Mohammed Alhamadi is a Standards Engineer working in the Quality Assurance Department in Qatar Petroleum, and an art student in Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. Although he has already graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his love for art has led him to seek a BFA in Painting and Printmaking. He did some commission work as a painter and owned an art gallery/studio in Souq Waqif in Doha, Qatar. 

In “A day in Albaraha”,  Al-Hamadi conjures up a day from the distant past, in the life of a Qatari girl who lived during the late 1940s- before Oil, before AC, and before other aspects of modernity. Our history was complicated yet simple, hard but still beautiful– and most importantly, as the historical narrative suggests, wasn’t for or by men only.

I woke up one Friday morning so happy that it was Friday. It meant that we only have one session at the Kittab (¹⁾. It also meant that the class would start after Fajer prayer so I did not have to do any house duties in the morning. Friday was my favorite day of the week. It was a cold winter that year and the rain did not stop for three days. When I woke up I felt the cold breeze hitting my face. It was still dark out side, and the call of the Morning Prayer at Almana mosque was heard clearly from my room. I wore my Bokhnag (²⁾ which my mom and I washed among other clothes yesterday evening by the Sail (³⁾ water. Then I took a Fanar (⁴⁾ and a Haseera (⁵⁾ from the store room next to mine and crossed the Housh (⁶⁾ of the house to the stairs that lead to my father’s room. My father was a tall, skinny guy with dark skin which resulted from working with Bin Mane’ as a Nokhetha (⁷⁾ and going in the sea for months for pearl diving. Now and due to the collapse of the pearl industry, he opened his gold shop in the souq (^{8 )}, and still traveled in the sea but this time to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi to buy the gold. I woke him up for the Morning Prayer, and then ran to the roof of our house which was shared with six other houses. I went to the house next to ours to meet Hissa my friend and cousin to go together to the Kittab. By the time Hissa and I were outside the house, we met with other boys and girls from the neighborhood and each kid was holding his Fanar and Haseera. Abdelrahman Hassan the owner of shop opposite to our house was up already. He was supervising his shopkeeper Hassoon while the other was cleaning up the front of the shop and setting up the Jdoor and the Mwa’een (⁹⁾ that his shop was famous for. Abaid the shepherd was coming toward our house with some goats and sheep, and was holding one goat with a little bag around its neck. This bag was to be filled with his lunch by my mom after picking up our goats to take them to the Misrah (¹⁰⁾. Hissa, and I with the rest of the kids walked from a sikka (¹¹⁾ to another holding our fanarat (¹²⁾ and Haseer(¹³⁾ going through the little shops on the left and right leaving Albaraha neighborhood, and going toward Eljasra neighborhood where the house of Amna Bint Mahmood was. It was a long walk, yet we were so happy that we would not have to do the same walk twice that day. Her house was a small house made of mud and stones looking like the other houses in the neighborhood. It had a big Housh in the middle with a Sa’af (¹⁴⁾ cover on the side of the Housh where the morning classes are held.  We met with other students coming from different neighborhoods out side of her house. We divided into two groups. One group went to Mutawa’a Amna’s (¹⁵⁾ class and the other group went to her sister Fatima’s class. I was attending the first. We all put our Fanarat off, and laid down our Haseer on the sandy floor .Each kid sat on his Haseera facing our Mutawa’a who sat on a wooden chair, and had her famous long stick next to her. The boys were on the left side and the girls on the right side. We rehearsed the verses of the Qur’an after the teacher. She read one verse and we repeated it after her. After a while, she got a little bag full of candy and gave it to me, and I started selling it to the students. Each piece of candy was for Antain (¹⁶⁾. There were some new kinds of candy this time. Probably she bought more candy with her Khamisia (¹⁷⁾ that she got from each student yesterday. It was four Anat (¹⁸⁾ to be taken from each student. There was also another payment called the Nafla (¹⁹⁾ which was the same amount and was given on Tuesdays. We ended our session just before the first call of the Friday Prayer. After the session was over the teacher told us that we were going to finish the Qur’an next week. This meant that next week we were going to have a celebration. My mother would make her famous Harees (²⁰⁾ and distribute it to the whole neighborhood, to the Badow (²¹⁾ who were staying by the grave yard selling their products, and to the poor. We would also walk from a house to another singing the Ameen (²²⁾ to announce to the whole neighborhood that we had finished studying the Qur’an. We would get money from each house. This money would go to the teacher. The song would say,

