RAIN AND ART

Rain in Doha!



Inner Courtyard of Museum









Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

We got the rain - a few days later than forecast but we got it! Actually had quite a thunderstorm yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Erin was fascinated by it - such a rare occurance here. It's funny how we don't think/worry much about rain here - all our "weather thoughts" are on how oven hot it is!

Andy returned on Friday morning from his trip to Thailand and India. He had a good trip. Brought Erin and I each a top from India - he did a great job picking them out. He may have to travel again before we leave, but my next trip should be the big one home! (I can't look out my front windows today. Neighbors across the street are packing out for move back to US and I am jealous.)

Andy and I toured the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha on Saturday. Not much in there, yet. Looks like lots of space to fill. The building (designed by I. M. Pei) is more interesting than the exhibits at this point.

I finished my bio of my great-grandmother, Alveretta Young Cox. A passing grade on this will be a successful completion of the National Genealogical Society Homestudy Course. Keep your fingers crossed!

RAIN TOMORROW?

Forecast states Qatar will have thundstorms tomorrow - 1/4 inch of rain. Wow! It is kind of late in the year for rain, but haven't had much this year. Time to get out the rain jacket.
Erin didn't have school today - elem. teacher conferences. She went to my yoga class with me - all of us learned that younger kids are A LOT more flexible. Then we tried our compound pool. The pool itself was still pretty cold, but the hot tub felt great!
Speaking of pools I am trying to set up our Girl Scout Father Daughter Event at a neighboring compound. Will be a pool party with food and games (bingo and other board games). It isn't til mid-April - shouldn't have to worry about rain.
Maybe I can post some rain pictures tomorrow!

ONE MORE DRIVING VIDEO

Today, quite by accident, I met the guy who made the Doha intersection video. I thanked him for it - told him it was hard to describe how people drive here - who would believe it? Seeing it makes all the difference. Anyway there is another video of his on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExlCOp1BXc&feature=related I have driven this exact same route many times. Note all the construction. The traffic circle with the weird looking monument in the center is Sports Roundabout. The "mountain" is dirt excavated from a big hole on the other side (don't know why that hole is there).
On a more positive note they have fixed the front of our compound! Actually put all the bricks back so you don't go over a major bump and then through sand to get in the gate! Wow! Didn't think I would be here to see the day.

CAMPING AT ZIKREET

I need a break from camping! Have done it 2 weekends in a row now. Both were fine, but I'm not much of a camper to begin with.

Anyway, had fun at the Embassy Campout this past weekend. We went to Zikreet - which has some interesting rock formations. The "fort" on top of this "mushroom" rock is manmade - it was built as part of a movie set - don't ask me which movie it was all in Arabic! Lots of kids on this campout which made a great time for Erin. Grant had a buddy come during the day - the buddy and his family didn't spend the night so Grant went back home too. Andy cooked breakfast for the crowd - his best pancakes and real bacon!

Working on my last genealogy project now - a bio of my great-grandmother Alveretta Young Cox. Suggested length is 5 pages and at first I didn't know how I would fill that. But, once I got started I can see that it is easy to do! She was born 3 months after the close of the Civil War and had an interesting life (she had 7 children , including twin boys - lots of interest right there!).

I need to start working on dates for our move back to the US. Actually there is a slim chance we will not move back to the US, but will move to another overseas assignment. I had been waiting to book flights and such, just in case, but am tired of waiting. I will go ahead and make my plans to move - such plans can be changed. I am fine with moving just about anywhere - just want to leave Doha!

In the 90's here everyday now. Hope spring is coming your way!

GIRL SCOUTS OF DOHA

Girl Scouts at the Al Thani Farm - my scouts in red shirts

Had a great time this past weekend on the Girl Scout Campout. All 14 girls in my troop came - but since we also had a total of 5 adults helping with the troop we did just fine. The girls earned the Camp Together and Cook Outdoors badges. With that cooking badge we did lots of eating - I actually gained weight! Girls also went on a scavenger hunt, made an edible campfire, and learned how to start and put out a campfire from one of our Mom's (who is a certified firefighter). Weather was perfect - last year it was so windy that several of the tents had to be chased and tracked down! Peacocks roam wild on the farm - and aside from their lovely concert at 12:45 am Saturday morning they were a delight to see. My family is going camping again this coming weekend - Andy is guiding a group from the Embassy. Hope the weather stays nice for us.

Andy got a call yesterday from the police that he needed to come to the station to sign a statement regarding the accident. I went with him - out of pure curiousity. Unbelieveable! We get there at 7 pm. They ask us to wait 5 minutes - OK we sit in the waiting room. Every 5 minutes or so they tell us will be just a few more minutes. Then, after 20 minutes they move us into an office. After 5 minutes I peek out the door and see why - they are waiting on a Qatari woman who came in after us - can't take us before her but don't want us to see what is going on. Police guy #1 sees me peeking out the door (no doubt with a disapproving look on my face) - comes running over and says just a few more minutes. (Both of the police we dealt with did ask if our son was OK - I will give them that.) Statement from the Qatari that hit Andy is on the desk. 3 full pages of handwritten Arabic (Why so much? did guy give his life story? list all the important people he knows?) Finally police guy #2 comes in with a pad of paper and makes like he is going to take Andy's statement (I guess?). Anyway police guy #2 takes Andy's ID and basically freaks out - you are from the Embassy! Andy says yes - guy #2 runs out of the room and gets guy #1. Guy #1 then tells us that another police officer said Andy left scene of accident before police arrived - Andy (forcefully) tells guy #1 that he did not leave the accident until guy #1 got there - guy #1 says Yes, but - then tells us that they can't take a statement from Andy because he is from the Embassy (which they knew before). Guy #1 makes mistake of telling Andy accident was his mistake - Andy tells him it was not. Little exchange here where guy #1 insists (while smiling - I swear he was trying not to laugh) that accident was Andy's fault. Andy gets up and we leave. We were there for 40 minutes - for what?

