The Henderson Family: Family Qatar Trip! (Week Two)

Okay, picking up where we left off...
Monday we went to the souqs to do some shopping and show the girls the pet souq and the candy souq. The Iranian man who owns the candy souq is named Khalil and my mom knows him well. The girls called him the "candy man". They loved the candy and loved seeing all the animals even more.

Okay, I made this picture as big as I could so you can slightly see the palace guards riding their camels on the grounds in front of the palace. We didn't know they rode camels.

The guards again

The girls with their fair skin, light eyes, and blonde hair were a novelty everywhere we went. Many of the shopkeepers in the souqs would give them little trinkets just because.

This awesome woodworking souq with a giant canoe in front. I like the little old Qatari man on the side.

A huge rug souq.

In the candy souq, we came across this and just couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. He's a superhero: The Black Man!!

The girls in the pet souq. They loved all the animals. Here they are again with the brightly dyed chicks.

There were so many kinds of animals in the pet souqs: parrots, bunnies, chicks, dogs, cats, fish, turtles, lizards, and lots of varieties of birds.

Evie petting the parrot.

Hallie even held it on her arm!

This little guy was hiding underneath all the other pet cages.

Evie loved all the pets--as long as they were in cages.

These baby turtles were about the size of a quarter.

When we got home from the souqs, Grammy made cookies with the girls. They loved it, especially eating the cookie dough.

All Evie did was eat cookie dough.

Grammy made these adorable matching aprons for the girls. We love them! Thanks again Mom!

Grammy is definitely her new best friend!

Monday night we had a family talent show for Family Home Evening. It was a grand showcase of our talented family. These four were the best Rockbanders! They brought down the house!

- TUESDAY -

My mom and I tried to imitate how the Muslim women wear their headscarves. All the Qatari women wear black headscarves, but other Muslim cultures wear beautiful multicolored scarves.

The Muslim women are so good at doing their scarves up beautifully. This isn't quite that good, but you get the idea.

The Qatari women wear these huge ball-like headpieces under their scarves to give them the "bump" in the back. I just put my hair up. Great for a bad hair day, eh?

This is the Qatar State Mosque. It is HUGE!!! Bigger than most LDS temples. If you can see those tiny specks on the front parking lot, those are people.

??? This was taken at a department store called New World Centre.

Hahahahaha! I love the little words on the side.

Evie was done shopping.

After New World Centre, we went and saw the camels. We didn't touch them or ride them, we just looked at them in their corral. They are each individually hobbled to their own spot in the ground so they don't bug each other.

That evening, we went on a Dhow boat ride. They take you out in the bay and turn on loud dance music. We were all jammin'.

Grammie and Evie shakin' it!

They let us go on top of the roof of the boat so we had an uninhibited view of the night skyline.

From the Dhow boat.

Wednesday: Grammie took Hallie, Claire, and Evie each on their own individual "dates". She bought them toys and craft supplies and let them get whatever treats they wanted. The girls loved it and couldn't stop talking about their dates with Grammie.

While Grammie and Claire were on their date, the rest of us took a little walk on the compound. This is a picture of my parents' villa.

The awesomely huge bouganvillea (sp?) plant that grows on my parents' carport. They don't have garages there.

Their street.

Thursday: the girls loved watering Grammie's garden. They decided to work together instead of fighting over who got the watering can. One would hold the can, and the other would fill it up with the hose. Then the can-holder would water the plants while the other one directed, "No, Hallie, we already watered that one! Come water this one. Yeah, that one. Good job."

Little helpers

Evie loved being allowed to go outside whenever she wanted.

Evie and Emily with the desert roses.

Later that day, we all went swimming in the Al-Anood pool. It was a GORGEOUS day! The best swimming day we had in Qatar.

In this picture, you can see the skyscrapers of the Doha skyline in the background. My parents' compound is fairly close to the downtown area.

