Here is my receipt from the Al-Rayes Laundry in our compound. I hadn't looked at it in detail until just the other day, so I thought I would share this entertaining document with you. First of all, it is very LARGE. It is larger than a sheet of paper that fits on my scanner. I guess they haven't gotten involved in the whole GREEN MOVEMENT and thought about reducing their use of paper products.
Then, as you read the detailed list of items, you will see that we certainly aren't in Kansas (or Utah) anymore. Furthermore, many of the items are misspelled. Number 10 should be "ghutra", which is the traditional headdress for Arabic men. Number 16 should be "abaya", which is the black traditional dress of Arabic women. Number 26 should be "hijab" a Muslim woman's head covering. They have also regularized the words and made them all singular: trouser, short, under pant, pyjama. At least they left socks plural so the separation of a pair wouldn't create more lone sock dilemmas than there already are.
In preparation for VCUQ's graduation, Brett took his graduation gown and hood in to be pressed the other day. The sweet Indian gentleman who runs the compound office was very perplexed about which box to check for these items, so he just checked #21 - the dress box. At least he didn't classify it as an abaya.
Well, I hope you have had a good laugh at another one of the cultural quirks here in Qatar. I am going to have to cut this blog post short, because I need to take my towels, sari, safari suit, and sheep-skin into the cleaners. Ta ta!
2 comments:
This one hits close to home this week. We finally took our "dry clean only" bedspread into the cleaners after Jane got sick all over it. $50!? I can't believe it cost that much, and I cannot believe I bought a dry clean only bedspread. What was I thinking?
I knew it...sooner or later Brett would be accused of wearing a dress.
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