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.
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