Presentation Day

It was "Presentation Day" with the homeschool group we have joined, "Doha Home Educators". The very week we returned from Houston, the boys and I worked on preparing for this event.

Ethan wanted to do a presentation on the "Solar System". He is interested in this because his Daddy, is so interested in Astronomy.
(However, I"m sorry to say, I did not get a still photo of his presentation. I did get video, but the video was too long and it would not let me download it onto my blog page.)
Trust me, he did a wonderful job, he took time to speak clearly and look up at his audience. He told Erik and I the night before, that he was nervous about this day, but that he knew this was going to help him become a "leader of the church". This made my eyes tear up. I want to go to that church and be lead by him!!!! He's already my little leader.
Talking about pride, is it possible to be too proud of your children?!? I can hardly wait for the next "Presentation Day".

The rules were, that the student had to prepare to speak on anything he or she was interested in, and they could deliver their presentation in any way they wanted. Also, one other unfortunate rule was, no one could mention anything about religion. Simply because there were some muslim homeschoolers in this group and they did not want anyone to be offended.
So we complied, for the marjority of it...

Here is Evan, introducing himself in Spanish and English, and then saying his abc's and counting to 10 in Spanish. Not having to remember anything too challenging would prove to be a greater chance of sucess, and how successful he was! He got on up there and said what he had to say in front of all these people he barely knew, just like an old pro!

He made Mama proud! Way to go, Evan!!!

Here is Ryan he is so cute! He's 6 and he just read one of his favorite books. He was sure to show everyone the pictures.

These two brothers said a poem from memory! Great job guys!



This sister team reenacted a part of an medeival play. Also a great job!

Dinner in the Desert...

We were invited to go on a "Dinner in the Desert"with our couples Bible class. There were 7 families, eager to get this trip underway. This we were told, is a must while living here in Doha.


The "King of the Desert" or so he called himself, (aka Abrahim) came in a caravan of 9 SUV's to pick us up. This is a business, he says, that takes him out of Doha to the desert everyday, a 2 hour trip south to the Inland Sea, one way.

These were some of my favorite pictures, beautiful white sands left touched by us and our children. The sand was so soft and the water was so blue. The weather was windy and beginning to get pretty cool.
The locals respect their land, you will never find litter or destruction anywhere here in sands of Qatar or the city of Doha.

But first, a stop was in order to let some air out of the tires, just before crossing the miles and miles of sand dunes.

We were 2nd in line of nine SUV's and the drivers kept this formation the entire trip. I thought that was pretty neat.

Erik took this picture. It almost looks like a hand is holding up the sun.

Here we are, just over to the right, there was a very steep slope down. The kids had a hard time getting back up. This was a stop of many we made to take few pictures and enjoy the view.

Here are my boys sliding down the slope to the bottom. Do you see the white foam at the water's edge? Ever heard of Sea Salt? You could have scooped it up with your hand.

This picture shows the horizon of Saudi Arabia. Erik calls it the "forbidden land". He says we will never go there, even for a visit. It is far too conservative and expats are not welcome, especially women.

Another one of my fav's.

Wouldn't you know it, Evan fell into the water and this water was cold. Luckily, someone lent us a beach towel and we dried him off as best as we could.



Here is the"King of the Desert", Adel (our driver) and Erik, just in case you couldn't tell. In the beginning, Adel would hardly speak to us. Almost everytime we asked him a question, he wouldn't say a word and just turned up his music. At first, we thought that he did not understand us, but we found out later that he did. We jammed to Arabic music the whole way up. By the end of the night, he turned off the music and he was laughing, telling us about his homeland, Bahrain and teaching me every word in Arabic that I needed to know, for shopping at the souq markets. He said to Erik, "She could do well in learning to speak Arabic, you, not so well."

He told us he would be happy to take us again to the desert whenever we like. He was an impressive driver of the desert, he had been doing it since he was a very young man.

I think of him everytime I use those words he taught me. It has really made a difference in how we are perceived by the locals here and more importantly it makes people smile.

Sucran (thank you), Adel, Sucran!

Isn't my Evan cute! His smile is so contagious.
Here he's trying to build a castle but there is no such thing as building sand castles in the sand dunes. This sand was too soft and dry.

Here we have, Gracie ( Barbra's youngest), Barbra, Judy, Me, Lynn, and her little son Will, who is Ethan's age. We found out that all of us, including another named Shelly (taking the picture), were all 38 years old! I was the youngest by a few days. How strange is that?!?

This Mama and her baby were so cute. The baby made sweet baby noises, and hid his face when we arrived.

We stopped to take a ride on a camel in the desert. Evan finally got his chance to ride a camel.

Evan was brave and felt he had accomplished what he came here to do, in Qatar.
Now we could go home.

This was our camp site.

We arrived to the aroma of shikabobs, chicken, lamb and kofta (an Arabian beef meatloaf on a skewer) sizzling on the grill, and we could hardly wait to eat. The kids played while we sat in tents on persian carpets and conversed, Arabian style.

During the winter months, everyone gathers around a bonfire and enjoys their dinner.

See the brick border around the middle of the camp?


Here we have Lynn, Lana, Diane, Suzanne, Shelly, and myself. Lana was visiting from Germany.

This was truly a night to remember! One, I hope to do again before we leave.

Stay tuned...I'll post video's later.

Cooking Class at the Four Seasons...

Upon arrival we were greeted with a large table of gorgeous red floral arrangements. I could not stop staring at these beautiful flowers God created and the amount an arrangement like this must cost. These flowers were most likely shipped from Holland. Only the best and biggest here in Doha. And this was just the entrance, these floral arrangements were located throughout the entire hotel. Stunning!
Then we met our teacher, Chef Roberto Cannata. He was from Milan Italy, and had a very strong accent. I asked him what made him come to Doha and how he liked it here. He said, "They needed Italian food here and yes, he loved living in Doha."






