Teaching and Family Living Overseas in Doha Qatar

We have been in Qatar almost 3 years and its time for this life experience to come to an end. Would I do it again, in a heartbeat. This experience has been of the highest caliber , like buying your first home or having moving out of your parent's house, it has been transformational.
What I mean is that our life here has given me an awareness and confidence that we can pick up go any time and do this again, that my life doesn't mean finishing my work in a particular place, retire there and grow old there... I now see a kaleidoscope of options because I haven't chosen to nail myself down to any one location, I am free.
I have also learned that I can adapt as can my family to huge change. I have learned that the world is a small place and that we are not so different no matter where we happen to be. I have learned that people everywhere are good and kind. I have learned that Canada is rich beyond what many people over here can possibly imagine. Our rights and privileges are second to none. I have learned that school kids are the same and the conversations we have as teachers, about kids, back home are the same ones we have here.
Kids love Facebook over here too, and sometimes its hard to get them to hand in there homework as well. I have learned that more money for education does make for a better classroom no matter what politicians say. A class size of 23, 2 preps and a load of 5/8 helps to make my classroom sing, I am a better teacher in that environment and I have a ton more energy for many other things too.
As we leave I have had time to reflect on what I have enjoyed here in Doha and what has been irritating. We'll start with the crummy stuff...

What I won't miss when I leave Qatar ...

Drivers who honk the horn outside a villa every morning at 4:47 am to pick someone one up.
Drivers who think nothing of driving on the right hand shoulder to get around traffic and then merge, while they talk on their cell phones and their kids jump around unbelted in the car.
A 6 dollar grande latte.
Car mechanics who can't speak ( or won't ) English.
No fresh water lakes
The color beige
Cinema patrons, who don't watch movies but talk on their cell phones.
The green wiry weed that passes for grass here.
The lack of things to do... perhaps my unstimulated imagination.
August, September,October, May and 1/2 of June.
Roundabouts on major thorough fares and their inevitable back logs and "close calls" as you navigate through them.
The lack of proper street addresses.
Being called Mr. Barry. As opposed to Barry.
Vegetable weighing counters and getting your price stickers.
Grocery selection. Having one thing you love one week and not seeing it again for months...I miss my Miracle Whip and my coffee cream!
Sport stores that don't sell hockey equipment, not a single one... Even the one next to the ice rink... with over a couple hundred hockey players who all break hockey sticks on occasion.
An artificial lake that you can look at but can't go near.
Al Ahli hospital waiting room.
Dust storms
Doha airport.

What I will miss leaving Qatar

I will miss ASD. The faculty, the kids, the support staff and the facility . We new we would travel and see wonderous things but we never expected all the gifts we received at ASD.
Call to prayer at any time other than sunrise. Its still the quintessential Arabic experience.
Hockey in the mall. I had given up playing hockey but it took coming to the desert to rediscover how much I love the game.
Walking to school in the morning every day and never needing a touque (eh!) or an umbrella.
Our front courtyard outside our house which has transformed into a leafy,green, pastoral oasis.
Playing tennis with my son at school.
Going out for dinner with my wife to these cool little hole in the wall restaurants to eat food that I've never seen before.
Swimming in the school's outdoor pool all year long.
Being in the middle of so many cool places and being able to fly to them cheaply.
Parties in villa courtyards outside through out the year.
Dhow cruises in the Persian gulf.
Souq Wakif, the smells of sheesha and spices.
Tennis tournaments, at 30$ a ticket to see Nedal or Federer or the Williams sisters... as well as soccer friendlies, volleyball tournaments...
Soccer tournaments in Abu Dhabi!
The syndicate, not the inconvenience, just the idea of it, 1 liquour store in the whole country and you need your employer's permission to go there.
Creatively decorated roundabouts on minor roads.
Doha sunsets.
Reasonable taxi cab rates.
Free workouts and free swims! I haven't paid a riyal in 3 years
NO income tax or tax of any kind for that matter

It is done. We are much richer for the experience and wiser of the world. I started this blog 3 years ago, its been fun. It hardly seems possible that we've been away and now are back!! These 3 years will stand alone in my life for their energy, uncertainty and jaw dropping experiences.

Going back to Nepal was something we had to do. There are many places we haven't seen and won't see (this time around). We considered an African Safari and a beach vacation in Bali or Sri Lanka... But our experience 2 years ago Trekking in the Annapurna, brought us back to Nepal and the Himalayas. We love the outdoors and the idea of a "workout" vacation just seem to resonate with every one. Secondly, the Nepalese are lovely people, they are very easygoing and go out of their way to make you feel welcome.
There is something special about visiting a place for the second time. We went back to a restaurant that we liked the first time, visited some shops that gave us good deals a couple years ago... Got the same good deals again! A 70 L backpack for $38, very good quality to boot!

