Recent Activity

It seems forever ago that I came back from Nepal. At first I was quite sick with a cold and then bronchitis and so all I could do was go to work and come home. But now I am all better and so have become a bit more active.
So, the president of the university, Dr Harvey Weingarten came to Qatar, along with a few other folks from Calgary, including the head of the Board of Governors. Our students loved meeting President Weingarten and he, in turn, seemed to really enjoy meeting them. One of my students, Wahiba, asked him to remember her name, so it would motivate her to do well in school. I thought that was very sweet and I gave her a lot of positive feedback for asking a question during the general assembly. Very scary.
Then we have also been to the souq to buy souvenirs for Dave to take home with him when he returns to Canada in a week or 10 days. Lois will really miss him, but I am sure she will be fine. We have decided that one can really never have too many pashminas ... oops, have I given my Christmas present strategy away?
We also went to a lecture by an archeologist who has been examining some ruins in the NW part of Qatar, on the coast - Al Ruweda. The Natural History group is really a good one. I can't make it to the ramble this week (a visit to a movie set and the man-eating ostriches that live there ... well, maybe I exaggerate, but they are known to be very vicious!) because a professor from Japan (an American I met in Nepal) is coming to do some training with us this weekend on Content Language Integrated Learning. That should be interesting, but it really will interfere with my social life! We have a new faculty admin person, Marisol, who did an amazing job of arranging everything for his trip from Miyazaki. Thank you, Sol!! I have been driven almost batty by the challenges of getting textbooks here ... e-versions don't work, shipments are delayed by the Supreme Council, Amazon's expedited service is slow, and on it goes. In the end I prevailed upon my long-suffering Cait to purcase an e-version and scan it and send me the files ... just so we will have some content to learn how to do content-based lessons. Oy.
What else? Well, I have been swimming a few times and so that has been nice. By swimming, I mean doing my version of aquafit ... but it is better than nothing and that is the story I am sticking with:-) I have developed a love of Arabic pastries .. I found a mamoul cookie that tastes almost like vinerterta, so I am a goner. Today one of my students told me I had gained weight, so I guess I'd better swear off the sweets now.

Speaking of students, I got a lovely surprise from some students when I found an incredible arrangement on my desk after class on Sunday. March 21 was Mother's Day here ... and they very sweetly gave me a floral arrangement and a necklace and earrings. I was very surprised, to say the least. They are so thoughtful ... always asking if I am okay to be alone and wondering how Errol is doing.

BTW, Errol is in Oklahoma with Ezell and Joe - he has been there for about 10 days and he is likely to be there for another week or so. Everyone seems quite well,except Ezell has lost the vision in her right eye. Her resonse was, "That's okay, honey. I can still hear you." That's our Zellie!
Several of us also went to a dance put on by a nursing instructor from CNA-Q to raise money for tuition for several Nepali nursing students. She volunteers at the nursing school in Chitwan ... so it was a lovely event and I think and hope they raised lots of money via ticket sales and through the silent auction. Such a great cause!
Then there are the sporting events! We went to the FINA World Series Diving Competition last weekend. Everyone thought Alexandre Despatie would compete but he stayed in Quebec. There were two Canadian divers - Meghan Benfeito and Rosaline Filion (below). They seemed happy for our support ... such a small contingent compared to the Chinese and German crews.

Other countries represented were Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Australia, Kuwait, Qatar, and China. There were tons of great Chinese divers, including several Olympic gold medal winners and world champions. They won all 8 gold medals, and were truly amazing divers.

The Hamad Aquatic Center was a spectacular facility. I went for a morning and an evening event and really enjoyed my time watching the events. The best part was when the Canadian divers won the silver medal in the 10 meter platform synchronized dive. They did a great job. Our colleagues, Colette and Tam, came with me the second day and they caught a winner's bouquet... good for them.!

Now I have just come back from watching an Arabian horse show. Dave, Lois and several others from UCQ went. What a lovely event ... beautiful, delicate, feisty animals and the weather was very pleasant to watch the judging. We happened to sit in front of some Qatari men and it turned out they were owners of horses and one of them won about 15 trophies. Mabrouk! As well there were a few side events to partake in ... henna tattoos, spinners, weavers, various kinds of Qatari food, some antique cars. tomorrow and the next day ther will be horse races, so we may go to one of those as well. We have to fill up Dave's dance card before he goes back to Perth-Andover to get a little rest.
School is going well ... trying hard to finish all the curriculum in time for the final week and the students are looking a little glassy-eyed, as all students do at this time of year. We have a week off before the start of the next semester. I am going to Muscat, in Oman, and hoping to go to Salalah in the south for a couple of days and possibly to the tip of the point where the Strait of Hormuz is its narrowest. We shall see how it all works out. Then we have a short semester and I should be home in July .. not sure when I can work in a trip to Oklahoma, but that is definitely in the plan.
It seems hard to belive that soon Easter will be upon us. Easter is not a holiday here, but it may be more than a coincidence that Student Revision Day falls on April 12:-) Happy Easter wishes to all. I certainly hope all is well with friends and family ... I love to hear from you and find out what is going on for you and your families. Please stay in touch and take care.