Elhamdulilah Alathe Hadana, Ameen

 Thanks to God who guided us to the right path, Amen 

Subhanaho min Khaliqin Subhana, Ameen

Almighty the creator, Almighty, Amen 

Befadlihi Allamana AlQur’ana, Ameen

Because of his blessing we learned the Qur’an, Amen 

Enni ta’alamto ELkitaba Alakbar, Ameen

 I have learned the big book, Amen 

Mu’alimi Mo’alimon Ma Qassar, Ameen

My teacher did his best, Amen

 On the way back to the house most of the shops were either closed or closing up and people were walking toward the mosque. When my mom heard me entering the house she yelled at me to help her work in preparing lunch for our guests. We always had guests in our house. This time, it was a bdeweia (²³⁾ lady with her five children. They came from the desert to sell some of there products such as the camel milk and the yogurt. They had come to our house last year also. I worked with my mother on preparing the Machboos, the Regag bread, and the Sago(²⁴⁾ . Then, I cleaned the Housh. I had to finish that in order to go out and play with the kids from the neighborhood.

When the sun came down, we heard the door knocking, so I ran to open the door. It was Abaid, the shepherd. He was holding one goat with the small bag, but this time to fill it up with his dinner. He had a sad face at the time. I asked him if anything was the matter, and he said that he had lost one of the goats. I told my father, and he announced it to everyone in the neighborhood by the evening prayer. After the prayer, everybody from the neighborhood gathered in front of our house holding their Fanarat, and we all walked through the sikeek from a neighborhood to another, singing a song that conveyed the purpose and that is the search for the lost goat and called for returning it if anyone has it by mistake. It took us a long time, and it was a long walk, but by the end we did find it. A man came to us, and asked about the goat and how it looked like. When he got the description he took us to his house and gave us the goat back. Mix ups between goats were common due to the darkness in the Sikeek (²⁵⁾ at night. After he gave us the goat back, my father invited him to come over to our house for dinner. He came back with us, and he turned out to be an old friend of my father. They sat and talked for a long time, while I was sitting with them and listening to their stories about the old days of the sea, and the long trips they took.

Its never boring in our neighborhood especially that everyday has its own flavor and activities. Weather it is a search for a lost goat, to finish the Qur’an with the Mutawa’a, or even to cook some Harees, one would hear children singing, and all the people in the neighborhood acted like one big family.

Glossary:

1. 1. The place where children studies Qur’an, reading and writing
2. 2. The traditional dress for girls
3. 3. Rain water gathering in small spots
4. 4. Oil lamp
5. 5. Floor mat
6. 6. The yard
7. 7. Captain
8. 8. Market
9. 9.  Pans, dishes, and other kitchenware
10. 10. The place where the shepherd takes the goats and sheep to eat and drink water
11. 11. A small alley between the shops and houses
12. 12. Plural form of Fanar
13. 13. Plural form of Haseera
14. 14. Palm trees leaves
15. 15. The teacher that teaches in the Kittab
16. 16. Two Anahs, the currency at the time which came from India
17. 17. The payment given to the Mutawa’a in Thursdays
18. 18. Plural form of Anah
19. 19. Used as a reference for the middle of the week or the month
20. 20. A traditional dish
21. 21. People of the desert, nomads
22. 22. Amen
23. 23. Lady from the desert
24. 24. More traditional dishes
25. 25. Plural form of Sikah