In a halfway house halfway down Al Shamal Road

Andy and I have always had a lot of guests come to visit us. We love the open door policy at the Mullin house. In fact, our spare room in every house is affectionately known as “Brendan’s Room” (named after our friend who stayed with us in NZ for a few months). This year has been no different. We’ve had lots of visitors to our home in the desert. Thank-you for coming to see us!

Natalie was our first visitor. A quick trip over from Dubai for a weekend, we had a great time with you, Nat!

Story time with Natalie

Obdulio came to visit us from Dubai as well, but sadly we have no photos from that weekend. See you again soon, Obdulio!

Uncle Mike and Aunty Von came to see us after their trip to India. We took them to the all the Doha sites and had a great weekend. 

Mike and Von with boys at souq

Road Trip

Race up the dunes!

We had a nice long visit from mum and dad. Lots of good food, family time and even a camping trip into the desert. 

Ian came to see us in Doha for a weekend. We'll see you and Sam in Dubai again soon!

At the souq

Mara and Ed came to visit us from Khartoum. It's too bad they are moving to Doha at the same time we are moving to Khartoum...but I'm sure we'll get a chance to hang out again soon. The boys had a great time at the movies!

At the movies with Mara and Ed

And Kirsten and Callum came to see us on their way back to NZ from the UK. The boys loved the weekend with them, but secretly hoped that they had Bethany and Sophie hiding in their cases. Next time...

Kirsten and Callum

Will, Callum and Ben

Will, Callum and Ben

Thanks for visiting us everyone!! 

Sports Fans in Doha!

Enjoying the tennis with Ben

Qatar Total Open 2013

Earlier this year, we watched the top 10 women in the world of tennis as they competed at the Qatar Total Open 2013. The tennis centre in Doha is another world class sports facility boasted by Qatar. We attended four out of the five nights with either free entry or tickets under $10. There was entertainment, food court, shopping, a kids’ zone, traditional crafts, pony rides and a place to get players’ autographs. The boys have been taking tennis lessons here, so they loved the event. Ben cheered for Serena Williams and Will’s favourite was Victoria Azarenka. 

Serena Williams!

Go Canada!

We also joined a few hundred other Canadian and Japanese fans at Khalifa Stadium to watch Canada vs Japan men’s soccer in an international friendly match. Most of Will and Ben’s friends were there from school so it was a fun night, despite Canada’s 2-1 loss to Japan. It’s possible that I was the most excited person there that night, as I had just received my birthday present from Andy and the boys - my new camera. I took far too many pictures!

Rajan and Andy 

Ben and Mum

Canada vs Japan

Visitors from Canada

The boys had a countdown to Grandma and Babu's visit back in February. We packed in A LOT of activities into their short visit. 

Lunch outside

Friends of ours invited us out to the chalet in Umm Bab on the west coast of the country. We stayed the night there and then drove out to Khor Al Udeid, (Inland Sea) to their desert camp which is set up from October to April each year. What an adventure! 

Grandma and Babu saw the boys' soccer game, the Souq Waqif to Will's favourite restaurant, Katara, the Museum of Islamic Arts, The Corniche, The Pearl. We also took them to our school, our garden at the College, Sheikh Faissal's Museum, the Farmer's Market. We enjoyed a few delicious meals out and also cooked up a storm in the kitchen. 

Dad having a swim - Saudi Arabia in the background

Swimming in the Inland Sea

We learned how to make lots of traditional dishes from scratch

Grandma and Babu watching the boys' soccer game

Playing chess at the souq

Dinner at Will's favourite restaurant

Sheikh Faissal's Museum

Mum at the souq

Babu and the boys

We had a great visit with Grandma and Babu and the boys are already counting down until we see them again at the end of June. 

Share the Ride, Cut the Carbon? Yeah, right.

So way back at the end of November/ beginning of December, Doha welcomed over 15,000 participants to the UN Climate Change Conference www.cop18.qa.  I think Doha has forgotten. The global coverage of the conference was very complimentary and Qatar has been congratulated for its efforts and commitment to sustainability. But during the conference week, residents and conference attendees were wondering why this city was chosen to host. Their track record for environmentalism is not nearly as positive as the news coverage of the COP18 event. In fact, they have the worst per capita carbon dioxide emissions of any country in the world. Not exactly something to proud of. What wasn’t widely reported in the positive global news reports was the fleet of buses forever racing back and forth between the hotels and the convention centre with only a few passengers on them; even worse, the buses sat idling for hours with the AC on so that the six or eight passengers would ride in a comfortable temperature. 

Idling for hours...

As the richest country in the world, Qatar likes to spend money. On some worthwhile things and on lots of frivolous things. I am encouraged to know that money is being pumped into “green” projects here, but the everyday behaviours of residents is so far from green, that I predict that the new projects will struggle to succeed. It will take time to transform these behaviours.

Start with an easy one. Recycling. There is none. No pick up. No recycling bins at the ex-pat compounds. No recycling bins at our school. As a BC girl, I like to recycle. When we first arrived, we struggled to find any recycling bins, but we did eventually find some at Dahl Al Hamam Park, Katara and University of Calgary Qatar. We try to collect our recycling at home, load it into the car and drop it off at the bins. Sadly, the bins are often full and overflowing, so we have to bring it home again. But perhaps the most discouraging thing is the rumour that the “recycling” from the bins is just taken to the dump. 

