Doin' the Desert!

Continuing the recap of Jake's whirlwind tour of Qatar....On Jake's second full day in Doha (3/11), we booked a desert trek. It was the experience of a lifetime! Three families went out to the dunes together. All of us had college kids in town and felt like a trip to Qatar would just not be complete without a little dune bashing. Of course, we did not do the driving ourselves. (Some brave souls do drive on their own and have never been heard from again!) We hired three Land Cruisers and three oh -so- fun and capable drivers. They were amazing! First thing to do was de-air the tires. Then, we were off! Did some wild and crazy things at high rates of speed! Most of them involved losing my stomach! We did make several stops along our wild ride. Enjoyed wading, shell hunting and dune climbing along the Inland Sea. (hence the oasis in the desert!) The spot where we stopped happened to be just down from the Emir's permanent campsite. Check it out! Another diversion, and my personal favorite, was a camel farm. Wow...those dudes are big! We all took a spin around the place and even partook in a refreshing gulp of camel milk. Okay...not all of us were that into the milk! Our last and most beautiful stop was the top of a dune to watch the sun set. (Okay...so it was sunset in the oasis, not midnight. And I wasn't anyone's bellydancer!) Just the same, it was an incredible end to our incredible day.

P.S. Could not close this post without giving you a glimpse of our drivers and bashing buddies!

A "Mosque" Wonderful Beginning!

Now back in time a couple of weeks for today's entry.....What better way for Jake to dive into the culture of Qatar than to go on a mosque tour the first day of his Spring Break visit. No time for jetlag...we were up and on our way to the tour by 9 a.m. (Now, that's early for a college kid on spring break!) The tour had been organized by my friend Sybil for the Chevron Phillips wives. Jake was one of two guys on the tour, the other one being Sybil's son, Dustin (visiting from Texas State). Right off the bat, in the traditional Arabic way, the men were seperated from the ladies. I am sure the ladies got the better end of that deal...we were immediately ushered in to a lovely room and served tea, Arabic coffee and sweets. I think Jake and Dustin were sitting on the floor in another room and I am not sure what they were eating. No worries as we were all reunited on the bus a short time later and the tour began. Our first stop was an older, small mosque. The tour guide was full of wonderful information and made it all very interesting. We then stopped at another larger and more oranate mosque in a busier part of the city. It was a beautiful building. Our third and final stop was at the Qatar Cultural Center. There we viewed some great photos of Turkish mosques and a large "family tree", showing the lineage of Jesus and Mohammed. Interesting. Several of the ladies received henna "tatoos" (guys opted out on that one!) and we all got our names written in Arabic calligraphy. Finally, it was back to the Qatar Guest Center, where our adventure had begun. Again, the ladies and guys were seperated. We were all treated to a big homemade Arabic lunch, eventhough the guys had to eat theirs on the floor of that same small room. Our hostesses were more than hospitable and so very lovely. I think Jake had a true eye opening experience and learned more than he ever thought he would on a spring break trip..

The Pixel Chicks are Hatched!

What a great afternoon! On Wednesday I got together with a group of girls that are as excited about photography as I am. We will use our time together to learn more about cameras and taking pictures, but in a fun, practical way. I am sure that we will manage to fit food and lots of chatting in there, too! One of our chicks (a.k.a. Mother Hen) is a professional photographer, another one knows enough to be a professional and the other 4 of us chickadees just love to take pictures. I must say that among our little brood, everyone seems to have an eye for color and composition. (I am working on it...hopefully I won't lay any eggs!) We have different gifts, but we do share a love for capturing memories. We already have our first couple of projects underway...stay tuned to see what the Pixel Chicks produce! (P.S. Keep smiling...you never know who might be taking your picture!)

