Week Without Walls

The middle school has a program where all children experience a 'week without walls'. The 8th graders had a choice of going to Sri Lanka or to Borneo, Malaysia. Stuart chose to go to Borneo. The trip was a service trip so there was quite a bit of work involved. He returned at 3:00am in Doha and was exhausted, but said he'd had a great time.

January 21

This group arrived at camp Bongkud just after lunch, after spending the night in Kota Kinabalu.

Mr. Leever tells us, "In Kota we walked through a market this am. Lots of local fare, but not too many hungry after the walk. Beautiful drive and stopped at a local market to shop. Opening comment upon arrival, "It looks better in the pictures..." Good life lesson, don't be taken in by advertising.

Something to be thankful about back home: 77 people here at the camp, but only three showers - total. How badly do we want it people?

First meal was chicken and rice. Very tasty. Borneo signing in."

January 22

Saturday, this group learned a Malay song and dance. Students toured the work projects and after dinner got a cultural show from some children in the village. Our kids got to practice their dancing with the local drummers and were disappointed that they had to leave. Dinner was fish and rice and the kids wiped out what was served with very little thrown away. Mosquitos are not too bad, and most are still wearing shorts in the evening (students that is, not mosquitos). They had a light rain in the afternoon, and then the evening was cool.

Day 2 - Amazing day! Camps International is here in Bongkud to help the local village in development projects. Specifically, they are building a community center, a water tower, a Women's center and a few other projects.

Today our kids mixed and poured concrete and moved a large mountain of stone to build a retaining wall to the water tank. They were incredible. They mixed far more concrete than expected and finished the bulk of the rock moving during the morning. Twice the group went swimming in the river below camp. They even made a bit of a dam to create a larger swimming hole (moving more rocks).

Lunch was chicken, potatoes and rice. Upon arrival the kids were told that if they didn't close their tents, stray dogs would sneak in and, well... Poop. Ugh, yeah, that happened. Also told, food will draw ants. That happened too.

Volleyball, cards, basketball, frisbee and others going on as they wait for the next version of chicken and rice. Kids are warming up to the camp and will sleep well tonight. Out from Borneo!

Actual living beetles perched on these stands.

January 23

Borneo checking in late. We had an amazing day today. We finished all projects and then some. We wiped out the concrete and finished all jobs they had in phase one of their project. A group built a bamboo shelter for single mothers in Bongkud. This shelter will be where they grow vegetables for themselves. There are about 30 such women. Another group level ground for a local church that is building a children's center. The day began with a 5:30 am climb of Golden Hill just above our camp. From the top we had an amazing view of Mt Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. Amazing pictures to come. Sorry for the late update, the kids had a fantastic performance tonight of skits. Teachers also performed some skits. Great day! Students have completed all projects, exceeding expectations!!!

January 24

Day 4 - Today began with a trip to the Ranau War Memorial. During WWII, 2,700 mostly Australian and British soldiers from the defense of Singapore were marched to their death by their captors. Six escaped and returned home. All others perished. There is a beautiful memorial to the men and our kids got a small piece of Borneo history. The group returned for lunch (you guessed it: chicken with rice), and then headed to nearby hot springs. Their shopping in the vegetable market was uneventful, save the marriage proposal Mr. Leever received from the pineapple lady! Hot springs were PACKED as it is the beginning to the Chinese New Year and thus, a holiday. Instead our group returned back to camp, swam in the river, ate ice cream, played badminton against the locals and other fun things. Teachers also discovered how quickly students were willing tell their teachers about their friends’ new budding relationships for a mere piece of candy.

Tonight the Borneo group will host the local community and perform a dance, sing a local song, and will do some additional teacher skits (by request). This will be the last update, with only confirmations coming through that we have made flights and are on time.

Tomorrow the group will break camp early, head back to Kora Kinabalu to shop for gifts, catch our flight to KL and then on to Doha. As Mr. Leever writes this rather lengthy update, they are in a downpour, which is pretty exciting for kids who live in the desert.

Dahl Al Hamam Park

Considering the weather is so nice and we had all the family at home, we decided to pick up some shwarmas for lunch and head to a park. This park has playgrounds, smooth paths for roller blading, and an area that looks like it might be filled with water during the hotter months.

There's also a cave. Dahl means 'cave' in Arabic. It is named after the limestone cavern which as a small freshwater lake at the bottom, linked to the sea by a series of underground caves and tunnels. Unfortunately, the cave was closed to the public.

