Time to Move on to Cricket

Sultan

Wow! Every year the NCAA Basketball Tournament gets better. This whole season was a blast right up to the point where my team (the Kansas Jayhawks, of course) was booted last night. Now I am longing for the days of playing the Nebraska Cornhuskers. What was the KU-NU game final score??? 93-39 or something like that?? That almost makes up for the 63-0 scores KU used to endure in football versus NU!

I had a fun time trying to catch all the March Madness games. KU played their last two games at 2:00 am local Saudi time as we are 8 hours ahead of Central Std Time. It wasn't really that hard getting out of bed to watch. The difficult thing is wondering if you will actually get to see it.

I receive satellite TV through a company called Orbit. Orbit broadcasts ESPN but it is a mix of ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN-U, ESPN Classics, ESPN International.......you get the picture. I'll plan to catch a game that is scheduled to air based on Orbit's schedule and sure enough something else will come on instead. One day it will be polo from Argentina, the next day will be horse racing at Santa Anita in Southern California, or sailing races in the Med, or 7 Nations rugby from Australia, so to get ALL the tourney games has been a real treat. I might even get up tonight to see who the last two Final Four teams will be.....



When I have some down time I can watch just about anything they broadcast except for the cricket. I've figured out the scoring and batting rules with the help of Sultan, who is from Bangladesh. However, for those of you who think golf is boring, cricket, in my mind, is not far behind. I am sure it is fun to play, but to watch it on TV is a killer. Sultan and his buddies have recently dropped by asking for the latest World Cricket Championship scores, as it is being played right now. They're as crazy about cricket as I am about NCAA Basketball. More power to them!

Ibrahim's Courtyard (Left View)

View of the Courtyard

This view is looking left out the front door of the entertaining room and is about half of Ibrahim's displays. The entry before this one is looking to the right.

Ibrahim's Courtyard

Panoramic View of the Courtyard

This is a view of about half of Ibrahim's displays and is looking to the right out of the door of the entertaining room.

Ibrahim Al-Hamdan's Museum Display

100 Year Old Arabian Market Scene

The woman in the lower right is displayed selling grains arrayed in baskets while her baby is cradled in the leather baby holder (top-center of photo). The walls of the display are covered with traditional, black & white wool, tent material and many other items from the period that are still widely used today.

Bayt Al-Hamdan

Room for Entertaining Guests

This is the Al-Hamdan House (Bayt Al-Hamdan), located in the Janah Valley (Wadi Al-Janah), in Unaizah. My host was Ibrahim Saleh Al-Hamdan, the patriarch of this home.

The doorway in the right rear of the room led to a storage area. The concrete fireplace was rigged with an electric blower to stoke the flame. If you look at the window sill on the right of the photo you can get an idea of the thickness of the walls. The ceiling is at least twenty feet high and the walls have windows at both lower and upper levels. Also, ceiling fans hang from the ceiling to assist with circulating the air. Because of the time-tested construction techniques, I am confident this room is very comfortable in the heat of the summer.

There are only shutters and no glass in the upper windows so, with the shutters open, birds flitter in and out of the room at will along with the sunlight and breeze. No one seemed to mind at all. All the sounds of the farm surrounded us and it was a very tranquil morning.

Coffee and Tea

Sabir, Kurtis and Two Sons of Ibrahim Al-Hamdan

Enjoy Arabic Coffee and Tea

I took a short trip to Unaizah, which is in the Qassim region, to visit my Saudi friend Sabir. The Qassim region is about a three hours drive north of Riyadh. It is a prosperous farming area known for the excellent dates grown there. Very few westerners visit and even fewer live there so when Sabir took me to a family-owned and operated museum I turned out to be somewhat of a novelty.

The museum was built by Ibrahim Al-Hamdan and his family and is actually connected to his home and farm. He has built everything and sourced the displays solely out of his own pocket. He is trying to keep some of the old-style Saudi farm and small-town life alive in his displays.

Ibrahim invited us into his house for qahwa (arabic coffee), shai (sweet arabic tea) and homegrown dates. He had other visitors at the time but he invited us to sit with him as a distinguished guests. We had a good talk and I had a great time and will surely visit him again in the future.

Breakfast Time

Ibrahim, Myself and Sabir Breakfast on the Veranda

We ate a breakfast of camel meat and vegetable stew with bread and fresh milk. It was very tasty. Moments after I took this photo I took a video of us eating and one of Ibrahim's cats came and sat right in front of the camera to wait for the scraps.

Ibrahim's Oasis

Date Palm Covered Walking Lane

This pathway leads from the back of Ibrahim's house to his barnyard. I imagined how cool this lane would be in the hot summer months as compared to the surrounding desert.

Ibrahim's many date palms bear more fruit than his family can eat and store so they sell them to local vendors. They raise a couple hundred pigeons for the squabs they produce and they have a few dozen chickens. He has five milk cows and a few beef cows, four donkeys, and dozens of goats & sheep on the farm.

Future Mosque

This is the Backside of the Mosque

This view shows exposed brick before fascia mud is applied to give it a smoother appearance.

Brick-Making Mudpit

Sabir and Ibrahim's Son Discuss Brickmaking

In the foreground is the pit where mud and straw are mixed to make bricks. In the background you can see some of Ibrahim's farm. Note the sand dune in the background. To the right of it out of view is a brilliant green alfalfa field which will feed Ibrahim's livestock. Unaizah, and the Qassim Region in general, have plentiful underground water and wells and the irrigation systems with which to use it.

Oldtime Mosque

Mosque at Ibrahim Al-Hamdan's House

This building, which will be a mosque when finished, has two stories. The mud bricks are decorated on the exterior with the hand prints of Ibrahim's sons. Note the rain spout emerging from the center of the roof.