Doha Treasures!

I have been teaching for the past week and will continue for one more full week as they have a teacher who had to return home for 2 weeks. Needless to say, we haven't done too much, so we don't have too much to share. I did think that I would share some of our purchases since arriving in Doha.

This wooden chest was our first purchase. At many of the stores or souqs you are expected to bargain for the best price. While one might expect that we would be good at such a thing, we have proven not to be! This wooden box had a price of 600 Riyal. So Michael goes to the owner and asks, "will you take 500 Riyal for that wooden box?" The owner smirked and told Michael that would be an acceptable price. Lesson number 1: Allow the shop owner the opportunity to offer his best price and then bargain down from there! (I have a feeling we could have gotten the chest for much less!) Oh well, we love it and that is all that matters!

Tea and coffee seem to be staples in the Arab culture. Everywhere you go you can expect to be offered tea or coffee while you wait. Most if not all places of business have "tea boys." Their primary job is to bring tea and coffee to employees and customers. Just the other day, I went to the eye doctor and while we were waiting for my appointment, we were approached by the tea boy and offered a warm drink. It is actually quite rude to decline the offer.


This leads us to our next purchase...an Arabic coffee and tea set. The first picture shown is the Arabic coffee cup and the picture below is for tea. Most often these sets are in gold so we were excited when we saw the silver set. The tea set comes with silver spoons that will actually require polishing!!! As many of you might expect, I am very excited about this!

And of course, I cannot forget Macey's pillow! She absolutely loves it! Notice in this picture she is holding her little bunny! This little toy was given to Macey by the company who stocked our villa upon arrival. She loves her little toy!