Sunday, December 10, 2006
Monday December 11th 2006 - 
It's raining this morning when I head out to run and it rains for my whole run and is still raining now. Again highly unusual but we're getting used to the unusual. The TV screens are showing golf and the soft ball field and it looks pretty wet out there.
Saad is trying to organise that I go down to Saleen with someone (Mohammed? Saad? Someone else I'm not sure) and ride a buggy on the sand dunes by the sea before I leave. Sounds like fun.
I'd also like to go to the desert now that the weather is so nice and perfect. A journalist yesterday invited me to Syria in his next holidays (June next year) to Damascus. "You will be my guest." he says. Then he also invites me to Muscat in Oman which is where he and his family lives at the moment. I wish I had more time to do this now but perhaps later. Sohaila, Salwa and Sameera are here this morning and are telling me about traditional Qatari culture. Sameera Ibrahim is pure Qatari. Salwa is from Sudan but has been living here for 6 years as her husband is a doctor. Before coming here they were living in Saoudie Arabia and she is happy to be in Qatar where it's much less strict. Sohaila is originally from Iran. Iran is also much stricter then Qatar. Technically it's nearly impossible to become Qatari. But, I've noticed that some of the medalist from Qatar are not Qatari bred. The Men's Marathon winner yesterday looked dangerously like an Ethiopian and then I learn that Qatar has indeed imported athletes to compete for Qatar. Those people have had no problem acquiring Qatari nationality.
Qatar has held these games against all odds because they have money, they imported the manforce to stage the games, they paid all the terrorist groups to stay away and they have even bought the athletes. I suspect some successful athletes are indeed Qatari but this is a small nation with only 200 000 Qataris (for a total of 800 000 population) so it wouldn't be expected to win too many medals compared to nations like China who yesterday had 191 medals already.
Salwa tells me she has five children here and her eldest daughter (16) is in Sudan and wants to study to be a doctor. He second, a son, 15, will go back to Sudan next year to study as an engineer. University in Sudan, Salwa tells me is much better than in Qatar and this is what I've heard too. That university here is too easy and has no standards.
Well that's all for now
It's raining this morning when I head out to run and it rains for my whole run and is still raining now. Again highly unusual but we're getting used to the unusual. The TV screens are showing golf and the soft ball field and it looks pretty wet out there.
Saad is trying to organise that I go down to Saleen with someone (Mohammed? Saad? Someone else I'm not sure) and ride a buggy on the sand dunes by the sea before I leave. Sounds like fun.
I'd also like to go to the desert now that the weather is so nice and perfect. A journalist yesterday invited me to Syria in his next holidays (June next year) to Damascus. "You will be my guest." he says. Then he also invites me to Muscat in Oman which is where he and his family lives at the moment. I wish I had more time to do this now but perhaps later. Sohaila, Salwa and Sameera are here this morning and are telling me about traditional Qatari culture. Sameera Ibrahim is pure Qatari. Salwa is from Sudan but has been living here for 6 years as her husband is a doctor. Before coming here they were living in Saoudie Arabia and she is happy to be in Qatar where it's much less strict. Sohaila is originally from Iran. Iran is also much stricter then Qatar. Technically it's nearly impossible to become Qatari. But, I've noticed that some of the medalist from Qatar are not Qatari bred. The Men's Marathon winner yesterday looked dangerously like an Ethiopian and then I learn that Qatar has indeed imported athletes to compete for Qatar. Those people have had no problem acquiring Qatari nationality.
Qatar has held these games against all odds because they have money, they imported the manforce to stage the games, they paid all the terrorist groups to stay away and they have even bought the athletes. I suspect some successful athletes are indeed Qatari but this is a small nation with only 200 000 Qataris (for a total of 800 000 population) so it wouldn't be expected to win too many medals compared to nations like China who yesterday had 191 medals already.
Salwa tells me she has five children here and her eldest daughter (16) is in Sudan and wants to study to be a doctor. He second, a son, 15, will go back to Sudan next year to study as an engineer. University in Sudan, Salwa tells me is much better than in Qatar and this is what I've heard too. That university here is too easy and has no standards.
Well that's all for now
# posted by AdeC @ 9:09 PM 
