It's raining!

It's almost 7 am here- and I was just greeted to a pounding on my roof (I'm on the third and top floor of the apartment) and it took me a split second to realize that it's raining! And hard! I knew it rained here but it's one of those things that you don't quite fathom until it happens. Supposedly this is the first rain of the season- they've had none for the month of December or to date this year. My Qatar Living notes from CM-Q recommend that you use Friday morning (holy day morning) to practice driving and explore the city. Considering streets here don't have drainage, I think I'm staying put in my apartment this am. (And now I don't have to get my car washed for a while either ;)

From what I've seen so far- this whole landscape could present an interesting permaculture opportunity. During my semester 'inbroad' studying sustainable design and architecture at Ecosa Institute in Arizona, we visited Brad Lancaster in Tucson to see how in an area where the annual rainfall is 12", Brad uses permaculture to harvest 30" of rain. It's remarkable. I'd be curious to see what Brad could do with Doha's annual 100 mm (~4") of rain. (check out his book 'Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond').

After marveling at the rain, I resume my cooking. Based on what ingredients were in my apartment when I arrived and a few provisions I picked up at the local Carrefour (French Mega-Grocery chain) at the Villagio Mall, I'm making a version of 101cookbooks.com's Poached Egg over Rice recipe. Turns out my apartment has crummy knives and no salt/pepper, but I'm making do. The recipe calls for dark leafy greens and the only ones I could find were in the 'Herb' section and had no label. After cooking with them I think they are mustard greens. My rice bowl dish turned out decent but could have benefited from some salt, non-white rice, and more finely chopped greens.

Sidenote: the Villagio Mall is supposedly modeled after the casino in Las Vegas complete with canals and gondolas. However, having never been to Vegas, I was corrected by both my boyfriend and my father that the Venetian is the one with canals and not the Bellagio. Perhaps the name is a combination of the two casinos.