A great year with RedDotters Qatar
A quick summary before we dive into 2018
Hello everyone! This is Sharyfie Hamdan writing my first ever blog post. I have been an endurer to Qatar’s summer for 7 years. Every weekday morning, I take approximately 25 minutes to where I work as an Interior Designer in a place where I call my papa, boss. I am the incumbent president of ReddottersQatar (RDQ), and I’m blessed to be supported by a great team.
A little intro about ReddottersQatar (RDQ)
RDQ is a non-profit organisation that was formed 12 years ago with a core objective of bringing Singaporeans in Qatar together. RDQ is made up by an organising committee consisting of a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary and the committee members. In 2017, the we had a committee of 8 members—You may read a glimpse of our profiles written by Stephanie here.
2017 was also the year when we held the most powerful passport in the world. Here in Qatar, the Singapore community is one of the smallest (at probably 400 strong), however the kampong spirit* among us amplifies that number.
*Kampong (village in Malay) spirit is a sense of social cohesion in a community where there is understanding and compromise among neighbors
Recapping the activities we did in 2017
Being approximately 6,000 km away from Simpang Bedok, we are away from our family members, thus we can only count on each other to share the bad, the good and the food. Thus RDQ hopes to embody a kampong spirit among the Singaporean community here in Qatar with events and activities. We organised 11 events with a total attendant count of 600. Below are snippets to the year 2017/2018.
Stay connected with our activities on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/reddottersqatar
Chinese New Year 2017 & Annual General Meeting
Approximately this period last year, RDQ organised a joint event to celebrate Chinese New Year and to welcome the new committee of the RDQ organising members. Held at Shanghai Club at Shangri La, we arranged a local tradition of a Lo Hei among ourselves.
Mid Autumn Deepa Raya
With the children back from the long summer holidays, our attempt to raise glum spirits by bringing a little of Singapore into Hilton’s ballroom for a few hours, we organised a Mid Autumn Deepa Raya where mostly everyone dawn in our traditional attire. Even though our tummy was filled, we left the event hungry again from all the energy spent on the friendly competition among the tables.
Merry Christmas and A happy new year!
December has always been the month when you let your hair down, driving thru the Corniche is a breeze as 1/4 of the population is out of town. However for the rest of us left in Qatar, we celebrated Christmas and New Year at W Hotel. There were lots of laughter and joy during the night, accompanied by Christmas carols and exchange of gifts. The highlight of the night was the ‘I am the best dressed snowman’ competition among the tables. Full marks for creativity , however negative scores for practicality as contestants were judged based on an imaginary routine of transferring from the red line to the green line at City Hall MRT.
Baladna Farm Trip
RDQ’s first fringe event for this year- Baladna Farm Trip! A long drive to the restaurant ( feels longer than driving from Pasir Ris to Woodlands ), where the ingredients to our lunch are freshly ‘plucked’ from their own farm at Al-Khor. The kids (actually, adults too) come close to sheep, goats and ponies, whilst the adults can tantalise our taste buds with their unbeatable rich-flavoured meat and wide selection of dairy products.
We met and mingle with fellow Singaporeans while doing what we do best: MAKAN!
Iftar with Singaporeans & Friends
Ramadan in Qatar is full of festivities, a unique experience comparing to Singapore. Where most offices become empty after 1 pm and restaurants full at 6pm. We assembled a few platoons of empty bellies to march and clear the large Iftar spread at Marriott Marquis at the call of the Mahgrib Azan. We left with our tummy overfilled and faces smiling.
Seniors Vs Juniors Football Battle
This is one of the communities’s tradition (7 years running) where ‘walking sticks’ & ‘diapers’ battle for bragging rights for the rest of the year. The juniors took the crown for the year 2017, however just barely, decided from a penalty shoot out. In between, we organised a mini football match for the small ones as part of the fringe activity.