We totally lucked out and ended up the with same guide and porter we had on first trek. Nara and Gundraj had barely changed in two years and seemed to just pick up where we left off. The trek we decided on was a five hour drive north of Kathmandu in the Langtang National park.

We Arrived in Kathmandu in the afternoon and had a great thai meal at a restaurant that we had discovered on our last visit. We left bright and early the next morning in our white chariot which initially we thought was a little dumpy and slightly overpriced. Well, the alternative was the local bus. A sardine can would look spacious by comparison. And if you can't squeeze into the tin can... yep look at the pic, you ride the roof. If the buses pass under power lines, well ... duck! The roads for the most part were fine but the last hour was along the side of a mountain with a very steep drop off. In fact the slope was so steep I count 12 separate landslide events.

The picture below was a few months before we got there. The road had been plowed and rebuilt. But you get the general idea. It was only wide enough for one vehicle to pass and the drop down was 100's of meters in to dump truck size boulders. The slopes still looked unstable but fortunately it was not monsoon so the risk of landslide was reduced. It was a white knuckler for that hour and I was just thanking the lord that I wasn't on the roof of a bus wobbling down the same road. W saw one bus get stuck on a steep narrow patch. The bus unloaded and people had to walk ahead. Once the road flattenned out, they hopped back on and off went the bus! Yep ... white knuckles.

It looks close on a map, but like anything in India or Sri Lanka .... Your average speed is usually 50 km/hr on a good day.

The Town of Dhunche is where we started our trek. It caters essentially to trekkers and soldiers. The people and the kids are really friendly, but some of the gangster kids made me nervous, but just gave them a lot of room...

This gal below was weaving a scarf on her front porch. She had a belt around her waist to keep it all tight. To add more tension she would simply lean back.

Another interesting Dunche sight was watching big vehicles trying to make their way down main street. The fellow wearing the blue hoodie/jumper is trying to ensure that none of those power lines gets snagged on his back hoe. That guy was scrambling like a crazy.

Ready for action ... Well Ok the hat was definitely a bad fashion call.

This trek would be different from our last trek. The first trek we climbed up ridges and descended into valleys (repeat). This trek was straight up for 3 days and turn around, back down in 2.

the first day's start was gorgeous!

The first little restaurant right at the bottom of the hill, just behind that home is where the stairs began. Its about 9:00am

Lunch break!

Dunche, where we started our trek was at 1700 m or a little over a mile high. I am smilling because its now lunch at 11:30 and we've climbed almost a kilometer in altitude.

Our first little teahouse stop. We weren't too sure how popular this particular trek was until we stopped for lunch. It took us 90 minutes to get our food and get back on the trail, it was busy with trekers speaking languages from all over the globe. Nepal is really a melting pot of adventure seekers

As I recall we were all kind of happy it was lunch so we coud kick off our shoes and give our feet a rest. I thought I was getting a blister, so I coverred my heel and the inside of my hike shoe with vaseline... no problem after that, cause ther ain't nothing worse then a blister when you're hiking. Well, almost nothing, right honey!

Typical teahouse kitchen below nothing terribly fancy but the food almost always tastes great especially after a good work out.

Chilli peppers drying in the rafters.

Back on the trail after lunch we started to feel the altitude every couple of switch backs we'd stop and look back and see how far we'd gone. The teahouse was always there just over your shoulder.

It was great to be in the forest, loving the air, the perfume of the pine trees and watching my man Gundraj get our stuff up the hill.

Yep, still there!

And after an hour of straight up we all needed a well earned break. Another teahouse a bottle of water, a Mars bar and up we go.

As the sign says we just surpassed 3000 m or 9850 feet. But a few more to go before we rest.

There were not many flowers on our trip this time ... we motored right through the sub alpine. But what we did come across was quaint

Rhododendron in bloom once again!

Subtle beauty

Another beauty

Beauty and the Beast

The end of our first day's trek. Poor Lenore got in the door and was sick for the rest of the evening. Fortunately she recovered for the next day... we just took it easy.

Ready for day 2 ! We are drinking hot seabuck thorn juice delicious!!
The forest were open fragrant and damp, pretty flat too which made for a nice break

And yes just beyond Lenore is snow. First time I'd seen the white stuff in a few years and it wouldn't be the last in the next couple of days.

