Syriana

Last night Marjorie and I decided to watch Syriana, since she had never seen it and when I saw it I didn't know yet that I was moving to Qatar. The first time the complexity of the story line had me very focused on the plot. This time I was noticing all of the tiny little details that they got exactly right. Those of you living in Qatar should watch it, if you haven't since you've lived here.

The workers in blue jumpsuits, going to work on a TATA bus (the cheapest car manufacturer in the world) looking like the wheels are going to fall off any second, getting deported when they lose their job because their work visas are through the company.

At the cafe, George Clooney's character orders a club sandwich and french fries, a super-popular lunch dish (and what I eat on a very regular basis).

The compliment on the fresh strawberry juice in the unnamed Persian Gulf country.

The Prince's motorcade consists of: Land Cruisars painted in matte sand color for the military, a Range Rover for the Prince himself, and white Land Cruisars for everyone else.

The Prince flying his falcon in the desert during a business meeting.

The younger prince's yacht party and general attitude. Also, when he is named Emir, he says "hamdulillah" - "thanks be to God" and this is EXACTLY what an Arab would say in that situation.

The entire speech that Matt Damon's character gives when he arrives in the Middle East, he says: "There's an arrow on the ceiling pointing the direction of Mecca... women are covered head to foot... its humid. 125 degrees and humid. I walked out of the airport and it was like a wall fell on me. All of the Arabs in white sheets. It says, it's hot and I don't have to work."

I can see why they chose not to name the Persian Gulf country - its definitely filmed mostly outside of Dubai so it looks like the Emirates; they reference a country with 10,000 American soldiers, which would be Qatar or Kuwait; the Prince's wife is wearing pants with her shayla which which probably be Bahrain; and the men are wearing Saudi-style thobes. Anyway, it doesn't matter much, because they all have oil, spoiled heirs, hot weather, Land Cruisars, strawberry juice, bad labor systems, and club sandwiches.

Insha'allah

If I ever write an anthropology paper or book about Qatar and the Gulf, its going to be called simply "Insha'allah."

Literally, insha'allah means "God willing" or "if God intends it." Basically, any time Westerners say the word "hopefully," someone in the Gulf could substitute "Insha'allah." The origin comes from the belief in Islam that God controls all aspects of our everyday life. Not only an all-powerful God but an extremely involved one as well.

Here are some common examples:

It can mean that another person will try to keep a commitment, but something could come up (a family situation, traffic, etc.) that will keep them from it. For example, when I say "let's meet tomorrow at 2:00pm," a student is very likely to respond "Insha'allah" - which means "probably I'll be here, unless something else happens."

Or it could indicate desire with doubt, for example the management at my compound once told me, "the part to fix your air conditioner will be here by the end of the week insha'allah." Yeah, my AC wasn't going to be working anytime within the next month, and we all knew it.

It can also indicate desire with uncertainty, for example I could also say "I will return to India one day insha'allah." I personally think this is the best use of the phrase, because it doesn't frustrate me so much as the others.

Not surprisingly, the excessive use of "insha'allah" frustrates Westerners because we come from a culture in which structuring our time and actions is just what we do. The structure is an effective stress-relief mechanism in the West. In Islam, the ultimate faith in God is the stress management mechanism, and so structure is unnecessary.

More surprisingly, I know many very pious Muslims who also get frustrated by the excessive use of "insha'allah." In my first example, in their minds, it is acceptable to use it if you think that you may miss your meeting because a family member is seriously ill, but unacceptable if you simply think that there might be more traffic than you accounted for. This comes from a belief among more devout Muslims that you should only use God's name when it is truly something that is in His hands, not when you are trying only to avoid responsibility for a situation.

Anyway, I mostly put this concept out there because I often find myself wanting to type "insha'allah" in my blog posts, but not being able to because I haven't explained what it means.

Arabic Language confusion

I got a piece of mail today from my auto insurance agency. It was addressed to Kareail Narey Toma. As we told our Arabic teacher many times, it is not easy to translate English into Arabic and vice versa. There are a few sounds in Arabic that don't exist in English, and some English sounds, such as "p" or the short "e" don't exist in Arabic. For example, when the brand Pepsi is written in Arabic, it literally comes out being pronounced Beebsi. Also, the K and the C like in cat become the same letter "Kaf" and the S and the C like in certain become the Arabic letter "Sa." Likewise, the Arabic letters Sa and Sod both become English S. There are many examples of such problematic translations.

Anyway, I explain all of this because my name has apparently caused everyone some confusion, because they see the "y" in Caryl and don't realize that its pronounced as the "o" in Carol. My first name, written in Arabic looks like this (remember to read from right to left):

My middle name Marie looks like this:









And my last name Tuma looks like this:











Apparently when you look at that in Arabic and translate it all back into English, it becomes Kareail Narey Toma. The lack of distinction between "m" and "n" is something that I don't really understand, because both letters do exist in Arabic, the mim and the noon. You can see in my middle name that the mim was translated to N, but they got it right in my last name. Unfortunately, the Qatari government did not get it right in my last name, and every single one of my government documents is issued to Caryl Marie Tuna. Grrrrrr.

And for those of you who actually speak Arabic... Yes I do know that my handwriting looks like a two-year old's. I've only been doing this for three months. When it comes to Arabic... I am a two year old!

It rained!!!!

For almost the whole day. The first precipitation since I've been here. Dave and I walked around the Education City campus as it was drizzling and the construction workers looked at us like we were crazy, but it was so worth it! I'm totally missing fall and winter. The temperature has finally gotten down to 60 degrees at night, and around 80 degrees during the day. This is still a bit too warm for me, but at least the Starbucks are serving pumpkin spice lattes :-)


I've been neglecting the blog recently. I've actually had a decent amount of cultural interactions and somewhat important realizations, I just haven't had any time to process them and write them down. Finals are next week and the students are freaking out. En masse. And their panic is feeding off of one another. Although after next week the halls and lounges will be completely quiet, and that will be a lot worse than the panic.