RPH: The World is My Catwalk.

This may be my favorite photo of all time.

A gaggle of beautiful young Qatari girls (maybe 13 or 14 years old?) were at the Cultural Village with their digital SLR cameras. They looked to be on a photo safari for architecture but wanted nothing more than to take photos of Hannah, who is proudly sporting her Mennonite twirling dress and her pink Chuck Taylors. Hannah, of course, was glad to oblige and afterward gave each photographer a hug and kiss on the cheek.

When she turns 16, I'm having this blown up to a 8 X 10 FOOT poster for her room.

Slideshow: More Day Trip Photos

Between Christmas and New Year, we took several day trips:

• to Souq Waqif
• to Fort Al Zubara
• to beaches along the norther edge of Qatar
• to the Qatar Cultural Village

Here are some random photos from those days.

Day Trippin'

We took our guests on a number of day trips--in fact, except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we pretty much dragged them somewhere every single day. We're all exhausted. :) Here are a few photos from three of the trips...

Fort Al Zubara.  We had gone here back in September.  Let me tell you, this trip was much more fun with highs in the 70's instead of in the 110's.

The Gulf.  There are a number of abandoned villages along the coast.  The view is gorgeous.  Unfortunately, some of the areas are like garbage dumps.  I'm hoping the people of Qatar wise up to the exceptional beauty here and turn them into a point of pride. Coastal life is a huge part of the heritage and could be a major tourist draw.

Souq Waqif.  This was actually our second trip to the Souq.  The first trip was while the kids were in school, but this time, we all went.  It was a gorgeous day, and we sat for quite a while drinking tea and eating fresh made Arabic flat bread (five huge pieces, cooked in an earthen oven as you watch...for the grand sum of 35 cents).

The Cultural Village.  Not much was open in this not-quite-ready-for-prime-time (newly built) grouping of shops, restaurants, mosques, and art galleries.  However, the location was gorgeous--it will be quite a draw when it's officially in business.  More photos are in a slides how to be posted next.

Let Us Now Pause, to Discuss Foodand Dryer Sheets.

I have to go backwards in time to December 15th.

God Bless Pat and Bob. About 15 minutes after their tickets were finalized, Amazon.com and Walmart.com packages started arriving at their house. It got sort of embarrassing, but that didn't stop us. They indeed managed to fit in all the totally random things we sent and wished for--at the expense of bringing their own personal items! We owe them a huge favor for this one...

Yes, that is TEN POUNDS of "regular old" cheddar cheese.  The cheddar here is all sharp--even the stuff labeled "mild" is too sharp for enchiladas.  That's one reason we haven't eaten any enchiladas since we've been here.  We have the tortillas and the sauce, but they just don't taste right with sharp cheese (yuk).

Yes, that is also about 25 packages of Ramen noodles.  The Ramen doesn't taste right here either--probably not enough salt (?!?!).  I'm sure the kids are in better health because we don't get good Ramen here.  Other things in the pile: Vlassic pickles, an oven thermometer, bird toys, lots of iced tea bags...

...Triscuts, gold fish, cheeze-its, ranch dressing mix, cornbread mix, pecans, and more iced tea bags...

...any my precious friend Angie sent DRYER SHEETS!  These don't exist in the Middle East, and if you can imagine how low humidity + strong dryers = shock-the-crap-out-of-you static cling, then you know these are a special treat.

And now, because I do obsess over food, are a few pictures of things we ate...

John had rice pulau, which has toasted cashews, raisins, and lots of delicious Indian spiaces, along with paratha (like flaky buttery tortillas), bhindi bhaaji (yes, I'm quite sure I spelled that all wrong), and roasted Brussel sprouts.  No, the Brussel sprouts are not in the same ethnic food group, but they were good anyway.

Homemade masala chai and Arabic sweets for dessert.

Christmas dinner: cheese enchiladas, rice, beans, corn salad.

