. This was weird at first, but I came to appreciate the simplicity of life and the people's closeness to the earth they live on.
3. Modesty rules. The family I stayed with, along with most--if not all--families in the Badia, are conservative practicing Muslims. The women wear headscarves and long, loose-fitting robes, and the men also wear traditional Jordanian dress of a white or off-white thobe (a long robe) and the red checkered keffiyeh on their heads. Luckily, I bought a black thobe with a beautiful blue thread design from a shop in downtown Amman before I left. This came in very handy, because I don't think I would have been comfortable in any of the clothes I already own. I arrived to the house in jeans, and even with pants on the father handed me a blanket to put over my legs for modesty's sake. Modesty rules also governed what I could and could not take pictures of (I do not have any pictures of Wujdan, sadly), where I could be in the house, and with whom I could be alone with.
4. The language. The Bedoun dialect was extremely difficult to understand. It did not help that the older women also generally had pretty raspy voices, probably from a long life of smoking. Luckily Wujdan was able to translate a bit for me, either in more basic and classical Arabic (fusha) or in the bit of English she knew.

Although I was the only student from my program in that house, my roommate from CLS, Courtney, was actually placed in the house just across the street from mine. This house belonged to my sister's maternal uncle. Kinship and family are extremely important in this culture, and there are special names for maternal vs. paternal family members. A maternal uncle is "'khal," maternal aunt is "khala," and cousins from them are either "bint khal(a)" or "ibn khal(a)"--literally daughter or son of the maternal aunt/uncle. This can get extremely confusing in speaking. Courtney's family had nine children, so her house was a bit more exciting than mine and I spend some time with her playing with the kids. We also went together to the Badia's Ecological Center, which housed several animals native to the desert, including lots of snakes, a hyena, wolf and owls. After that, we trekked up a nearby hill and looked out across the desert and Bedouin villages. The place where we stayed was just a few kilometers away from the Syrian border, so we could see Syria from atop the hill.

Overall the trip was truly illuminating and I feel extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to experience a traditional Bedouin family life. The simplicity of their way of life, the strength of their family bonds, and their closeness to the land around them made me reflective on the way I live my own life and the luxuries that I have every day. In the end, we all eat our food, love our families, use the bathroom (in our own way), and have a crazy aunt.

Here are a few pictures from the Badia - of cooking, the delicious food, my host family, friends, and exploring the Jordanian desert.

My first week in Amman, Jordan

I arrived in Amman, Jordan about a week ago, and I have already had too many adventures to tell! The first three days here were spent doing a crash-course on orienting ourselves to Jordanian life, culture, and language. On the first day we were immersed with an orientation and a 2-hour session with Jordanian speaking partners. This session involved learning how to find our way back to our home for the next 2 months–that is, the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman. ACOR is an old institution and has played a significant role in archaeological work in the region, among other things. We learned directions such as; “turn left,” “turn right,” “turn around,” and “go straight.” We also learned the important words for bridge, tunnel, and roundabout, of which there are many. Amman is a city of “circles”–the main roundabouts labeled first through eighth.  Like in many other cities in the Middle East, streets in Amman are not based on a grid system at all and generally the streets do not have names, or at least the names are not used. I’m not even sure if the street I live on now has a name at all. Directions are given in terms of landmarks. After our first speaking session, two other students and I were pushed out of our comfy nest and had to get in a taxi (by ourselves) and direct our taxi driver in Arabic to a restaurant determined by our speaking partner. I guess you learn most quickly when you need to! Luckily, we made it to the restaurant, where we ate a delicious snack of kanafa – a Jordanian pastry dessert made with a lot of cheese, oil, butter and sugar. I have a feeling my figure may change while I’m here.

