Another Trip to Addis

Last week I meet Kimberly in Addis Ababa for another workshop with the Ethiopian Nurses Association and Aga Khan University.

The view from our hotel window.

I arrived on Tuesday evening and we were in workshop from Wednesday to Friday, flying back to Doha on Friday night. Facilitating workshops is tiring business but it is also pretty satisfying. We have really been privileged to meet and work with these Ethiopian nurses.

With some of the workshop participants.

Kimberly and Asrat


Jackie, the "motivator"

A Relaxing Friday

Dave and I had a lovely day yesterday, the first day of our Eid break. I leave on Tues for Addis Ababa, continuing work with the Ethiopian Nurses Association. Since Dave won't be going with me, we're trying to have some fun together on the few days that we have off.
After a sumptuous breakfast of our specialty oatmeal pancakes, we relaxed with the newspaper out on the patio. The morning weather is lovely now and the sun doesn't track around to that side of the villa until about noon. We decided to make a pot of chili to warm up quickly for supper then took off for a long walk on the Cornish. I also wanted to make a trip to the Gold Souk to look for a couple of items that Kimberly wanted me to get for her. We planned to park on the Sheraton end of the Cornish then walk around to the Gold Souk, do our shopping and walk back. That way it's easy to get parking and to make a quick escape through the traffic that would be gathered by late afternoon-early evening.


The air is soft and moist in the late afternoon, and a cool breeze comes in off the water. The walkway is about 5 km in total from the Sheraton end to the Museum of Islamic Art. We stopped for pictures along the way.



After crossing the busy 6 lane highway, we proceeded up Grand Hamad Street to the Al Fardan Auto Showroom. I could see brand new Jags through the large windows. Then to the Gold Souk area to do our shopping.



The walk back to our vehicle (Charles) was pleasant in the early evening twilight. Even though my hips were stiff and sore from the walk, it was a lovely day. A good start to our week off.

DCWB at DTFF

Yesterday, the Doha Community Wind Band played its first concert of the season at Family Day at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival. It was the first time that the band has played in that venue. There is such a festive atmosphere around the festival, and Katara Cultural Village was full of flags, kites, lights, parasailers, and so many children.


Stages were set up all along the Village Corniche and various community groups and schools performed all afternoon and evening. Our little friend, Julie, performed with her Compass School choir. There were Bollywood dancers, and Qatari sword dance troups. Quite the afternoon.




Julie is the one in the front, on the left. I do yoga twice a week with her mother, Bridgett, and her father, Brad, is the director of our Teaching-Learning Center.



The band played a selection of movie music from Colonel Bogey March, to a John Williams medley, and a medley of music from Chicago. I think we sounded pretty good. The trumpet section was particularly good!



DCWB trumpet section.

Sweet Jasmine

I've had this Jasmine plant since Sept. 2008. After a traumatic start on our patio (I think the sun and heat in Sept. was just too much for a young plant) it has grown and prospered. But I despaired that it would ever blossom. Behold! Last fall it had one beautiful pink flower that smelled as sweet as a jasmine should.


Last weekend, when I was out back hanging out laundry, I noticed not one but four! buds on my jasmine vine. Later this week I spied another bud. So I have to share these pictures with you all.

Home Baking--Just Like Home!

For some reason, I have been doing a lot of baking this fall. It makes the place seem more like home, I suppose. Besides I have to take some home baking to work on Tuesdays for Donna's tea time! My oat scones get the best reviews.

Oat Scones

1 3/4 C flour
1/3 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C butter
3/4 C oats
1/3 dried cranberries or chocolate chips
lemon or orange zest
2/3 C buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients, oats and zest. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs. Add cranberries or chocolate chips (Or both if you dare!) Add butter mild and stir until everything is moist. Pat into a rectangle or a circle and cut into pieces. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I made a date loaf last weekend that was pretty good. Full of local dates and walnuts.

Date Nut Loaf

1/2 C chopped dates
1/2 C sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 C boiling water
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, fork beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 C walnuts
Combine first 4 ingredients . Stir and let stand until cool. Add flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir. Stir in egg, vanilla and walnuts. Turn into greased 7 3/4x33/4x21/8 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.
This recipe is from the Company's Coming Cooking for Two cookbook.

And of course Dave's famous Maritime Brown Bread, mixed up in the bread maker.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Doha

The Thanksgiving weekend in N.B.--Paul and Jenn and little Anna will be visiting with Dave. I think he probably has his pork roast in the oven as we speak! But think not that I have been left out of Thanksgiving just because I happen to be in Doha. CJ and Donna and Kathy B. invited everyone to a potluck dinner at the new apartment building Umm Bab, in West Bay. They cooked the turkey and everyone else brought the rest. My apple pie was a hit! The new apartments are quite luxurious, with lovely furnishings and finishes. Everyone is quite happy after their move from the Regency apartments. The meal was so good--just like home with mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and lots and lots of desserts.

CJ in the kitchen stirring gravy

The dessert table. It filled up more than this as the evening progressed.

Some of the gang in Donna's apartment across the hall from C. J. The party filled the two apartments.

