We have just passed the 7 month mark for living in Qatar and have proved that Curt and I are both BAD at keeping our blog up to date. Try as we might, it just seems to be the last thing we plan to do on weekends.
Since we got back from our LOVELY American visit with the Kenoyer clan, Brad and Lindsay, Claire and Mike and Tom and Kyndra in Colorado we had both our first sand storm and our first rainstorm in the same week! In early January, the wind was HOWLING one night. I woke up on a Monday morning and it smelled in our house like a big handful of sand does when you put it close to our face – only it was just in the air! Outside looked like it was heavy fog, but it was actually sand in the air. Our entire house had a nice fine layer of sand on anything and everything it could land on. This went on for a full day, but was still pretty windy and blowy for another day after that. It sucked. Then a few days later we got TORRENTIAL rain mixed in with some nice showers. It was pretty great, minus the fact we don’t have any heat in our house. Luckily we bought a ceramic space heater in November, as well as a fleece blanket because while 50 degrees doesn’t sound too bad, it is when it’s the temp IN YOUR HOUSE! (Unless you are our friends, Steve and Tara, then that’s normal. :) I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed overcast wet days as much as I have here. It is just such a nice change from the day to day. The obvious issue with rain in the desert is that there is NO drainage. While most roads don’t flood, per se, if there is any sort of grading in the parking lot or road, you can be sure to have water above your ankles. Not my idea of fun. And people here drive through it like it’s nothing – maybe b/c if they don’t, they can’t leave their houses?!
In other news we are heading to Egypt the end of February for some R&R. We will be in Luxor for a day, then take a Nile River cruise for 4 days and then we will be in Cairo for 2 days. We are traveling with some co-workers, so it should be a hoot! The end of March we will be in Nepal for a week on an alternative spring break trip with students (can you believe it?!). We will spend time in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan. We will spend time at a wildlife reserve (elephant baths anyone?!), river rafting and then we will be building a wall for a school playground. Apparently one side of it has an 8 ft. drop, so they want to make sure the kids can play without putting themselves in mortal danger. We will have plenty of pictures coming up, but in the meantime, we will share some of our day to day pics from living in Qatar.
Since we got back from our LOVELY American visit with the Kenoyer clan, Brad and Lindsay, Claire and Mike and Tom and Kyndra in Colorado we had both our first sand storm and our first rainstorm in the same week! In early January, the wind was HOWLING one night. I woke up on a Monday morning and it smelled in our house like a big handful of sand does when you put it close to our face – only it was just in the air! Outside looked like it was heavy fog, but it was actually sand in the air. Our entire house had a nice fine layer of sand on anything and everything it could land on. This went on for a full day, but was still pretty windy and blowy for another day after that. It sucked. Then a few days later we got TORRENTIAL rain mixed in with some nice showers. It was pretty great, minus the fact we don’t have any heat in our house. Luckily we bought a ceramic space heater in November, as well as a fleece blanket because while 50 degrees doesn’t sound too bad, it is when it’s the temp IN YOUR HOUSE! (Unless you are our friends, Steve and Tara, then that’s normal. :) I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed overcast wet days as much as I have here. It is just such a nice change from the day to day. The obvious issue with rain in the desert is that there is NO drainage. While most roads don’t flood, per se, if there is any sort of grading in the parking lot or road, you can be sure to have water above your ankles. Not my idea of fun. And people here drive through it like it’s nothing – maybe b/c if they don’t, they can’t leave their houses?!
In other news we are heading to Egypt the end of February for some R&R. We will be in Luxor for a day, then take a Nile River cruise for 4 days and then we will be in Cairo for 2 days. We are traveling with some co-workers, so it should be a hoot! The end of March we will be in Nepal for a week on an alternative spring break trip with students (can you believe it?!). We will spend time in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan. We will spend time at a wildlife reserve (elephant baths anyone?!), river rafting and then we will be building a wall for a school playground. Apparently one side of it has an 8 ft. drop, so they want to make sure the kids can play without putting themselves in mortal danger. We will have plenty of pictures coming up, but in the meantime, we will share some of our day to day pics from living in Qatar.
1) Just a regular night carting sheep around in Doha
2) Now that's a big shopping cart (right outside of a lcoal mall)
3) & 4) just to prove American fast food has made it here - Pizza Hut and KFC (they are CRAZY for KFC here)
5) Qatari Curt - Curt, Mohammed and Chris with Mohammed's b-day gift for the guys
