There Was A House in Al Khor

The sound of David's shower going this morning was the warning that it was time for me to rise and shine. Or, could it have been the cat licking my face that made me realize that 5:00am was approaching? It didn't matter which it was, it was time to get ready for our photo/archaeological gig. Yes, Karen and Kim drove up at 5:30am to whisk me off to Al Khor, a city just north of Doha. We found the ruins of an old village that Karen had been to a week before with her husband. She decided that Kim & I needed to get "in on" this find of hers. Well, find it we did and it was quite fun. We shot from every angle possible, some of us anyway. Kim was doing the belly flop trying to get a picture just right. Now that, I should have taken a picture of. Sorry I missed it. Karen was told by a Qatari gentlemen that this was a small village from just about 50 years ago, not very old by our standards. Supposedly though, back then many, many of the people were Bedouins that just lived out in the desert in tents, so perhaps this village was actually living "high on the hog" as we might say in the USA. Qatar's oil boon didn't start until the late 1930's as I understand. I'm not sure of this history, so I'll have to research this more and get back to you (lucky you!). Regardless of the age, there was a whole lot of blood sweat and tears put into building these villages as you can see in the stone fences. As we were leaving, we encountered a sheep herder on the side of the property that was very successful at his job. He had one stick and many sheep to corral, and corral them he did with just a few commands from his mouth. He was very happy for us to take pictures of his herd, and extended his palm for a little greasing. Yes, of course, we did oblige him. Now, does that makes us professional photographers, or does it have to be the other way around?