What about his wife?

I love the Qatar Peninsula!  It never ceases to amaze me.

Opps...

International Family Food Day

The ISLQ International Family Food Day was actually well done.  Lots of people showed up and brought with them their main dishes from their respective countries.  We all had a great time!

Shawarmas!

Nate and his buddy Yousef.  He is an Egyptian Canadian student of
mine in grade 10.  The two of them are like peas in a pod!

Tough ay at the office.  One of the many Indian drivers in Qatar.
Essentially modern day slavery.

2014 Qatar Motor Show

This past weekend we went to the 2014 Qatar Motor Show.  It seems as though every event in Qatar is free, because we didn't pay a dime to get in.  It was a pretty small show compared to the Toronto show, but as expected, most of the dealers were high end because of the buyers here.

And the price tag is...

Desert beige.  Beautiful colour selection.

Officer Nate!

The Benz in the foreground was actually black?
I just noticed that it had a hue of purple.

The new hybrid Porsche 918 Spydder.  Pretty cool.  The world's first hybrid super race car with 887hp.
It can go from 0 to 100kp/h in 2.6 sec reaching atop speed of 345km/h!

Careful!

Nice shoes.

Aspire Park and The Burgerry

Right now the weather is changing.  There is still a cool breeze, but the Sun is getting hotter.  So we went for a walk at Aspire Park yesterday, one of the bigger parks in Doha.  Very pleasant, very artificial, but nonetheless, an escape from the desert.  We were there on a Friday during the morning prayers over the loud speakers.  There were about four different mosques around us, and all of the men wet shouting in Arabic.  At one point, I walked up to a speaker tower.  It was playing the sound of birds chirping, there were four security cameras on top of it and the loud speakers were blasting from the mosques in the distance.  Beautiful!

Boab tree native to Africa and Australia.

The Burgerry sells pretty darn good burgers and has a cool retro atmosphere.

Need advice?

Where Does Qatar's Garbage Go!

Since August when I realized that there is a limited to non-existent recycling program in Qatar, I have been searching for answers, but to no avail.  I finally read about a website produced by students at Northwestern University - Qatar (qatarvironment.org).  They did some investigating of their own and made some significant and disturbing discoveries.  I have attached the article entitled, "Digging Deeper: The Impact of Qatar's Landfills".

For example, there is a tire pile consisting of 11 million tires from 10 kg to 800 kg.  If the pile was to ever catch on fire, it would burn for several years out of control.  Qatar's water table is very close to the surface and it is a small peninsula so you can imagine the catastrophic consequences.  Also, the landfills accept all waste including biomedical waste...yep, that includes human remains.

The whole thing prompted me to create a display outside my room.  The reason being, not one of my students from grade 9 to 12 knew anything about where their garage went.  Shocking and alarming.

The whole situation makes me think about our future.  If kids are disconnected from the realities of our impact on the planet, how much time do we have left?

Nate loves Lego Robotics.

Nate loves watching the boys Lego Robotics Club.  They do all 

the hard work and Nate pushes the button to make them go.

Chilli's, Nate and the "White Car Count"

We went out for dinner this week to one of our little escapes, Chilli's.  It is at a brand new mall that makes us feel as though we are at home.  It's clean, there are no funny smells, the bathrooms don't have rotting wood by the toilets and for some reason, it is never busy.

Nate appears to be getting ready for dinner.

I like to do the white car count.  I have some pretty sweet videos of just white 

cars driving by.  Too funny!  There is no shortage of white cars in Qatar.

Cross Fit Oryx, Rugby Practice and a Guinness World Record

I help in taking the boy's rugby team over the the Rugby Club on Mondays.  This week, the first and probably only CrossFit Gym opened in Qatar, the CrossFit Oryx.  I wanted to buy a shirt, so I walked right in.  As with most buildings in Qatar, nothing appears to ever be locked up.  I stumbled upon a business meeting.  Turns out, it was their first day of operation.  The owner wasn't happy to see me and made me aware of the fact that I was interrupting, but once I told him that I wanted to buy a shirt, he altered his tune. 

The ISL - Qatar Rugby Team.  Three practices and a tournament.  Good luck boys!

The manager at the Rugby Club showed me this one.  The crazy thing is, the guy is still playing!!!

Interesting...

There is an interesting phenomena here in Qatar...obituaries for Mother's and Father's of executive employees.  yet another example of the disparities between the rich and the poor.  What about the Mother of the guy who takes the trash out every day?  Gotta love this place!

Mickey Mouse was in Town!

We took the kids to the Mickey Mouse performance last weekend.  Nate finally gets it and Aislyn is an old veteran.  No fruits are allowed in the performance hall, so I had to smuggle them in my socks!

Early rise.

I got up early this morning because of the following reasons:

1 - Our bed is terrible
2 - It is freezing cold in our place.  Low temps (9 degrees) and concrete walls, bad combination!)
3 - There is a cat that I want to kill.  It starts meowing at around 4:30am.
4 - The first call to prayer comes over the loud speaker at 5am sharp.
5 - I threw in the white towel around 5:15am.

The advantages of an early rise:

1 - Went for a jog in the fog.
2 - Saw my first desert hedgehog, although he was dead.
3 - Went with Aislyn to the gas station for a fresh squeezed OJ.
4 - Took some good pics...check them out.

The workers were all at the gas station.  There is a buzz in the air.  They don't have to work yet because of the heavy fog. They were all lined up in the gas station for tea and all along the side of the road having conservations.  I offered to by the guys in the convenience store a round of tea, but they had all already paid.  Darnit!

This is the half demolished building by our place.  Every time I drive by it I ask myself,
"Why didn't they finish the job?"  Oh ya, we are in Qatar!

Wonderful!  It's everywhere.  When I get back to Canada, I have some great shirt ideas.  
My first encounter with a Qatari in Canada should be an interesting one.