Sports endings

As we finish this year, all activities are coming to a close. This means sports tournaments, sports banquets, and sports awards. Max and Simon have been involved in a number of different teams.

Max receiving his award at the Sports banquet

With a team mate and one of the coaches

Max and Simon were on the Qatar Academy Swim Team this year. They traveled to Oman for an international meet and, most recently, participated in a national tournament.

At the Sports Award banquet Max was surprised and thrilled to receive the award for the team's Most Valuable Player.

Max and Simon have each played on a school basketball team. Max played Junior varsity and traveled to Kuwait for an international tournament.
Simon played on the Under-13 basketball team and last week participated in the national play-offs. Simon is just one of three grade 6 boys on the team (most are grade 7 and 8). He saw a lot of playing time in the final game and the team came home with the 2nd Place trophy!

getting pointers from Coach Eric

The boys also both play on a recreational basketball team. This is a brand new venture for the Qatar Foundation and the league will not be official until September 2012. For two months Simon and Max have been training with three talented coaches from the NBA, the National Team of Mexico, and the Qatar Sports Club. It is a tough practice but their skills are improving quickly.

Max used his birthday money to purchase an authentic Steve Nash basketball jersey on eBay. It took many weeks to arrive but he is pleased to have it now!

Father's Day

 

We celebrated Father's Day by sharing an evening with friends. The food was not gourmet, the gifts were not big, but there was a lot of laughter. A fabulous time!

Lisa's turn

Lisa has discovered a beautiful fabric store called Bombay Silk. As the name states, all of the fabric is from India and it is all silk. Sandwashed silk, raw silk, chiffon, georgette, organza, charmeuse by the metre. All silk!

After the success of the boys' tailoring expedition, Lisa thought she would have a dress made for Tim's staff  End-of-Year banquet.

Lisa chose several different pieces of fabric for two dresses, two wraps, a skirt, and a top. The tailor at Bombay Silk is Namaz. He is skilled in crafting women's fashions and drew these sketches to guide his work.

The day before the banquet Lisa picked up her dress and shawl. She was expecting the blue dress to be ready but Namaz chose to make the black silk dress first. Last minute shoe, nail, and jewelry changes made it all come together for a lovely evening at the golf course. Silk feels so nice!

When It Gets Hot

clock and thermometer in our car

June is here and the temperature in Doha is warming up.  It's not unusual to jump in our vehicle and see the outside temperature reading 50 degrees Celsius .  Fortunately, our Toyota Prado has a Super Cool Air Conditioning unit so we leave it set to "Cold". 

The Air Conditioner on our roof

Duct work on the roof

Our house has central air conditioning and a thermostat in each room. It is controlled by a 3500 lb air conditioner (A/C) unit on the roof . We set our rooms at 19 C.

The roof of every house also has a building which contains two electric hot water tanks, two pressure pumps, and a cold water tank.  Because this building is on the roof where the sun is hottest, the room heats up. There is a small A/C unit to keep the room cool in the summer. But even still, it is sometimes difficult to get cold water from the taps in the house. Sometimes a shower in the morning can be hotter than you want! And doing a load of laundry in cold water means filling the washing machine the night before to let it cool.

Same But Different

In many ways life in Qatar is very similar to life in Canada. There are a few notable differences.

For instance, in Canada we often have hardwood trees, like maple or birch, in front of our houses. In Qatar we have Palm trees in our yards -- which boys still enjoy climbing.












In Canada, we have water and power meters for our houses. In Qatar, we also have meters to record our consumption of water and electricity. The difference is that regardless how much we use, the water and electricity are provided by the State free of charge.



In Canada, the telephone books have white and yellow pages.  In Qatar, the telephone books also have white and yellow pages.  The difference is that the phone book is alphabetized by first names rather than surnames. Almost all Qatari family names start with the letter "A".




In North America, Samaritan's Purse organizes the annual Shoebox campaign.  People fill a shoebox with useful items that will be given to children around the world.  In Qatar, the Box Appeal takes place in May. Families are encouraged to fill a box with toothpaste, deodorant, socks, soap, shampoo.  The boxes are given to the thousands of construction workers who have come from countries around the world to build this country.

In Canada, children arrive at school each day in a mini-van or car.  At Qatar Academy, the students arrive in Mercedes, BMW, Toyota Landcruiser, Cadillac Escalade, Bentley, and Rolls Royce.

