October Ends

Well we have made it to the end of another month in one piece and still with our sanity intact. It is only 4 ½ weeks until the Asian Games start, and therefore only 4 ½ weeks of work at AJA until holidays start.

Also more importantly our blog is finally up to date with nothing really to be backdated. Kerry has her Residency and ID Card… I still have to go through the medicals and fingerprinting process being a dependant (I actually think my medical may be later this week). We haven’t posted anything about the experience yet as we were waiting until we both had braved the ordeal, but Kerry does have a rather special page in her passport, while mine is still out there in the system somewhere.

Driving is getting better, and with only the one accident (plus a number of near misses) I think it is going as well as can be expected. Hey we haven’t written off a rental yet, so things must be going ok! As I said before, the roads are getting even worse at the moment as things are put into top gear to complete everything prior to December 1… I think this is the calm before the storm as I can’t see it improving until after the games are over.

There is a steady influx of people into Doha to fill the various holes in the workforce for the games. A Syrian and 2 Egyptian guys came up and had a chat when we were at the souqs the other night… some of the many new arrivals walking around with their Doha Games ID’s hanging around their necks. Funny that we are more local than others now!

The weather is cooling down as we draw near the winter months… it is only reaching the low-mid 30’s now! But it is actually nice and mild in the evenings, and the air-conditioning is actually being turned off some nights. It isn’t too far away when we will be able to have them off all the time… looking forward to the peace and quiet!

Job-hunting for me continues. I have submitted my resume quite a bit to both agencies and employers… but with the positions advertised worldwide there apparently can be up to a three month wait until they finalise the selection (sometimes longer for teaching positions starting the next academic year). It will be interesting to see if I can pick up something before the games… fingers crossed. Wont be much fun if I have to work through December while K & A are on holidays!

There are a few things we have noticed about Doha and Qatar in general… while it is developing, it also seems a little held back by years of tradition. Cheap labour is in abundance from various places in the sub-continent and SE Asia, so when you have cheap labour there are certain things that become entrenched in society. The expat workforce is employed by nationals and therefore there is something owed to all nationals or something… people from India, Nepal, etc do certain things and are employed in particular positions… people from SE Asia are employed in other positions. Westerners are employed in various other positions and seem to fill the gap between the lowly paid expat workforce and Arab nationals who don’t have the skills to fill the available jobs.

But… gaps still remain.

The banks are a perfect example, where they all look the part. The owners have seen pictures of banks and know what they should look like, from the layout to the type of furniture right down to the wood grained walls in the mangers office. But there is still something missing when you can go to one branch and talk to 4 different people and get 4 completely different answers… hierarchical and bureaucratic structure reigns supreme here. I guess that is all part of “developing”.

Similar to this is the general lack of authenticity in much you see on a daily basis. Some of this is blamed on the western influence and while I would agree with this to a point, the fact is in relative terms there isn’t that many westerners here so it stems from further a field than this (i.e. international education and media consumption). It is far more correct to look at the influence and being “the expat influence” as much of what we see isn’t western or Arabic. The fact is that it is the kids who all want to walk around with mobile phones and iPods, and drive around in any number of prestige European cars or be driven around in oversized American SUVs. It is a melting pot of a country as all are to an extent, but I feel The Gulf is at the crossroads of the world and given that, needs to make a concerted effort to hold on to tradition and culture.

Well with 20 months to go, we shall just have to wait and see what vision materialises (or unravels) before our eyes.

Here is some useless trivia… did you know that somewhere between 12-25% of the worlds cranes are in Dubai! They think that 1/3rd of the world’s high-rise cranes are there.

Oh and also one other piece of trivia to end the month. Sports City Tower is not going to open until April 2007 and is going to have a swimming pool suspended off the side of the hotel about 100 meters from the ground (or something like that). It was only the façade that is to be completed prior to the games and the bit at the top for the flame.

October Photos

...road to nowhere. The overpass crossing the pipeline vanishes into the sand dune

Ashur digging in the dunes while cow-cow looks on!
The "bachelors" hit the streets during Eid!
Just to prove we are slowly collecting keepsakes... we are not allowed to sell these on eBay before we leave!

You have to love kitschy souvenirs!

Eid Break

The Eid break was a nice change… no early mornings!

Today was the first day back at school and the first really early start since before Ramadan… our little robot alarm clock starts up at 5am. The only real positive to this is we are greeted by freshly brewed coffee… we managed to find one of those drip filter coffee makers with the timer on one of our many early shopping trips… it is put to very good use.

