A new year! I'm glad to say we spent New Year's with other believers praying over the new year and all it may hold. It doesn't seem the people here have a big celebration for New Year's. Our friend told us they have school here on the 1st! The expatriats have their celebrations I suppose but maybe not the Qataris.
Yesterday I had our first experience at the souqs, or markets. They are little shops in the center of town.
You can find everything from bolts of cloth to spices to gold jewelry, depending which area you are in. We roamed around and seemed stuck in the textile area. We arrived first at the music souq since Jon wanted a guitar. After an hour he had a new guitar, some strings, and Langston had a "fish" noisemaker. It's a cylinder, wooden instrument with ridges that are played with a wooden mallet. It's painted like a fish. This shop had a row of nice keyboards for sale and other musical items for sale. Everything is packed in a very small space. Langston and I finally sat down on a keyboard bench to wait. The store front windows were covered with advertising posters from the 1970's showing people playing organs, pianos, flutes. The backs of the shelves had ads from Avon and other perfumes. I presume that's what was sold there before it was a music shop.
We parked in a different area to explore other souqs. Right across from where we parked were about 15 orange and green buildings, just big enough for one or two people to sit in. We later learned that these are for typists. These men will type up exit visas and other important documents for a small fee. We don't have to do that since we're with Qatar Foundation.
We heard the call to prayer and walked right by a large mosqsue. In the courtyard were hundreds of pairs of shoes! The men all remove their shoes before they go in to pray. I wondered if they ever get the wrong pair when they leave! Since it was prayer time many of the shops were closed. Good Muslims close for each prayer time! That's why they have lots of mosques, so they can pray and get back to work quickly. That's what Jon says anyway. ;-)
As we wandered along we came across little stores with cheap toys, toiletries, sandals and all sorts of different items. Langston was drawn to all the toys naturally. I'll definitely have to go sometime without him. I'm sure we've just scratched the surface of the shopping areas! But two hours was enough of one day for my liking. Jon seemed very enthused about the "profitable" experience. I think that's because he landed a new guitar. I, on the other hand, hoping to find gold, Persian rugs and great tourist souvenirs at the end of the rainbow came home with a small tub of Vaseline and Nivea cream. Not quite the pot of gold I was hoping for. ;-)
Posted by nellie at January 1, 2004 12:12 PM