Xmas Celebrations Doha

Trolley Man - Vegetable Souq.

Vegetable shopping in Doha is an expedition in hunting and gathering around the Fruit & Vegetable Souq where the produce is fresher and cheaper than that in the big super-markets in the large malls.
We've been there twice and enjoy the bargaining and choosing from the vast array of produce on display. We can choose from fruit and vegetables we know and recognise to those we've never seen before and are sometimes given cause to wonder how or why anyone would eat them. The strangest looks like a large mud-caked rock which is sliced open to reveal a mass of wooden fibre that apparently cooks into something that is edible.
As we wander we often have to dissuade the trolley men who are there to load the shoppers' bulk purchases on their trolleys and take them to the cars. The Trolley men have their equivalent in the Souq - the Wheel-barrowmen- who follow the Qatari shoppers with their barrows piled high with spices, clothing, knick-knacks and textile bolts.
This week was a three day weekend as Xmas Day was a Thursday.
Xmas In Doha was a definite contrast to our earlier experiences of Christmas away from New Zealand... Snow in the winter darkness of Tredegar, fireworks and crowing cockerels in Bangkok , the post Boxing Day humidity of a Chennai airport stop over and the winter chill of Macclesfield.
We spent the morning skyping family, with the inevitable confusion when we attempted a three way conference call.... everyone trying to speak at once.

With a long morning to fill we thought we would take a trip to Villaggio Mall. We were waiting to hail a government taxi when a well dressed man asked where were we going. He said jump in the car, a Mercedes Benz, and he went out of his way drop us off. It turned out he was a Pakistani Human Resources Manager of a Consultancy firm. He gave us his Public Relations hand out which carried an endorsement from the Sheika Al Thani.
He wrote his phone number and email on the back and said if we need to phone him do so.
He was interested in my job and thought there was a need for a teacher training system here in Doha.

Sunlight on the frontage of skyscraper City Centre - Doha

As we were allowed Christmas Day off in recognition of our different belief which was a chance for us to wander the down town centres of Doha where the commercial side of Christmas was celebrated in true European style... a Santa Claus outside a Bakery cajoling passersby to enter and purchase elaborately decorated cakes and, in the City Centre Mall a gigantic tree and a Teddy Bears Garden, the focus of many cameras clicking snaps of junior in front of cotton snow and gift bearing bears.
City Centre Mall Xmas Tree.

Xmas night we celebrated quietly in our apartment before collapsing, exhausted from our walking and enjoying the Winter sun.

Boxing Day saw us, with Dave Parry, heading off to check out Doha's 19th Annual International Book Fair, forgetting, in the process, that it was Friday and, therefore, everything wouldn't open until 4.30 pm. This meant that we promenaded along the Corniche from the City Centre Mall to the Souq Waqif, a good 5 km stroll and a great opportunity to get a winter sun tan!!

Joy striding it out with Dave keeping up. Enjoying the sun along the Corniche
Once we reached the pearl sculpture we were all exhausted and nursing well battered feet so headed into the Souq to seek out a coffee and a well earned rest. If nothing else these seven months will see us coming home fit, sun tanned and healthy - if not coffee addicted.

Two pearls and an old pearl diver.

Once in the souq we filled ourselves with coffee and sat and watched the passing parade then ventured into the Falconry Souq where we walked through the various stores and aviaries catering for the falconry enthusiasts and assessed the birds on display along with some of the locals.

The Mosque - Souq Waqif.

Falconry is a hunting hobby here that is pursued with enthusiasm by the local Qatari. we've seen young boys walking around with kestrels on their wrists. Other members of our tteam have seen men driving their 4x4s with a bird on the steering wheel.
Young Qatari sizing up the local birds- the Souq Waqif, Doha..
Incidentally, on the topic of unusual sights, on Wednesday afternoon we saw a ute driving past us on Salwa Road with a camel tied down on the tray... a rope looped twice across its hump was enough to keep it in place ... it was gazing around at all the cars & trucks passing by like a strangely shaped farm dog on a truck at home!

we had a Boxing day celebration at our apartment block with the other Cognition residents... lots of food and soft drink. With the local liquor laws being very restrictive no one had gotten to the "library" (local code to the Alcohol bond store) to buy any so we made do with two bottles of sparkling wine and a couple of cans of beer.

Carol Young, Dave Parry & Frank Gibson at the Mazda Boxing Day Party 2008

From Eid to National Day

Eid was a reminder of what N.Z. used to be over Christmas - befoe we were cajoled into believing that to be a "modern" nation we had to be open 24 hours a day 364 days of the year. Qatar literally closed up shop each day until 4.00pm for much of the 10 day break.

