Rain and social activities

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

At peace with myself!

The past couple of weeks have been busy but without the unusual or different that has been part of our lives since arriving here in December. Probably a welcome relief after the events of March.
The highlights have been a "Geriatrics Party" to celebrate a colleague's 60th birthday. We were invited to attend in costumes that would relive our lost past.

Joy & Me at Geriatics Party: Bruce & Me at same party Whose youth has caught up?.

Needless to say the costumes were varied and sometimes both temporally and spatially confused. This may have been a result of our collectively impending short term memory losses or merely because the 1960s were, for some, a confused blur anyway.

The party was held in a Villa in the West Bay area of Doha which gave usan insight into life outside of the Apartment blocks and an idea of the grand style favoured by Interior Decorators here.
The Villa had a swimming pool and barbeque area outside which catered for those who favoured the balm of the evening air. Once inside one was exposed to an over the top luxury - the front doors opened onto a marble floored lobby and a grand marble staircase that was lit by a chandelier that would have done justice in an hotel.
Beside the entrance lobby was a fully equipped mini-gym with every piece of self torture equipment a masochistic gym lover would need. The walking frame even had a flat screen TV so you could screen films of bush, desert or ice fields as you walked yourself into a trance in the quest for fitness.
The lounge was dominated by a flat screen TV as big as any at a mini-cinema complex while the dining area held a table capable of seating 20 people comfortably at one time.
We were told that the bedrooms each had an en-suite and a built in flat-screen TV screen on the wall at the foot of the bed so one didn't get bored luxuriating in the generously proprotioned beds.
However, we party goers ignored the blandishments of luxury and got down to the serious business of celebrating Bruce's birthday and reliving pasts both real and idly imagined. Great fun!!!
We packed ourselves up around 11.30 - age having put a dampener on early morning party finishing, you know, and headed back to our apartments and the reality of home comforts.

RAIN IN DOHA!!

Then, just for a change, last weekend Qatar decided that it really needed to provide a variation on the theme of perpetual sunshine and, for the fourth time since we've been here, it rained and, for the second time, the front page of the Qatar Tribune was stopped to allow the headline story "RAIN IN DOHA" to drive all other world news from the front page.

Hyperbole aside the rain was heavy and the run off made more spectaular by the lack of an efficient or effective drainage system which meant that the water pools at the lowest points on the roadways - the middle of the roundabouts that mark intersections here.
TV & Burger-King Roundabouts had water at least 60cms deep around them so that drivers were forced to either circle out wide to go around or plough into the pool in the hope one could get through without stalling. It made for interesting driving especially as many of the locals are not familiar with the idea of hydroplaning on wet tyres.

Rain in Doha gets front page coverage again!

NORMALITY RETURNS

With the excitement of the party and the rain past life has returned to normal - up at 4.30am to the first of the prayer calls - Fajr (Dawn) and preparation for school as I listen to the BBC news on TV while the second prayer call - Shorook (sunrise) swirls through the window. The mosque nearest to us has a call to prayer that ensures one is aware of his aural presence. Thankfully, he gets submerged in the more musically adept calls that begin to blanket Doha and the day begins in earnest.
This week school has been dominated by the Grade 10-11 national testing which has meant that the Grade 12 students were at home supposedly studying for their own end of Cluster (Unit) tests in Arabic and English which took place on Thursday.
This was, in itself, unusual as the students had to sit two two hour papers in one day! The reaction to the second paper, English, was as expected.... looks of total incomprehension and loud claims of excessive difficulty when faced with what was little more than a reading and listening comprehension requiring them to write full simple sentence answers based on two typical airport /flight announcements and a two minute recording of a business meeting.
At the end of the day the teachers of English were looking as though they'd been through a session on a really rigorous gymnasium and then pummeled into submission by an over-enthusiastic masseur as they assembled in the workroom to mark the students' contributions to academic enterprise.
During the hiatus from classroom teaching each subject Department has been expected to write up a full annual plan for each grade level, a break down of the proposed Unit Plans and, given time, luck and enterprise, specimen lesson plans that allowed for differentiation for classes that would, in the 2009-10 year, be operating at both Foundation and Advanced levels according to the Curriculum descriptors. Just a small task.
We succeeded in creating a logical and sequenced Annual plan with interlocking and more student centred units for English. It now remains to assemble the resources and begin to write coherent standard based lessons to satisfy the descriptors in the Standards, the proposed unit content and allow the students to develop their spoken and written skills in English without falling into total grammar lessons and rote recall responses to questions. That, of course, means that we have to begin a series of workshops on effective test creation and assessment methodologies which will be another story in itself.

