Can you believe that a taxi drives away with all your shopping bags in the back of the taxi then  after one hour he comes back then he wants you to pay for  that ?
Well , that is what exactly happened to  us . I had just left the  taxi and wanted to open the back of the car when he drove away and left me in  the middle of the road . He forgot the bags obviously . Then I called the karwa supervisors  - they wanted to know all sorts of things about me and my bags  - that had nothing to see with the matter .But finally they found the forgetful driver .

I expected him to apologize but at my greatest shock he wanted me to pay for his coming back .I was furious  I told  him my mind . But he would not get hurt  and would not go away . He was just standing there  in front of our house .


Finally my husband gave him some money .You can laugh at us -but it was so disturbing to see that he was ready to camp in front of our house for the want of 25 riyals . ...


Things like that happen only in Qatar I think .

While I was away from Qatar two important things happened in July .

1. There was an earthquake with the epicenter around 300 km from Doha .It was 5.8 .
It seems to me that very few people noticed that at all .

2 .All telephone numbers changed into 8 digit numbers in a way that you have to add the first digit one more time ... for example if you call karwa then in stead of 458 8888 you have to use 4458 8888 .
  Both landline and mobile phones changed this way .

Perhaps you need a new business card then with this change !:) Here is one of my bestseller:


 

I have not been able to write for a while . There was a bug and I had not been able to post .

I was back to Hungary and I compared the two countries all the time .  
 

It was rather hot there as well and  no AC at most homes . The days were longer even at 9 30 it was daylight . I think  this is the thing I miss the most when  it is  summer  in Qatar . It is early   and it is totally dark at 6 .Mcdonald's in Hungary is selling all kinds of healthy food :  fruit , cheese bars ,grilled chicken breast with salad ,muesli with yoghurt . 
Health service in Hungary is still not very well organized . It is still better in Qatar . It was not a surprise .Just I was shocked when at emergency  my adult child was asked to pay around  $50 for the treatment . I had always thought that emergency is something free everywhere  .

Summer entertainments are numerous in Hungary festivals all the time .
Here I saw no clue having something like that.

Hungarian Vacations by almawad
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It is nice in Qatar that dogs and there owners right is not above humans'. In Hungary you can see so many big ,dangerous dogs  without the prescribed protections .Nobody cares though there have been so many tragedies .
My kids enjoyed seeing frogs , spiders  , fruit on  trees / and my preschoolers noticed that women outnumber men in Hungary while in Qatar just the opposite .












All in all it was a nice holiday and a nice return .I have a nice spacious home  here and  I have  some friends  and we  can work and have a comfortable life .

criminal negligence  of a private mini van driver leaves another little child dead  Dammam , Saud Arabia  June 2010  

It seems that we did not shout  loud enough  when Sarah Gazdhar died in May ,2010 in Doha ,Qatar .
Not loud enough to be heard in  Saud Arabia

I do not wish to fill my blog with such tragic news  - but i can not stay silent when our kids life is so cheap . The story is the same : driver is too lazy to check the rear end of the bus . There is no attendant  -it is not a school van ,anyway .Little Fida Harris was found dead five hours later .


School transportation should be  reorganized  in the area ! Only dedicated drivers should be allowed to drive  kids to school / They should be trained   about the special challenges of transporting kids ! And because  the danger of death is so high in the hot weather those  buses should be checked by three different persons when arriving at the school !

500.000  riyal  fine for the school  where a five year old was forgotten on the bus .

 This happened in October ,2009 . The poor little girl  was sleeping at the rear end of the bus . A driver  was lazy to check that place . A school was too greedy to spend money on a bus attendant . The result  :   she was found in terrible conditions five hours later .Doctors were fighting for her life during days .Luckily she survived . It was October .Not as hot as May .She is still suffering from psychological problems .No wonder .
The driver got two year jail  and fined to 10. 000 riyal  which  is more than  the income of a year for a driver .
Shame on every school  where the life of  our kids is so cheap ! It was the Tunesian  School in Doha .

It was cool the other day in Doha . It was hot in Hungary the other day .It was around 36 C  there and here 38 C.
In Hungary the government warned people to stay inside and listed public places with air conditioning where anybody was free to enter and cool down .Roads were sprayed with water ...Free bottles of water were distributed in the streets .


Here nothing special .It is just June . School buses still come and go for some schools . Their badly working air conditioning  does not disturb the school managements usually .

Good news In Doha

 We happened to go for shopping to the New Lulu the other day . As we came home we noticed that the new motorway is made .It was like flying ... no  traffic jam , no roundabouts no cross  no junctions . We made  two third of our way to home   on that new motorway .  Then we had to  turn into the usual jammed roads . At snail pace !

Museum of Islamic Art by almawad
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Museum of Islamic Art is a very interesting building . If you are interested in architecture then the building itself is worth a visit . it is built in a man made island by the seaside promenade called  Corniche around here . The architect had been studying the islamic architecture for years before proposing this building design .  The result is a modern building with traditonal elements reminding one to famous  Mosques . 

It has got court with fountains and arches ... Refreshing and elegant .

court with fountains by almawad
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Turkish Vase by almawad
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 and it has got a lots of old objects to see ....


if you have not been to the museum yet
 I can highly recommend  to visit it ! 

Sarah Gazdhar , the four year old  , the one who was forgotten on the school bus was burried  in Doha.We just feel so bad and helpless . We adopted her into our heart . It feels a little bit as she was our child .

Many people keep asking why did it happen .So do I .
Answer number one : it can be that drivers or bus supervisors simply do not understand that locking someone into a bus or car in this heat can be very quickly fatal . They should be educated by videos to make them understand  how dangerous it is.