Going Native

Our visitors love the native dress in this region, and so each is taking home a sample to wear with pride and honor. Pat chose a lovely black abaya (no shayla), and Bob chose a woolen bisht. They make quite the handsome couple.

Slideshow: Christmas Day

Here are some more pictures, for you "hard core" family member types who are patient enough to wade through them.

Pause the show to see the captions.

Santa Crosses the Gulf

Here are a few choice pictures from our Christmas Eve and morning.  Our tradition is that the kids get to each open one present on Eve night--the rest are for Christmas morning.  Of course, being the totally lame Mom I am, the Eve present is pajamas.  This must be the year for epic holiday photos, because I got one that will scar Jack for life.  He did all the yanking. All I did was point and shoot.  God Bless the Little Man.

Now tear your eyes away from the S.A.C.T.S. (Self-Imposed Advanced Camel Toe Syndrome) and notice--Hank's pants are not too short. These are "3/4 length" pajamas, something I have never seen in the US but which were plentiful in the Target-level store where these were purchased.

Their talented grandmother, Mammy Pat, made dolls for the kids--one in her own likeness with the softest hair I have ever touched and a beautiful white cotton nightgown and bloomers.  Her black shoes have little antique pearl buttons.  Next to her is the Grandfather Bob doll, complete with goat pelt for hair and mustache.  Mammy has a big full red heart on her chest, and Grandfather's shirt says "'Tis Himself."  Under his shirt says, "Mungen's watching you." A mungen is a Norwegian troll with a bad attitude.  Their eyes are true to color and expression.  These may be too good to trust to the kids...

The likeness is rather astounding.

Hannah got some good bubbles from Santa.  Amazing how bubbles and balloons are always a winning proposition.

Habib got some special toys all the way from America, too.  Turns out he will be leaving us to go back to his original owners, Vee and Collin.  We're full of sadness over this but know it's the "right" thing.  We treasured our Christmas with this sweet creature (who spent the holiday right in the middle of all the chaos--he has become a loving and central feature in our flock).

Of course, Skyping was involved--here we're on the phone with the family in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Looking at them, looking at us. Sure was good to see their pretty faces. I've had a mighty hankering to be in that snow with them.

RPH: Pimpin' wit da 'Mir

December 18th was Qatar National Day, and literally overnight, about 10% of the Land Cruisers in the country (and there are A LOT of Land Cruisers here) suddenly had huge decals--most on the windows but some on the body, too.  No two were alike but almost all pictures the Emir (here on the right) and the Heir Apparent (on the left).  Some of the front side windows had their faces in such a way that it looked like they were driving the cars.  As a Texan and American, I love me some outrageous displays of patriotism, but it sort of freaked me out to glance to the side and think I saw the Emir truckin' along at 120 KPH in his 1994 Chevy Lumina.

Christmas, Sort of.

If you've read some of the other postings I just added, you can understand why Christmas isn't exactly Christmas in Qatar.  We don't suffer in any way--church services (including midnight Mass), a few supplies, and no shortage of shopping combine with things like Skype and international shipping to fully facilitate a holiday season.

And having John's parents here has been a God-send on so many levels--without them, this would really seem much more like "another Saturday."  The weather is mild, everything is open as normal, very few Christmas lights and no music are to be seen/heard outside of one's own house.  No Christmas circulars or shopping or lines for Santa in the mall.  No Christmas advent service at our home church in Calvert (which has truly become my most favorite thing of the season--until you've heard the Calvert Mass Choir sing "Go Tell It on the Mountain," Christmas is NOT OFFICIAL).  You can "make" Christmas happen here, but that's just it--the making is a tremendous effort.  There's very little "spirit" to infect you.  It's a significant effort.

On the bright side, none of that pressure is here either--no Black Friday.  No spend, spend, spend frenzy.  The kids didn't get their yearly dose of "Christmas Crack" (bizarre, wild behavior that seems like a drug-induced frenzy) until yesterday.   

Here are a few photos from inside our house--where even though it feels nothing like Christmas, I'm still making a concerted effort. The kids may be adding this to their list of "things to discuss with my therapist as I work through all the ways my Mother screwed up my life."  After all, if they're going to pay for therapy, I want them to get their money's worth.