Ciao !

Max and Simon attend Qatar Academy where Tim is also the Assistant Principal for the Middle School. The school uses the International Baccalaureate curriculum which works to "develop students with a broad knowledge base, strong academic and intellectual skills, and the ability to apply their knowledge and skills to the world beyond school." (quoted from QA Parent Guide to the Middle Years IB Program)

Having a broad view of the world comes from course content, classmates from many different countries and cultures, and a variety of extra-curricular activities. One of Qatar Academy's out-of-school activities is called the "Week Without Walls". Max's WWW was in Italy. In May he traveled with 29 other students to Venice and Florence for the purpose of exploring Human Ingenuity through art and architecture.

Florence is called the birthplace of Renaissance Art. Max visited the Art Gallery Bargello, to see Renaissance jewelry and paintings, and the Uffizi Museum, which has famous Italian paintings by DaVinci, Botticelli, and Raphael. One of Max's highlights was a visit to the Accademia Gallery where he stood next to Michelangelo's famous sculpture "David". The sculpture is 14 feet high and was completed in 1504. It is said to be a pose of David just moments before he defeated Goliath.

Max's group climbed Giotto's Tower (85 metres, 500 steps) for a look over the rooftops of Florence. Max took over 700 photos during his week in Italy. A lot of these are famous art, sculptures, paintings but some are those things important to a 14 year old boy.

Italian food was, of course, a big hit ! Pasta, Pizza, Gelato ! We have pictures of it all!

Half way between Florence and Venice is the community of Maranello where the Ferrari race cars are made. Given that Ferrari cars are very popular in Qatar, it was a natural pit stop. And it takes human ingenuity to build cars, right? The Ferrari Museum displays vintage cars, latest models, and lots of memorabilia from the racing world. Max even got to take a spin in one!

The city of Venice is actually a series of islands, separated by canals and linked by bridges. One of Max's dreams has been to ride in a gondola on the canals and he was able to do that! The class also took the vaporetto public boats between the islands to do their sightseeing, shopping, and go to the airport on the last day.

One of the student's activities was to explore the Venetian tradition of mask decoration. Each student decorated a mask and was able to keep their creation as a souvenir. This painting of the Mona Lisa (not the original) hangs in Leonardo's Machines Exhibition.  The exhibition is a display of 40 of Leonardo daVinci's most famous inventions, including his flying machines. Max loved this too!

The class also visited the Murano glass factory. Murano is famous for its role in developing objects such as eye glasses and telescopes. But it also makes objects of beauty. Max was amazed by this Italian artwork. One man created this delicate horse in less than two minutes. Max bought a gorgeous Murano vase.

Max also brought home an original oil painting by a local artist that he met in the market. One of Max's traditions when we travel is to buy a piece of local art. His room is hung with many and varied works of art. This latest Italian purchase is a beautiful painting of a typical street in Venice.

Mother's Day

On March 21, 2012 the Middle East celebrated Mother's Day. It always coincides with the first day of Spring. So we are feeling a bit odd about celebrating Mother's Day this weekend along with our Canadian mothers.

In Canadian tradition we eat out for lunch but we did not go to a restaurant. Instead we spent the afternoon with friends from Georgia (the country in eastern Europe, not the state in USA). This warm wonderful family are the greatest cooks!

We enjoyed a traditional Georgian meal of stuffed cheese bread, roasted lamb, chicken with walnut sauce, beans, and salad with stuffed peppers, marinated mushrooms, pickled onions. We really were quite blown away by their hospitality!  Normally, Nova Scotians can outcook anyone, but not this time.

The leading international jewelry company in the Middle East is called Damas Jewelers. Each year it launches a Mother's Day collection of jewelry. This year is the Ummi collection (Arabic word meaning "my mother"). Lisa was shocked to receive a pendant from this collection on this Mother's Day weekend. The design has the Arabic calligraphy عةةه in the middle -- this is the word Ummi studded with diamonds (very small diamonds!). The 18K yellow gold flower motif is offset by the white gold backing which is also surrounded by many (very small) diamonds. Lisa was thrilled to receive this gift which reflects the style of jewelery here in the Middle East. And also, Damas Jewelers began in Syria in 1907. Given all the turmoil in Syria now it is a good reminder of a more peaceful Middle East.