Tea for Three

Okay, so I am a woman living in a man's world. I have three sons, one husband and even a male dog. Dinner table conversations always revolve around some sporting event, no matter how much I want to talk about the ballet. So, every once in a while, a girl has got to do the girlie thing. That's just what I did on Tuesday. I went to high tea at the Ritz Hotel with a couple of precious girlfriends. We had a wonderful time, sticking out our pinkies, drinking tea and eating miniature sandwiches, pastries and, my personal favorite, scones with clotted cream and jam. The atmosphere was wonderful and the conversation was delightful. What more could a girl ask for?

Easter with Will and Jake

I hope you all had a blessed Easter. Things here were a little different...not much going on for Lent and Easter. No Walmart aisles filled with candy and plastic eggs, no new Easter shoes, no viewing of "The Robe" on TCM, no Maundy Thursday worship or Good Friday Youth Service. For the first time in 14 years, I was not filling 3 Easter baskets. (Yes, everyone still puts out their basket in our house!) Easter Sunday was, in fact, a work day, but, thank goodness, the kids at the American School had the day off. There is an upside to all of this...I found that fewer commercial distractions helped me to focus a bit more on the true meaning of the most important holy day of the Christian year. On Friday, during the children's classes that take place at Grace Fellowship (our church here), I gathered all of the children together for a telling of the Easter story with Resurrection Eggs. The "event" of course, included cupcakes! (....you can't take the Christian Educator out of the girl!) We did go back to the church villa at 7:00 pm on Easter evening. There was a very nice service with scripture readings and beautiful music, including a wonderful solo performance of "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" I must say, I did miss my home church in Sugar Land, but God took very good care of us, even over here on the other side of the world! It was a wonderful Easter!

We had some families over for an Easter meal on Saturday afternoon. The Van Hoosers were included in that group. You may have heard me talk about the fact that Sam's first buddies here in Doha were twins his age named Will and Jake (Van Hooser)! We could not believe it when we first heard it...our house would be filled again, at times, with three boys with all the right names: Will, Jake and Sam! Back to my story, Will and Jake were here for the Easter dinner so I took their photo with Sam.

This morning I got an email from Mom and the subject line was Easter with Will and Jake. She had sent me a note and a couple of pics of my Will and Jake at her house for Easter dinner. I quickly replied to her note, recycling the subject line of Easter with Will and Jake and sent her the picture of Sam with his buddies Will and Jake at our house for Easter dinner! Like I said, it was a wonderful Easter! (P.S. Will and Jake Shrull - I love you and I miss you! P.S.S. Don and Mom -Thanks for the photos and for feeding my boys!)

Bad to the Bone!

Since I was not a blogger yet when Jake was visiting Doha for his spring break last week, I am going to go back in time over the next few days and relay some of our fun adventures with our boy in the desert!

The night we picked Jake up from the airport, we made a quick stop at one of the honk chicken places for some take out. Honk chicken is actually rotisserie chicken, cooked to perfection, in a large mobile oven. When you drive up to the particular strip center where we where decided to stop, there are a few honk chicken places in a row. You see several of the large ovens wheeled out on the sidewalk in front of the shops. Flames are flaring and chickens are turning! Why do they call it honk chicken, you ask? All you do is drive right up to the shop and honk and the little guys wearing, in our case, the white hats, run out to your car to take your order. We actually never get a chance to honk because the guys are out at our car before we can put our palm to the horn. The night of Jake's arrival we ordered two honk chickens and some schwarmas (like chicken wraps) and headed for the pink villa. When we finally started eating, the bones were flying! Jake and Sam made short order of the honk chickens! Our Aggie thoroughly enjoyed his first meal in Doha.

Can you believe it?

I know my children will be amazed...I am blogging! This all seems so contrary to my nature, but I am ready to show the world that I really do know how to "check my email"! (family joke, stemming from the internet safety public service announcement I was fortunate enough to participate in back in Sugar Land) And what better time to start blogging than now. I am loving photography and seem to have more than my fair share of adventures these days. Everyday is an adventure in Doha!



So, you are invited to come along on the ride. It is a big world out there and I am excited about the possibilities. So much to see, learn, do and love.