JOY'S PAINTINGS

While I've been enjoying work Joy has been busy painting and selling some of her work. She's sold four pieces so far and hoping to sell more as the contract period draws to an end.
She received a real boost this week when she was invited to contribute to an exhibition of works by artists resident in Qatar at the Souq Waqif galleries over July-August. She is to select three of her paintings and provide a brief biography to the gallery who will select the paintings they wish to exhibit. Needless to say she is keen to see her work on exhibition here in Doha.

We'll keep you posted on the exhibition.

Kurdish New Year Celebrations

KURDISH NEW YEAR

Last weekend was NewRoz or the coming of the Persian New Year. The celebration is shared by Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria,and the Kurds who form a large stateless community across these countries.
We were invited to share the celebrations with the local Kurdish community here in Doha by the teachers at school. We were told that the celebration would take all day, would be big and great fun.
Once we'd established that the function was being held at the Dosari Zoo we'd been to the previous weekend we were confident we would find the venue with no problems and set off to arrive at 11.00am.
On arrival we were ushered into the Welcome Hall by the Dosari workers and shown the display halls we'd seen the weekend previously. Whereas we'd been told we couldn't try on the Qatari costumes in the "Traditional Hall" this weekend we were encouraged to try them on. Neil, David & I seized the chance to dress-up and donned the thobe and gutra to pose at the entrance to the tent.

Alan the Arab - at home on the desert sands.

Once outside we were met by our hosts, given a pin of Red, Green and Yellow ribbons to wear, and ushered into the shade of the shrubby trees that fringe the picnic area at the Zoo.
The area had a large stage, decorated with a large Kurdish flag, a fringe of small Qatari flags and the same coloured ribbons as our pins, a mass of ubiquitous plastic tables and chairs, smoking barbeques, and groups of young Kurdish men with armbands or dressed in national costume welcoming and ushering arrivals to the celebration site.
We settled into the shade and chatted with our hosts as more and more men streamed into the site. Someone turned on a sound system and began playing folk tunes. This was the signal for the dancing to begin.
The dance leaders.
A group of four would form a line, each man linking little fingers with the man on either side, the men at the ends holding coloured cloths as markers, and begin a side-stepping, shoulder to shoulder dance. Gradually other men broke into the line until there were several hundred in the line forming an ever growing circle stamping dust into the ever hotter air.
The dance went on for a good 20 - 30 minutes with the spiral breaking every now and then as individual men broke out to challenge others to mirror their dance steps and then rejoin the line of men each with sweat dripping off their faces as they circled the arena.
Our hosts urged us to join in and after some persuasion we joined into the line to be initiated, under the already hot Qatari sun, into the celebration of another New Year and nationalism.

The Cognition team showing our Kurdish Heritage

Escaping from the dance line and the 30C heat we sheltered in the shade where Joy struck up conversation with a young abaya wearing Syrian woman, Sorya, who was there with her husband, six daughters and one son. Despite the limitations of our non-existant Arabic and Sorya's limited English family details were shared, comments about the celebrations and other common interests established. By mid afternoon Joy had been welcomed into a large group of women with the conversation growing more animated when they were joined by a younger woman whose English was reasonably fluent and could provide the translation that made communication all that much easier.

Sorya, her family, Shirley & Joy

Joy was rapt when Sorya and the other women invited her to her home where they could talk more and the translator's, Rosa's mother could be included in the conversation a lot more easily.
I thought Rosa's mother must be either short sighted or have good taste as she told Joy that she thought I looked like Leonardo diCaprio!!
Mind you the Turks who captured me, to share hot sweet tea and to satisfy their curiousity about why were there, thought I was either Russian or German so I could pass as any nationality... though I'm not certain about the Arab look I assumed earlier!

The afternoon was punctuated with speeches welcoming visitors, inviting us to contribute to the programme, plays that celebrated being Kurdish rather than Iranian, Syrian, Iraqi, Turkish and explaining why they were unique, recitations of poems recounting triumphant and momentous events in their history, food and even more dancing. We were assured that the celebration would continue long into the evening and were urged to stay until the end.

However, we decided that we should head for home around 6.00pm while it was still reasonably light but before we packed ourselves up our hosts suggested that it would be good if we offered something of ourselves to the audience, which had now grown to around 2000 men and about 50 women and their children. A quick discussion resulted in Joy being persuaded to sing Pokarekare Ana, which we thought was far better than a ragged version of the national anthem. So, escorted by one of the men who had been talking and translating to us all day, she headed for the stage where she was welcomed and introduced to the crowd. There was silence when she introduced herself, explained who we were and where we from, thanked our hosts for giving us the opportunity to share their celebrations and said she would sing a New Zealand song as a gesture of thanks.
She launched into Pokarekare Ana which became the signal for the Kurdish TV cameras to zoom in on her and for numerous men to head for the stage where they filmed her singing, photographed her and, when she was joined by Lyn, Lesley and Gail from our group, snapped even more pictures. When Joy finished and was ushered down from the stage she became an instant celebratory as the men captured her and posed to be photographed with her.