On the subject of shopping… most of the break was taken up with various little shopping adventures here and there (and also a lot of work from Kerry… catching up, preparation, etc).

City Center with the ice skating rink in the bottom left corner

Last Tuesday we headed off to City Centre, which we hadn’t been to since we got here. Lots to see and do across all the levels of what is one big shopping complex. We seem to pick up bits and pieces on each of our little adventures and our home is slowly feeling a little more homely. This time it was a very nice Iranian carpet/door surround thing from a little booth on the ground floor… plus some rather nice little wooden Abaya dolls plus various other little bits and pieces.

One of the many things for children in City Center... Ashur loved running and climbing around in here!

Thursday night we headed back into town to walk around the souqs… spent time looking through the old souq area with is looking rather nice and traditional now after all the work they have been doing. There was even a guy with a donkey, but Ashur couldn’t be encouraged to go for a ride. Also went for our first walk around the gold souq… gold everywhere… store windows dripping in the stuff. All very impressive and I know it only added to Kerry’s gold bling desire! Even saw the falcons with their little helmets covering their eyes, sitting on outside on perches waiting to be sold. The one thing that was a shame is it is looking like all the prices for the souvenir sort of things all seem to have gone up… or maybe we are just becoming “local” and know where to get better bargains! At the end of the day we are here long enough to wait out the whole Asian Games thing, and make the most on the overstock and decreased prices once it and the associated workers, athletes and tourists all depart Qatar.

...our lounge, slowly looking more homely after more shopping adventures...

On Sunday did the Carrefour grocery shop just up the road at Vallagio… major road works between here and there as they rush to finish the main road outside Sports City (or Aspire Zone, or whatever it is called this week), which meant our normal 10 minutes drive home, grew to 45 minutes as we ventured through various diversions and closed roundabouts! Don’t know how long everything will be like this but they only have a month to go to get everything finished… who knows if they will make it or not!

But anyway it is time to get the coffee ready for the morning (got to love technology).

Rain in Doha

Well this may seem a little like a weather update... but to continue the recent theme of weather... WE HAD RAIN!

Ok, so it was light and only lasted about 10-15 minutes and really was hardly enough to wash the dust off the plants... but it did rain earlier this afternoon and we were suitably impressed. We must be getting used to the place because we all went out and stood in it... there was even a little girl all full of screams and excitment up the road trying out her umbrella!

(not so) Singing Dunes

Monday afternoon we headed off in convoy to watch the sunset over the singing dunes, which is about 30-40 klms southwest of Doha. One of the heads of department had emailed everyone at school last week about doing a few things over the Eid break, but we only decided we would join them on this excursion at lunchtime. As it turned out there were only about 5 or 6 cars/4WDs heading out. Must say it was nice tackling unfamiliar roads by simply following the car in front!

Really the drive out there wasn’t that bad at all, although there were road works along the way (in Qatar… of course there would be road works!). Most of the road was actually very good, and looked very new… straight, flanked by camel fences once again (although we are yet to see any in the wild still) oh! ...and multiple power lines.

Although you may think sand dunes = 4WD (I did) as it turns out these are probably the most northern dunes in Qatar, so they more or less just spring up from the same flat rocky terrain we are used to. The prevailing winds just move the sand until it gets caught on the next mound etc. Thinking we would have to drive off road and get stuck somewhere was silly of me… we actually had to only drive probably 100 meters from the road to park in the middle of several dunes.

wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... only problem going down... you have to climb back up!

These dunes are called “the singing dunes” because apparently the composition of the sand makes them make a unique sound… they didn’t sing for us but we will not hold that against them…Although, walking down the dunes creates an audible low ‘hum’/ ‘drone’ which resembles song (albeit, low pitched)… they are at least, Middle Eastern sand dunes, and that is more than enough for them to be at any particular time!

Our time was spent walking up and down… getting sand blown at times (still getting the sand out of our pockets)… watching the sunset… eating and talking with some of the others. Went for a little walk into the dunes once it was dark and decided that although peaceful, being lost in the dunes would not be a nice experience at all.

Lots of rubbish lying around on some parts of the dunes!

Some of our group atop one of the taller dunes watching the last rays of the setting sun...

... slowly sinking in the west!

They build big suns in these parts... isn't there anything petro-dollars can't buy!