The girls loved playing in the sandpits just as much as they loved swimming in the pool. Although Claire looks a bit cold in this picture.

Uncle Matt was one of their best buddies.

Evie loved playing with the flower petals. As you can see, in this picture she put some in Grammy's glasses.

Singing "Slippery Fish"

I miss my mom!

After swimming, we went to the Villagio Mall. It is patterned similarly to the Bellagio in Vegas, or so I have heard. Either way, it was awesome. It had an amusement park (inside the mall), an ice skating rink, and canals running through it, complete with gondolas and gondoliers. Almost all the ceilings are painted to look like the sky, and all the architecture is beautiful and classic. I was a huge fan. The girls loved the amusement park, and the Coldstone ice cream we got there--yum!

On our way to the Villagio, we had a great view of the Torch. This is built at the sports complex constructed for the Asian Games (a sort of small-scale Olympics), which were held in Qatar in 2006.

The Villagio

A nice Arab family taking a ride in a gondola.

These arches surrounded the ice rink, which we couldn't really get a picture of.

The amusement park called Gondolania.

They liked the Ferris Wheel.

Rob, Ben, and I rode this ride. It rotates on three different axes simultaneously. Wicked cool.

The kiddie train! This was the girls' favorite ride.

After Hallie and Claire got off the ride, Evie started crying and reaching for the train. So Daddy took her on it too. She loved it just as much as they did.

After we rode the rides, we went and played on the 15 lined-up trampolines they had there.

Hallie was pretending to be a mermaid.

This is just one of those little rides that you put a quarter in it and it goes up and down, but Evie loved it and wouldn't let anyone else ride it or touch it.

Another section of the Villagio ceiling, this one with night sky.

I know this picture is a little blurry, but I wanted to capture the facades.

Sunset with the Torch, taken as we left Villagio.

We had dinner that night at the Wafi Gourmet Restaurant.

We ate with some friends of my parents: Genette and Eyad (no guarantee on the spelling of those names).

FRIDAY: Our second Sabbath in Qatar. After church, we got a phone call from Rob's sister telling us about the massive earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami that was at that time rolling through the Pacific Ocean. On that day Rob's parents were on a cruise in Hawaii, and we were extremely worried about them. No one knew how hard the tsunami would hit Hawaii, and so we were pretty anxious that afternoon. We prayed as a family for their safety and continued to worry until we found out that the safest place to be during a tsunami is in the open ocean, which is where Rob's parents' cruise ship was. We felt very grateful that they were protected and our hearts reach out to those in Japan who were affected by this devastating event.

After the crisis had passed, Scott, Matt, and I took the girls to play at a little playground right around the corner from my parents' house.

Two little monkeys swinging in a tree

Evie was delighted that she was able to climb up to the slide and slide down it unassisted. She did this for quite awhile.

Scott was the best swing-pusher. He was absolutely untiring.

After park time, the girls had craft time with Grammy. They pulled out the ceramic plates that Grammy had bought them earlier in the week and painted them together. They had a great time.

Yes, she put that dot on her own nose.

What an artist

That evening, we went to the Museum of Islamic Art. There were lots of interesting things to see, but the best part was the architecture of the building. The topmost column is meant to look like the eye-slits in a Qatari woman's abaya. The entire structure is built so that it juts out over the bay. Incredible!


There is a fountain at the bottom of the hill and another at the top. I love the double rows of palm trees.

Fountains on one of the terraces.

It also has a great view of the skyscrapers.

Me and my husband.

Me and my daddy.

An aerial view of the floor in the central chamber of the museum.

A very old and very huge Persian rug. Standing at the end is Mom, Dad, Rob, and Ben.

Check out my bling!

Some cool Arabian stuff.

These catwalks are REALLY scary to walk on because the railing, as you can see, is transparent. The floor is also made of glass, although it's frosted. Kinda freaky.

An overhead view of the octagonal fountain in another section of the lobby.

Another angle of the floor.