Joy singing to the crowd at the Kurdish New Roz celebrations.

Joy returned to the shade and our group where she was applauded by the group of local women she'd been talking to much of the afternoon. They were, they said, greatly impressed by her singing and very pleased to have heard a different song from a country many of them had little idea of where in the world it was.

Satisfied that we had acquitted ourselves with some honour we thanked our hosts, made our good byes and headed back to Doha.

The beginning of the day- the first of many dances to celebrate New Roz.

St.Patrick's Day, Fort Hunting and Zoos

Hunting Forts in Qatar.
St Patrick's Day was celebrated early for us in Qatar particularly as the weekend is Friday-Saturday and the prospect of a late night and a 4.30 a.m rise to prepare for work doesn't often appeal to many of us!

The Cognition team gathered at the Kalifah apartments in many variations of "the wearing of the green" as Joy's outfit- which demonstrated a little known fact that St.Patrick had spent some time in meditation in a Northern Indian monastery before he went to Ireland to lead the Irish into the faith. My own costume revealed the other newly revealed discovery about St Patrick's travels before he returned to Ireland... he had passed through the Middle East - picking up the scarf from his pilgrimage to Mecca on the way.

The evening was a great fun with several people revealing that their ability at producing rhyming scatalogical limericks under pressure was well developed.

On Saturday the Mazda crew headed off to look for the 18th-19th century forts scattered across Qatar. The guide book told us that "some have been restored and some are excavation sites for archeologists but visitors may be disappointed by a lack of information once they reach the site." It wasn't far out although it did fail to mention that its own description of how to find the forts was somewhat sketchy and vague.

Anyway, full of optimism we set off to look for Al Wajbah Fort which had been the focus for a famous 1893 battle between the forces of the Al Thanis and the Turks. The fort is described as being found at the Emir's Palace and easily reached "if coming from Doha by turning off at the Roundabout before the palace, going over the speed bumps, turning right at the end of the gravel drive and into the fort." Unfortunately the guide-book hadn't taken into account the massive road restructuring around the area and a lack of signage to indicate which of the exit points we should take which meant that we failed dismally on finding fort number 1 on our list.

Undaunted, we headed NW 110km through the desert to look for the Al Zubara Fort. On our way we passed the camel racing track and came across a small private zoo & ostrich farm. The brochure we picked up there informed us that on Friday afternoons the park offered, for free: Reception, a tour of over 50 embalmed animals, a tour of the park and a chance to enjoy horse-riding, camel-riding, shooting and a chance to wear Qatari national costumes along with fun-fairs and competitions. We got took the offer of a tour of the embalmed animals and the park presented by the enthusiastic workers.

The embalmed animals would have benefitted from being displayed a little more sympathetically than being placed amid polysterene painted rocks on a bed of sand in small rooms off the main hall - we were shown stuffed gazelles, sting rays, sparrows, hawks, wild cats and lizards before being taken on a walk to see the Ostriches and the lone Oryx along with the other animals the owner had on display.

The Oryx, happily relaxing in the shade, was shaken out of its dream of wide open spaces by one of the guides tossing a stone into the shrubs which motivated the animal to begin its pacing between the shrubs and a small cage about 10 metres away until it sensed that we had had enough and been led away to view the Ostriches.

The ostriches, however, needed no stoning to display themselves to an audience. The female birds took the chance to snap and clack their beaks at us as they peered through and over the netting fence and an arrogant, red-flushed male stalked, pecking and blustering at the other males, from the back of the paddock towards the gathering of females. Here, he immediately demonstrated that these were his harem and that we should be impressed.

Once, in the manner of all good Mills & Boon stories, he had had his way with her he strode off to boast of his exploits to the other younger males which had stood off in the background while he had paraded to the human audience.

We were then taken to view the concrete cages of Arabian sheep, Qatari gazelles, desert goats and camels that made up the rest of the zoo. Always obliging, the park guides ensured we saw the animals in the open even if they were sheltering from the already fierce heat in the little shade their cages offered them.

At the final cage, before being shown the cages of the monkey and the baboon, the solitary wolf, the two hyena and odd dogs, we were handed an ostrich egg to hold. The guides told us that this weighed in at just over a kilogram and was due to hatch in the next few days.

We headed past the camels, donkeys and horses, taking the opportunity to capture a few more closeups of camel expressions for Joy to paint, and back to the cars to head further north and the Al Zubara fort.

Unlike the first Fort this was easy to find. It had been built in 1938 beside the ruins of an earlier fort. It had been used as a coastguard station and, until the 1980s, had been a military base. We were able to wander over the fort and, for the eternal boy in all of us, imagine we were with Beau Geste and the foriegn legion holding off the desert hordes for the glory of the colonising power.

