Because it's Doha, that's why
Kara and I got to meet some new people today. Well Kara got to meet them first when they rear ended her X-Trail and then I got to meet them when she called me. Kara and I had made plans to eat lunch at A&M around 12:00. When she called me back before she got to the school I had a feeling about what had happened before she said anything. The good news was she was OK, the bad news was I knew this would be another adventure in the land of Qatar bureaucracy and laziness. Bureaucracy of having to jump through a hundred hoops to get a form filled out and laziness of the individuals in charge of filling out such forms doing as much as they can not to have to fill them out.
Well once she called me I headed to where I thought I heard her tell me to go. She called me back in ten minutes asking me where I was and letting me know that the guys who had hit her were telling her that it wasn’t a big deal and she should go. I knew this routine because it had happened to her a month earlier. So I did a u-turn and drove the beast the fastest I’ve ever taken it. In a couple of minutes I was at the roundabout where three guys were standing outside of their truck behind Kara’s X-Trail. Their truck was this small blue Toyota single cab that looked older and more warn down then my beast. I parked on the curb about 2 feet behind where they were standing. I got out and asked them why they were telling my wife to go. Of course this being Qatar we didn’t have a common language between us. They pointed at the dent and said it was small I told them I don’t care, how dare you talk to my wife that way and other things they probably didn’t understand. It turns out that this group was from Sudan and had been living here for eight years. I didn’t get much else out of them but by the slight differences in their dress and attitude it was interesting to see another Arabic subculture.
The first police car finally made it. He took the other guys registration told us to go and drove off. I assumed that he was saying get out of the road and we’ll discuss it. Well he vanished and we drove around the roundabout and we regrouped when we realized that the police had left. One of their friends showed up as an interpreter. I told them it was going to be fixed I don’t care how small. So the police came a 2nd time. When I showed him my registration he wrote it all down, when the other guy showed his he laughed and gave it back to them. At this time the bilingual friend offered my 50QR ($14) to fix the car. I laughed and he then offered 100QR. I told him no way. So we then drove to the police station to file a report. Yes, if you are counting we spoke with two officers and we then had to drive ourselves to the station to file the report.
At the station everyone was having a grand ol’ time. I had tried to call several Arabic speaking friends but couldn’t get a hold of any of them. Luckily Kara was able to contact a friend of hers. I figured by about this time I needed to know what was being decided. So I learned that the other guy was seen at fault and it was agreed that since the damage was so small and probably because he didn’t have insurance and the police officer didn’t want to fill out a form that he was going to pay for it himself. So the next step was to meet him at the auto shop (Shack with some tools) and they would do the repairs. We dropped the X-Trail off and I’ll see tomorrow how this saga ends. Well lets hope that it ends.
Ramadan Kareem!!! (What Kara says when she’s frustrated)
Well once she called me I headed to where I thought I heard her tell me to go. She called me back in ten minutes asking me where I was and letting me know that the guys who had hit her were telling her that it wasn’t a big deal and she should go. I knew this routine because it had happened to her a month earlier. So I did a u-turn and drove the beast the fastest I’ve ever taken it. In a couple of minutes I was at the roundabout where three guys were standing outside of their truck behind Kara’s X-Trail. Their truck was this small blue Toyota single cab that looked older and more warn down then my beast. I parked on the curb about 2 feet behind where they were standing. I got out and asked them why they were telling my wife to go. Of course this being Qatar we didn’t have a common language between us. They pointed at the dent and said it was small I told them I don’t care, how dare you talk to my wife that way and other things they probably didn’t understand. It turns out that this group was from Sudan and had been living here for eight years. I didn’t get much else out of them but by the slight differences in their dress and attitude it was interesting to see another Arabic subculture.
The first police car finally made it. He took the other guys registration told us to go and drove off. I assumed that he was saying get out of the road and we’ll discuss it. Well he vanished and we drove around the roundabout and we regrouped when we realized that the police had left. One of their friends showed up as an interpreter. I told them it was going to be fixed I don’t care how small. So the police came a 2nd time. When I showed him my registration he wrote it all down, when the other guy showed his he laughed and gave it back to them. At this time the bilingual friend offered my 50QR ($14) to fix the car. I laughed and he then offered 100QR. I told him no way. So we then drove to the police station to file a report. Yes, if you are counting we spoke with two officers and we then had to drive ourselves to the station to file the report.
At the station everyone was having a grand ol’ time. I had tried to call several Arabic speaking friends but couldn’t get a hold of any of them. Luckily Kara was able to contact a friend of hers. I figured by about this time I needed to know what was being decided. So I learned that the other guy was seen at fault and it was agreed that since the damage was so small and probably because he didn’t have insurance and the police officer didn’t want to fill out a form that he was going to pay for it himself. So the next step was to meet him at the auto shop (Shack with some tools) and they would do the repairs. We dropped the X-Trail off and I’ll see tomorrow how this saga ends. Well lets hope that it ends.
Ramadan Kareem!!! (What Kara says when she’s frustrated)
posted by Russell at
7:35 PM
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