Qatar National Day
We were invited by the Ministry of Interior and the Singapore Embassy to join the festivities of Qatar’s birthday at humongous tentage at Al Sadd. Where we don the red color of our flag to represent the cohesion between our expat friends from other countries and the local Qataris. This was the first time when we were part of the celebration joining the marching contingent together with 80 other nationalities.
Go Kart / F1 Champion
Held during the peak of winter, where the mercury is at the lowest, we don our thickest gear on a Saturday afternoon and became Ferrari’s Ralf Schumacher for a few hours. We put aside our Toyotas and Nissans in exhange for the small but powerful 40 horsepower go-karts. Only some of us left the race track with bragging rights, but everyone left with a smile.
Clay Pigeon Shooting / Shotgun experts
On one of the Saturday afternoon in the month of February, 40 odd Singaporeans took the long drive to Lusail’s shooting range. Organised by Melvin Oh and RDQ. Decked in rows, we attempted to shoot a flying clay to replicate the movement of a pigeon. It was a challenge to hit the moving target even with our National Service background. There was a few of us who were experts though; experts at shooting air.
Motion Lab / A workshop for children & adults
Our first activity for parents and children, RDQ collabrated with Clara and Qatar Musuem for their latest installation for children ‘Motion Lab’. Facilitated by our very own Rachel, Sheryl & Candace ( thanks Clara, Rachel, Sheryl & Candace), they brought an joined activity session between parents and children. The workshop was to encourage art through movement & movement thru art. The support shown for this event has encouraged us to set up a RDQ Mum group ( on whatsapp ), to encourage activities for the young ones. The session has unearthed a few Picassos; not Van Gogh i hope :)
Coffee Morning + Breakfast / First RDQ’s Mums
The Motion Lab workshop has encouraged RDQ to initiate an interest group among the mummies here in Doha. The mummies filled Chef’s Garden Restaurant with thoughts and experiences. We hope that this will encourage more family activities (and even reaching out to the ladies here in Qatar), mummies to share experiences and recommendations among the community.
Weekly Sports Activities : Football
We started back in 2012 by a small group of Singaporeans for kickabouts at a basketball court in Al Dana Clubhouse. The numbers started to swell and we decided on building a 11 aside team. We started the journey losing in double digits. We have since improved the deficit to just a single digit now. Maybe because, more than half of the Singapore squad is made up of young and fit pilots to help with the running, we need more young and fit individuals.
For those who are keen to join, We still have a weekly kickabout every Monday 7.30–9.00pm, till summer says stop. Reach out to us on WhatsApp if you are keen to join the group.
Weekly Sports Activities : Badminton
An initiative by Dawn (supported by Daisy & Gladys), organise twice weekly badminton sessions. They play every mondays & fridays of the week. They are looking for more players so drop a message here or on our facebook (ReddottersQatar).
Weekly Sports Activities : Captain’s Ball
Following the healthy response during our National Day Celebrations, championed by Gangka, we started a weekly Captain’s Ball sessions to bring together Singaporeans. A sport that (we learnt) is unique to Singapore only. To those unfamiliar with this sport, my definition of captain’s ball is Basketball marry Netball, baby = Captain Ball. This is a hit among the guys and gals, young and old. You have hands and legs, this sport can play. Usually the sessions has more smiles from all the banters.
Last Saturday was our 22nd session of the year, and if you plan to join the 23rd, we have a weekly session every Saturday at 1pm–3pm.
Here’s to an even more super awesome 2018
For the upcoming year, on top of the existing activities and events, RDQ plans for new initiatives that will cater to pain points for Singaporeans in Qatar, by encouraging the essence of ‘bergotong-royong’ (community self help & mutual cooperation in Bahasa Melayu) and amplifies our kampong spirit.
As we move on from RDQ’s 2016/2017 to RDQ’s 2017/2018 committee, we hope to receive your continuous support and would like to encourage you to join us and build on the good that we do here with your participation, organisation and sponsorship. With your generous support, we aim to raise our RDQ’s fund and manpower to enable us to be better organizer to host better events.
Here is to more smiles, joys, camaraderie and kampong spirit in 2018.
