I'm letting these days slip by without writing. Oops! I know what we did New Year's Day. We went to the zoo in Doha. It's really a nice zoo with more monkeys than I've seen in a long time. What impressed me was how close you could get to the animals - ALL the animals. I wanted a little more than the thick wire fence between me and the big cats who were pacing back and forth. There were giraffes, zebras, elephants, ostriches and oryx. Those are the deer-looking animals with long curvy horns. The oryx is the nation's symbol for Qatar. Desert tortoises and other wildlife were plentiful.
January 2 after church we took another trip to the dunes with church folk. This time we didn't go all the way to Sealine but stopped closer to the highway a few miles away from the Sealine resort. This way we weren't drivng over the dunes which suited me just fine. Since they had so much rain in Nov. there's more soft sand so we had to find a hard track to drive on and then we parked at the bottom of a large dune. We don't have a 4-wheel drive but are still driving a Camry rental car.
There were about 20 four-wheelers whizzing over the dunes when we arrived. It was like a bunch of bees buzzing around. Fortunately they took off for other areas not long afterwards.
It was quite a steep trek up the big dune. It was almost like taking one step up, two steps back because you just sink in the sand. Once on top though I could see miles and miles of dunes to the south and the sunset was just gorgeous. There wasn't as much sandboarding down since it was so hard getting up but the kids had fun just the same.
We built a campfire and sang Christmas and other songs. It was amazing to think the three wise men could have "traversed afar" near this desert land. Gives "We Three Kings" new meaning.
I guess it was the next Saturday we went to the camel races. An Aggie had gotten the trip together with Arabian Adventures, a local tourist agency. The fifteen of us loaded onto the van and made the 45 minute trip out to the track. We had been told someone in the royal family would be there so security would be tight. We didn't know how tight! We pulled up to a gated area and could see the stadium ahead of us. We could see camels being ridden past the gate and out of sight. While our tour guides went to make arrangements for us the jockeys clamoured around the van. These are boys, Bedouin, or gypsy, who have been taken from their villages in neighboring countries to ride these camels. Some may have been sold by their families. No one seems to really know. They all wore little riding caps, like English ones, had old, raggedy clothes on and none wore shoes. They would clap on the windows of our van and smile. We could see some of them roughhousing along the road. To be honest they looked happy but you had to wonder what kind of life they have and what happens to them after they're too big to race. They were all young, some looked as young as Langston (5) or younger. The lighter the better for being a jockey. They looked older than their years. One of the guides said they'd pick your pocket in nothing flat.
After some long minutes of waiting we were told these races were not open to Westerners today, only Arabs could come in. Even being with the Qatar Foundation and A & M got us nowhere. The guides then drove us around to try to at least see some of the race. We drove over some distance from the race area to some camels that were tied up so we could at least pet a camel and take some pictures. Some of the security guys came and told us to leave. So much for the camel races! The guides were very nice and weren't going to charge us anything. Jon and another Ag gave them some money for their time and gas.
The only other new experience I can think of is getting my hair cut. A hair salon recently opened in our compound. I decided to check it out, it would be so convenient for me. I could just walk two minutes to get my haircut. After a short wait a young woman washed my hair. The stylist was with another lady drying her hair. They were speaking Arabic. While I was waiting the girl gave me some Arabic magazines to look at. What intrigued me in the fashion magazines was all the long dresses. Abayas, or the long robes the women wear, are usually black. These were all bright colors with gold or ornate trim and no veils. There were some models who had lots of eye makeup on but it was a pleasant change to see the models fully clothed (compared to American mags.) The hairdresser looked Arabic to me but wore jeans and a black leotard, definitely not Muslim attire. I asked her if lots of the ladies wore their hair long here in Doha and she said yes, that sometimes she has to ask them to stand up so she could cut their hair.
The funniest thing to me was that the lady ahead of me who had just paid money to have her hair styled in a mid-length style then covered it completely with her shaila or head covering before leaving. I was pretty pleased with my haircut. I'm sure I"ll go again. I like how they call me madame. ;-)
Posted by nellie at January 11, 2004 11:34 PM