The antique Christmas tree brought from Texas.  No, I can't plug it in, but it makes me happy anyway. The Fisher Price advent calendar that I bought back in October (along with a GeoTrax Christmas train and a Little People Christmas Village...trivia question for the moment: How much do two boxes of toys, weighing 13.7 and 17.1 pounds each, cost to ship from New York to Qatar?  Answer: $187.45 USD...that is JUST THE SHIPPING COST.  But yes, I did it. And the stuff made me smile.  Add it to the therapist's list).

Our Christmas tree.  No lights--instead, fiber optics that make the ends of all the branches light up.  I think this cost about $14.99.  That's it decorated on a table in our living room.  Yes, it is leaning heavily to the right.  I tend toward the Charlie Brown Christmas approach to trees and pumpkins.

This is the wrapping paper that we used.  No, it it not Christmas paper. It is WEDDING PAPER.  With a Biblical quote from Matthew on it. Because guess what? THERE'S NO CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER IN QATAR.  Well, actually, I found some at a British department store (Marks and Spencer) on Christmas Eve.  But NO BOWS.  Unless you pay $2 per tiny miniature bow at the Japanese $2 Store, which I did not.  It was a BOW-FREE WEDDING PAPER Christmas.  Add that to the list for the therapist.

But the stockings.  The silk stockings from Bombay Silk.  These are EPIC.  The owners, from left to right are Jack, John, Nancy, Hank, Hannah, Bob, and Pat.  This picture doesn't capture the colors very well.

This is a bouquet of cuttings that Guru, a Nepalese gentleman who makes our yard beautiful, brought me on the night of the 23rd.  It smells as good as it looks, too.  This made my Christmas extra special, as did the carolers that came by on Christmas Eve and gave us a dose of Silent Night.

Guess what else they don't have in Doha?  Anything silk resembling poinsettias, holly, pine, or other Christmas greenery.    I found this little vine wreath (the base) at one store, and then Pat helped me find and visualize the decorations.  She then put it together, and it turned out to be so pretty.

A little wooden Santa in the pot plant complements the wreath, and the Santa wind sock (thank you, Mimi!) completes the front door decorations.  Other villas in our compound have more decorations, and I now admire the tenacity, planning, and hauling-back from home countries that must take place for anything beyond the most basic.

Regardless of Christmas magic feeling, I am still thankful and reflective regarding the full and blessed life we lead.  Family is the most important, and we are especially blessed in that department as well as other areas, too.

Silk Stockings

Don't be a pervert.  I'm talking about Christmas stockings made out of silk.

When I was packing up the Texas house, the Christmas stuff was far from my mind.  So I didn't bring anything except one antique ceramic tree (yes, that highly breakable thing made no logical sense as the one I would choose).  The critical point of all that is that WE HAD NO STOCKINGS. And we all know that Santa travels across the WHOLE globe, so no stockings was not an option.

This led to a vision: have "Middle Eastern" stockings made.  John and Pat drew a pattern, measured in centimeters, and we decided to go totally fancy and pick fabrics from Bombay Silk.

Bombay Silk is a beautiful place full of incredible Indian fabrics--from silks to saris to suiting.  The seven of us (which is like a horde of chaos) marched ourselves in there one evening about a week ago.  God Bless the sweet men that work there.  They are Indian with a range of rather varied English speaking skills.  They are Hindu.  They live in the Middle East.  They *have* heard of Santa, but I don't think they had ever heard of stockings.  Remember that even different European countries have different Santa traditions.  Some leave a shoe on the front porch. Some leave a bag where all gifts are left.

So we descended upon these kind gentlemen.  John started one conversation, and I started another (with two different men).  Here's a close rendition of how my conversation went (after the pleasantries of hellos and how are you doings):

Me: "We would like to have stockings made--you know for Santa?"

Kind Man: "Santa!  Yes!  Christmas.  Merry Christmas!"