Eid Mubarak

Well apparently we have survived our first Ramadan, as today is Eid Al-Fitr – which basically translates into the celebration of the breaking of the fast, or something along those lines. So only a few more days and then our world returns to some form of normality. AJA is closed this week for Eid and then it is only another month until the Asian Games begin when no doubt everything will be thrown into turmoil for a few weeks.

Over the past few days there have been many more cars parked outside the mosques than we normally see, with lots attending leading up to the end of the fasting month. Apparently this morning was the morning of the huge mass prayers in the larger mosques, Eid prayer grounds (big open plots of land scattered around town), and possibly in some of the stadiums… the rest of the day is for spending with family and friends.

Although we were told what we could expect from Ramadan including everything being closed, stores being low on stock, prices on many things going up, and just plain nightmare roads, most of it was pretty limited.

There was more traffic on the roads (especially around midday) because everyone was working the same hours instead of traffic (and the workday) being staggered throughout the day. Supposedly the workday was 5 hours long, although I didn’t see many working ONLY 5 hours apart from those in Govt Depts. Most shops were closed during the afternoon and early evenings… many closed between 12-8pm, but then most made up for it by staying open past midnight (although the hypermarkets seemed to be open even longer than normal). Our local food stores were closed between 5-7pm so staff could attend local mass Iftars, which were the breaking the fast meal provided free to low-paid workers each day during Ramadan (I don’t think it had that much to do with attending prayers). I suppose the best part for us though was getting to sleep in an extra hour in the mornings, as the school day for AJA was an hour shorter.

Of course there was the fact that no one was eating drinking or smoking in public during daylight hours, but this seemed to be made up for nicely once the sun went down. There was a news story in the paper yesterday by some Indian research Dept stating that smoking dropped by 50% during Ramadan because of fasting during the day and “after breaking fast they were busy with prayers and other activities”. I think “other” activities mostly consisted of eating, shopping and sleeping, all of which are rather difficult to smoke while partaking in. Qatar is full of rocket scientists!

Fog Bound

This morning we awoke to find a city shrouded in warm sticky humid fog. Obviously something of an event as it is one of the few weather changes we have seen beyond sunny, hazy, or dusty since we arrived. The best part of driving in the fog was seeing how the “locals” dealt with it. Various strategies were seen to be adopted such as driving as normal and hoping people would see you coming (which you couldn’t)… driving with your lights on (which helped a little)… driving slower (not the strategy of choice in these parts of course)… or (my personal favourite) driving with your hazard lights on! This last one was at times accompanied by headlights and other times not. Now it confused me a little to begin with because I was wondering about what they do if they use their indicators… silly me, they don’t use them anyway!

Round Trees and Wave Hedges

We have a gardener, as most do around the compound. He is one of the blue-overall guys and to be honest I don't even know his name! He is nice and polite, and all full of smiles (especially at the end of the month when we give him his 100 QAR).


He comes along every morning and waters everything and pulls out the odd weed here and there. He also has another guy (maybe his deputy blue overall guy) who comes along with him once a month and does the mowing. When this is going on there is normally a knock on the door from one blue-overall guy soaking in sweat, mouthing the word "water". Being a current house husband I guess I am one of the only people actually around the compound during working hours, so I promptly supply them with a big bottle of cold water (hhmmm... I thought it was Ramadan... oh well).


Unfortunately they also have the habit of cutting everything back, adding waves to our hedge and virtually removing all the mass from our little trees. We keep meaning to ask if he can stop doing it, but just never seem to get around to it (maybe a tomorrow inshallah moment on our behalf). At this rate we will never have a big hedge or big trees!
Anyway as you can see from the photo there seems to be a bit of a trend with the trees around the compound... but at least everything is green!

Sports City - Aspire Zone

Sports City, which is just up the road has now been renamed the Aspire Zone. Not sure about this one (someone has studied marketing but not implementation), nor why you would rename the major complex for The Games 6 weeks out from them starting! Makes me wonder if the road out the front of the compound has be renamed from Sports City Road to Aspire Zone Rd or something.

Sports City Tower looking almost complete

Anyway, construction is coming along with the tower looking almost complete. All the other venues in the area are complete, but they have a lot of work to go on the finishing touches me thinks. Lots to go with basic infrastructure etc, but I am sure one way or another they will get it done!

Khalifa Stadium lighting rigs behind the swimming complex

Aspire Complex

Beautiful desert sunsets in this part of the world! This one was the other evening just before Iftar, which is the break of fasting (about 5:15 at the moment). This is the road the runs down one side of the compound (with our compound on the right).

