Bending for charity

So apparently I'm an old woman. I woke up this morning and just about every muscle in my body was aching. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but my back and arms are "feelin' it". Feeling what? I wish I could say it was the result of an intense spinning class yesterday or something, but in fact I'm all tuckered out from an evening of sorting. Yup, sorting.

This morning there was a rummage sale at one of the compounds where college employees live. It was not a college event; it just happened to be held there. The event was advertised on the Internet, in schools, and in the newspaper so people from all walks of life were expected.

The purpose of the sale was threefold:

1. It allows people to get rid of their stuff. Because people are always coming and going in this country, there is a lot of stuff discarded when contracts end and people who have built lives here over 3 years repatriate.
   
2. It gives people who need household items, clothing, reading material, etc. to get it at reduced prices. This is especially good for the expatriate community who have jobs here that do not pay as well as mine.
3. Money is collected for charity. All the proceeds of the sale go to a local group that helps people in need.

So you'd think this is the kind of thing I'd like to support. Surprisingly, we didn't go to the rummage sale. It was on the other end of the city on a Friday morning - the absolute worst time of the week to get public transportation. Even if we could get a taxi to bring us there, we'd be kind of stranded. Describing to a driver where to come to pick us up to return us to our home would be close to impossible since we don't really know where this compound is in relation to other things in Doha.

Instead, we helped set up last night. Darren and I took a different bus from the school - causing each of the "regulars" who got on after us to question whether they were on the right bus, since they didn't recognize us.

Besides the organizer - and the carload of stuff she had brought from her villa - we were the first to arrive at the clubhouse where everything was taking place. Darren and I got started sorting right away - I separated the clothes by gender and he divided the rest of the stuff into its respective categories (household items, books & DVDs, children's items, shoes...) around the room. Slowly, others came and were introduced to Darren to be put to work - he's a natural leader, folks. I eventually migrated to the shoe/luggage section when the tables arrived. When that was done, I'd pick up a random bag and deliver its contents to wherever it looked like they belonged. Besides the odd water break, this is how we spent the next 4 1/2 hours.

I really wish we had taken pictures of the progress of the evening. As soon as we would clear out a section of the room, it would get filled up again with boxes and bags of stuff. Eventually we had to request a second room just to hold all the books and DVDs. And it was finally decided to keep all the clothes in three large piles on the floor (men's, women's, and children's) for people to sort through - since despite our best efforts to organize them by size, and type, that's how they'd end up after a half an hour anyway.

There was a wide variety of people helping. There were a few Canadians, a number of Brits, at least one Irish woman and people from all over Asia and the Middle East. Darren spent some time talking to the guy who delivered the tables and who was from Lebanon. There was a lady from India who was helping with the sorting, and a couple from Nepal who were also helping and selling plants. We ended up getting two small pepper plants for our apartment while supporting people who send the proceeds back to Nepal!

When we got home around 9, we were exhausted. We hadn't eaten (besides some "timbits" a kind couple had brought with them) since lunch and I sure wasn't about to cook! Darren picked up a pizza, we ate it and promptly went to bed.

It was tiring, but many good things came out of the evening. We met some really nice people, we got some physical exercise (does bending count as exercize?) and I picked up a workout shirt! Most importantly, we were able to assist in a really great event that will hopefully help many people living in Qatar.