3584 m = 11750 feet the climb begins to slow down.

Conor found this beautiful top. It's woolen (yak?) up on the mountain a bargoon at 40$.

The himalayan express coming through below!

Snow in the air ... we are not in Doha any more...

Quite night around the only firesource in the entire teahouse. And because your at altitude and its hard to get wood the stove doesn't fire up until about 5 pm. It'was a tad chilly.

Tring to warm before hitting the sack at 8 pm ... no electricity after that.

Crisp clear morning with a dusting of snow.

Our guide Nara, ready to go...

Little steps everyone, little steps.

The view was awesome but Nara said ... bhah! They are not mountains they are only hills! Hills that are over 16 000 feet high.

Now that's a mountain! 7200m or 23600 ft .... ayuh, I'm good with that.

"Every" step is work. It is a very interest experience hiking this high. When older people talk about going up a set of stairs and running out of breath I can now say, with complete honesty, " I know exactly what you mean."
When you stop for a break the relief is immediate. after 5 steps of climbing you are breathing deeply and your heart is a poundin'.

Dunche, where we started 2 days earlier. Climbing at altitude is slow going.

Yoga on the top of the world!

Looking good my boy!

Conor of the Himalayas

Our summit, almost there!

Nara our guide and Gundraj our porter ... like Starsky and Hutch, Holmes and Watson, Batman and Robin, gin and tonic... Well you know what I mean...

Summit! You can see this stupa from just about anywhere on the hike and Nara refrained from pointing it out on the way up in case we got discouraged.

Summitted but not quite there... We still had about an hour hike to our teahouse which was pretty much horizontal but not completely. And then the weather started to move in. One moment, brilliant sunshine and you're walk in a t shirt the next moment - snow.

A little break at a shrine and off we go.

We have arrived at Gosaikunda lake 4380 m or 14 370 feet. The cabin was great they get the stove going a little earlier here. The food looked good on paper but I found myself with no appetite. This is strange for me and I can only attribute it to the altitude. I eat like a horse after that kind of a hike, but that night and the next morning I found I was forcing my food down.

Huddled around the stove.

Not my pic, but a very nice shot of the lake.

We met a great couple from England and taught them how to play Skip - bo. The guides and porters joined in... good fun.
We woke up the next morning to 6 cm of new snow...

The plan was to hike up to the pass for the view, but the day was overcast and the idea of going higher just for the sake of going was .... unappealing. So we never made it to 15 000 feet but no regrets. We were looking forward to going downhill and all that additional oxygen as you go.

We flew down! It took us 2 sleeps to get up and 1 sleep to go down.

Stopping for the occasional break, a little fun in the sun.

The next morning Lenore and I got up just as the sun was rising for some serious eye candy, we were not disappointed. In the Himalayas the cloud builds up quickly as the sun heats up the Earth. If you want to see the mountains you have to get up early. So our guide raced us up the mountain . I look
Somewhat composed in the picture above but I honestly felt like I was having a heart attack.

The day ended up being perfect!

Man I love my telephoto lens.
The peaks are all over 20 000 feet high

This is tibet above, I guess we were maybe 20 km from China.

Langtang Mountain.

After we could absorb any more beauty we headed back down for nice warm cup of coffee.

our hostess was preparing for another day of sales

The mat tucked into her backside was a very common site. When sit down on something cold or wet, your covered!

The family next door was enjoying the Sun as well

A typical room. I was in the corner on the left and the toilet was on the other side of that wall by my head. It was like waking up to the sound of some one peeing in your ear at 3 am. I did not sleep well that night. But this place made up for it with the best hot shower I had in a couple of days.

This little guy is a red panda ( I think he's more aptly named rusty raccoon, but that's just me). He is an endangered species and very difficult to find in Nepal, needless to say we didn't beat the odds, hence the picture of a poster.

A lonnnnnng way to go yet.

I could not help taking Pictures of mountains

A hut for the summer. The Nepalese bring their yaks to altitude to graze in the summer and live in these makeshift home. The yaks at one end and the family at the other.

A yak shelter and the fellow sitting down is weaving the roof.

A yak muzzle so it doesn't eat the home or the roof.

These finches were pretty to look at and seemed to be everywhere.

Familiar trail.

Oxen on the Himalayan highway.

Photo op. The Mountain straight bove Lenore's head is where we came from. Gosaikunda Lake is just beyonda before the most distant mountain that you see.

Nara was awesome he took care of our rooms, served our meals , negotiated room rates kept us positive and filled our days with interesting anecdotes of Nepal.