Dhows in Doha

Crom in Qatar!!

Last week Bobby and all the CROM crew rented a Dhow boat for 5 hours.  Mia (Carol), the kids and I tagged along for fun!  The word "dhow" is derived from the Swahili word "dau", meaning fishing boat.  Some people actually rent these for fishing I think but we only rented it to go for a boat ride, anchor in the bay and swim/picnic, and then boat ride back in at night to see all the lights.

This is what the dhow boat looks like

You should have seen me carrying this heavy sleeping child across 4 other dhows to get onto this one.  A little precarious when you are stepping over water from one boat edge to another.  Made it without both of us falling in the water (and didn't wake her up either).

Avery fell asleep in the car on the way to the boat and slept for the first hour or so.

Cheesy grin Natalie

silly face!

This is a picture of "The Pearl" which is an island in Doha.  Look at how dusty the air was that day!  The sky actually was the color of sand.

Chase said the sweetest thing when he looked in the captain's area.  He pulled me to the side and said, "mom, I think that man must be really poor, he lives in there".  He looked so worried.  As far as I could tell, the captain doesn't live on the boat, although as you will see in the pictures, it would be all that bad of a place to sleep.  I just love that the kids are recognizing that not everyone has an easy life and they are truly blessed to experience all that they are this year.

Here is the covered part of the boat.  Nicely padded and fun to rough house in

Lots of fun rough housing on the top of the boat as well

. 

Who is winning?

Mia and the kids (two of whom are not cooperating with my picture) Grr.

Natalie and Mia

Lots of the the Crom guys jumped from the top floor of the boat down to the water.  They had a great time!  This is Bert doing an awesome backflip!

John

Natasha

Buddy

Bobby and Avery did a little dancing

Relaxin'

Mia

Beautiful sunset over West Bay (the downtown part of Doha)

Going, 

Going,

Gone

West Bay at night

Pumpkin Carving

I am sure many of you are wondering if anyone celebrates Halloween over here on the other side of the world. The answer is.... If you want to, you can find ways! This country is made up of expats from all over the world and at least all the ones from the USA and most of Europe like to celebrate Halloween. It isn't anything like what happens in Tioga, but our compound is doing trick or treating tonight so the kids are excited. I was able to find a pumpkin to carve, but it set us back $60! We only bought one and then had to deal with the arguing over who gets to draw the face on. I will post more pics tonight!

On a side note, this has been a week of vacation from school and most of the kids Chase and Natalie like to play with are out of town. We have met another family from Holland who have twin 7 year old boys. Both Chase and Natalie are loving playing with them. I think both the boys have a crush on Natalie. They are wearing string ankle wraps that she made them!

Chase competes for ACS-Doha

Athletics Competition- What is that you may ask?  It is a competition of all around athletic ability involving 10 events. All the students have been practicing this in PE and Chase ended up being one of the top 5 2nd graders in the school!  He and the other 4 2nd graders and 5 3rd graders competed in these events against 7 other schools.  Their school (ACS-Doha) overall got 3rd place. Chase was really excited that they will be getting medals after the fall break.

Pre Competition "huddle" 

I have never heard of or seen a competition like this so I have to share with you the details.
Here is a rundown of the events:

1: Shuttlerun - kind of looks like running suicides except they run the same distance back and forth 10 times and they are timed for how quickly they run it including all the turns.

Get ready, set, GO!

The iPhone does not take very good action shots from the top floor of the gym (either that or Chase just runs super fast!)

2: Jump overs - jumping side to side over a 12 inch high box/barricade type thing for 20 secs as many times as possible without hitting it. (the kids had me practice this one at home and it is much harder than you would think)

3.  I call this one the "shot put"- it is throwing a weighted ball as far as you can

That is the lower school principal cheering Chase on at the other end

4.  Triple Jump - This is a crazy combination of hop, skip, then jump all without pausing and the distance is then measured.

5.  I don't know what this is called but it reminds me of when football players have to run through tires. They are timed at how fast they can run through down and back twice without touching the barriers as quickly as they can.

