April in Doha

The mid-point of the semester has come, with my students' mid-term exam taking place this Saturday. Yes, the exams are on Saturday, with the teachers having to come in to invigilate (proctor). This past week felt rather long, but el-hamdulileh, it's over. I have Friday to chill out and then I'll be back on campus on Saturday morning, ready to see my students' anxiety-ridden faces, muahaha. Seriously, I really like my students this semester. They are cooperative, eager, and hard-working. Yes, there were some students who were none of the above but most are now gone due to our very strict attendence policy. Miss 25% of the classes and you're out. I've had about five students who did just that and now they will not write any exam. So what I'm left with now are the creme de la creme, so to speak, and I am enjoying them. What a surprise.

In the meantime, I've been leading a fairly quiet life since the semester started. Along with my health-kick, I've also started to read books once again. It's something I haven't done in ages, but I recently finished three that were very interesting, entertaining, and depressing (respectively). I honestly can't remember the last time I've really sat down and absorbed any reading other than school textbooks. Finally, I also had the opportunity to screen a film at the Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival which has been going on for the past week. I watched "Bilal", which is about a three-year old Indian boy, born to blind parents. The director followed the family in their one-room home in the slums of Calcutta for some time, filming their day-to-day existence. Heartbreaking, humane and even funny, the film provided a little bit of insightful into the lives of people that we rarely get to meet, let alone get to know. It was humbling, to say the least. The director was present at the screening and he, himself, seemed very humble and conscientious. Interesting stuff, I must say.

And that is about it. Life in Doha is humming along, with the hot weather fast approaching. Temperatures midday reach the 30s now, with the evenings slightly cooler. I need to have the air conditioning on in the car and at home now. How people managed to do anything before AC is beyond me, but that's neither here nor there.

More (better?) updates to come soon, inshallah.