classes

i can only begin with an image, which was so striking to see and experience that it's demanding description, and will have to work back from there....

the image from my arabic class today - a moment when i found myself outside myself looking in ----
the room is a dusty green-grey somehow, late afternoon sunlight filtering in, and the eternally-broken air conditioning unit moans and croaks at an inappropriate volume - carrying on like a haggling merchant no one wants to bargain with.... having come from work, i am wearing a smart white blouse, black trousers, black heels, a necklace of floating pearls - a mixture of black, pink, ivory pearls - and pearl earrings. to my left sit the other two female students in the class - both newly arrived that day, one escorted by her husband, who is two seats to my right, on the other side of the french-arab student directly next to me.... the husband and wife are from kosovo, and like the other new woman, who is from gambia, came late. i had been lamenting to a colleague just before i left for the university that it was awkward being the only woman in a class which is taught on the men's campus (literally in the "men's building").... i thought about that as looked down at our little arced row of chairs - i'm the fault line somehow, the end of the rainbow - or the beginning - i'm not sure, where black and white meet, overlap, mix and finally give way to colour (or confusion). the men on my right are both in crisp white thubes and sandals, both fully bearded in the untrimmed manner of the very devout. neither will look at me, or even directly in my direction. the women on my right are both entirely in black - almost like voids in the space-time of the class. the woman immediately to my right is completely covered - not even her eyes show, and she is wearing black gloves to cover her hands. they will not look directly at the professor or any of the other students, and they do not look directly at me either. when the professor asks them questions, they sometimes just sit without even answering, and when they do speak their voices are muffled and directed towards the floor.
---- as i look down at this spectacle, the black and white of my work ensemble seems reflective of my jumbled position in the class. on the black side, i had hoped for another female student or two for some camaraderie in the ordeal of tracking down woman with the key to the sole women's restroom in the men's building (which is locked), but somehow their presence - or their seeming absence - makes me more, rather than less, conscious of my gender. for on the white side, my presence was already disconcerting to some of the other male students further along the arc. but there's nothing to be done except be my rainbow self, appreciate the aesthetics of the moment and the social / political / cultural / religious wonder of it all.....

speaking of wonders - classes have begun! the university is really quite lovely - by far the nicest architecture i've seen in doha. it was designed by an egyptian architect whose name escapes me at the moment, but i'll find out for the curious out there... the buildings are all sand-coloured and shaped as a series of hexagons (i think), the insides are a tangle of white walls, dark wooden accents, fountains, and winding staircases. the campus and classes are all separate for men and women. the language classes are in the "men's building" on the men's campus, and i'll be auditing some law classes in the women's campus starting next week which i'm very excited about! after bombing the placement test (which was all grammar and exercises that reminded me how bad i am at scrabble in any language (it included making words out of a list of letters and sentences out of a list of words)), i negotiated my way into the intermediate class. ;-) and what a class it is.... it's a rather diverse bunch - a few other americans (including the inevitable white guy who goes by "abdullah", dresses in " l.l.bean al-arabia" complete with prayer beads, is getting a masters in religion with a focus on islam, and speaks arabic like smashing cake with your fists instead of slicing), a number of africans - from senegal, nigeria, benin, a very slight and soft-spoken philippino, and two north koreans - kim and kim - who it took quite some convincing not to leap out of their seats and stand at attention beside their desks whenever the professor spoke to them... today we added the woman from gambia and the husband and wife from kosovo.... we're quite a bunch. we have two professors & two classes - one for reading and writing, one for speaking and listening. our first class was speaking and listening and our first exercise was interviewing our neighbour & then introducing him to the class - pretty standard first day of language class fare. my interview had a more interesting flavour, however. i was paired with farid, the fellow from benin - very thin with firey eyes. we did the "where are you from" bit and began to move on to how we learned arabic bit - he explained that he has been reading the quran since he was an embryo and has continued in madrasa and began studying standard arabic a few years ago. then he looked at me and said, "you are not a muslim." i conceded that i was not. he asked if i had come to qatar to become muslim. i said i had not. he noted that now that i was here, i had a good opportunity to become a muslim. i agreed but said i came here to study arabic and do legal work, not to become muslim.... you can imagine the rest of our "interview" - he continued on and on about islam while i would futilely ask him questions about his family, his hobbies, or offer information about myself, or both - "i have two sisters and one brother, do you have brothers and sisters?" we didn't get very far. though as luck would have it, i was called on first to give an introduction - and i did garner enough info. to do a passable job of it. then as we moved around the room and he heard other people's introductions and he realized he knew little about me except that i wasn't muslim & wasn't interested in converting, he would lean over and whisper questions about where i went to university, my family, etc... all very amusing. he left the class for another level after that day, which is too bad because he was quite a character and he looked me in the eye....

meanwhile, the beat goes on here.... it's still hot, hot, hot (but at least i'm not wearing gloves!) and the traffic is still maddening.... i've come to really enjoy the sunsets over the sands - especially if i'm leaving the university at that time - red sun, beige sandswept landscape, quiet - very lovely. the ramadan buzz is bzzzzzing already - and i've been invited to the ambassador's ramadan tent, so i'm clearly a mild doha celeb already (then again, that's readily apparent from my daily walk to class through the hallways of the men's building - really every day's music video in doha) - ramadan begins october 4th this year - and i'm looking forward to learning more about the holiday (though less looking forward to not being able to publicly eat or drink during daylight hours - it's actually against the law here - because that will be tricky to hide in our little office).... it should be interesting times - but aren't they all....