Quick Up Date

Athletics, Debating and Theatre... Doha Update

Since our last adventure in Turkey Joy and I have been enjoying life back in Doha.

Joy has been organising the End of Contract Dinner Show entitled "This is Cognition. Mr. John" and I 've been involved in the many projects the advisory role brings with it.

We did get to see the final night of the World Indoor Athletics Championships early in March. We managed to get there in time to see Valerie Vili receive her silver medal for the shot put and then to watch incredibly tall jumpers leap to record lengths and heights while other purpose trained athletes sprinted and hurdled the track at great speed.

Work seems to have consumed a great deal of time this month. I began pushing debating as a means of improving the students' language skills last semester and have succeeded in getting the Arabic Department to get involved with the Qatar Debate promotion of debating in Arabic.
The boys were selected to debate against a team of girls at the Doha Conference on Human Trafficking in front of the delegates and media. Much to the delight of the Department Head and our Principal the boys won the debate.

There is now rumours that the Personal Assistant Secretary to Sheika Mousa may be visiting our school to congratulate the boys and the teachers on their involvement. Needless to say we're all excited to see if the rumour becomes true.

This week we succeeded in running a three grade debate competition against Abu Bakr Aseedq Boys school. Grades 10, 11 and 12 debated That all students in Qatar should do an hours physical activity every day after school, That Women with school age children should not be allowed to work and That technology has made us lazy.

We were fortunate in that Qatar Debate provided us with adjudicators from their visiting trainers from the UK University Debating team so the boys were given the added fillup to their delivery.

The result: Ahmed Bin Hanbal won two debates and lost one which restored the balance after our first one level only debate loss.

On Wednesday I was at a workshop on Library resourcing at the W Hotel when the word went around that there was an enormous man in the foyer. At this everyone rushed to the entrance to see. Sure enough, there was a big man... the world's tallest man at over 7 feet. He was in town for a promotion associated with a local company but before he could leave the hotel he was mobbed by guests and school librarians alike.

Tonight Joy and I have been invited to the wedding of Faisal Al Shawi and his fiancee, Al-Anoud at the Sheraton. Faisal's father, Mohammed, is a teacher at Ahmed Bin Hanbal who has been very welcoming to Joy and me since we began the contract this academic year. The wedding will be a blog in itself.

This week we begin rehearsals for "This is Cognition, Mr. John" and Joy begins running her Water Colour painting classes for the Cognition teams so the final three months of this contract will be very full.

Doha Departure - Homeward Bound

This past week has been one of packing, tidying up at work and farewells as the contract draws to its inevitable end.
We are constantly amazed at the way the small souvenirs and gifts have accumulated in the apartment over the past seven months. We started with two large suitcases and our travel cases and are now sending home three large cases and several boxes of paintings, books and souvenirs of our time here in Qatar.
The apartment looks ultilitarian bare now that Joy's remaining paintings have been boxed up ready for shipping and the other items that make a place look like home are packed away.
The MBAW team had a farewell lunch together on Tuesday at The Grand Joud Cafe on Salwa Road.

Dave on the Sheesha

The cafe is a popular sheesha smokers' meeting place as we could smell the sweet aromatic fumes of apple, grape, rose, mint, strawberry and Iranian tobacco as we walked along the street to meet up with our colleagues. The outside seating, always crowded during Winter and on late evenings, was too hot to use so we ate inside where the haze of sheesha was well dispersed by an efficient air conditioner.

Our translator, Mohammed Kasawneh, ordered for the five of us with the result that the table was liberally covered with dishes of hummus, rice, tabbulah, grilled meats, stuffed vine leaves, savoury sausages and kubbah as well as bread to create a lunch that we felt needed assistance to consume.
We discovered, however, that given time and conversation such a spread could easily disappear! However I was still recovering from the meal at 9.00 the next morning.

The Doha Darlings style

Wednesday evening is the end of contract dinner at the Hotel Intercontinental where Joy and the other Doha Darlings will be performing their own unique farewell routine to Doha and where we will, no doubt, commiserate over the lack of firm contract for the next academic year, swap stories about all we've seen and done in our schools and touring of Qatar and other parts of the Middle East and exchange contact addresses at home in New Zealand and for the summer break as we head off on our travels.
The attached video of the performance and activities at the dinner gives a taste of the celebrations on Wednesday night.

