Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
(anonymous)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
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..
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 mosqu
e 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 wiv
es. 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!).jpg)
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.
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