Neville was immediately on the main tower and its flag pole to gaze over the desert to the grey waters of the gulf in the haze of distance. Needless to say he was immediately followed by the rest of us. All posing for our own classic boyhood dream photograph opportunity.

Our next target - the fort at Al Rakiyat - proved, again, that the guidebook and map needed a little more precision if they were to point tourists to the place. We failed to discover the camel farm that marked the turn off to a "few hundred metre off road drive" to the "restored fort". The guide book, in its normal vagueness, informed us that, given we had found the place, the fort had been built somewhere between the 17th and 19th centuries and been restored in 1988.

Despite enquiring from the locals we were left confused so headed off to the little seaside township of Madinat Al Shamai and the chance for lunch and a reassessment of our fort hunting.
We sat on the walls at the dhow harbour watching the local fishermen preparing for a evenings fishing and speculating on the vivid blue of the water as we assessed the chances of finding the fort at Umm Salal Mohammed and if the Al Koot Fort at the Souq Waqif would be open.

Umm Salal Mohammed is described as being notable and impressive for its thick high walls and facade situated near a Barzan Tower which was used as a watch tower and located in the township of Umm Salal Mohammed. The photos in guide book showed uswhat we should've been looking for which gave us even more confidence than would be otherwise merited.

We found the turn-off and headed into the township and the place pictured in the guide-book. Beside the town mosque were the ruins we were told was the fort. We applauded ourselves and piled out of the cars to jubilantly photograph the rather picturesque buildings. We were even photographed ourselvesby the locals who snapped away with their cell phones at the crazy Europeans climbing over the fallen blocks and rubble.

Satisfied that we had found two of the targeted forts we headed back to Doha to get a chance to explore the Al Koot fort at the souq. Al Koot was closed... according to the locals sheltering under a tree outside the only gate to the site, was always closed despite what the guidebook said.

At least, we thought, we had found and seen three of the six forts we'd set out to discover. However, a closer look at the map, over a meal at the souq, showed us that the guidebook was wrong - again. The Umm Salal Fort was not the Fort but a fortified house and the real Fort was in a different place in the township than that described.

So, back to the planning stages if we are to see the real fort sites in Qatar.


A ceramic sculpture - Woman - by a local Qatari potter.
Looks a lot like a woman in an abaya.

Aspire visit & Student Reaction

ASPIRATIONS @ VILLAGIO

This week has been one both of business and sadness. Joy received word that her youngest brother, Wally, had died on Tuesday morning after a long time of illness. Our distance away from the family made it hard for her although modern technology allowed her to make contact with his family and her other brothers it is difficult to share mutual grief over 12000 miles.
Back here in Doha we seem to have settled into the routine of 4.30am starts again and the offering of advice and challenging teachers and students to take advantage of the opportunities the education reforms are offering.

Outside Aspire Centre. A statue of the world supported by the hands of knowledge with New Zealand in the best space - visible!! (Unlike Australia, hidden by the giant hands.)

I was invited to go with one of the teachers when he took his Grade 10 class to visit the Aspire Centre and Villagio earlier this week

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The Aspire Centre was built for the 2006 Asian Games and is said to be the biggest enclosed sporting facility in the world. I can quite believe it as there are a full sized athletics stadium with seating for 15000, a full sized Basketball Stadium with spectator seating, an Olympics sized Gymnasistics Arena with spectator seating, a full sized gymnastics performance hall with spectator seating, a full sized Soccer stadium with 15000 seating capacity and a full sized Olympic standard swimming pool and diving centre with spectator seating along with the administration facilities, press and other necessary resources in a fully air conditioned environment all under the one dome.

Views of the interior of Aspire Centre

The Stadium is the home of the Aspire Sports Academy which provides coaching and education for the students lucky enough to be selected.
Outside of the dome are the other facilities needed for athletes - training tracks, swimming pools and medical /physiotherapy rooms all standing in readiness for any international or regional games that could occur in the area.

Listening with intent

Our students were gob smacked... and simply couldn't cope with all that was on offere despite living within two minutes drive of the facility. It took some time to tie them down to listen to the director of the facility explain the place to them.
Once they had been shown around the dome their teacher decided to take them to Villagio the shopping mall modelled on Venice that sits beside the Aspire Centre.

The boys distracted by a shopping trolley

The boys, initially distracted by a shopping trolley as we walked across to the complex, didn't move too far from the food court & ice rink once we were inside. Here they, according to their teacher, had more than they could cope with - food, space and the sight of girls in their immediate vicinity.

The boys with their lute head to Villagio

Armed with their lute and drum and the safety of numbers they tried impressing a small group of girls by playing dance tunes, singing and dancing to them.
Needless to say their approaches were politely ignored by the girls.
We eventually got them back to school where they were persuaded to write stories or descriptions of what they did during their experience at Aspire & Villagio around the photo record their teacher had taken.

The boys dancing in Villagio as they try to impress some non Qatari girls.