Me: "Thank you!  So we need stockings so Santa can leave a gift."

Kind Man grabs a huge bolt of red velvet: "Santa! Yes?"

Me: "Well, we thought we would use some of your beautiful Indian fabrics instead."

Kind Man looks confused.

I get out the drawing.  "Here is a pattern, but we will each pick our own fabric."

KM looks confused: "How many pieces?"

Me: "One per person, so seven."

KM: "Not two?  But you have two feet?"

My turn to look confused.

KM: "These are socks for your feet, yes?"

Me: "Well, no not exactly.  They look like socks but bigger.  Santa puts a gift in them."

KM looks even more confused.  Just looks blankly at me.

Me: "Yes, we leave these out--that is why they are larger than regular socks."

KM: "Like a boot?"

Me: "YES!  Like a boot shape!"

KM: "But don't you want one boot for each foot? Two feet, two boots, yes?"

Well, this went on for a while, but we knew that the cross-cultural communication succeeded when the tailor (the man John was talking to) asked, "Do you also want a loop so you can hang it?"  I almost kissed the man when he said that because I knew he got it.

So we each picked a meter of fabric and a half meter of trim (except Hank, who didn't want trim), left the pattern, and thanked the men (who were laughing and shaking their heads at the craziness of it all).

Two days later, John got a message on his phone containing a picture.  They were checking to make sure that the first one looked "right" before making the other six.    On the 23rd, we made the trip back to Bombay Silk to pick them up.  Here are photos from that trip.

Jack Gets an Audience

The kids' school doesn't have a formal band program, but they do have a great variety of instruments, including keyboards! Hank is learning to play violin, keyboard, and he's learning to sing. Part of his keyboarding lessons is playing a 12 bar blues progression with walking bass. Too freakin' cool. For their end-of-term program, his class sang a Christmas song from the Netherlands, "Sancta Lucia." On a side note, Hank has also done two music projects using PowerPoint, one over Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf, and another over Bob Marley.

The day after Hannah's program, we went back for some Jack the Entertainer.  They are learning to read music in year 6 (American 5th grade). In this first performance, they play a variety of percussion instruments.





And in this next one, the kids read rhythmic patterns off of randomly ordered flash cards. The teacher held up a card, and the kids performed whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, whole rests, half rests, and quarter rests using different body movements and vocals.  This level of musical competence is pretty cool for this age.

A Star is Born

Hannah and Jack had their end-of-term performances this week.  As Jack pointed out numerous times, if you think having a Christmas celebration is getting complicated in US public schools, then just try having a faux-Christmas concert in the Middle East.

Laws here support tolerance but are strict against proselytizing.   Therefore, secular Christmas is okay.  Stores sell a limited stock of fake trees, cheap ornaments, and Santa-related stuff.  But nothing can hint at Christ, faith, savior, babes, mangers, Mary, Joseph, donkeys, or wise men. 

So at the kids' school, we had an end-of-term performance.  The kids dressed in green and white on one day, in red and gold another day.  One little kiddo came dressed as Santa.  There were several decorated "holiday trees," and we wrapped presents of practical items for a local workers camp.  However, none of the music was anything near Christmas related (except at the very end, the teachers sang something to the tune of Silent Night, but the words were about taking a vacation).  Hank said that his class went through every carol imaginable but all were rejected as being either too blantantly or perhaps too subtly "illegal."

Since the classes are a big mixture of religions, I can totally respect all of this.The whole thing is just very odd and very amusing.   I would think it easier just to go one way (sing Jingle Bells and get on with it) or the other (don't celebrate the holiday at all). 

At any rate, I have videos of Hannah's and (later) Jack's performances.  Hannah was in fine form, front and center.  The next day, her teacher wanted to know what all sorts of "stage experience" she had, to have been so fearless.  Of course, she has almost zero stage experience, especially in front of a crowd of about 400 people.

But, as you shall see below, that didn't stop her.





And now, our second performance.