Nepal Redux

Well what to say about Nepal, Part II? It was quite the experience:-) I went to the Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) conference which was held in Kathmandu. On the way to Administrative Staff College, the venue, on the first day, I got a taxi driver who didn't speak too much En glish. I asked to go to the Administrative Staff College, in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Patan ... which is what I had on my information sheet. Who knew there was an area adjacent called something almost the same but in a totally different direction. After going down numerous wrong roads and chowks and talking t many many people, we finally came across two retired men who could read my writing and discerned JAWALAKHEL ... which is really what I thought I had said. At any rate the driver cheerfully told me I sorry, you sorry, and we had a good laugh over our shared blame. I still got there in plenty of time.

The conference was plenty amazing ... 700 people showed up instead of the 400 they were expecting. My session, which was on teaching portfolios had 125 attendees instead of 30. I was in the big lecture hall and so people came and went and I had a tiny little flip chart ... oy! it will not go down in the annals of great presentations. But many people came to say they appreciated it and so ... I hope it was useful.

I got to see Thaman and go for a ride on his motorbike. it was lovely ... and I was able to see so many more things than if I had been in a car. Thank you Thaman!! And I dropped in on the kids at the orphanage a couple of times and meet a couple of Sonrisa's current volunteers, Anna from Sweden and Francesca, from Italy. Thaman and his friend Bill took us to the Hindu temple, Pashupati, for the celebration of Shivaratri. It was very exciting ... lots of people (like 200,000)and there were supposed to be a lot of sadhus, or babas, there to celebrate Shiva's birthday. I guess a lot of them didn't come, as their allowances had been reduced or something. It would be hard to tell how many there were because there were so many people. The babas seem to smoke a lot of gaza (pot/hashish) and sell it to people. I question their holiness ... but then again who am I to do that??? Ms Judgemental ... that's who:-)

After the conference was over, I went to Pokhara. I went by car and it was so reminiscent of Oaxaca ... minus the valleys of agave. Instead there were so many lovely terraced valleys of farmland ... but they badly need rainfall. Climate change has really affected Nepal and they are getting far less sno and rain than in the past. Very serious situation, that.

Pokhara was quite different than I expected. It is so much bigger than I had realized and is a little Kathmandu in many ways ... minus the temples and historical buildings. The Lakeside area, where most tourists stay, is like many resort places, with the hotels and vendors. But some of the vendors were fun to talk to ... most of them were Indian, Kashmiri or Tibetan. The Kashmiri guys were very charming and fun to talk to. Even if I didn't buy anything they were still very friendly. The last night I was in Pokhara, I spent about an hour talking and laughing with a Kashmiri shopkeeper and a Japanese tourist and we had so much fun. The Japanese guy, Kotoro, couldn't speak much English and he had diarreah; every time he said diarreah, he would point to his bum. Shahi, the shopkeeper was so much fun ... It was a very nice way to end my time in Pokhara ... just laughing and being silly. And the children! So beautiful!!!

I quite liked my hotel and I think the owner, Rajandra, was really nice. He was very helpful. The visibility was a bit of a problem and we could only see the mountains (Annapurna Range) on a couple of occasions. We went up to Sarangkot one day (an Australian woman and a guy from the UK and I with Rajanadra) to see the sunrise and it was quite lovely ... lots of clouds, but it was very soft and mystical to see the mountains glowing and the valley with terraces below. Rajandra is from Sarangkot and we went on a little ledge below a hundred Japanese tourists with their tripods and fliters and fancy SLR cameras ... his friend brought us Nepali tea and we had just the most amazing view. Another day we went up to the top of a hill to see the World Peace Pagoda .I guess we climbed about 3 km up and then went down maybe 4 km to the lake and crossed back to Pokhara in the boat. My legs are still sore! I went with a guide from my hotel and Buddhi, the cousin-brother of one of the security guards at my university. He is also a lecturer at a university in Pokhara and teaches at a school called the Fishtail Academy in Pokhara. I went on his motorbike as well when we went to buy some magazines and books for Bhojraj, Rajesh, Danraj, and Prem back in Qatar. I also went to the Gurkha Museum and saw lots of Gurungs, Rais and Lumbis as well as Thapas, which is Thaman's surname.

Another highlight was a trip to Begnas and Rupa lakes. It is really nice that none of these lakes allow powered boats ... much better to preserve the calm and quiet setting. We saw quite a few birds on that little trek and I saw a rodent that looked like a weasel. In the late afternoon it was lovely to sit on the balcony of my hotel and watch large flocks of white egrets fly over the lake.
I took a plane from Pokhara to Kathmandu and had wonderful views of the Himalayas on the way. I had started to come down with a cold and spent the time before my flight to Doha spreading my germs ... OMG .... so many sneezes.

So I am now back in Doha and had midterms and am immersed in marking. It was very nice to see my students again and sort of nice to get back into a semblance of a routine. I was not so fond of finding cockroach carcasses littering several rooms of my downstairs. Yucko-bucko.

Now I am looking forward to feeling better so I can go swimming. I think it is almost warm enough. For those in forever-winter Canada, I am not rubbing it in ... truly. I hope you have a respite soon and daffodils before you know it!