Qatar Accident Investigation Report

Nothing is ever as easy as it could be in Qatar… but in saying that I remember dealing with government departments in Australia who love employing processes that are as equally redundant and time consuming.

The process for obtaining an accident report from the Dept of Traffic Investigations is a little confusing for those of us that cannot read Arabic. The first step seems to be working out actually which Dept of Traffic and Police you need to go to (and I still have no idea if it actually makes any difference). We were lucky because the policeman from the other night wrote a telephone number on the back of the little yellow slip of paper he gave us … the same slip of paper I was required to produce somewhere at 9am Sunday. I found the number listed as being for the Old Airport Traffic Dept, so with help of more than one map I was able to make my way there by the required “9am”.

After walking up to what more or less looked like an run down and abandoned building, I worked out up a few stairs and to the left were a couple of queues… when in doubt join a queue until you can figure out somewhere better to be! After shuffling along a couple of steps backwards and forwards, to the side and then back again, I worked out no one in these queues had the same little yellow slip of paper as I did so I went in search of some new queues to join. Someone pointed me in the direction of magical door #2 (didn’t have a number on it, but there were 3 doors). Behind door #2 was lots of people sitting and basically walking back and forth was various forms in their hands. When in doubt jump in a queue! After a little while I finally had the chance to use my rather good English skills by waving my rather prized little yellow slip of paper (still hadn’t seen anyone else with one so I was beginning to feel a little special)… The policeman behind the counter asked “accident?” which I replied to with a nice well pronounced “yes” followed quickly by a “where?”… he then proceeded to point and say “left and left and straight” in very good English, so I gave him a badly pronounced “shukran” (probably should have stuck to English!)

After following the various people around I came to a corridor with another magical room at the end. This was the room of crowds waving similar little slips of paper as mine although I didn’t see any yellow ones so I was still feeling special (special actually translates to not having any idea what to do and actually feeling very alien). After watching what was going on in what I thought was something resembling a queue a nice Indian guy arrived with the same yellow slip of paper, finally a brother in arms! We compared slips and then he showed me that everyone else was handing over their various coloured slips of papers with their licenses to any policeman that came within a metre of the desk, so being a wuss I let him go first! Finally when it was my turn I handed over my paper and license and got another couple of papers and license in return with a “ok, fine, go” and hand waving away from the policeman.

Now being a bright kinda guy I guessed, “ok, fine, go” and wave towards the door meant just that. When I got home I rang the rental car company and was told that I need two forms and stamps????? I told the guy on the phone I have one 2-page form and no stamps… I was told not very politely that I need to go back for another round of confusion… not happy!

Anyway this morning I went back like an old pro… went back to the crowded room and followed the first guy that walked out with the same police issued papers as me. This led me to the first room I went to the previous day… but this time there were lots of people with the same forms as me, comparing and then some would go away and some would come back. The guy in front of me spoke Arabic and understood hand signals, so I pointed to our que and asked “stamp” with the appropriate hand gesture, which I was given some form of positive response… I was on the right track!

After a while the guy in front of me discussed some things with the Qatari in front of him… then he did what most seemed to be doing and walked off. Then on his return he looked at my papers, showed me his which were now adorned with what looked like postage stamps… he led me by the arm through the main doors (magical door #2 from the previous day for those who are following this), and pointed down the end.

After walking down with my papers showing some guy asked “Stamp?” I was then led into another section where my 2 pages were given little 5 Riyal stamps each, which I had to pay 12 QAR for (who knows). I was on a roll so I headed back to join my first queue once again. Long que, outside, very hot! Anyway finally got to see what was going on… you hand over your papers with the little postage-looking stamps on them, the guy checks his computer to see if you have any fines owing. If you do, you have to pay them on the spot or you don’t get you red ink stamp… we have no fines so we don’t have to pay for the special red stamp. To show you how special the red stamp is, if you don’t have it the policemen in the crowded room don’t look at your papers again… You have to get them to give you a final black stamp and signature before the room and desk visiting process ends. The policemen explained to me that I did have the two forms required (not one form with 2 pages as I had thought the previous day).

Once the process is actually finished it all seems far more simple than it does while you are going through it and goes like this:

• The little yellow slip of paper (I think) means the accident was not your fault.
• This little slip of paper is accompanied by a computer record, which is made by the attending officer. You go to the Accident Investigations section and hand over your slip of paper with your license and the police type up the accident report… two forms – one for the insurance and one for the workshop, which allows them to carry out repairs.
• You then have to get a little stamp on both forms (the one that looks like a postage stamp). Expect to pass over some cash for these.
• You then have to get the red-ink stamp that says you have no outstanding traffic fines. If you have fines, you have to pay them on the spot electronically; no cash accepted.
• You then go back to the Accident Investigations section and the police sign and stamp both forms for you.