Chase was especially fast at this event

6.  Standing long jump - jump as far as you can from standing still

7.  High jump - the starting point is measured with the kid standing against the wall with his hand/arm outstretched up the wall as far as possible.  Then, the kid jumps up as high as they can and the distance between the two is measured.

Sorry, the quality of this pic is terrible because I am trying to zoom in from really far away

 8.  Accuracy Throw- you have to accurately throw matching beanbags into the appropriate circle.  The green one is like throwing the distance of half a basketball court accurately into the green circle to give you some perspective of the difficulty level.  

Chase got two in the circles

9.  Distance Javelin Throw - It isn't an actual javelin in a basketball court.  It was a foam one but Chase still threw it all the way across the room!

10.  Balance - they have to hold one ankle and balance on the other leg as long as possible while standing on a 1 inch bar.  Then they switch legs and see how long on the other leg.  The kids say the hard part is having to hold the opposite ankle while trying to balance.  

Chase did a fabulous job and we all are so proud of him!  He had a great time competing!

I found this an interesting event which really is looking at an overall athletic ability including speed, strength, accuracy, agility, balance.  

Vincent Van Gogh

Natalie had two big projects due this week.  The first was a video the students had to make all about themselves (hobbies, friends, family, where they are from, etc).  They learned all about editing on iMovie.  Natalie's was really good.

 In the second project, Natalie read a biography on Vincent Van Gogh, and then had to dress as him and answer interview questions from the teacher in front of all the parents and a couple of 5th grade classes.  Needless to say, she was really nervous and doesn't like to speak in front of groups of people. You can see her blushing even in the picture.   She did a great job.  We are so proud of her.

Afternoon Tea with the Brits

My friend here, Wendy, invited Carol and I to afternoon tea at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.  It was really during dinner time but was called afternoon tea.  We had a fantastic time eating tiny sandwiches, sweets, scones, and drinking tea.

Here is a taste of some of the fancy cars seen here in Doha

Now that we have these two families of British friends, I have learned lots of funny differences in our languages.  We continue to add to the list every day, and die laughing as we realize most of them.  Esther will just be talking normally and then will say something like, "she always has a fag hanging out of her mouth", and I bust out laughing!  She, of course, means a cigarette, but I was thinking of something very different!  Here is the list so far: (if you are reading this on your phone, it won't show up correctly in list form but you will still get the idea)

American                                    British
Mom                                            Mum
Shovel                                         Spade
Cooler                                         Coolbox
Z (the letter)                                Zed
Backpack                                    Rucksack
Stroller                                        Push chair
Shopping cart                              Trolley
Yard (like backyard)                   Garden
Bangs (hair)                                 Fringe
Elevator                                       Lift
Line (like waiting in line)            Queue
Semi (18 wheeler)                       Lorry
Man                                             Bloke
Friend                                          Mate
Vacuum                                      Hoover
Cotton candy                              Candy Floss
Trunk of car                                Boot
Oven                                           Cooker
Parking lot                                   Car Park
Take out (ordering food)             Take away
Sweater                                        Jumper
Undershirt                                    Vest
Vest                                              Waistcoat
Shot (injection)                             Jab
Pacifier                                         Dummy
Cabinet                                        Cupboard
Closet                                          Wardrobe
Chips (potato)                              Crisps
Cookies                                        Biscuits
Exhausted/tired                            Shattered
Gay (homosexual)                       Camp

Some of my personal favorites that have gotten the most laughs:

Pants                                            Trousers
Underwear (boys)                        Pants
*We have had several laughs with this one.  For instance, I said, "is George wearing pants or shorts to the brunch, and Esther laughs and says, "He is wearing pants either way, but shorts, not trousers"  Hee Hee
*I told everyone at the table at the tea that I needed to stop and pick up Bobby's  suit pants from the dry cleaners on the way home and the whole table (all British) erupted in laughter.

Pink Panties (the expression)         Big girls blouse
Really drunk                                  Pissed as a newt
It tastes good                                  That's lovely
Cigarette                                         Fag
Sex                                                 Rumpy Pumpy, Shag, or Rumpy
Panties                                            knickers
Basil (how we say it)                     Basil (Bah-zil)
Panties in a wad (the expression)   Knickers in a twist