Mind you I wouldn't have wanted to be either a sheep oor goat over the same period as over 25 million of them were sacrificed (in Pakistan alone ) according to the local Papers.
While it was disconcerting for those of us who were unable to leave the country or were trying to explore the city on foot doing a sort of coffee bar crawl combined with window shopping the sense of relaxation, of being able to enjoy the day and then mix and mingle with people in the evening was something we need to rediscover at home. I was just beginning to appreciate the pleasures of the break when we had to start work again - another 4.30am wake up call before being off to work at 6.00am.
I did use the time to buy an enameled chess board to rediscover the game in the long Qatar evenings.
Chess Board and Pendant
Over Eid the Mazda group headed for the Museum of Islamic Art, an experience I wrote on earlier. This is worth another visit.

Carol Young, another Cognition member, took Joy & me out to the Camel Track to see the camels in training. This was an expedition in itself as the road near Dukhan was under construction and the redirection system being used didn't seem to lead us anywhere near the track. It took us two enquiries and a detour before we got to the right side of the motorway and the entrance to the Camel track. Once there we were greeted with the sight of hundreds of camels being lead to and from the training track by their trainers.
It doesn't take much of an imagination to see one's self in the middle of a Rider Haggard novel heading off to find the lost city of the desert aided by Nubian guides and other servants. The reality is that Camel racing is a big sport in Qatar.
Camel & rider heading off on training
The actual race track is an 8 km course around which both the camels and the following owner-trainers, in their four wheel drives, race. The trainers control the robot jockeys, which replace the small boys who were once used, from their vehicles as well as screaming encouraging abuse at their camels as they sprint around the track.
The accounts about the races are such that we've put it on our list of things to must do.

Camel Jockeys and their mechanic

We explored the souqs and the local streets with Charles, Marilyn, Dave & Frank over the break to discover the local Post Office and the craft shops selling everything from chess boards and carved boxes to furniture and carpets.

Joy and I had a conversation with a local Qatari who was buying a large carpet "to keep his wife happy" at one shop. He informed us he wasn't just buying a carpet he was buying its history and the status of its creator..... mind you for QR85000 I'd want that too!! (Made my QR300 purchase of a Chess Board look small change.)
.....
Honouring the Al Thani Dynasty
This Thursday was Qatar National Day and a public holiday. The Qatar Tribune marked the event with several pages of advertisements celebrating the "Day of Solidarity, Loyalty and Honour - Jasim Bin Mohammed Bin Thani" and honouring the Al-Thani family while the country closed down for a military parade in the morning and an evening of celebration and fireworks.

We, the Mazda Group, went down to The Corniche in the early evening to see how the locals celebrate their national day. In contrast to the NZ experience, where the event would have been organised by the local Rotary, Lions or Jaycees committee with all entrances blocked off and an entry fee charged (after paying for car parking ), a best decorated car competition and franchised food stalls competing for business before the entertainment started, this was a gathering of intensely patriotic people who had gathered to celebrate being Qatari in a riot of flag decorated, horn tooting, transmission grinding, rubber burning cars and drumming.
Flag waving car drivers. Locals on The Corniche.

The entertainment started with a water fountain slide and music presentation along with a laser light show along the frontages of the Doha skyscrapers and finished with a firework display the Qatar Times described as "Qatar's Light Fantastic"... " The biggest and the most ddazzling yet seen in the country." The other papers waxed equally lyrical about the day.
The call for prayer saw a large group of locals stop, turn to Mecca and pray for several minutes.

Prayer on The Corniche

Today (Friday) we went, with Carol and Alison, to Al Kohir, a fishing town an hour's north of Doha.

Al Kohir

It proved to be a pleasant looking township that, like much of Qatar, is undergoing rebuilding and construction. The route along the highway was also dotted with construction sites and new townships evolving in the desert.
The harbour was filled with working dhows shrouded
in fishing pots and nets and men busy painting, repairing and fishing for sprats from the wharf. Dhows Al Kohir Harbour.
We passed a village that had been abandoned to its fate - decay into the dust of the desert.
.....Deserted Village - Al Kohir Road.......
We took the opportunity to look around the Sultan Resort in Al Kohir which is a grandly appointed resort hotel on the waterfront.. at 1500QR a night for the cheapest room an hotel for the grand treat.

by the swimming pool-Sultan Resort

I considered going for a swim in the Hotel pool but found that the water was decidedly cool and would have been a little too much of a shock to the system. Contented self with a photo looking affluent!!
Next week is Christmas in the Gulf...