If someone had told me this to start off with it would have been far easier! By the way, while the whole process is somewhat intimidating, the police are quite polite and casual about everything, and there is always at least one or two other people going through exactly the same thing and will give a hand if they can.

Thought for the day:

Join a queue! It will always lead you somewhere

Friday night shopping

Decided to hit the shops last night. It is a little strange during Ramadan because instead of shops being open at either 4 or 6pm, most things are open from 8-1am. After a trip up the road to Carrefour we went shopping for some more homey stuff - its funny because there are so many people out shopping after 8.00pm - kids of all ages included! It is nice being out at that time of the night tho, coz everything is very much alive and shopping is actually quite relaxed. There are some particularly nice home wares stores. One is like a Middle Eastern Freedom...lots of really nice stuff and cheap compared to what we'd spend in Aus.We bought a bed set thing (cover with pillows and cushions and stuff -10 pieces). We're going for the middle eastern opulence/royallook...so have gold swirly things on a blue/gold background with goldtassels... complete with NICK ROLLS! yep - neck spelt wrong.....sooofunny! Have got some more cushions too...slowly making a home. I seem to be drawn to GOLD and there's an element of 'tongue in cheek' when we buy stuff.

Arabian Opulence

When we were on our way home last night in the early hours, sitting and waiting at a roundabout somewhere...a ute nudged us from behind. Our first (very minor) bingle! Michael got out first and attempted to sort out the 'mess' - but not a lot of success. I was sitting in the car thinking and remembered that I was told - if you're ever in anaccident, no matter how minor, don't play the victimised expat and let the other people talk over you...blah blah..so - out I get to inspect the damage. There was a very minor nick to the paint and a small dent- if it was our car, I would have just let it go.Because we have to pay 500 QR (about 183.00 Aussie dollars) in insurance excess for any damage caused by us or to us to the car rental co - I got a bit feisty with them. They said " no English" and I said "mafimt to your Arabic" (don't understand your Arabic) and proceeded to let them (3 guys) know that not happy Jan... All of a sudden flashing lights and a cop car drove up. One guy went straight to the cops car and waved his hands to say - nothing wrong here your not needed, but I was right behind him saying 'la, la la –do you speak English' (la means no)...cop gets out and I told himstraight...we pay coz he wasn't looking... We get a yellow form in Arabic to take to the traffic dept on Sunday morning (lucky Michael gets to do that while I work) and hopefully all sorted...the insurance company will deal with it. The police dude was quite helpful and seemed to be on 'our side'. The other dudes went off not that happy.

Told you it was MINOR!

Ready for shopping?

Just to show that it isn’t only Australia and the US that have cornered the market on oversized things such as pineapples, bananas, prawns, cows, and other kitschy iconic monuments to whatever… Just up the road outside Hyatt Plaza is the “big trolley” all currently decorated to celebrate the upcoming event of national pride and focus. Possibly by the end of our stay we may be able to fill this thing! Sounds like a challenge!

More Development (here, there and everywhere)

As I have said before, there is a lot of major development and although most of it has been focused on the facilities and infrastructure related to the running of the Asian Games there is still much happening outside of the Doha city limits as well. Two of the biggest work sites at the moment focus on the area just north of Doha with West Bay Lagoon (home of The Pearl http://www.thepearlqatar.com/) and Lusail City (http://www.lusail.com/index-en.html).

I love the websites for these places, as it gives the “artists impression” of what will be at some point in time inshallah! One thing you learn about Qatar very quickly is the place is a work in progress and an artists impression is about as close as you will get to knowing what comes next.

Oh by the way, as you will notice I stuck a clock on the blog... not actually sure if that is useful or not, but saves working out the 7 hour time difference in your head if are that way inclined (and don't even begin to ask the difference between here and the US).

The Daily Commute

Well we are getting used to this now, but every morning we head out onto Sports City Rd to play Qatari-roulette on Aziziyah Roundabout (sometimes with more success than others)… We then brave Salwa Rd and turn down Wholesale Market St to head down to Al Jazeera Academy. It is never dull and always an aspect of adventure to it. Sometimes it may be a 10-minute drive, and other times 30 minutes. There is a method to the driving here and it falls somewhere between defensive-aggressive.