My view of Amman

Kunafah pastry dessert

View from the kunafah shop

The CLS program planned a few more adventures for us during our initial time here, including a trip a couple days ago to As-Salt, a historic city that used to be the capital of Jordan. There, we visited the Historic Old Salt Museum, located at the Abu Jaber house at the center of town. The museum was large and elaborate, with tons of information about the history of Salt. I was surprised at how extensive the museum was, as well as how nicely done the rooms and posters were put together. After the museum tour, our large group of 40 broke up into smaller groups to go off and explore the city on our own. Two others and I  decided to follow the “Salt Heritage Trail,” which was on a map given to us by the museum staff. This self-guided tour of important Salt buildings was a bit strange. The buildings on the map were not only historic, but they were also mostly occupied by residents! They are not museum buildings that you can tour inside, because they are still homes to Salti people. We quickly discovered this after knocking on a couple doors and meeting confused people wondering why we would possible want to go into their house. We walked all around the city, marveling at the beautiful sights.

in Salt, Jordan

a view of beautiful Salt

local Salti boys

in Salt - "الاردن الاول" - "Jordan first"

After the first three days of orientation, our Arabic classes officially began. The CLS program in Amman works through the Qasid Institute, and every week day (Sunday through Thursday here) we have 2 hours of fusHa (modern standard/written Arabic), 1 hour of ‘amiyya (spoken, colloquial/dialect Arabic), and 1 hour of media Arabic. I was placed in one of the advanced sections, which is extremely difficult. At this level, we spend most of our time in fusHa and media Arabic reading news articles. This week we focused on a highly topical issue, al-intikhabat al-masriyya–the Egyptian elections (my reaction to the elections would be an entirely different post, so I won’t go into it). The teachers speak only in Arabic to us, and new vocabulary words are explained in Arabic. This was a bit shocking at first, and I’m still struggling a bit to understand the exact meaning of some words, but it is definitely an excellent way to really get the language into your head when it’s constantly in your ears. On the first day of class, we signed the infamous “Language Pledge,” which says that we will only speak in Arabic for the next two months.
Our latest adventure outside of class was a trip to wasat al-balad, or the downtown area of Amman. This area has tons of shops, restaurants, and also houses a large mosque and the old Roman theatre. The trip was required as a “language socialization” activity, which is a requirement of CLS that encourages us to go out into the city and speak to locals in Arabic about certain topics. We were given a list of possible places to visit–including the Hamoudeh DVD shop, sweets store, a bookstore, gold souq, vegetable market, and more. We only made it to a couple places, my favorite of which was the DVD/CD shop, where you can find any film on DVD that you could possible want, each for 1 Jordanian dinar (~$1.40). I bought the movie “City of Life,” made in Dubai, along with seven CDs of Arab singers, like Nancy Ajram, Amr Diab, Elissa, Tamer Hosny, etc. I can’t wait to listen to them all. The downtown area is exciting and a great place to be immersed in Arabic, because everyone around is Jordanian. I will definitely be going back, to visit the Roman threater and explore the shops and restaurants more.

Wasat al-balad - downtown area of Amman

do you want sugarcane juice?

making sugarcane juice

Hamoudeh DVD - any movie you could possibly want, they have it

Arabic halwiyat

Do I really leave tonight?

In just a few hours I will be embarking on my latest journey--a trip to Amman, Jordan with the Critical Language Scholarship program. I will be there for 2 months, studying intensive Arabic at the Qasid institute in Amman. I am currently in Washington, D.C., wrapping up a two-day orientation for the program. I've met my 39 colleagues for the next two months who will also be doing the program, and am incredibly excited to have the opportunity to improve my Arabic with such wonderful students.

The CLS program is funded by the State Department and implemented by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). It provides scholarships for students at all academic levels to complete intensive programs abroad in languages deemed "critical" but the U.S. State Department. Of course, this includes Arabic--along with Turkish, Persian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, and Urdu. At yesterday's orientation session, we were told that 5,280 students applied for the program across all languages, and just 631 were accepted. I applied for the program last year and did not receive an award, and when I was notified of my award for this summer I couldn't have been happier or felt more lucky.

Having been to Jordan before last year, I know a bit of what to expect. I was only there for 5 days, but saw many of the common tourist sights. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into the city of Amman, becoming acquainted with more locals, and learning more about the city and the country. I will also be completing a PSU capstone course during my time in Jordan, called Museum of the City. While it is not typically an online course, I was able to work with the professor to complete it during my time abroad. The course centers around the ideas of city development and city museums, and through the course students are expected to engage with the community and ultimately develop an online "exhibit" about a city or element of cities. There are endless possibilities in Amman and the surrounding area, so I am anxious to begin the course. Coinciding with the capstone course and my goals to learn more Arabic, I hope to volunteer with a local organization in Amman called Carboun. This initiative promotes sustainability and environmental protection in the Middle East. It was founded recently and I'm hoping to learn more from them about sustainability initiatives in Jordan and around the region.