So what did they really want? Were they going to ticket (shake down) Andy for leaving the scene before the police got there? Did they want Andy to sign a statement of apology for the Qatari that hit him? (sometime the Qataris insist on this) There are, on average, 70 traffic accidents a day in this country - don't these people have something better to do?

SANDSTORM!

March 10, 2009 - Sandstorm engulfing Riyahd, Saudi Arabia

The largest sandstorm in decades hit Saudi Arabia and Kuwait this past Wednesday. We caught the tail end of it Wednesday afternoon. Our storm wasn't nearly this dramatic - but still brought wide spread dust and haze (everyone was coughing!). My Girl Scout Council was scheduled for a 2 night campout - Thursday and Friday nights. Weather reports were conflicting - the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority was calling for another sandstorm "late Thursday." My troop decided to cancel our Thursday night campout, but go out on Friday (weather permitting). It was still a bit dusty and hazy on Thursday, but no new storm, so we went to the Royal Family's farm on Friday morning. Had great weather! I will post pictures of the campout tomorrow.

Math update - after reviewing the situation the school administration decided that the Honors Algebra 2 students (Grant) will have after school math sessions and will retake the semester exam at the end of March. I'm really glad - all the kids were demoralized after that exam, best to tutor and retest.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

ONE BRIDGE DOWN!

Grant and Crew installing a bridge at QAWS

Over the weekend Grant and his Boy Scout volunteers finished one bridge in his Eagle Project. Have posted a picture of them on the new bridge at QAWS (Qatar Animal Welfare Society). QAWS will always have a special place in our heart, as we got our little Baby Cat from there. The boys plan to finish and install the second (and last) bridge this coming weekend.

EAGLE PROJECT

28 February 2009

Building Bridges - Sandstorm

One Hour Later

Grant got off to a good start on his Eagle Project last weekend! These pictures are a good contrast - above the boys are taking a break from building the bridges. They are sitting in our compound, in our carport. About an hour later a "shamal" (sandstorm) blew in - you can really see the dust in the air.

Update on Math - met with Principal who told me they had never planned to do anything with the Honors Math Students (showed him e-mail from school director - with subject line of "Honors Math" stating action would be taken). I don't think they had looked at the Honors Exams - promised me they will do so and get back to me early next week. (I will be monitoring situation).

Lovely weather today - we have a compound BBQ to farewell one of the families. Next weekend is our Girl Scout campout. The girls are going to work on the Cook Outdoors badge so we will be teaching them to cook on a propane stove and in a Dutch Oven. I have the Dutch Oven duties and we'll be making desserts for every meal (apple crisp, peach cobbler, gingerbread and cinnamon rolls). Sounds yummy!

ON THE BROOM!

Well, well, well. It appears the Math Action Plan only selectively applies to Honors Classes. Grant has been assigned to a Math Tutoring Session - but the Honors Classes will not retake the semester exams. Plus, the Dept. Head will not be replacing the current teacher in Grant's Honors Algebra Period 6 class - she will only take over the Honors Period 1 class. Reason given for this is that she is teaching a Calculus Class in Period 6.
I meet with the Principal this afternoon.

MATH REVOLT!

Interesting times at the American School of Doha! High School kids had semester exams in late January. To say the kids did not do well is an understatement (in Grant's Honor Algebra 2 class the exam average was a C- his class was one of the high scorers). I asked Grant to show me the exam but he wasn't allowed to bring it home because they use the same exam every year. Parents started talking, the Adminstration stonewalled (I e-mailed Grant's teacher who, after 2 e-mails, shared that C- average and told me that both he and the Department Head felt the exam was appropriate) and a revolt occured.

In a nutshell, after parents realized it wasn't just their kid who did poorly the Administration brought in an expert to review the curriculum and the exams. Parents talked about this issue at a PTA meeting, then mobbed (standing room only) a School Board meeting. The Administration promised immediate action. Last Thursday at a High School Parent Advisory meeting the Admin presented their corrective action plan - briefly: 1) from this point on inquiry based math at HS level is out - will go back to direct teaching, 2) will conduct a complete review of Math curicculum PreK - 12 (elem still using inquiry based math - but that is another post), 3) there will be mandatory tutoring sessions for all High School math students - schedule will be posted on Monday (which was yesterday, and it wasn't), 4) semester exams will be sent home for review, 5) all students will retake the semester exam (new exam, of course) at the end of March and the better of the 2 grades will be used - will go back and recalculate grades, 6) optional math tutoring sessions offered during spring break, 7) the Honor Alg teacher will be replaced by the Dept. Head.
Side issues abound here: one algebra teacher is an engineer - never trained as teacher and is apparently lousy at it, one teacher doesn't like calculators (he is in his 70's - the slide rule era), kids are grading each other's homework and cheating, standardized math test scores are dropping from Elem - HS, middle and high school curiculums are not coordinated - placement in 9th grade is not as easy as it should be, etc;
Like said above, the first step that was to happen yesterday did not happen - will give it one more day before grabbing my broom.