Just like Oman, Qatar is the only country that starts with Q. With its history of pearl diving and now with oil drilling Qatar is like a lot of Gulf States. But, if you dive down deep you will find a lot of very interesting things about Qatar.

Being mostly desert with the only elevation being sand dunes and hills . Living in Qatar, you are probably very rich since 99 percent of it’s population lives in urban areas (mostly Doha and the surrounding areas) and the GDP per capita is $103,000, the highest in the world. It has a lot of salt flats in the south. Now let’s watch what happens to this nation in the future, especially as it will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022!

For more information go here: qatar_2. We are trying something new by typing our own slideshow not Britannica Kids.

Interesting Facts

• Qatar airlines became the best airlines in 2016 beating out Emirates which was originally the 1st place holder
• Qatar’s people are ranked one of the fattest in the world
• Foreign maps of Arabia drawn before the nineteenth century did not show Qatar
• There are two men for every one woman in Qatar.

FOOD

Qatari love sweet food. In Qatar it is believed that you should eat a spoonful of honey during the morning and evening. They have some Indian influence in their food which I think is because about 40% of Qatar’s population is South Asian. A lot of these foods are also found in Gulf States. Qatari food has flavorful spices just like Omani food, and the food was very delicious and tasteful.

Breakfast

 

Balaleet Recipe – This Indian – influenced dish is noodles in a sweet sauce with spices and rosewater. We replaced the rose water with orange juice. Despite the online reviews everybody loved it.

Olives

Cheese

Yoghurt and Honey

Dinner

 

Machboos Recipe – this is like Biriyani (an Indian dish). Rice cooked with meat and spices. This is very flavorful.

Kousa Mahshi Recipe – this is basically a zucchini stuffed with tomato sauce, rice, spices and ground beef (Lamb is more traditional but you can choose either one). I advise you to use more rice and beef because we mixed everything together when we made it since the zucchini was okay. We also stuffed a bell pepper since we needed something else in the pot.

Dessert

Luqaimat Recipe – This is like the Makoevna for Lesotho except the balls of dough are coated in a sweet syrup flavored with saffron and cardamon. Me and mama liked it but not Dada and Andrew. They said it was too sweet even though I’m the the that usually does not eat sweet things.

CULTURE

For the culture of Qatar we did Nabati poetry. This type of poetry originated from the Bedouin(Be – do – in) tribes centuries ago in the 1300’s.  The Bedouin people were the first people to live and settle in the Arabian Peninsula.  The Bedouin people used this as a way of passing down stories since they couldn’t read or write.

Nabati poetry is either written about happiness or for someone longing for something. A lot of Nabati poems written by the Bedouin were about traveling. Nabati poems are written with two lines for each paragraph that don’t rhyme.

For the Nabati poetry site go here: Nabati Poetry Site

For a the Video about Nabati go here:Nabati Poetry Video

 

FLAG

The Qatar flag is the longest in the world!! With it’s Qatar maroon to the right and whiteto the left it is the longest in the world. The nine serrated edges separate the colored and white portions. They signify Qatar’s inclusion as the 9th member of the ‘reconciled Emirates’ of the Persian Gulf at the conclusion of the Qatari-British treaty in 1916. The Qatar maroon is the dye that was made from shellfish which Qatar was the first producer off. The white symbolizes the independence from the anti – piracy treaty from the British. To learn more go here: Qatar Flag Wikipedia

Next up is R is for Rwand- no, Rus- no, that’s it. R is for Romania.

-By Isaac

 

 

Going through the list of countries that start with P, the boys and I immediately agreed we had to do Papua New Guinea – a truly fascinating country that is unlike any other. With more than 800 different languages, several untouched forests (and presumably undiscovered animals), and group of people that have only recently had contact with the outside world!!

Humans first inhabited Papua New Guinea (PNG) some 40,000 years ago. And 6,500 years ago tribes there development agriculture on their own, one of the few civilizations to do so independently. And they have been farming ever since, and agriculture is still the main driver of the PNG economy. However, as we started researching PNG a huge 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country on Feb. 26th. The death toll is now at 100 and there is extensive damage throughout the country.

Here is all the info you need to know on PNG: papua new guinea_info

And these are some of the facts we found most interesting: 

• PNG is the closest place to the equator to get snow with its highest point,  Mount
  Wilhelm, topping out at 14,793 feet.
• Until the 1930s, when the PNG kina was introduced, seashells were used as currency.
• There are more than 40 different species of birds-of-paradise in PNG and the only known poisonous bird, the Hooded Pitohui.
• Kangaroos in PNG climb trees

FOOD

Breakfast

Most PNG-ers don’t eat a big breakfast just some coffee (which they are quite famous for!) and toast, so we opted for a popular tea-time/snack treat.

Saksak – This is a dumpling made with bananas and ground sago (from the palm plant) in a coconut sauce. We could not find sago flour so we opted for tapioca flour. The sauce was tasty but the dumpling were a little chewier than we would like.

Pineapple & Fresh Coconut

Coffee and Mango Nectar

Dinner

Sweet potatoes came to PNG from the Spanish (by way of the Philippines)  in the 1700s. Today the are staple, with more than 1,000 different varieties of sweet potatoes in the country. And in some communities people consume around five pounds of sweet potato a day!!

Mumu – This is dish eaten only on holidays and special occasions, but it’s the official dish of PNG, so we had to try it. Its basically sweet potatoes, pork, pineapple, and greens (we used sweet potato greens) cooked at a low temperate for a long time. We basically followed this recipe but did add some chili powder, coriander and cardamon. It was super delicious!!! We already ate the leftovers and will definitely be cooking it again.

Kaukau – This a PNG style baked sweet potato – complete with coconut cream and lots of ginger. Another tasty preparation for the humble sweet potato!

Rice

CULTURE

When most people first think of PNG they might picture a person with a painted face in an elaborate head dress. So we decided to work from that! Though most PNGers now walk around in western clothing, they get dressed up in these traditional outfits for special occasions – particular something call Sing – Sing. Its an annual gathering of many of the tribes of PNG where they show of their distinct style of music, dress and dance. We read about it here and watched its video to find out more: Sing-Sing. Info.

Apparently there is no set meanings to the color or style of body paint or the headdresses and elaborate outfits. Basically, they are meant to represent nature in some way. So we decided to do our own face paint and headdress and channel our inner nature.

Face Paint- We used sticks of face paint and tried to color our whole faces to be authentic

Headdresses – Decorated pieces of ribbon with feather and fake flowers and whatever we could find (Isaac choose some bark and twigs from outside!)

The kids really had a blast. Isaac even added a costume and all of them were eager to dance (as we listened to PNG drum music while painting and decorating.) Here a glimpse of their crazy tribal dancing: At Home Sing-Sing

FLAG

Did you know the flag for Papua New Guinea was designed by a 15-year-old girl? She won a contest for the flag design in 1971 (four years before it officially became an independent country). The bird on it is one of the PNG’s famous Birds-of-Paradise and the stars are the South Cross, a famous constellation in the southern hemisphere. The red and black are the traditional colors used by many of the tribes.

Next up is Q so you all know what that means – back to the middle east for Qatar!