New Year's Eve in Doha

New Year's Eve today - we spent the afternoon at our local park - which on a lovely Winter's Day of 27 degrees was crowded with local families. Since our annual calendar is based on the Christian Gregorian calendar which follows the sun and the Muslims prefer to follow their own lunar calendar New Year's isn't celebrated much here - which in a way is kind of refreshing - Christmas and New Year's are not associated with the rampant commercialism at home and yet we are free to celebrate in ways which are meaningful to us. The girls had a ball at the park - Santa obviously had a sporting theme in mind for our family! A and I always enjoy people watching and on a Friday afternoon (like our Sunday) there were plenty of people around. So here are some last glimpses of our life in Doha for 2010.

Christmas in Doha

We had a wonderful Christmas in Doha. The week leading up to Christmas we celebrated with friends decorating christmas cookies and gingerbread houses, picnics at the zoo and making wreaths which proudly adorn our doors. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had been taken down overnight but they are still there today. On Christmas Eve we attended a morning candelight service with "Silent Night, Holy Night" sung in reasonable harmony in the many languages of the people in the humble villa where church is discreetly held. We then celebrated with our precious friends here with a traditional lunch.
My mum had handsewn christmas stockings for us which we hung up faithfully and the girls were delighted to find them full in the morning. I did overhear E telling G that if she was good and loved God and Santa she might get presents! I was both amused and slighted concerned that all E wanted for Christmas was a black abaya! After present opening we had a pancake brunch with our French and Italian neighbours sitting outside on our front garden. Our girls were the only ones playing that morning with their new presents - just another Saturday for most people in Doha. One of my veiled neighbours did wish me a Happy Christmas though and the girls enjoyed handing out chocolates to the other kids in the compound.

Rainbow Day

It was time for another special day of learning. The girls seem to love special days and after a difficult day together and a little too much yelling, I decided to turn it around and spent the evening planning and ensuring that the next day would be filled with joy. So, considering our shared love of rainbows and the potential for fun, science and art... we began. We started with learning about the colour wheel and primary and secondary colours. E knew most of this already so she became the teacher instructing the little ones. Then we took our broken, old and seemingly useless crayons and put them in muffin trays to melt and create new ones - another science lesson as E observed that they set at a low temperature and didn't require freezing. This included a small environmental lesson about considering how we can reuse and recyle items before simply tossing them away. And, a far more valuable lesson about how God takes our brokeness and ugliness and transforms it into something beautiful - a promise which has been tied with rainbows since ancient times. We followed up with clay sculpture birds decorated with rainbow feathers. Rainbow juice, frozen in layers. The girls were delighted with our rainbow apple pancakes although the cooked product wasn't quite as colourful. Eventually, the sun came out and we created our own rainbows with a glass of water, a piece of white paper and the sun shining through the window. Amazingly easy. And, finally we filled our glasses with coloured milk and experimented with sound and music - considering pitch and whether plastic or metal, depth etc altered the pitch. We finished by listening to Andrew Chin's delightful "Rainbow song" a favourite of E's (and mine) from school.

Santa in Dubai

Our last day in Dubai we visited Santa with our friends. It was our first Christmas where the girls actually wanted to be photographed and I wasn't sitting on Santa's lap myself or trying to coax screaming and terrified girls. They loved it and especially sharing the experience with their friends.

Happy National Day, Qatar!

December 18th - for the last 4 years Qatar has celebrated its national day. Apparently, it has a recorded history of civilisation dating back to the 6th century BC, although suprisingly there is very little to show for it as they were largely a beduoin people. They are certainly proud of their little corner of rubble. This year with the recent celebrations of the 2022 World Cup win they are especially pleased. There are flags - everywhere, some covering entire buildings. Qatari men love their cars and it must be cool here to have images of the Emir and the Emir apparent on their cars and painted or stuck flags covering their entire cars. Quite an effort and expense for one day. And a little strange for us where in Australia we debate every year whether people should be displaying flags at all and they have even been banned from some community events. As Melbourne's Age journalist recently described much of Qatar is "featureless, gradient-less, people-less, civilisation-less....There are no rivers, wetlands, ravines or gorges, mountains, wadis or oases and little beyond its cities and settlements that isn't the colour of rock. Doha's cityscape of residential high-rises will often have their windows cleaned twice a day: once in the morning for the morning sandstorm and again in the afternoon for the afternoon sandstorm." Strangely, noone here seems to mind.

Around the Christmas Tree

One of the highlights of Christmas is always decorating the tree. This year we did it in November so my parents, well mum mostly, could be here to do it with the girls. It has always been a family affair in our house - mum still has us back, and now grandchildren to decorate her tree. This year was simple with our humble, donated tree which had been given to a friend who was leaving Doha and then passed on to us when they left. This year was memorable though as some of the children in our compound knocked on our door to see if our girls could play and saw us decorating the tree. They were amazed at even this humble tree and in broken English and Arabic asked many, many questions. Is the story real? Does he leave presents? They were also excited and proud to share the small pieces of the story they had picked up from television.

Beach at Dubai

We just returned from a week in Dubai visiting old friends from Melbourne. It was a busy house with 6 little girls 6 and under but they all loved playing with each other. It was lovely to see these girls whose dads are childhood friends playing together. Here we are at the public beach where it is a lot less conservative than Doha.

Museum of Islamic Art

The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). Already an architectural icon on the Corniche of Doha and one my favourite places here, as like galleries everywhere it is cool and peaceful, full of beauty and a reprieve from the busyness of the city. It was designed by I. M. Pei who designed the pyramid at the Lourve and many other signature buildings. It has a beautiful collection of art and science from this region back to the 7th Century BC, or CE as they deliberately use here. The collection stands as a remarkable witness to the incredible cultures of the now Middle East and a reminder of the mark and inheritance they passed on to us.

Villagio Mall

Shopping is this nation's most popular leisure activity, perhaps driven by the fact that Qatar has the world's highest GDP per person and perhaps partly because with the summer heat there is little else on offer. Whilst I initially thought the idea of creating a small Italian village in a mall a little tacky - with soaring temperatures and the usual dusty, bland landscape, the painted dreamy blue sky and fluffy white clouds with a soothing canal is suprisingly appealing. The girls love the gondola ride too.