I’ll have to work out how far it is as Salwa Rd is an 80 kph zone and Wholesale Market St is 100 kph, so distance is really based on the speed you can drive between roundabouts. So at the end of the day it really based on time rather than distance (which makes it all pretty relative).

Anyway I thought I would post this photo of our neighbourhood, but will try to do something a bit better some time in the not too distant future.

Intercontinental Ramadan Tent

Discovered one of our favourite stores today. Actually don’t know what it is called, but to us it is the very cool cheap shop at Ramada Junction, or the “10 Riyal shop”! The reason for the name is so not to confuse it with the “6 Riyal shop” at Hyatt Plaza (which is actually called Daiso). It is big, poorly laid out and has lots of junk… But as with all junky shops it also has many not so junky things (well at least not to us). I think we only filled one trolley so we were doing well… but we still managed to leave with a couple of carpets and various other little bits and pieces.

Went to the Intercontinental Hotel with a few people from AJA to have dinner in the beachside Ramadan Tent tonight. Most of the major hotels have some form of Ramadan feast (buffet) set up for the major meal during the fasting month, which is at 8pm. After ringing around we found out the Intercontinental was one of the few that was actually set up on the beach (so we thought it would be a good pick).

Now while the food was great and surroundings palatial, the main thing we didn’t like was the lack of a genuine experience. The tent was huge, air-conditioned (of course) and they could seat about 500 people in there. Surrounding it was little markets and lots of advertising from their sponsors (which included strategically place BMWs, Range Rovers, and Ducatis). There was an endless array of food to choose from, lots of Shisha pipes, and guy walking around with the biggest Turkish coffee thing I had seen… service was first rate… BUT the whole thing (to us anyway) just didn’t have atmosphere and felt somewhat like being in a big cattle shed. There was no sense of being in anything that even remotely had a Bedouin atmosphere, which really was disappointing.
There was entertainment from a guy with a keyboard (set to the best Arabic sounds a cheap sounding keyboard can make), some violin player… a women who at times sounded like a cat stuck in a buzz saw… I will admit there was a man playing an Oud (the stringed instrument that looks a little like a Lute) as we were leaving which did sound rather nice though. There was even a Twirling Dervish but even that, while entertaining lacked the element of authenticity.

We ate well, we had an experience… it just wasn’t anything like the experience we were looking for. What they didn’t make from the food (overall the cost was quite reasonable), they made up for by over-pricing all the drinks (including the bottles of water which you normally get for free).
Rather than focusing of the local rich Bedouin culture, it was far more a combination of Turkish, Moroccan or Tunisian… given that I think they really miss the point a little. People in Qatar (regardless of whether it is what they are looking for or not) should be experiencing Qatari culture… I think I would have enjoyed it more with something as simple as a couple of camels around, or at least using the standard black and red Bedouin fabrics. They should make the most out of what they have and differentiate themselves on that… I don’t really think they have got a grasp on the concept of authenticity yet, and unfortunately the end result is that you felt like you could be anywhere in the world rather than actually being immersed in the middle of the Arabian Gulf.

Garangau Day

Garangau (pronounced garrangow– rolled r’s) occurs mid way thru Ramadan – it roughly translates to “festival of children”. It’s kind of like the Arabic version of Halloween. Traditionally, children go ‘trick or treating’ – except they knock on doors and sing traditional Arabic songs for treats – usually nuts and sweets (raw nuts and caramelised fruit)…YAY! These days, the children still go from door to door to entertain (dressed in gorgeous national costume) and receive proper ‘western’ sweets.

The school celebrates Garangoa Day every year. It is customary to give and receive a garangau gift – the school is offered many lovely little (and some huge) garangau gifts! These are traditional and each has a ‘story’ attached. The school gave each child a rather elaborate ceramic door with Hessian bag of nuts and sweets. The ‘door’ is a common symbol in these parts – it represents the ‘door to paradise’ (heaven) when if you comply with the 7 pillars of Islam – the door is open to you.

Ashur dressed in his lovely traditional costume for Garangau Day!

Spot the Aussies - Ashur and his lovely teacher, Sue-Ellen!