IN this video one can see  how quickly temperature rises inside the car . it is 27 C outside  and after one hour it is  over 50 C .
One can imagine how it is when the outside temperature is over 40 C . Plus children 's body get hot much faster than adult's .
In fact - it is so big danger around here that some minutes is enough and kids are baked inside a locked vehicle .
 The danger is so big  in the heat of Qatar that a system should be  done to be sure that no one will be left there .

 My child  had attended a small nursery  with 70 children and one bus . The place was not perfect but the principal took this issue very seriously . She did not trust the life of kids on untrained drivers and helpers . Every day she checked the bus personally  at arriving and at leaving . She registered personally who arrived and who left .
With big schools this system  does not work .Still there are other ideas  to use .

School Buses in Qatar

 Doha has got  very large number of students . Big ones and small ones .At the same time Doha's expat population is not steady . Many people come and go . So do the drivers   so do the teachers  and  bus attendants.
 When we trust our children on a school we have no option to check the driver  and the bus attendant if they are reliable persons .The school management  should do this job .


But it seems that they are  simply not interested . My child went to DPS MIS school for summer camp . She had a great time there  and  I believed that she is  at  the careful hands of professional adults . It was only after the camp that my six year old mentioned that once she fell asleep on the bus  and found herself alone and closed for some time . Luckily the driver came back  to check something then she was set free . Another time another little boy found himself forgotten in the bus . He managed to jump out through  a window .
He was a little bit bigger . The four year old Sarah Ghazdar was not so lucky . The driver did not come back and she could not set herself free . A little child died . She could have been yours  or ours .


Why ? Because schools are not supervised properly .Because bus drivers do not get proper training on their duties .Because bus attendants   do not care either  and many times simply the school does not  hire any .Because the drivers and attendants come from countries where they are not taught to think independently . They are taught only  to respect and follow ... and their common sense  is simply not working ...


Sorry to say so . But I am angry . I am furious .

A Little Girl who did not return home from school


It was just another school day at the kindergarten . Looking forward to meeting friends and having a day full of fun , singing , numbers,colors , rhyme .

For Sarah Gazdhar it was the last one . Somebody  forgot to check the school bus  after arriving .  A simple one minute job .Sarah fell asleep and was forgotten  there . It was 40 C outside . The bus was closed for four and half an hour . She  must had a terrible death .


That is the story .
It could have been your child or mine .
And the bus will come tomorrow and we will let our kids to school . Praying  that someone will not fail to do this one minute job .Hoping that no child will be left on the bus .

I found a gift shop in Islamic art museum it was selling neckties with patterns of famous traditional Islamic art .As a necktie designer myself I was pleased with their idea. There were also different kinds of  wrap paper with the same pattern on sale in case you like the pattern just do not wish to pay for a tie 130 QAR .

I found some hand painted china in cream color with golden motifs .They are nice presents .Just they are not cheap .  There were also  some cheaper mugs with printed motifs . Not as special as these ones but still they make a nice Middle Eastern souvenir .
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But best of all I liked this oval plate with calligraphy on it . It is a real exclusive piece . If they had a cheaper version I would buy it .







They are offering t-shirts with calligraphy .umbrellas ,posters , cards ,jewels whatever you would expect from a gift shop to sell.


The Museum itself is open between 10:30 and 5 30 entrance is free . It is on the Corniche

Pearl exhibition

It is on at Islamic Art Museum until the 5th of July . You can see a lots of pearls . Natural ones and cultivated ones .Pink , white , cream , golden ,black .From Qatar ,from Panama , from Australia , from the Philippines ,from Japan .The natural ones come in small cups and dishes -the cultivated ones by buckets . The heydays of pearl fishing around here was from 1850 -1940 . The era when the rich Westerner and Indian maharajas all wanted to decorate themselves and their surroundings by pearls . Then the pearl beds were depleted -then came Mikimoto the Japanese inventor with his cultivated pearls . The natural pearls are never as regular in shape as the cultivated ones . You can see a lots of jewels Indian dresses , Coco Chanel 's dress , Indian carpets all decorated by pearls . You can read a lots of interesting things on the pearls . It is rather dark inside the rooms and there is some mysterious music which made my preschooler feel uncomfortable .My bigger kid enjoyed it and found it relaxing .

It was worth the 20 riyal we payed for the tickets - for kids it was free ..

The Building of the museum itself is worth a visit ..but about that I am planning to write another article .

No photos were allowed inside the pearl rooms :(

Casol square silk scarf - Princess Grace Kelly style


Some vintage summer fashion from the era of Grace Kelly when wearing a scarf over the head was not banned in any European countries  from the era when France was not so restrictive and paranoid about a piece of clothes to cover the head  It was simply chic .

O tempora! O mores

!

Alma Wad's neckties for summer



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PLACIDO DOMINGO IN QATAR 2010

According to the official site of the singer the concert will take place at the PEARL QATAR - MARSA ARABIA

DATE : 13 th of May 2010
 TIME -7 pm  - from 6 pm onwards
Tickets : Virgin Megastore   -for more info call 
(+974)  4135823/4135824

online ticket 
350 - 600 -1200 rial 

Event : Antologia de la Zarzuela

Qatar ,the multicultural

This video features an international cultural night at CMU -Q ( an American University in Qatar ) -th performers are not professionals but simple students ..

If you love photography  then just have a look at the submitted images of the photo competition of the British Council .

2044    


is the year when the hatchlings of turtles will return
to the shores of Qatar to lay eggs at the same place where they saw the daylight themselves

Qatar Photo Gifts



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