So here was what was on the menu.....

• Rucola Salad


• Radicchio Lasagnetta with Thyme Vellutata and Truffle Oil


• Strawberry in Green Pepper Corn Sugar

We were given our recipes, chef hat and apron. Then it was off to the kitchen to make our own lunch after scrubbing our hands clean, of course.

Chef Roberto put us to work, making the salad first, then chopping and cooking the rest of the meal. This lasagna was made with crepes instead of noodles and layered with red cabbage, which we were made to call "radiccio"! Chef Roberto kept saying this was not red cabbage it was "radiccio", but it was indeed red cabbage and we all knew it! We made this white "full cream" sauce that was poured in between the layers...it must have been 400 grams of fat per bite, but it was sooo worth it!

He showed us plenty of tricks of the trade and even showed us the various ways to present this dish on the plate.
Here I am cooking along the side of Chef Roberto. We are cooking the red cabbage down to use in the lasagna. This stove was sooo hot, my makeup was melting off. Cooking in the kitchen so no job for wimps or sissy's!

Here we were gearing up for some work ahead of us, all four of us live at Qipco, along with some others at this event, put on by the Pegasus Club. This is the second cooking class I've attended. The other one was a Cajun cooking class, but I forgot my camera. I actually have made and incorporated some things I learned from the Cajun cooking class. Not a total waste of energy and time.

A little chopping of the "red cabbage" and then a little cutting of some goat cheese for the salad.

I made a friend...now if I could just get him to come over and cook for us!

So you might be wondering if I have made this dish for my sweet husband? Well..... no, I have not, but I had a great time!!!

We were presented cooking certificates after lunch. Thanks for all those tips Chef Roberto!

Buon Appetito!!!

High Tea at the Ritz....

One of the things "To Do" while here in Doha is to have High Tea at the Ritz Carlton.
I wasn't so thrilled about having High Tea here in Doha, after having it in London so many times, but we did it anyway.
I have to say that it was quite impressive. A group of ladies from our Bible study got together to do this and we had fun. Some were wanting to bring their daughters back for tea and I wanted to bring my boys (yes, even Erik) to come have tea at the Ritz Carlton. We were served our own trays of small sandwiches and tiny dessert bites and then scones with honey on the top tier. Then, the best fresh brewed tea you ever tasted chosen from a full menu of flavors and varieties. I chose a fruity tea that was so good! I asked where I could get this and they said "China".
This was a nice dress up time we had in the middle of a Friday afternoon with friends. I now highly recommend this to put on your "To Do" list while here in Doha.

"CHEERS"

Energy collecting night....

Someone asked me if they celebrate Halloween here. The locals do not, but the Ex-Mo. compounds here celebrate anything American! If it's observed in America then we will have a function or event celebrating it here. I have learned that there are a big bunch of women here looking for any excuse to celebrate and socialize! I would be included in that group.

Just in case you were wondering...

Here are my little hero's.....and "my hero's" they truly are!

They fight the bad guys and keep things in order around this part of the world! Evan could not even see out of his mask but that did not keep him from wearing it all night. He could not believe that there were sooo many spidermen on this compound!

And wouldn't you know it...his best buddy Collin was spiderman too! How could he have kept it from him for so long? This only meant one thing.....

there were going to be even more bad guys... going down!!!

There was a block party nearby my hero's can be located on the far left hand corner. Then it was off to collect all of the energy bars we could find to fight crime.

Meanwhile back at headquarters, Daddy was generously donating energy food to the needy. He's always been so generous and this night was no exception!

A good time was had by all!!!

And enough energy food was collected to last five years... well maybe,

Mommy and Daddy need energy too!

We hope your "energy collecting night" was as plentyful!

Local fabric souq tour...

The Pegasus Exxon Mobil club puts on local "Souq Tours" about 3 times a month.
All are different types of tours, this one is a tour of fabrics and then off to the tailors to have something made for almost nothing. We brought along a favorite pairs of pants or a top that we wanted to duplicate with a fabric of our choosing. I was so excited about this one. So my friend Penny kept the boys for me, while I went on my mission.




I recently bought a long skirt that was too long and had to have it tailored. About 3 inches were cut and hemmed. It cost 5 Q.R. divide that by 4 and add 10%. You do the math!

This is the store I found the fabric I liked. The hard part was whether to make a long skirt or a table cloth.

I finally decided to make a table cloth for Thanksgiving. I bought it long enough to fit our table back in Houston at it's full length. It is taupe/ tanish in color, all beaded, and it has pretty scalloped edges with a satin stitch, this picture does it no justice! I bought 3 1/2 meters which about 11 1/2 feet. I paid a little less than $20.00 for this hand beaded material.

This nice guy was very helpful, and yes, he gave me a "better price" before I asked for it. I probably could have gotten it cheaper if I was on the ball and ready to barter, I felt I got a great deal anyway. I'm still learning.

There was store after store to choose from. This building had several levels with the shop owners working hard trying to get you in their door. They pulled out anything you had your eye on, pulling out a chair and captivating you with fabric after beautiful fabric. I wanted to shop more but the time ran out, we had to get to the tailor before lunch time. I'll be back another time to shop even if it means skipping lunch!

We ate here at "The Garden" restaurant. It was Indian cuisine. Chicken Tikka Marsala anyone? Our favorite Indian dish. Here, when you are out with a group, everyone orders different plates and they put them out on the table and pass it around, allowing you to try a variety of different things on the menu. This is a great way to find a dish that you might like that you would not order otherwise. Yummy!

It was very good and we had a great time!