Even worse, Qatar burns its garbage every evening (oh, except during the week they hosted COP 18). Check out this link:  Doha Burning

It will take a long time to change behaviours in Qatar, but in the meantime, we still make sure that our own boys remember to be green. Well, as green as is possible in the desert. 

It's Easy to be a Sports Fan in Doha

Hanging out with Andrew and Yahia

For a country with such a small population (~ 2 million, 75-80% of who are expats), there are a lot of major sporting events in Qatar. Tickets are very cheap to this events and sometimes even free! In the last few weeks, we have seen the Asia Qualifiers for the Beach Soccer World Cup and Spain vs Uruguay in a friendly soccer match. Next week we’ll see the Women’s Tennis Qatar Open tournament (we have tickets for the finals) and next month we’ll attend a soccer match between Canada and Japan. 

View from the stadium

We loved the beach soccer tournament; and it was free so we were happy to go back three days in a row! The teams were competing for a spot in the Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti later this year. The 3000 seat stadium was down at Katara Beach with a view out to the water and The Pearl. The games were fast paced and exciting. There was a kids area outside with a huge bouncy castle and a soccer pitch. The music and atmosphere were lively, all the seats were great, and there was plenty of entertainment at the half-times and in between the games. 

Cheering for Thailand

A few nights ago we saw the Battle of the Champions soccer match between Spain and Uruguay at Khalifa Stadium with 60,000 other fans. Tickets to see some of the best players in the world cost us about $30. There was a big fan zone set up outside the stadium, where the kids won hats and inflatable hands to cheer for Spain. The boys were mesmerized by the “heliosphere”, a huge helium balloon with a spiralling, spinning and seemingly weightless acrobat suspended underneath. 

Go Spain Go!

The Heliosphere

The game was exciting and the boys loved it. Spain won 3-1. The kickoff was at 9pm - pretty late for a school night, but the boys did really well only starting to slow down and yawn at about 11pm. What a great atmosphere inside the stadium!

Soccer fans: Ben, Isaiah, Will and Andy

If you had a million dollars, would you buy this camel? Or maybe some camel steroids?

On our first weekend back from New Zealand in January, Uncle Mike and Aunty Von came to visit us in Doha for a few days. We took them to the Singing Sand Dunes and to the camel races, both of which did not turn out how we’d expected. 

Race to the top!

In the middle of nowhere

The Singing Sand Dunes - the last time we were there, the sand was too hot to touch and we didn’t stay very long. This time, there were really high winds and so there was a big dust storm. Climbing up to the top was fine, but once we got up there, we could barely even open our eyes. Mike managed to get the sand to “sing” for a moment and then we moved along to the camel races. 

Aunty Von at the Dunes

Road Trip

We arrived a few minutes before the camel races were supposed to start, but the race track was close to empty. A few camel trainers were there training their young camels, but there was clearly no plan for races that day. We hoped that they’d be on the next day so we could take Mike and Von, so we stopped to check with a man who was driving along side his young camels and their trainers. He had about 6 or 7 kids in the back of his car as well as his elderly father in the front seat. The man, probably in his mid 30s, told us there was no racing that weekend and then kindly invited us to his house just down the road. We followed him there, he invited us in and the boys played soccer with all the boys outside. His English was quite good, although his father spoke none. He told us his story, showed us around and gave us coffee and dates.

Baby camels at feeding time

This young camel just sold for $1million

He was raised in a Qatari bedouin family and now owns several houses and many racing camels. He showed us one young camel that he just sold for 3 million QR (about $1 million Canadian dollars). When he found out that Andy was from New Zealand, he asked what Andy knew about race horses (not much really) and he told us that the “medicine” for race horses was very good for camels also. Naively, I thought that maybe pregnant camels or baby camels might need medicine and wondered about how the owners access medical care for their camels. Andy carried on the conversation with the man and turns out he was asking Andy to help him access steroids in New Zealand and bring that back to Qatar for his camels! “Can you help me with this?” he asked Andy. “Um, no.” 

Another Qatari man, probably around 40, arrived and joined the conversation. He told us he was worked as an Amiri Guard (the guards responsible for the protection of the royal family in Qatar), but that breeding camels to sell was his weekend hobby. The conversation led back to horses again, but this time the Amiri Guard wanted to know what experience Andy had riding horses (none, really). The man told Andy he had the right body shape for riding horses (whatever that means?!) and that he could get Andy a job with the Amiri Guard. While this is like getting the keys to the kingdom, Andy didn’t leave a CV (not that that would’ve mattered anyway). 

Meanwhile, the boys’ soccer game had ended and the young Qatari boys were showing Will and Ben around the property. The boys got to ride a camel and feed the baby camels. The young boys really wanted to ask Will and Ben questions but they only knew a few words of English. Since Will and Ben couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, they just decided to sing their Arabic counting song from school. The young Qatari boys loved it and clapped for them and then proceeded to proudly count in English. Then, as boys do, they ran around the property chasing each other, stopping every few minutes to count in each other’s language and high five each other. 

I was very proud of my boys that day. It takes a lot of energy to communicate with someone when they don’t speak your language. Then again, it didn’t actually look that hard for any of the kids. They just played. And chased each other. And sang. I’ve learned something from them.