Islamic Museum

Museum of Islamic Art

Eid certainly slows the pace of life in Doha. The day starts at 4.30 am with the call to prayer - a call that echoes from the three or four mosques that surround the apartment buildings in the Ramada Roundabout block - the days are then punctuated with four other calls to prayer with each mosque having a different sound and intensity of sound but the city is quiet, with nothing open apart from cafes where groups sit and drink coffee and smoke their hookhas, until 4.30 pm when Doha comes alive.
At the Souq - Eid. Family group - boy with kestrel- Souq.
Late afternoon signals the time when everyone begins to descend on the souqs and corniche to shop, meet and enjoy the various entertainments that move around area.

Joy & Marilyn at the Museum of Islamic Art

We joined up with others from Mazda Apartments and went down to the Corniche to tour the latest jewel in Qatar's crown - The Museum of Islamic Art.

Entrance to Museum Islamic art Entrance Hall- Museum Islamic Art

We went to the Museum of Islamic Art ( 10.12.08) - a new museum that has opened on Doha's waterfront and displays, in really spectacular fashion, the best of Islamic art from the earliest to the most modern. We spent the morning there marvelling at carpets, carvings, calligraphy, scientific instruments and jewellery from all over the Islamic world (Arabia, North Africa, Turkey, India, China and Spain ).

The exhibits made one wonder at the vagaries of history for the Islamic world was far ahead of the European (Christian ) world in scientific and artistic development for centuries and then, as European learning and curiousity blossomed again the Western world expanded on the knowledge taken from the Islamic world. I think I'll have to start re-reading my history - particulary that of the medieval world.

Some of the exhibits at the Museum of Islamic Art.

Joy admiring 17th Century portrait of
Hasan Ali Mirza Shuja Al-saltana. ................... Jewelled Bird. 17th C. India................................... Emerald Necklace 17th C India

Armour - Turkey

Eid Events

Doha Sky line Sunday 7.12.2008

This week is Eid.. a ten day school holiday for us from Friday 5th through to Sunday 14th when we go back to work.
Eid is the holiest day in the Muslim calendar being the day the pilgrims descend from Mt Arafat following the Hajj after celebrating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac, in an act of obedience to God. The celebration apparently lasts for three days and is marked with ritual sacrifices of lambs or goats and acts of charity.
For us the break has allowed us to begin to explore Doha and the areas around our apartment. We were a bit restricted Friday & Saturday as Joy tripped over as we were walking to the Jarir Bookshop and bruised her knee very badly which knocked doing a lot of walking off the calendar. It didn't stop us going out to dinner with the other Cognition people in Mazda 2. We headed into the souq where we found a Lebanese restuarant and relaxed over water and coffee as we waited for our communal meal.

The souq offered us a chance to people watch.... tourists drifting in and out of groups of black abaya clad women with their faces veiled or masked and men in their white thoups amid the stalls selling everything from antiques, to blankets, to carpets and other knic-naks while a genial old man led a donkey up and down the street with happy little children balanced precariously on its back
. Man, donkey and child. The Souq, Doha.
On Saturday Joy & I went out to Villagio Shopping Centre where Joy could walk without stressing her knee too much. While we were there Doha enjoyed one of its few rain moments... thunder and lightning with bouts of heavy rain. In a typical Papprill moment I found the point in Villagio where there was a leak in the roof which, after I moved must have leaked more because soon there was a squad of squegee carriers in the area pushing water into the canal.

Outside, the rain was causing havoc for Doha drivers who, not being used to wet weather driving, were stalling in the fords that had collected around the round abouts and intersections or crashing into other cars as their wheels skidded on the slippery road surfaces. On the ride home our driver, Lulu, an Ethiopian, confessed to being afraid of the thunder and lightning as he kept lifting his hands from the wheel to cover his ears with each peal while commenting on the risks the other drivers were taking trying to drive as they normally do on unfamiliar surfaces.
We got home to find the other tenants mopping out the corridors as the drain points in the light wells had been blocked with sand and plastic bags which meant that the water could escape only into the corridors and, a few less fortunate rooms, of the ground floor.

Sunday saw us heading into the souq to explore the market stalls and Doha's tourist attractions. We poked around the Gold souq where Joy checked out the jewellry on offer.
There were lots of ornate pieces of very yellow gold that, in Joy's opinion, would be out of place back in New Zealand. However, we will probably head back to the Gold souq and poke around some more at a later date.