Alice, Carolyn, Brooke and Eric in the hallway between the two apartments. Eric has been car pooling with me this semester. He puts the seat back as far as it will go but still has his knees up under his chin!

Tam and Brooke in C. J.'s living room looking out over the downtown lights of Doha.

Not much for left-overs! What a bunch of gorbies!

Onam

Today a few of us attended the Onam festival, the National Festival of Kerala. It is the Hindu festival that celebrates the return of the Great King Maveli. You can find out more about it at http://www.onamfestival.org/


In Kerala, the celebration lasts for 10 days, but here in Doha they do an abbreviated version, spending one day in games, music and dancing, and eating the traditional feast. We arrived not long before dinner (of course we had to get there in time to eat!), just in time to see the parade of King Maveli and Vashtu, with a troupe of drummers, lions, and young ladies holding baskets of flower petals. Some of the spectators danced along with the lions, the music was deafening loud, the room was hot like a sauna, but the disco balls twirled cheerfully from the ceiling, and people laughed and chatted in keeping with the occasion.


I noticed that there was some activity outside, so stepped out into the blinding sun for a breath of "fresh" air (as fresh as it can be in 40 temperatures!) and to see what was going on. Men were setting up to have a tug of war. It was very serious business as they would not start until they were guaranteed that the rope had been properly centered. Young women stood around in their vividly colored saris and salwar kameez waiting for the action to start.


The meal, called Onasadya, was served on banana leaf and consisted of rice (of course), vegetable curries, a cabbage dish and a variety of pickles. I was actually hoping that I would miss the meal because the only utensils available were my own fingers, and I wasn't sure that I could handle eating with my hands. But I decided to dive in like everyone else. It was an absolutely delicious meal, hands or not, and I'm glad that I gave it a try. Sheila Chick would have been proud!

Back to Work

Summer flew by in a flash, but what a beautiful flash it was! Very eventful for Dave and I as we became grandparents for the first time. Precious little Anna was born right on time, July 21, just 6 pounds, 2 ounces, but growing fast. Paul and Jenn are proving to be calm and patient parents as they learn to cope with dealing with a newborn. Anna has been growing quickly--trying to catch up to her hands and feet.


We spent quite a lot of time in Ontario visiting with Cait and Jorge, and with Paul and Jenn, who live in Kingston now. But we also had time to visit with family and friends and do some "Hawkshaw" research at the N.B. archives. The Spa weekend went off as usual. We actually had warm and sunny weather this year. I think that this was our 16th Spa weekend.


Dave was also busy this summer supervising the clearing and preparation of our building lot on the Tobique River. We may start to build next summer so the land had to be cleared of alders and bulldozed. Then Dave and his friend Bob seeded with grass and wild flower seed, and planted some pine and a few hardwoods that Dave had been able to dig up around our Carlingford place.

So now I'm back in Doha. Dave arrives at the end of October, just in time to escape the winter winds. I felt a bit out of place when I first got back. Kim is not here this year and it made the place seem oddly empty. But I'm getting back into the swing of things at work. I've got some really good students in both of my courses this fall, and I love to teach just as much as ever. Tam is back again, thank goodness for me. Thursday night suppers are back on track.(I think we'll have home made pizza next week) I've even been invited to Tam's for supper a couple of times.
Choir and Band rehearsals have started up again with new directors this year. It is shaping up to be a busy but fun year.

Earthy, Enigmatic Ethiopia

Ethiopia hits your senses like a freight train. There is so much assault to the eyes--the tin roofs of the shanty townships in Addis, dead dogs in the street, barefoot children playing in the mud.


Yet the beauty of the country side and the depth of the history and culture is awe inspiring.
Kimberly and I returned to Addis Ababa last week on the invitation of the Ethiopian Nurses' Association and Aga Khan University to help facilitate a workshop on nursing scope of practice and competencies. We were anticipating and dreading the trip at the same time, so glad that we had been invited to help but reluctant to take on ferenge (white foreigner) status again.


After three days of workshop, we took a tour with our guide, Fish, and driver, Abraham, south to visit a Konso village. The Konso live in walled villages of mud huts high on the mountain side. They farm the hillsides using a terracing method that has been recognized by UNESCO. The village was eerily quiet and seemed to be inhabited only by children as most of the adults were in the fields.


Narrow winding pathways around high stone walls help to protect the village from marauding tribes. Living conditions are very primitive, just mud huts with thatched roofs, but the setting is spectacular with views over the valleys. We left the place with conflicting emotions, a common state when visiting Ethiopia., I've found.



Our visit to Chamo Lake to see the hippos and crocodiles was pure delight, however. As we skimmed over the murky surface of the lake in our metal boat, we could see the water's edge dotted here and there with the dark bumps of hippo heads and haunches. We spotted long wedged lines in the water--crocodiles! But as we rounded a bend, a herd of hippos soaked themselves in the water in front of us. We pulled closer to shore, seeing nothing at first then realizing that the dull gray rocks lying on shore were really modern remnants of the dinosaurs. A splash made them come alive and hit the water with lightening speed. The lake was also filled with hundreds of pelicans. It was truly a great afternoon for a nature lover like me. Unfortunately, my camera battery had died just before going on the boat so I don't have pictures. But Kimberly will send me some of hers and I will post them later.