Alternative Thanksgiving

I haven't lived in the States for ten years now and during those ten years I have never made it back for Thanksgiving celebrations. I think primarily because it is to close to Christmas and in the UK Christmas is a huge holiday. For the past ten years, we have always tried to mark the holiday in some way. Before we had kids we would go out for a nice meal and talk about what we were thankful for in the past year. Once we had our eldest and we were more established in a family home (rather then the bachelor flat in London) I started to cook a proper Thanksgiving meal. Because it isn't a holiday in the UK and with working and the amount of time it takes to make Thanksgiving we always celebrated it on the following Saturday. We would have our neighbours around and they would all help be preparing a dish and we had a great time.

This year when October turned into November and thus our thoughts turned to Thanksgiving I didn't really know what we were going to do. Groceries here in Doha tend to be more expensive especially imported western brands. Plus I could only find frozen Turkeys and I am not a huge fan of frozen turkey. There was also a part me hoping that we would get invited to a Thanksgiving meal by one of the families in our Church, but that didn't happen ( I will save my thoughts on that subject for another time). We finally decided that since the two people we wanted to invite to Thanksgiving had already accepted invitations elsewhere that we would go for an Alternative Thanksgiving.

At the moment it is a big holiday here in Doha, Eid-al-Adha where the Muslim world is celebrating Ibrahim being willing to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah. So my husband has 3 days off work and there is a general feeling of everything being in holiday mode, especially the roads as they are so quiet. We decided a week ago that we would spend the day at the beach and then on Wednesday my husband's Filipino colleagues invited us to a beach BBQ and camping over night on the beach.

We drove the 80kms to Durkan yesterday afternoon, it only takes between 45-60 minutes. We spent a couple of lovely hours on the beach sunning it, swimming and playing cricket. The beach was quiet, the water was cool and calm and the sand was pristine. The water was the clearest water I have ever seen and it was shallow for a long way out so the boys really enjoyed it.

We were joined by the Filipinos around 5:00 when we all set up our tents and the BBQ started. We proceeded to eat the most wonderful fresh king fish, chicken, other fish that I have no idea what it was and tons of rice. Everything was absolutely delicious and we tried everything, including fish head soup (in which you don't eat the fish heads, they are just used to flavour the liquid).

I am not sure I could have asked for a better Thanksgiving in the circumstances of living in a new country. We were surrounded by friends, enjoyed lots of really good food. Laughed and talked a lot. Slept under a beautiful clear sky in which I saw all the constellations I recognised but just in a slightly different position as I am a lot further south then I am used to being. I think the best part was enjoying something so new and different together as a family.

Driving to School Today

Anyone who lives in Doha, or who has even visited Doha will tell you that driving can be an absolute nightmare. There are road rules, though mostly everyone ignores them. In my short time here I have seen some of the more outrageous and stupid driving then anywhere else I have been before and I have been a fair few places where driving can be an adventure. I am thinking mostly of the time I have spent in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Rome! Doha takes the cake when is comes to bad driving.

My personal favourite is when there are 2 clearly and well defined marked lanes and suddenly someone pushes through the middle to make a two lane road a three lane road. I have started to take up us much space as possible at one roundabout where this happens all the time to prevent it happening to me. Needless to say the person trying to push through honks a few times, but I ignore them.

Today I think I have seen the worst. My eldest son attends a school that is out on the edge of Doha. It takes us anywhere from 40-60 minutes in the morning traffic to get there. The second to last road that we drive on is one lane in each direction. It is perfectly straight and has a couple of speed humps to try and keep speed low. All of a sudden there in the road is a tent, a huge marque. It has been set up on someone's property to host a party or a wedding or something like that and it is obviously going to be a big party. But instead of setting up the tent in a spare bit of desert (like the rest do and there is no shortage of it), they set up the tent on their property but the tent is to big for their property and it extends to cover the entire two lanes of the road. That's right you did indeed just read 'covers the entire two lanes of the road'. Not a small part or half of the road but the whole darn road.

click on the photos to get a better view

To add to my horror at outrage at this is the fact that there have been no signs, or warnings or any redirection set up at all. There is enough space for one car to squeeze between the edge of the tent and two lorry (truck) cabs which had been left in the desert next to the road. This road is very busy in the morning, there are something like seven schools that are accessed by this road. We also have no idea how long it will be like this because of the lack of signage. I was so horrified by this tent this morning that when I went back this afternoon to collect my son I took pictures. Enjoy the craziness that is driving in Doha.