All of the children dressed in amazing clothing – some dripping with real gold from their head to their feet. One of the traditional games played by the children is similar to ‘duck, duck, goose’ – where one child walks behind the circle of children saying something about Mohommed the Prophet is coming, so close your eyes and don’t peek and then he drops his skull cap behind one child (the chosen one!) and they chase each other – first one into the open gap ‘wins’…the words are “Karangau KarKau, Aethoona Allahu Yuetheekum, aethoona min malillah, Sallam lakum Abdulla” (Give us something, Allah will richly bless you). All of the children looked absolutely gorgeous in a variety of colours and fabrics – I was insanely jealous and wanted to wear one! I am hoping for a garangau dress for next year!

Proud parents walked their children into the classroom – most had stupidly large bags / trays / woven baskets of garangau gifts for the children and teachers. (I was forewarned to bring a very big bag to school this day – to ferry the prezzies home in!).

Prezzies I bought home

Each group was walked up to the Primary school’s hall – where the festivities were led by the grade 6’ers. One little boy sung the Quaran and had me mesmerised! It was really very haunting …regardless of what he was singing about – avenging the sinners etc - it was simply amazing.

Singing the Quaran

It was a very crowded hall full of classes and families - some children participated in a game of tag tag tagiah and sung some traditional songs (we were all supposed to entertain the families with this – but luckily for me, it was too crowded and I got to sit and observe with my class! Although, I practised a little (the words of the song) – I just couldn’t cut it!

Once back in the classrooms – we each had a small party (parents provided the party food – now, that’s a blog in itself!!). One of my mothers’ is a very interesting person! I have decided that no matter where you are in the world – there’s a ‘Westie’ in every group!!! This one person was ruffling through the boxes of presents – taking armfuls for herself and I was told later, by another person who understood her Arabic – she was saying such things which would translate to “oh, cool! Check this out! Alright!” It gave us something to laugh about later!
Gifts were dispensed and children left for the day (it was only 10.00am). There was a lot of cleaning up to do afterward – so was very happy to do that without ‘help’!…the hyped up, sugar enhanced style of help…

Our favourite prezzie - scary doll with face cover! The best thing about all of this is that these gifts are 'crafted' in Doha and specifically for Garangau!

Qatari Money

The currency here is the Qatar Riyal. Now one of the problems is that Riyal is pronounced it would seem, either riyal or real ... not quite sure if there is one way that is more correct than the other, and also not actually sure whether what "we" hear as reals is just a bad pronunciation. At the end of the day as long as notes are being handed back and forth, everyone seems happy!

BTW there are roman numerals on the reverse side of the notes but that wouldn't look anywhere as good if the photo showed them now would it! Just to add to your confusion (and to see if you can work this out) a 1 is a 1, but the angled 0 is a 5 and the dash/dot thing is a 0... got it? So the notes from the bottom are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100... there is also a 500 but we don't see many of them as we are not wealthy... hhmmm then again we don't see many coins either... does that mean we are actually middle class!

I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention another pronunciation. Qatar is most definitively pronounced CutTa, and the people (and Riyals for that matter) are Qataris which seems to come out as Cuttaries (a bit like cutlery without the "L"). Now this of course isn't as simple as it all sounds because when a Qatari says Qatar there is actually some little strange guttural thing going on in the middle.

At the end of the day it is Qatar far more like CutTa than anything sounding like a guitar, and CutTaries don't sound like guitar players at all... as far as Riyals or Reals... your guess is as good as mine!

Work Stuff

OK – so, the info about work has been a long while coming! There’s a logical explanation to this and that is, I still haven’t fully worked out what I think about the place – and I don’t want to sound negative as it isn’t all that bad really.

This first pic is the back view of a very small portion of the Early Learning Centre - If you look left of the large dark window /just right of the tree, you can see my window and door to the classroom I spend my mornings in.

One of the most dramatic things that separates teaching in the Middle East to Australia (besides the usual cultural differences) is that the ME parents really don’t understand the education system to begin with – so that kind of triples the workload. They just don't understand why after one whole week, little Abdulla-aziz Mahmoud Ali Dawish isn't running writing in English! - he is almost 3 after all!

As far as the school goes – I haven’t really worked it out – I’m not sure what type of agenda we’re on…one minute we’re to provide world class, innovative EC curriculum (which I understand is why I’m there in the first place) – the next they introduce IPC (international primary curriculum) into their early childhood school – I think they confuse the issue by initially naming the EC dept as a ‘school’ when the children who are enrolled are a minimum of 3yrs old and due to their lifestyles and histories – most have only really been involved in interaction with their large families, nannies, drivers and maids...and possess skill levels of children much younger. There is a real lack of basic knowledge that I take for granted coming from Australia – but I’m here for the experience and the growth – so, I take it all down a notch (or 10) and start from the basic beginnings!