Doha Adventure:Souq Waqif, the World Cup, &Qatari Displays of National Pride

Our dear friends Ravi and Corrine moved back to the USA this week. They're going Texan, moving to San Antonio. Oh, how I wish I were there to show them around like they have shown us about Doha. I know they'll find plenty of fun and adventure, but being part of that Texas welcome is something I'm sad to miss.

We wanted to go to Souq Waqif together and happened to pick the evening of the FIFA World Cup announcement.  Here are a few pictures from that evening.  These were taken on my camera phone, so they're not as good as I wish they were.

Headed to the Souq: John, Ravi, Corrine, and Prakash (Ravi's brother).  The spot lights were around the giant screen broadcasting the FIFA announcement.  We didn't go to that crowd.

Instead, we took up residence in one of the souq tea/shisha shops.  A sheesha (Arabic) is the same as a hookah (Indian) which may be the same as a bong (1980's USA).  They use floral or fruit scented tobacco, and serves the same sort of sit-around-and-visit purposes that having a beer is used for in the States.  I'm not a smoker, but the scent of sheesha is pretty nice.  We were sitting on the patio of one tea/sheesha bar, looking out across the center walkway of the souq, over towards a big screen TV at the tea/sheesha bar on the other side. 

When the announcement was made, you can imagine how everyone went crazy.  Lots of MABROOK (congratulations) going around.  It was a truly special moment for this little country.  The decision drew criticism from many places, but I think that if Qatar can live up to their promises, having the World Cup here will do wonders to show off the amazing things happening here.

Stuff that Unexpectedly Make Me Cry:Migrating Birds

Back in Texas, one of my favorite signs of fall is migrating snow geese. About the time it's cool enough for us to open our bedroom windows, you can hear the geese honking as they fly overhead in their V formation. I remember being a 19 year old sophomore at Texas A&M, waiting for John to come see me at my apartment, and listening to that sound through the window.  It takes me back to roommates and bonfire and being young.  The sound is sort of sad but then it always makes me happy because I know cooler weather is on the way.

Cooler weather is also here in Doha now. The highs are in the mid 70's, and the lows are in the mid-50's. Every day is full of mild sunshine. It is truly gorgeous. It's a "Doha Winter," and is yet another new thing for us to experience.

I had really been missing the geese, when one day, Hannah was playing in the park across from our house, and I saw a formation fly overhead. Everyone thought I was pretty strange as I jumped up and stared at the sky, tears running down my face. I was so dumbstruck that I didn't run for my camera. A few days later, a whole gaggle of little girls came screaming to me that the birds were coming, the birds were coming! I ran for my camera and got this picture.

Doha Adventure:New Home Center

God Bless Pat and Bob. Little did they know that we would be dragging them all over Doha, on a series of just about daily adventures. I haven't posted in quite a while, and my upcoming posts probably won't be in the right chronological order. But here's a list of some of the places we've taken the guests of honor:

• Texas A&M at Qatar/Education City
• Asaha Lebanese Food
• Shatter Abbas Persian (Iranian) Food
• Bombay Silk
• Souq Waqif
• Museum of Islamic Art
• Hank's School
• Hannah's and Jack's School
• Family Food Center
• Carrefour
• Giant Grocery
• Mega Mart
• Villaggio Mall
• Hyatt Plaza Mall
• Qatar National Day Festival
• Fabric Souq
• Corniche
• Kentucky Fried Chicken

And we took them to New Home Center.  This place is amazing.  It's floor to ceiling cooking and related home furnishings (tea services, all the stainless steel in the universe, milk pasturizers, etc.).  These pictures are from that stop.  Just to share some of the craziness.  Some of these cooking pots are big enough to be hot tubs, and some of the serving trays are four feet long.  When you walk in, a service person grabs a pad and pencil and follows you everywhere.  I think that's because they are used to people breezing in and buying untold amounts of stuff at one time.  They are not used to people like me who wander the whole store for an hour and then buy just one small item.

Here's a taste.

Christmas Arrives