Does this or does it not look like a toilet?

Map of the World. Okay.

More cool Arab stuff.

The fountain at the top.

The pouring jars roundabout just outside the museum.

Saturday: DUNE BASHING! And camels! Dune bashing means you drive up and down and all around the sand dunes in a car (after letting a little air out of the tires). It is lots of fun, and a little risky since it's easy to get stuck. It's also quite a thrill to be in a car that is pointed nose-down at the summit of a 150-foot sand dune with about a 60 degree incline. The only reason that this is possible is that the sand pulls on your car so much that it slows you down quite a bit. What else is there to say? Dune bashing is awesome! Unfortunately, it is also very hard to capture in a picture, because all you get is a picture of a car on a sand dune. It's difficult to get the scope. So, no pictures. :( But you get the idea, right? At least I have some pictures of the camels. So these guys just camp out along the pathway to the dunes with these camels and they will let you ride them if you pay. It was pretty fun.

Hallie and Matt got to ride first. They have you mount the camel while it's laying down, because they are so tall that it would be difficult to do if the camel were standing.

The scariest part is when the camel is standing up and when the camel lays back down so you can get off. You lean quite a bit and it feels like you're going to fall off. Interesting fact about camels: They have two knees on each leg. One in the normal place, and another a bit higher.

Hanging out with the other camels while we waited for our respective turns.

They also had a pet falcon there. Very beautiful.

Daddy and Claire's turn.

Claire was really happy until the camel stood up.

This is a good picture to see the camel's double-kneed legs. Also, Claire's face looked about like this for the rest of the camel ride.

It's kind of a bumpy, jolting ride. I don't blame Claire for being a little scared.

Scott's turn. Our camel's name was Saheem.

Petting the camel. Saheem was a good sport about it.

Playing on the sand dunes while Mom and Dad went dune bashing with Grammy.

After dune bashing, we all played on the dunes for awhile.

Rob running down a 150-foot sand dune. It's a fun experience. Climbing back up the sand dune, not so much.

Evie figured out that if she pulls her feet slightly towards her body in a scooting motion, she can get down the sand dune quickly and safely. She loved doing this.

That's the Arabian Gulf in the background.

The girls were not excited about a family picture.

After our second awesome desert day, we headed back into town to see the fish market.

Daytime skyline

At the fish market

Sharks, barracudas, and squid.

White sharks, catfish, and manta rays.

The symbols of Qatar: pearls, Dhow boats, and modern skyscrapers.

Islamic Cultural Center in the daytime.

The "working palace". Located in Doha. The Emir's actual palace compound is outside of town.

Saturday night we went to see a British comedy play called a pantomime. It is the type of play where you boo the villain and cheer the hero. It has lots of audience participation and it is definitely geared towards children. I have never seen a British style "panto" before, and we all LOVED it! So funny and entertaining and just a joy for the whole family to experience. I don't have any pictures of that, but it was a roarin' good time!

Sunday: our last day in Qatar. We just spent time together. Rob, Ben, Matt, and Dad went spearfishing in the Gulf. Sadly, the pickins were slim, so they came home empty-handed. Me, Grammy, Jessica, and the girls stayed on the compound and went swimming. Since I had the camera with me, I don't have any pictures of the spearfishing, just more swimming.

Grammy bought some sand toys for the girls to play with. They got good use.

There was warm water coming from this hose and since the water was slightly cooler, the girls took turns sitting in front of the hose.

Jess and Evie napping.

Sunday night we said our goodbyes. It was very difficult for all of us. I can't remember the last time that saying goodbye was so hard for me. There were a lot of tears shed. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime! We all loved it and didn't want it to end. Thank you again to Mom and Dad for making this trip possible.

P.S. The journey home...

At the Chicago airport. We had a 7 hour layover here and Mike made the 4-hour drive from Indiana just to see us for a few hours. We sorely missed seeing Lacey, who had to work and couldn't come.