10 months in Qatar: Museum of Islamic Art and the Corniche

Today (Friday) was a fun day off and we had beautiful weather. I visited the Corniche - a city park along the sea that is stunning. So much green in the middle of the desert! There was an Afghan Kite Festival event today to promote the new Afgan Art exhibit in the museum. It was fun to be around families enjoying an outing together. Friday is like our Sunday with prayers at the Mosque in the morning and family time in the afternoon. There were Arabs and Westerners alike enjoying the kite flying. I was even a victim of a wayward kite dive bombing me and witnessed a very upset veiled mother scolding her small boy for hitting me with it. He apologized most correctly then tore off and tried it again. The cushions and rugs people are sitting on are provided by the park - but I did see some folks carrying around their lawn chairs like we do in the states! The men in white seem to congregate together. The veiled women were much more likely to mingle and talk to Westerners...Interesting!

I made my way over to the Museum of Islamic Art which was designed by I.M.Pei. It is a simple, yet beautiful structure which he designed after a small mosque in Qatar. The exhibits were most interesting - my favorite was the new Afghan exhibit which featured young Afghan artists who had been hand picked to create a piece of new art from an ancient piece of art. The exhibit had a display with the old piece and the new creation. They were stunning and very beautiful using rare materials and ancient techniques. My favorite was a pen and ink design that was decorative calligraphy in the 8-pointed star naming all 90 of the Islamic names for God. It was stunning. The sun sets rapidly here and usually pretty early (around 6:00pm). There are loud speakers all over Doha which a singer chants for the 30 minutes during the sunset. This happens every night. It really reminds me that I am a country that prides itself in its beliefs.