Exams Week

This is a big week for Connor as it is the end of the semester and time for exams. For three days, he will be in this gymnasium for two hours each session to take exams. After the day, they were all treated to a Baskin Robbin ice cream from the school.

(there is a small red arrow pointing to Connor in the bottom right corner).

Birthday Friends

For Maddie's birthday party, she had a photo scavenger hunt in a large shopping mall. They split into two groups and had to replicate a series of photos, as well as complete tasks such as getting a Krispy Kreme hat or cup of soda.

After the scavenger hunt, the girls all went bowling and had cake.

Mid-Week Celebration

Well, you only turn 11 once and there was a lot of excitement about the big day. It started off with following a maze of string to a hidden gift, followed by eating some 'junk' cereal for breakfast and then taking in cupcakes to share with friends at school. In the evening, it was time to open gifts!

Notice the Nesquik cereal, especially for breakfast.

Ready to open presents in the evening.

New pointe shows! We had to sew on the ribbons and elastic ourselves. Thank goodness for YouTube so we could find out how to do that.

Apparently it isn't as hard as it looks. There are silicone toe protectors on underneath. It still looks painful to me.

We had time for a new game as well - Mad Gab. You are given words and have to figure out what the phrase is. For example, given Mile Hit Help Oh Knee = My little pony

Lots of fun!

Qatar: A tiny country asserts powerful influence

A clip from 60 minutes about Qatar.

Privileged Children

There are times when we hear about the desire to return to America from our children. For them, America has got Target, dirt bikes, football games, and lazy summer days. Since they haven't lived in America for any time that they can remember, they feel like they are missing something. Indeed, they are missing many things by not living in America, but I don't think they realize what it is. Their norm is a privileged lifestyle, full of unique and wonderful experiences. Every day they go to a school that is an oasis in the desert. It is spacious, light, green, and open. As you walk around campus, there is a fragrance of sweet flowers, the buzz of birds talking, and the rustle of reeds in the breeze. Somehow, I don't think that they would get this back in America.

Five Times a Day

We have become accustomed to the daily call to prayer. The first one begins at just before 5am and the last one takes place around 6:30. However, it's based on sunrise and sunset, so we've heard it as early as 4am and as late as around 9pm. Our home is surrounded by a number of mosques so when the call to prayer happens, we hear it in chorus. It usually only lasts for a few minutes, the longer ones being the first and last. On Friday, there is also an accompanying 'message' around noon. It sounds a bit like a charismatic sermon - seems to have some shouting and expressive commands.

A neighborhood mosque.

A video clip taken from our rooftop with audio....

New Back Garden

Over Christmas break we worked on reorganizing the back garden. When we arrived it was overgrown with bushes and needed a little tlc. So first off, we removed the greenery.

Then we extended the bricks and painted the wall.

We mounted some wall trellis pieces and planted bougainvillea, Frangipani and gardenia.

Around the corner, we planted some jasmine.

And the final piece was to add a fountain. It has a light so when it gets dark it is a focal point that I can see and hear from the kitchen.

Searching for Desert Rose

The next stop was to look for 'desert rose.' Gypsum is a common mineral in supra-tidal carbonate environments. They form petal like crystals that grow together to extensive crusts or individual roses.

It felt a bit like the book Holes, where the flat the inland sabkhas were dotted with previously dug holes and then we joined in.



It wasn't hard to find and there was plenty of it. We brought home a few specimens.



Some other highlights from the outing was seeing camel tracks in the sand. Stuart also came across a scorpian and came tearing back to the car in fright.

Camel crossing

Musfer Sinkhole

On New Year's Day I decided to take the family on an adventure. It involved some geocaching as well as exploring new sites. The first stop was a geocache just past an old police station. This was accessed by going down a very old paved road that was full of potholes. Thank goodness we had a 4x4. Up on a mound, under some rocks, we found the container.


The next stop was the Musfer Sinkhole. The cave extends downward about 50-60m. A large room has formed by the collapse of carbonate material. The cave walls are composed of the upper Dammam dolomite & limestone unit and the lower Dammam laminated shaly & silty unit.



We also found a cache at this site, under some rocks near shrubs.



Along the way, we passed many camps with camels. Occasionally we would see camels walking around unrestrained.