Next post will be from Amman, Jordan--I can't believe it! Ma'salaama - goodbye!

A trip through the Souq in Doha, Qatar

Last month I wrapped up a whirlwind 2-week trip to Doha, Qatar as part of a Portland State University study abroad program. After transferring to PSU in the fall from Lewis & Clark College, I've been excited about all of the opportunities here related to the Middle East. Three other students and three professors joined me in Doha for a course on "Qatar: Religion, Economy, and Sustainability." We were given lectures every day about various aspects related to Qatar, the Gulf, and the Middle East more generally.

After my trip last year to Dubai, going to Doha was a bit less shocking, since the two places are very similar. Both have been built pretty much from scratch in the past half-century, and are marked by rapid growth in population and physical scale. Both have very low populations of native citizens, and the rest are migrant workers who have come to cash in on the newfound wealth. Dubai may be more well-known internationally, but Doha is certainly climbing the ranks. Qatar currently holds the title of richest country per capita, with an average income of over $88,000. Qatar is expected to become the first country in the world to surpass $100,000 in GDP per capital, reaching an astonishing $113,000 by the year's end. The wealth here is apparent: cranes mark the skyline everywhere and massive projects are being constructed, including a new "Heart of Doha" multipurpose project and a giant medical research center. Construction has also begun on an array of soccer stadiums for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Doha, and plans are also underway for an extensive underground rail system.

One of the most popular, places to go for leisure in Doha is Souq Waqif, a traditional-style market near the corniche. The name translates from the Arabic as "Standing Market," which I'm told refers to the manner in which traders used to come stand in the souq and trade their goods. The Qatar Tourism Authority calls Souq Waqif "the only traditional souq to remain in the Gulf" and "a showpiece of traditional architecture." The souq has been recently restored under the direction of the Emir of Qatar, and you can see the construction they are doing to expand the souq. The "Heart of Doha" project is also located right next to the souq, quite abruptly, and its massive scale stands in stark contrast to the traditional style of the souq. I'm skeptical of the name they've chosen to give this project--though in geographic terms it may be at the center of social activity, it seems to me that Souq Waqif is truly where the Heart of this city lies. Very little of the souq could actually be called "original," but you can see below an old and new picture of the main building that still stands, originally the Bismillah Hotel.

Souq Waqif is a unique place in Doha: it is one of few places where one can go to simply walk around outside (there was a park near the compound where we stayed for our trip, but it was always completely deserted). It is jam-packed in the evenings, staying busy until the wee hours of the morning. In the souq, locals and westerners rub elbows and observe each other, people come here to meet with friends, smoke hookah, and eat in the wide range of restaurants. The pictures below will give you a little tour of the Souq, which boasts restaurants of all different flavors, cafes, sweet shops, clothing traders, souvenir shops, and an animal and falcon market.

A view of Souq Waqif in the 1970s

The main alley of the souq today; cars are thankfully no longer allowed in the Souq, only the many pedestrians.

The Bismillah Hotel in the 1970s

The (former) Bismillah hotel today

A couple more views of the Souq today. There is a main street with cafes, restaurants and shops; there are also many back streets and alleys with other clothing, toy, spice and sweet shops--it's like a maze.

A shop/mini-museum at the heart of the Souq. The owner of this little shop graduated from Portland State University in the 70s!

Selling traditional crafts

Several camels live near the souq, next to an old fort

Camels, juxtaposed against the new "Heart of Doha" project in the background

Future "Heart of Doha"

Outside the souq.. traffic in Doha & a museum with a minaret resembling that of the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo.

Souq Waqif's animal market

Kitty for sale

And the falcon market

 

The marks of globalization... for sale in Souq Waqif: colorful shisha pipes, along with Bob Marley and Che Guevara busts... Baskin Robbins & Dunkin Donuts, ceramic incense burners resembling the national dress (made in China, of course)

Police "patrol" the streets of the Souq keeping it safe (but more for the show than anything)