Katara Dhow Festival

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It's been a while since I've posted, mostly because nothing notable has been happening.  We are settled into a routine, more or less, and the excitement of the big move has worn off, so we've not done much on the weekends lately.  Today we went to Katara Heritage Park to see the Dhow festival.  Dhow's from Kuwait, Oman, U.A.E., Qatar, and Yemen were in the water to walk around and take rides on.  Some are strictly traveling vessels and others are strictly pearl diving vessels.  To get there, we had to drive though downtown Doha, which I've never done.  It was Friday mid-morning, so traffic was very light.  I wanted to get pictures of the more unusual looking buildings, but it wasn't working with the traffic and stop lights, etc.  There is so much incredible architecture here, but there is also entirely too much construction, as the photo below shows.

 This is Katara Beach.  It was closed because of the festival.  The green and yellow things in the water are trampolines.  There are also banana boats, jet ski's, kite-boards, and some really cool looking paddle boats, shaped like cars and swans and ducks.  We'll have to go there sometime.  The weather was beautiful.  84 and sunny. 

 A plethora of dhows, which sailed in from all over the GCC.  West Bay is in the background.

 These two statues were pretty cool.  Made entirely out of pots and pans and other household items.

 Why shouldn't there be lovely seating on the moving dock??

 Sergey hopped onto several of the dhows.  There were huge gaps between the deck and the boat in most cases, and I had visions of falling into the Gulf, so I only went on a few, though it would have made for a good story.  I remember that happening to a poor elderly woman when we had to take a ferry to the shore from a cruise ship at St. Thomas back in college.  She slipped right into the Caribbean.  

 They took people on as many rides as you want...that was nice and peaceful.  This is while we were riding along.

 Some of the boats are very plain, while others are ornate.

 Another group of sailors that we passed.

The buildings below make me feel dizzy, but they really look like that. On the bottom right, peaceful sailing....

Above is Katara from the water.  The huge circular building on the left is for plays, etc.  On the right the strange building that looks like a bomb remains a mystery...we never made it over that far.

Some of the older generation demonstrating how to shift through, looking for pearls.  Out of 1000 shells, there will be one or two with pearls in it.  Years ago, it was brutal work, and men would often go deaf after about 5 years on the job, from diving to deep depths without any equipment.

This is goofy, but I thought it was cute.  It's a book case.  A  father reading the Quran to his children, and books fit in the top

 This little guy is getting instruction on how to tie hooks for fishing.

 These children were playing traditional games....this one is called advance and retreat.  It's the same idea as Simon Says, but a rope is used.
Honestly, not too many would still be playing such games...they prefer computers and Ipads, etc.

 This is an old game, where one essentially runs with the wheel.  As a child gets older, the stick is not attached to the wheel, making it much more difficult to balance, but some of the kids were quite good.

 While I took pictures, Sergey searched for seashells.  He found some good ones...he was looking for some for you, Kecia.

 The girls, in their traditional clothing, played singing games.

These gentlemen played instruments and danced.  I think they may have been depicting pirates, but I'm not sure.

Jumping rope transcends cultures, I think.

At the same time as the Dhow festival, the BelaRussian military was on-hand to perform.  They had just finished, and were quite tired.  Sergey enjoyed watching them march and twirl their weapons.  Very Soviet-like.

This is the reception/waiting room while having your car washed!!  The furniture is VERY Qatari....it's comfortable, but I'm sick of looking at the colors.  Still, better than sitting in a tiny little area that's part of the convenient store that I've experienced many times during oil changes in Virginia.  Here there was tea and water, and English television as a bonus!

With the car next to mine being white, it's kind of difficult to see the difference, but my car was as dirty as this white one, even the windows.  Likely there will be a sandstorm in the night to coat my freshly cleaned car with dirt.

And to end a long day...Sophie and I taking a walk.  This was almost endearing early on, but now it's just annoying...10 times/day.