What am I doing here, travel diary, day 34: how not to step on the sand at the beach and the camel’s flu

We traveled 34 days and 32 in Qatar. And there are situations that we observe that are difficult to assimilate. It has to do with culture, of course. Many must know: by definition, culture is everything that man modifies in nature. However, without a doubt, nature conditions the way culture takes shape in every country or city in the world. This is why, after all, a place where it rains all day is completely different, from a cultural point of view, in a place where it never rains.

Doha is a special city in a special country like Qatar. As we have already said, full-blooded Qataris are a minority – just fifteen percent – and the rest of the population are migrants of completely different origins. For this reason it is very strange that cultural behaviors are so similar. It doesn’t matter if they come from the Far East or Southeast Asia or if they originate from North Africa, people are extremely helpful and always have that kindness which sometimes, as Argentines and of course bastards, exasperates.

For example, they cannot tolerate that one is self-sufficient and decides on his own to move a chair or table in a restaurant. As soon as one threatens to make a move, girls, boys and boys they pounce to stop you from simplifying or lightening their work. They are also desperate to open doors. It’s a constant.

Another feature is that they spend their time cleaning. They clean above the dirt, but above all, clean on clean. They rush to clear plates from the table, even when the roll isn’t over. All time.

The sum I experimented with cleaning the other day at a party that the Organizing Committee threw to entertain journalists from all over the world. As is known, the species of journalists is that of not passing invitations. And the vast majority experience an added pleasure, akin to the greatest of pleasures, when there is no need to pay or when something is a gift. It’s not a typical evil of Argentine journalists, it’s a global evil. Oh World.

The point – after this long digression – is that the party was organized – sorry for the dismissal – by the organizing committee on a beach near Lusail. There was everything. A stage with the dimensions necessary to play the Rolling Stones. Food to feed the US Navy’s Fifth and Sixth Fleets. Free alcohol to long forget the restrictions in place in the emirate. And there was also an army of cleaners who had a single job: to remove the sand from the carpets that had been laid so that the sand didn’t get trampled on. Something like an impossible mission.

During the several hours that the party lasted, the young men did not cease passing brooms while the people who passed from one place to another, some with happy and wandering steps, ruined their work over and over again. At the entrance was a girl with Asian features. It was a corridor with loose stones that kept falling out of place. And every time someone moved a stone, she came with her broom and put it in her place. Rare.

Talking about strange things, and finally, we’re coming into the last leg of the World Cup and it looks like we’re all going to end up with camel flu on our backs. Not only the players of France, Argentina’s rivals in Sunday’s final, have been affected by this cousin of the coronavirus. More and more people are seen wearing a chin strap. We are all alert. This Thursday, when we went to watch the training of Kylian Mbappé and company, the concert of coughs and sneezes in the press room of Al Sadd SC was alarming. I’ll tell you whether we came out undefeated or not.

Doctors say the symptoms are similar to those of Covid, but that it is a different strain. Apparently, bats were also to blame, as they infected a poor camel and everything spread from there. It’s not new. There have already been other peaks in previous years. I could make the joke and say it’s a hunchback disease. But it is neither good nor fun. Because if you hold on it can be complicated. There’s nothing more than taking care of yourself and dusting off your chin straps. It seems they are here to stay.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.