HALLOWEEN (A DEVILED EGG DRINKING BEER)

Great Halloween! As you can see, Erin was an angel and Grant was "Count Spatula" (a character of his own creation), I wore my deviled egg costume. These photos were taken in front of our house. We did trick-or-treating on another Compound, where most of the families are American. These people went all out for Halloween - fantastic decorations, music, food, etc;! Grant toured the compound with a couple of his friends, I went with Erin. I really lucked out at the first house we went to, treats for kids and adults (candy and beer! yes, they were handing out bottles of Heiniken! Since we don't get much beer in this Islamic country this was a great "treat.") I felt a little silly walking the streets dressed as a deviled egg drinking a beer but had a wonderful time.

I organized the Halloween Party for Erin's class yesterday (part of my "Room Mother" duties). Had great participation from the other parents - party went very well. Next on the agenda is a "Winter Party" before the holiday break. Oh, but before that a friend and I are organizing a Thanksgiving Feast for interested parties on our Compound. We have the clubhouse reserved, and poor Andy (still in the US) has been given the task of picking up the proper napkins and decorations.

Now - back to unpacking (just a few boxes left) and organzing the house.

Happy Halloween!

CAKE AND STUFF!

OK - I'm not such a great blogger! Been a long time since my last post - have probably lost most of my readers but here goes.....

As you can see from the photo our sea freight arrived - at last! About 10 days ago I got a call that it was on the truck and headed our way. The movers had tried to deliver it to another American family across town but eventually ended up in front of our house. We actually had 5 large wooden crates full of "stuff." I am still working on unpacking and trying to get things organized. Been so long that I had honestly forgotten what was sent here and what went into storage. It's kind of like Christmas!

Now to the cake. Had a Girl Scout potluck dinner on Saturday for Juilette Low's birthday (she founded Girl Scouts, but you knew that). Then, for dessert, had a Father-Daughter cake decorating contest. Andy had already left for the US (he'll be gone 2 weeks) so Grant pitched in to help Erin. "Peach Tower" is the name of this creation - and it won 5th place - not bad considering there were at least 50 cakes there. We then bought the cake in a silent auction (proceeds going to charity) and ate it.

We are having Halloween in Doha! Took Erin to a Halloween Carnival at school on Friday night. It was very well done - they created a "trick or treat" lane inside the school with lots of cool decorations, then had carnival games outside on the basketball court. We are going to do trick-or-treating on a nearby compound Halloween evening.

Also have made some work for myself since the last post. Volunteered to be Room Mother for Erin's class ( no one volunteered, should have been my first clue!). I am organizing a Halloween party for the class, will organize 3 more parties this year, gifts for teacher and assistant birthdays, silent auction basket, etc; You already know I am a Girl Scout leader. Then, I put my name on the substitute teaching assistant list at school and got called to sub in a preschool class. That was a fun morning! I painted paperbag pumpkins, made witches, did puzzles, read books, etc; Had to chuckle though - we read a book and saw a little movie about Fall - when the leaves turn colors, fall off the trees, people have to rake them up etc; One little boy asked, "does that happen here?" Good question kid! Example of an American school program in the wrong place!

Grant has a Boy Scout campout coming up this weekend. Anxious to hear how it goes - they are going camping on the beach. Since Andy will still be out of town, Erin and I will have a girl's weekend. Perhaps we will check out the Christmas decorations at one of the Malls - yes, they actually put up Christmas decorations here! I guess it will be OK for us to put our 8 foot blow up snowman in front of the house.

Finally having that great weather people told me about. High today of 88 - low of 68 - and low humidity. I can live with this!

Happy Halloween!

CB

BLOWKARTING!

or "Landyachting" - loads of fun! (Actually - the less load, the more fun.) Took a group just outside Doha yesterday to check this out. As you can see from the pictures - we strapped ourselves into 3 wheel carts and used sails to race across the desert. The absolutely flat, empty terrain is perfect for this sport. The wind wasn't blowing all that hard yesterday - which meant the kids had a faster ride (less load!). Erin (who didn't want to try it at first) was the leanest, fastest machine out there, and she didn't want to come home. For an idea of how this might work in more wind - check out this Youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwI3WqvtxL8&mode=related&search=quad%20freestylequad%20atv%20pizzi%20blowkart which was taken during a 30 mile hour wind. None of us were able to go anywhere near that fast yesterday (no 2 wheeling, and no one fell over) but we still had a great time and will go back.

Still no sea freight - hope to see that within a week or so. Ramadan is over now, which means stores are open and it is legal to eat and drink during the day - hurray!

SAND AND SEA

Been a long time since my last post - sorry about that! Anyway, in the past couple of weeks we have ventured out of Doha (the capital city of Qatar). First - the Singing Sand Dunes. Rising out of the flat desert a few miles from Doha, these dunes appear out of place. Not sure what caused the dunes (any geologists out there?) -

perhaps wind or rock patterns have allowed this massive buildup of fine sand. These dunes are one of the few places in the world where the sand particles vibrate and emit a deep hum when the wind blows just right, or when something or someone slides across the surface - the dunes sing! A very freaky experience - not only could we hear the hum, we could feel the vibrating sand through the raft we used as a sled.

Now - to the sea. Last weekend we ventured about 25 miles up the coast to the town of Al Khor. In the pre-oil days, Al Khor's main industries were fishing and pearling. Nowdays the gas industry prevails, though they still do some fishing. I have posted a photo of some traditional Arab Dhows - fishing boats. We walked by the fish market - didn't actually go in due to the strong, fishy smell. The beach turned out to be a disappointment. Not much to see or do in Al Khor.

On the homefront we still await our sea shipment. It is supposed to arrive in country soon - but we probably won't see it until after Ramadan (which ends Oct. 16). I have signed on as a 3rd grade Brownie leader for Troop 11 - and we will have our first meeting next week. Girl Scouts here don't sell cookies - which is good and bad. Where will Andy get his Thinmints from? May be asking some of you if we can purchase a few boxes and have you store them for us until we visit next summer. Andy is an Assistant Scoutmaster for Grant's Boy Scout troop and they are looking into a High Adventure Trip over Spring Break.

Finally, saw a funny sight yesterday. Picture a pickup truck - with baby camels in the back! It was bumper to bumper traffic, and the camels were sitting down and looking at everyone with those beautiful, dark eyes. Of course I didn't have my camera.

Take care - CB