We crossed the road and began an exploration of the corridors and crannies of the textile souq with its myriad of stalls offering abayas, caps, tailoring, material, pashminas, watches, toys, odd bits of electronic games and dried fruit and nuts.
The Textile souq. carpets for sale.

I tried on this chamois coat, designed for the colder winter evenings in the desert, at one stall while the owner was at prayer... the owner simply locked up and left his stock hanging outside for passersby to admire and return at 4.00pm when the stall re-opened. Such trust... we couldn't imagine such happening at home, even at Botany Downs!!

Check out the price QR 250.00 is approximately $NZ 125.00. I did think the coat would have been great to swan around Dannemora in during the winter but then customs might have had to hold on to it when we came through passport control on our return as the coat was made of genuine leather and furs.

We found the Falcon Souq where the locals buy both falcons and the hunting gear that goes with this ancient sport. Here we saw the birds being groomed and cossetted by the handlers as tourists, like ourselves, watched and asked countless, repetitive questions about them.

We met up with Charles and Marylyn from Mazda during our fossicking, had lunch with them and then went on a tour of the Corniche where we took a ride on a Dhow around the harbour before taking a coffee break at The Sheraton Hotel.
The dhow at its moorings. Charles & Marylyn Cron & Joy

The Hotel had hosted an international conference on the economic crisis and, after seeing its conference facilities, we could see why. The size of each conference room and side rooms was beyond anything I've seen at home.


Monday is the actual Eid festival so the shops are closed all day. However the mosques were in full and elborate call for prayer at 4.30am in celebration of the event.

Doha Days 2-4

Boys outside school - waiting to head home.

No one thought to ask us what time we had on our watches so we were still on Dubai time - an hour ahead of Doha - so Joy & I woke at 5.00 am (4.00am Doha time) - breakfasted and prepared for the driver and the journey to work only to discover that I was an hour too early!
Nothing like being eager for work?

Once our driver arrived, my partner at the school, Dave Parry (Lakes High School ) and I headed out (at the correct time - 6.30 am) to work and my first day of offical contact as Teacher Advisor!

The drive out took us through construction sites of mainly large houses or compounds of apartment blocks interspersed with commercial buildings of incredible granduer -ornate castellations and curved windows, like the shopping centre "Villagio", a huge complex that has an ice rink and a canal and gondolas - surrounded by apartments, piles of rubble, sand and trucks as Doha spreads itself outwards from the Corniche.


The Mohammed Bin Abdul Wahab School is out on the fringes of Doha overlooking the desert on one side while the other looks over what will become a new suburb of Doha. In the middle distance behind the school is a wadi with a couple of tents pitched into the shade of the palms and several camels drifting around the compound watched over by several little kids.

The staff meeting was under way when we arrived at school. The Deputy Principal, an Englishman in three piece suit and academic gown, was giving out the daily messages and notices to the staff, a mix of nationalities - Jordanian, Egyptian, English, Syrian, Palestinian, Saudi Arabian and Morrocan. We were welcomed as "Mr Dave and the new English Advisor, Mr Alan." Surnames appear to be not used in favour of forenames.

The school day starts at 7.30 and finishes at 1.30pm so I'm heading home around 2.00pm. The first week I spent wandering the classrooms, talking and observing the teachers in action and the students in various attitudes of attention. Each period is two hours long by the way.

The school is built in concrete so the classrooms echo which makes the reception of spoken English some what difficult even for a person who normally speaks and hears English so imagine what it would be like listening to a person speaking English he has learned as an accented second language to students for whom English is a reluctantly taken subject!!

The students appear to be pleasant, happy individuals who, although being anywhere between 15 - 20 years old, behave as though they are enthusiastic 10 year olds until they leave school and climb into their 4 x 4s or utes and one sees car driving that the Boy Racers at home would freak out at.

Boys leaving school

In school one has to adjust to the sight of boys holding hands and kissing each other in greeting. In one class a boy arriving late shook hands with his teacher and then kissed him on both cheeks before sitting down.

Wednesday break saw a 5 a side soccer game played in the gymnasium. The winning team was presented with a trophy by the Principal, Mr. Nasser then all present, including staff were lined up for a photograph.

Spot Mr. Alan in the line up.

I'm in the process of developing a 5 hour workshop on unit & lesson planning and a staff PD presentation on effective power point presentations to be delivered after Eid.

We're now settling in for the ten day Eid break which, for some students really means 14 days as many headed out into Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.