Before my Christmas vacation

Before I went for my vacation I had to activities with Qatar Living Forum. The first activity was on December 14 with the Filipino Expatriates Group and the second activity was on December 15 together with the Social Group.

The activity with the Filipino Expatriates Group was our Christmas party. It is the first Christmas party for the group. And since some are leaving for vacation or even leaving Qatar permanently, we also wanted it to be a send off party to them. Because of our experience in the past of too much left-over food, we decided to have a set menu and just collect a fixed contribution from those who are attending. We also decided to have an exchange gift whose value must not be less than 50QR.

Making the activity special was a taxing undertaking. We had to get a venue and the food must be special enough to be worth the 50QR contribution we were asking from the attendees. I had to schedule my lunch and dinner at different restaurants in Doha just to have a taste of their menu to decide where we would order our food for the evening.

After a friend generously volunteered her accommodation as a venue, we hurriedly bought decorations to make her place a Christmas party venue. She even bought lanterns when she had a week's vacation in Oman.

The party was very successful indeed. We had food enough for all and we had fun especially with the games. One of the members donated all the prizes for the games. We had a videoke challenge. With the videoke a staple in Filipino gatherings, how can we not have it? The grand prize was drawn via a Bingo blackout game. But we had our good laugh and fun with the charades and the “yes, no and maybe” game.

It was a night full of fun and laughter with friends and members. For some hours we forgot we were away from home and we enjoyed our time as if we were having the party in the Philippines. Many are looking forward for a repeat of such an activity.

The next day, we were off to Al Zubara, a district somewhere northwest of Qatar. I didn’t really know the directions and how to keep track on it. I haven’t figured out yet how to operate the GPS on my mobile phone and I forgot the map in my room. Anyway, we were going on a convoy and I have company with me.

The way to Zubara was a scenic desert scene. We saw wild camels and local shepherds herding their sheep. It was a path that was full of interesting views that although the convoy was speeding at speeds between 160 to 180 kph, we still enjoyed talking about the scenes we were passing by.

Although the beach in Zubarra was beautiful some portions of it were spoiled by the trash left behind by previous campers and beach goers. There were ruins of an old jetty and an old fort with some of its guard towers and connecting walls still protruding out of the white sand.

We were there for a fishing trip but nobody checked the tide forecasts and we arrived during a low tide and the water was still receding. So we waded on the low, cool sea water until we noticed there were crabs lying on the sand beneath the shallow water.

Somebody took out spears and suddenly we were having a fun time spearing for crabs about the sea. We were trying to catch the biggest crab we could find. I was a bit unlucky because one of the crabs I was taking out of the spear suddenly caught my finger with its pinchers. Though it was a small wound it bled a lot. But it did not dampen my spirit to catch them. One of our colleagues even accidentally speared his foot but still he was smiling and enjoyed the experience of going after the fast crabs.

After more than an hour of crabbing we decided to take our late lunch by the sea. We had barbeque and some tabouleh. We also had some Turkish coffee. We shared stories of fishing sorties past and some jokes. We decided to head back to Doha before the sun sets on us.

But before going back to Doha, we passed by the farm of a friend and saw the vegetables and animal farm they have there. Finally I got to see his farm which until that time was just stories and I did not believe any such farm would exist in a generally desert surrounding of Qatar. How wrong I was. It was a beautiful farm and reminded me of vegetable farms in the Philippines.

The two days spent with friends from Qatar Living was really a fun and time well spent. Activities such as these make living in a foreign land more bearable and enjoyable.

Weekend with Qatar Living

This month I am already one and half years here in Qatar. It all seems just like yesterday. For the first year I really did not find many new friends because I just preferred to go home, open my laptop and surf the Internet to pass my time. But humans being social animals just could not stand solitary confinement and finds a way to socialize with others albeit not in the actual presence.

Like many others hooked on the Internet, I joined a social network. At first I was just a regular browser trying to find meaningful and useful information about Qatar. That is where I found Qatar Living or QL to many users which is the most useful website for practical and everyday things about Qatar. After several months of just browsing through it, I finally joined the forum as a regular member.

And early this year the site administrators launched the QL Forums which are basically focused forums on certain topics, interests and affiliation. There is the Social Group, the Movie Club and many other forums that have since been created or formed to cater to the many interests of the expatriates and local techno-junkies or even casual PC users here in the State of Qatar or even those just planning to go here.

Among the popular forums here is the Filipino Expatriates in Qatar. It has already more than 200 subscribers made up Filipinos and Expats who admire us Filipinos. And the subscriber base keeps growing everyday.

Last month I was made the manager of this group. Our first activity is to reorganize the group and then plan for a Christmas party. We also engaged with other members of the forum who are not members of the Filipino Group.

Over the weekend we were able to join the fishing trip organized by the Social Group. It was my first time to go fishing without using a fishing rod but fishing line on a wooden spool. My friend Mohammad lent me his fishing line and taught me how to put the bait and how to throw it into the water. Since the Wakrah wharf was rocky, my lead weight and bait hook got caught in the rocks twice and we had to cut the line. At first it was frustrating then it got exciting as we started to catch fish.

But the most exciting thing started when a fish that was latched on to my hook was bitten by a sword fish. I thought I got the bigger fish with it but at the last second it let go. It became my mission then to catch the swordfish that got away. Mohammad helped me change to a bigger hook and put a bigger bait for me. Several times the fish bit the bait, would wrestle with us and then let go at the last minute. Even the usually patient Mohammed gave up on the wily fish.

But then another friend, Monty, suggested trying smaller bait. So what did was hook on a fresh small fish bait and then cut its head so blood oozed out. Then I threw it into back into the sea. A few seconds after, I felt the line taut and tried to reel it in. But again the wily fish let go at the last second. Frustrated, I threw back the bait into the sea this time I changed my strategy.

As soon as I felt the line taut, I let go a few more meters. Then I slowly pulled back, then as it taut again I let go a few meters. With a quick jerk I pulled the line back and I saw the fish jump out of the water with the end of the line clearly going into its mouth. This is where it got exciting. It started jumping out and into the water moving sideways and trying to pull back the line as I was trying to pull him in. It thought to myself: “I got you now!” It was my first exciting catch and memories of reading “The Old Man and The Sea” came back to me. Now I understood the emotion that went to the Old Man as he caught the biggest catch of his life. I had never been able to relate to it until now. The wily fish tried to swallow my bait whole and it got stuck in its throat so it wasn't able to let go.

It was an exciting day. The pictures show our catch of the day.

The next day, we had our usual morning jog. But as I was going out of the house, a thick fog met me as I opened the door. This was going to be an interesting jogging day. I quickly went back to my room and grabbed my fleece shirt and my bonnet. This day was going to be colder than the other days.

As we reached the corniche, fog filled the surroundings. It was great jogging during the fog. The air was refreshing and the cold light wind provided a soothing chill on my back. (See pictures on the corniche with other joggers.)

Again we made it to 4000m marker and then on the return back we did a deliberate slow jog for 1000m after which it left our heart pounding away. We continued with a brisk walk until the 1500m marker and back to the slow jog for another 500m. This time we finished the 8km distance in 1hour 15 minutes.

This week a good week spent with friends. Next week we will be having our Christmas party but that is another story.