Sometimes living here is like living in a paradox wrapped in an enigma hidden under a mystery. On the one hand, the seemingly simplest tasks, like going to see a doctor to get a vaccination, for instance, or registering for school or opening a checking account, end up being the most complicated things you have every done in your life...and you have to do them, and re-do them, almost every week sometimes. It's exhausting!
On the other hand, every once in awhile, a task that seems impossible unexpectedly turns out to be easy-peasy here in Qatar. Recently, I cracked the screen on the husband's old iPad. Cracked is really a generous description: it was sitting on the top of the printer, I lifted up the top thinking I had a hand on the iPad, but instead it slipped out of my grasp, hit the edge of the desk on the way down, and landed in the trash, the screen reduced to an ugly spider's web of destruction, with shards of glass falling from it as I took it out of the trash. The hardware inside was fine, surprisingly, but the screen was toast. Now, this is, as I mentioned, the husband's old iPad which he never uses anymore, so it wasn't a crisis...except that this is also the iPad we take with us when we travel alone, without the husband, so we have one for each boy, the old one and mine. Have I mentioned how important our iPads are for travel? Especially when I'm by myself! Travel time is screen time, hey hey hey!
All of which means we needed to get the screen fixed. I turned to one of my two best sources of information here (both are Facebook groups--what does that say about me, I wonder?) and searched for places that could repair an iPad screen. There were many listed, with mixed reviews, but one was close to our house, so one Saturday the husband and I headed over to a pin I had dropped on a map that was supposedly close to where this store was purported to be. Remarkably, we found it on the first try (this really is remarkable, directions are difficult here).
So we walked in, handed the iPad to the guy behind the counter and said "we need this fixed." He took it, walked through a door behind him, came back, and said "that will be 150 QR and come back tonight for it." Wait, what? For approximately $41, the screen is done and the iPad is restored, in less than a day? It seemed too good to be true, but, guess what, it worked? Later that evening, the husband picked up the iPad...and it is as good as new...? I'm at a loss! For context, to get the same repair made in the States would have cost us $250. The unit itself is only worth $300 on a good day, probably really much less.
And yet here, in crazy Qatar, $41 in one day. Amazing! And perplexing....
But hey, we got it fixed, and that's all that matters!
On the other hand, every once in awhile, a task that seems impossible unexpectedly turns out to be easy-peasy here in Qatar. Recently, I cracked the screen on the husband's old iPad. Cracked is really a generous description: it was sitting on the top of the printer, I lifted up the top thinking I had a hand on the iPad, but instead it slipped out of my grasp, hit the edge of the desk on the way down, and landed in the trash, the screen reduced to an ugly spider's web of destruction, with shards of glass falling from it as I took it out of the trash. The hardware inside was fine, surprisingly, but the screen was toast. Now, this is, as I mentioned, the husband's old iPad which he never uses anymore, so it wasn't a crisis...except that this is also the iPad we take with us when we travel alone, without the husband, so we have one for each boy, the old one and mine. Have I mentioned how important our iPads are for travel? Especially when I'm by myself! Travel time is screen time, hey hey hey!
All of which means we needed to get the screen fixed. I turned to one of my two best sources of information here (both are Facebook groups--what does that say about me, I wonder?) and searched for places that could repair an iPad screen. There were many listed, with mixed reviews, but one was close to our house, so one Saturday the husband and I headed over to a pin I had dropped on a map that was supposedly close to where this store was purported to be. Remarkably, we found it on the first try (this really is remarkable, directions are difficult here).
So we walked in, handed the iPad to the guy behind the counter and said "we need this fixed." He took it, walked through a door behind him, came back, and said "that will be 150 QR and come back tonight for it." Wait, what? For approximately $41, the screen is done and the iPad is restored, in less than a day? It seemed too good to be true, but, guess what, it worked? Later that evening, the husband picked up the iPad...and it is as good as new...? I'm at a loss! For context, to get the same repair made in the States would have cost us $250. The unit itself is only worth $300 on a good day, probably really much less.
And yet here, in crazy Qatar, $41 in one day. Amazing! And perplexing....
But hey, we got it fixed, and that's all that matters!
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