| "This is much cooler," I thought to myself as I | | | | France Gillespie, in her book Discovering Qatar |
| strolled to my office one September morning in | | | | describes how explorers mapping Qatar took an old |
| Qatar. "Much more pleasant." | | | | Bedouin lady - famed for her knowledge of the |
| Then I glanced at the thermometer - 37 degrees | | | | desert and place names - out on a desert trip. |
| Celsius, and realized just how much I had acclimatized. | | | | Unfortunately their car broke down and they were |
| After all 37 degrees is not so hot when | | | | left for several hours with insufficient supplies of |
| temperatures have reached 50 degrees in the peak | | | | water. When they were finally picked up, only one of |
| of summer. | | | | them was completely unaffected - the elderly |
| Now the temperature is hotting up again. Already I | | | | Bedouin lady. |
| have scalded the unmentionable parts of my body | | | | It's easy to forget that air-conditioning is in fact a |
| with the toilet hose. (Ah yes - Asian/Arab toilets - | | | | relatively new invention. Even now, the |
| best left for another article). | | | | air-conditioners of many of the immigrant workers |
| Having a bath is impossible in the middle of the day - | | | | crammed into labour camps are only turned on two |
| even the cold tap comes out with boiling hot water. | | | | months of the year. |
| The best thing to do is fill up the bath and leave it | | | | The heat is obviously too much to bear, as most of |
| cool down for a few hours - and try and ignore your | | | | them sleep on their roofs at night in the summer. |
| smelly and sweaty body. | | | | Whether they have AC or not, many still have to |
| The sun has also caused a trip to the local garage. | | | | work outside in the day. I can't even imagine what |
| After I foolishly left it out in the sun all the rubber | | | | this is like - I have a headache and feel dehydrated |
| melted from around the back windows. | | | | after ten minutes outside. |
| But perhaps we shouldn't moan. After all the Bedouin | | | | Still, I, like many western expats am spoilt. Thesiger |
| survived in the desert for thousands of years | | | | the desert explorer maintained that "the harder the |
| without a problem, whereas we have cool houses | | | | life the finer the people". If this true, us rich western |
| and air-conditioning which - though they don't quite | | | | expats must be very poor people indeed. |
| defeat the heat, at least hold it off somehow. | | | | |