Joy with flowers for choreographing the Doha Darlings
Cognition Team Membes learning Arabic Dancing.

Thursday will see us completing packing so that we can deliver our bags and boxes to the transport company to arrange delivery in time for our arrival at Auckland Airport mid July over the weekend.
Then it becomes real count down time from Sunday for the final three days in our schools and the early morning trek to the airport for our next travel adventure - a week in the UK to catch up with Jacqui and her family in Swansea with, we hope, a drive to Tredegar and the Ebbw Vale where I was relief teaching for eight months over 1997 followed by a week in Jordan before being reunited with our baggage in the wet winter of home.

Countdown from Doha

With an outside temperature in the high 40s and the hum of the air conditioners battling to keep the inside temperature in the comfort zone we and the rest of the Mazda group are in varying stages of packing and tidying our apartments ready for the end of the contract.
I've been skip diving to gather together cardboard boxes in which we can pack our extra belongings - the souvenirs, albums and clothing we have picked up in our seven months here!
Our packing goes in fits and starts as we wait to discover whether we have a new contract for the 2009-10 academic year. The rumours fly around amongst the other ATs, are relayed between companies and pepper our conversations and those we have with the teachers at our schools as they seek to find out if they will be able to call on our support next year.
Each day we look towards the office area for a trickle of white smoke that would suggest that we suspend complete packing, at least for a few more days. Unfortunately, the smoke has all been black.
Last night the Mazda group headed off to a local restaurant - Olive - for our own end of contract dinner.

The Mazda crew in high good spirits at Olive

Olive is a recent arrival on the Doha Clinic Road and boasts a mult-ethnic cuisine - Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern. We were certainly able to cater for the vegetarians and the piscatorians as well as the omnivorians amongst us.

Olive and its "toot & run" takeaway next door neighbour on Doha Clinic Road.

The evening was a great success capped off with Frank suggesting that he would develop a Mazda logos which we could get printed onto T shirts which we could wear to our final Ramada Quiz night, as the Mazda Mafia, on the 29th. We're looking forward to see whatever he comes up with.
Next week is the official end of contract dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel which we are looking forward to. Not only for the chance to get together as the whole team but also in the expectation that John will be able to provide the white smoke from his table before the evening is over.
Shirley, Priscilla,Jan, Louise & Joy - The Doha Darlings
Joy and her friends, known as the Doha Darlings, are especially looking forward to the evening as they have been rehearsing a surprise musical number which will receive its first public performance there.

They have been meeting every Tuesday morning since May to practice the routine which Joy has written and choreographed. Many of the women have never done anything like this before which has added to their performance anticipation.

Layla receiving Joy's Camel Racetrack painting
for the "Summer at Home" exhibition

Joy has handed over her paintings to Layla at the Waqif Galleries ready for the "Summer at Home"exhibition which will be held over July-August. The exhibition is a collection of work from artists living and working in Qatar regardless of nationality and is designed as a focus for the souq over the summer months when people huddle under their air conditioners or head for the malls or the cafes of the souq to enjoy cooler air and conversation.
Our team, at Mohammed Ben Abdul Wahab, are preparing for our presentation of certificates and awards to the staff on Sunday. Our farewell gifts and thanks to the school and the staff in our final complete week there. We've designed a set of certificates that reflect our New Zealand origins - each watermarked with a distinctive New Zealand landscape that the staff can display once we've gone.
I'll finish off the blog with a few sketch notes describing a Doha Friday and plan for a final Doha blog next weekend.

FRIDAYS IN DOHA.
Dust driven sand snakes curlicues across the road
swirls through windows
descends, grainy over books,
coats floors grit gray.
Doha dozes- dormant in prayer
minaret signalled to punctuate the day.

FFC
Koran calls across the aisles
supermarket Fridays reminders
that food and faith intertwine.

Villagio.
Abaya clad women sweep by
gossiping.
children trail behind,
swept up by scurrying maids,
dropped in trolleys,
wheeled through doors
deposited in traffic stopping vans
sale day remainders living still.