I found it interesting today to learn more about this Eid that will be celebrated the first week for February.
I believe there are three eids throughout the year. Eid means recurring happiness or festivity. This one is called Celebration of Sacrifice. It takes place during the last month of the Islamic calendar. It's a feast of commitment, obedience and self-sacrifice to Allah. The Muslims offer sacrifices for their sins. It might be a lamb, goat, even a camel, I'm told. They kill the animal facing Mecca, drain its blood and gut it. The first meal of the Eid serves meat from this sacrificed animal. Meat is also given to the poor as a sign of their piety. They also sacrifice for the dead. The Eid is called Celebration of Sacrifice to remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael ( not Isaac as our Bible says).
We had some very good news at church last week. The government has granted permission to a local bookstore to sell Bibles and a select number of Christian books. These books are subject to approval by the censorship dept. The bookstore will have to pick up their order at the airport.
This is such an answer to prayer. Pray that believers will find favor with the government so that more doors will open.
January 8th we got our boxes from home - seven weeks after sending them. It was like Christmas since most of Langston's presents were shipped over. He was most excited to have his bicycle here. It was the first thing he wanted. As soon as he got on it I thought, "My, he's grown!" He swallows it up. We'll be looking for a bigger one but at least he has his ole' faithful. It was fun going through boxes and a bit frustrating. Where to put all this stuff?! Our villa, as they call houses here, is very large but not big on storage areas. Bathrooms have no shelves or cabinets. The bedrooms have one wall that is storage all the way to the ceiling. The problem is you can't reach the top cabinets to put anything in, or not very easily. Already I have a box to take back to the States, some linens that are the wrong size, bed coverings we won't need, etc.
I believe it was Jan. 16 I went to the big tennis tournament here. I'm not up on tennis but I'm told they had many of the top players for an exhibition that lasted a couple of weeks. The amazing thing is the tickets are free! I watched an Englishman named Hinman play a Croatian guy. I rooted for the Croatian since he was the underdog and Hinman proved to be a very bad sport. He mouthed bad words to the judge. I decided tennis is way too long for me. They played 3 sets because they were so close. They stopped twice because it started sprinkling. I thought, "Y'all need to come to Texas! We don't stop for a few sprinkles there!" The weather reminded me of fall football weather back home. Very pleasant. I enjoyed my experience until near the end when my stomach started to feel rumbly. We had eaten out with church friends at an Arabic restaurant. Something wasn't agreeing with me several hours later and I was ready to go home! Jon came and picked me up and I actually drank a charcoal "slurry" when I got home. It really seemed to take away my nausea. Thanks to my friend, Laura, for telling me about it.
I've driven twice to church since I wrote last. Fridays are great days to drive since it's holy day and not many people are on the street. The most challenging thing about driving is the roundabouts. There's not many traffic lights, there are lots of roundabouts. Cars in the roundabouts have the right of way and veer off to 3 or 4 other streets off of the roundabout. The Qatari people are friendly, they say, but NOT when they drive. They'll get right on your bumper, honk and flash their lights at you if they want you to pull over in the other lane. Lots of locals drive Landcruisers and other very large vehicles. So I"m starting out slowly with Friday driving.
I should tell you one of the highlights of our week is going to AWANA, a Bible club at church. The kids are divided by age group and work on memory verses and play outdoor games. Langston is really enjoying it. We thought he had to learn John 3:16, the pledge to the Bible and the chorus, Shine, Jesus, Shine to get his Sparks shirt and vest. He really only had to come three times to get it but he memorized those things anyway. He was so proud and of course so was I! Every week he works on more Bible verses so he can get patches and "jewels" to put on his vest. It's a great blessing in our lives.
I had my worst "bout" with homesickness on Jan. 13. We'd received an email from our home church that just made me feel very lonely. I had trouble shaking it all day. It was a blessing to see how the Lord encouraged me that day. Langston and I had gone to Toby's, a large play area in The Mall, with the Georges. Outside of Toby's there are about 15 little rides that take tokens, the kind in front of our grocery stores at home. Angela and Langston wanted to pretend to ride them so I was in the area with them. An Arabic couple came up with their young son. He was not enjoying the rides. They'd put him on one and he'd start screaming. After 2 failed attempts the dad gave me their unused tokens! Angela and Langston got to ride almost every ride there! That was a gentle reminder to me that the Lord was caring even for our smallest desires. Then one of the rides Langston got on played the tune Greensleeves. What came to my mind, of course, was "What Child is This?" I had to sing along, "This, this is Christ the King, Whom angels guard and shepherds sing. Haste, haste, to bring HIm laud. The Babe, the Son of Mary." What a comfort to know God is here. Noone is keeping Him out. He is the King of good and bad times. And He's enough!
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. ;-)
A new year! I'm glad to say we spent New Year's with other believers praying over the new year and all it may hold. It doesn't seem the people here have a big celebration for New Year's. Our friend told us they have school here on the 1st! The expatriats have their celebrations I suppose but maybe not the Qataris.
Yesterday I had our first experience at the souqs, or markets. They are little shops in the center of town.
You can find everything from bolts of cloth to spices to gold jewelry, depending which area you are in. We roamed around and seemed stuck in the textile area. We arrived first at the music souq since Jon wanted a guitar. After an hour he had a new guitar, some strings, and Langston had a "fish" noisemaker. It's a cylinder, wooden instrument with ridges that are played with a wooden mallet. It's painted like a fish. This shop had a row of nice keyboards for sale and other musical items for sale. Everything is packed in a very small space. Langston and I finally sat down on a keyboard bench to wait. The store front windows were covered with advertising posters from the 1970's showing people playing organs, pianos, flutes. The backs of the shelves had ads from Avon and other perfumes. I presume that's what was sold there before it was a music shop.
We parked in a different area to explore other souqs. Right across from where we parked were about 15 orange and green buildings, just big enough for one or two people to sit in. We later learned that these are for typists. These men will type up exit visas and other important documents for a small fee. We don't have to do that since we're with Qatar Foundation.
We heard the call to prayer and walked right by a large mosqsue. In the courtyard were hundreds of pairs of shoes! The men all remove their shoes before they go in to pray. I wondered if they ever get the wrong pair when they leave! Since it was prayer time many of the shops were closed. Good Muslims close for each prayer time! That's why they have lots of mosques, so they can pray and get back to work quickly. That's what Jon says anyway. ;-)
As we wandered along we came across little stores with cheap toys, toiletries, sandals and all sorts of different items. Langston was drawn to all the toys naturally. I'll definitely have to go sometime without him. I'm sure we've just scratched the surface of the shopping areas! But two hours was enough of one day for my liking. Jon seemed very enthused about the "profitable" experience. I think that's because he landed a new guitar. I, on the other hand, hoping to find gold, Persian rugs and great tourist souvenirs at the end of the rainbow came home with a small tub of Vaseline and Nivea cream. Not quite the pot of gold I was hoping for. ;-)