Day 1 - an eye-opener! A constant stream of covered women and their children – drivers and nannies and not a lot of English to communicate with, greeted me! It took a while for the mothers’s to unveil themselves and for me to work out which parent belongs to which child and then getting my mouth around the names – I still don’t know the family names of any of the children without reading them from a list. The child has a ‘Christian’ name followed by its father’s first name and then the family name – which can be made up of a few names – all very confusing! I was alerted to the fact that the parents don’t know how to ‘wait’ and spoke over each other (and myself) to be heard! Hmmmm, I began to feel I would have some interesting times ahead!It's taken a few weeks of some consistent tough love! Forget the cursive writing - these guys have a few social issues to amend!...but, its paying off and now the group (mostly) sits together without beating each other senseless and actually sings together!...am working on the turntaking with talking and calling out. I mostly don't believe what comes out of my mouth at times! I seem to bark many one word orders..like, 'sit', 'stop', 'listen', 'wait', 'no' - all with hand gestures and facial contortions as support! when all else fails - I resort to the little Arabic I've learned 'Halas', 'shoi shoi', 'la'! There has been the odd moment, when I've just got off my chair and said - 'no story today!' and had a laugh....

(update today 12th Oct - Little boy gets up and speaks in Arabic to the unruly group and points to the small list of group time rules on the wall - they all listen!)

One of the little girls has already given me a bottle of lovely French perfume – but the mother was very honest and let me know that it was a ‘bribe’ to get her to come to school, as she really didn’t want to go each morning! How special!!! The mother of this particular girl and I get along quite well (she speaks English relatively fluently) and has invited us to their home – not sure when that is happening – but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting thing to see. The homes of the Qatari’s are like mini palaces – they are ridiculously large and going by the furniture in most of the ‘proper’ stores – rather elaborate and a bit ‘over the top’ – They go for OPULANCE! Apparently, its rare to be invited into a Qatari’s home – they don’t usually mix with lower life forms….

It seems whenever there is an opportunity - I get my head wrapped! I've decided these head covers are the perfect solution for bad hair days!

When I started at the school, my assistant was the Australian Barry (her name withheld to protect the accused!) but just didn’t want to be in Qatar and hated every second of it. Unfortunately, I worked long and hard and very much alone for the first 3 weeks before caving in and complaining. The children and the general everydayness of the place – requires a high level of interaction, commitment and sustained energy – all of which I wasn’t getting. Poor Michael, had to deal with my moods and sapped energy. Bazza left Qatar and went back to Australia where she wanted so badly, to be. That left me 3 weeks into term 1 without an assistant…in comes a new recruit! Oh dear! I thought I’d had it tough for the first few weeks….2nd assistant as helpful as a migrainee at a rave!

Thankfully for the past fortnight – I’ve had a perfectly functional assistant who has been there for a few years and is a treasure! She can multi-task, communicates with the children and myself, has initiative and demonstrates a high level of competence…The other ‘real’ assistant will be returning after the Eid break – and the dynamics changes all over again – I’ve been promised quality!

The only really sad thing for me with all of this is that I’ve not had the opportunity to ‘relax’ into working here – its been a tad stressful and not what I expected. However, I have managed to initiate some interesting things with the kids and am beginning to enjoy the days. I’m treating it as it always was going to be – an experience! I’ll do what I have to do with whatever passion I have, but at the end of the day – its allowing us all to enjoy a lifestyle we didn’t have in Australia and is opening up the options that are available which we don’t know exist yet!


Besides the very early morning starts (up at 5.00 and out of the house by 6.00 to arrive as early as possible to commence ‘class’ by 7.15 – and I HATE mornings! Michael is up first to brew the morning coffee – which I don’t thank him enough for). The workday is really only till 12.00pm. The children leave the classroom to go to after school care for 2 hours. The time from 12.00 – 2.00 is usually teacher-planning time, the odd staff meeting – or just down time.

As it is Ramadan at the moment – we get to sleep in way past 5.00am and rise at 6.00! ooh – simple pleasures! In essence, I work one less hour a day – but I still manage to crash on the lounge at 3.30 and wake up a couple of hours later (or sometimes sooner)!

Kerry Bint Kevin Perandis-Grantham

But, at the end of the day in 21years of early childhood ed (doh! Michael just alerted me to the fact I am a sucker for punishment and deserve a side swipe to the head!) I've never had a group of children dress me up as an arabic man! at least, humour is global - and they all thought it was very funny!