Make A Difference Day

It is Tuesday. Already the middle of the week for me. Thank you, baby Jesus! But let me tell you about last weekend. I had so much fun! Probably one of the best, if not the best, weekend I have had since I moved here. I hung out with my boss, Kristin, and her husband, Rhys, on Thursday night (I hang out with them, fellow NWers, on a rather regular basis). Friday I did a little work and then went out to the Qube, a club at the Ramada, with some Carnegie Mellon folks. I had so much fun! The club brought in a great DJ from London for a Facebook party (I still do not understand...but whatever)! And I did not feel all that out of place considering I was likely the only natural blonde in the whole place. But the best part of my weekend was Saturday. I have been part of a group organizing Education City's first Make A Difference Day. Our objective was to get students, faculty and staff more involved in the community and to raise awareness regarding a wide range of environmental and social justice issues in Qatar. I guess you can compare it to Syracuse's Day of Service, but much more elaborate with the massive tent, chairs with seat covers, excessive breakfast and lunch, t-shirts and hats... I frankly think the whole idea of giving back was kind of lost with how opulent it was, but this kind of activity is new for this part of the world and thus it is a start.

Anyway, I was tasked with leading a large group of primarily students, with support from a few coworkers (it was great to have them there too because we do not see each other very often), to do a beach clean up south of the community of Al Wakra. No one, including me, really knew what we were getting ourselves into, particularly the bus driver (I was just following the instructions of the municipality guys). We literally had to go offroading in a massive coach bus to get to the beach. It was a riot! There were a couple of times I thought we were going to get stuck... But it was worth it! Again, I had so much fun! Who would have thought picking up trash and getting so dirty would be so much fun? And there was a lot of it! I guess the trash comes from ships that just throw their crap overboard. And I learned some new facts! I learned what mangroves are! I had no idea yet through out the week I had to explain to people what they were ("plant thingys...that sort of grow...near a beach...???"). So I now know what a mangrove is and how sensitive they are. And I learned that flamingos fly! I had never seen a real flamingo before! First, they are not bright pink like the plastic lawn ornament kind. They are light pink, almost white, with black legs and THEY FLY! They are awesome!

So here are some pictures of us doing some good ol' manual labor:

Flamingos!

And mangroves! FYI Do not step on the little reedy things because then you kill the whole thing. Those reedy things are the lungs of the mangroves.

The culprit of much of the trash: tankers! Boo!

The road...

And our understandably nervous bus driver...

A wild camel! This is not the first camel I have seen, but the first that I have been able to take a decent picture of. Whenever I see one, I have a moment where I realize how fortunate I am...but forget to take a picture... :)