Doha Day Three

This morning after being woken with the distant call to prayer, I found a neighbour who agreed to take a walk with me around the outside of our compound. We are living in a suburb called Education City. It is presently under construction (the operative word for Doha at present) with the goal of finally developing the largest Education facility in the world. It is currently home to five elite US educational institutions and is still expanding. We are working for one of these institutions and live on part of the 2,500 acre site in an elegant, brand new apartment built for staff of the Qatar Foundation. So off we set on a rather windy but very chilly morning. As we walked along, sometimes on rubble and sometimes on brand new concrete sidewalks, it is quickly obvious that the old had been very brutally pushed aside to make way for the new. There is still a tent flapping in the sand, right next to the gate of what I could only describe as a mansion, newly constructed. On further inspection this is actually a compound with two mansions inside, I am guessing for a wife (the smaller house) and her husband (the huge house). My attention is more drawn to the tent and the nearby fenced yard holding onto the last spaces before more concrete invades this world. We walk over to the dusty enclosure to find camels of all ages within. There is a mother with her newborn baby whose eyes are not yet open. The mother looks as proud as any new mother and is nestled next to her beautiful baby. She seems to listen to our attempts at camel conversation and we leave her alone to enjoy her momentary inaction.