THE SOUQ'S

Restaurant in the "Old" Souq


Fruit & Vegetable Souq









Or "Marketplaces" The "Old" Souq (until a few years ago there was an actual old souq on this spot, the Qataris tore it down and built a new Souq, built to look old, with air conditioning. Improvement?) is is downtown Doha, right by the Corniche (bay). Parts of it are still being renovated. A group of restaurants has just opened - we haven't tried one yet but definitely will. An art gallery looks close to completion. The fruit & vegetable souq is very near our compound. At both places you are expected to haggle. Picked up some good cherries at the souq - they were imported from Syria.
Lots going on here with the end of the school year. Erin's Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony is tomorrow (Saturday, May 24), and her dance recital is next Saturday (May 31). Just had a Girl Scout ice skating/pizza party after school yesterday (the Villagio Mall, right down the street, has an indoor ice skating rink which is also used for ice hockey). Also have a Boy Scout Court of Honor coming up, and end-of-the year class parties. Plus, of course, we need to get ready to fly back to the US on June 15.
Had very bad weather the past few days. Hot, with a strong, dusty wind. Impossible to wear contact lenses outside. All of us have a stuffy nose, itchy eyes and sore throat. At first I thought we were all coming down with a cold - but it didn't get worse like a cold would - our systems are just irritated by all the dust blowing around. Sand is starting to pile up against the walls in our compound. Nasty!

GIRL SCOUT FATHER DAUGHTER EVENT

Tour Vehicles - letting air out
for "dune bashing"


Thank you ConocoPhillips!


On the
Dunes





The tour company's
desert camp



Eating dinner - Bedouin Style

was held yesterday (Friday, May 9). With funding from Conoco-Phillips, the Doha Girl Scouts and their Dads enjoyed a trip to the inland sea with dune bashing, swimming, and a beach BBQ! A tour company took care of everything - driving, food, drinks, etc; Erin didn't want to go at first - she was afraid of the dune bashing (driving up and down sand dunes in a 4 wheel drive) but she had a great time! I, not being a Dad, merely being the leader of said Girl Scout Troop that plans all the meetings, attends the meetings, goes on the campout, and so on, did not get to go on the trip. But it looks like fun - will have to do it myself sometime.

SECRET WEAPON!

A camera! Have been keeping a camera in the car lately - capturing videos of traffic here. As you have probably guessed, the way people drive here makes me crazy. I am sick and tired of people speeding up behind me, making a u-turn in front of me, straddling lanes, etc; If I can ever figure out how to use the Power Cinema Director software that came with the video camera I will put together some clips to show you this summer (I promise it will be short - you don't need to observe traffic here for long to realize how insane it is!).

Anyway, Qataris seem to be afraid of having their idiotic antics on camera! Other night we were driving home, in heavy traffic, and had the classic Land Cruiser come up behind us flashing his lights at us to "get out of the way." I pointed the camera at him - he immediately fell back and at first chance merged into a different lane. Never had that happen before. Yesterday I was sitting at a red light and looked to the left - small van next to me had Qatari boys in it (in white robes and hats) - they had a window open and one of them was pointing a gun at me! My heart leaped while my head said - it isn't a real gun. It wasn't - but at first glance it looked like one. It was all dark gray - no red or orange tip like we require in the US. I thought - OK - show no fear - and started laughing. At that the kid pulled open a compartment on the top of the gun and started pushing down on some paper inside (was it a cap gun?). I reached over, got the camera, and when he pointed the gun at me again I pulled the camera up into his line of vision, pointed at the camera and then at him - the classic - "can I shoot you with this?" He immediately dropped the gun out of sight and waved me off - looking scared now. Light turned green and I waved goodbye - he waved back.

Other amazing thing that happened yesterday was rain! Just a sprinkle for a couple of minutes. Haven't seen rain here since February! Getting very hot here now - over 100 every day. Got to go - got a notice stuck on the door this AM that we are going to lose power for an hour at 11 AM - we'll see how long the outage lasts.

DUSTY DOHA

Having one of Doha's infamous dust storms today. Hazy and brown outside. Temperature is 97 and humid. Looking at the 10 day forecast, see that we can expect consistent highs over 100 next week. The weather here is downright pleasant for a few months in the fall and the spring. But now spring is over, and summer is coming with highs of 115 - 120 and 90% humidity. Yuck!