Catching the World on Film

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Laws surrounding falconry were far more lax in Qatar than in the United States. It was not unusual to see falcons being sold at Souq Waqif in Doha. Khalid knew people who flew all over the Middle East with falcons and no one thought it the least bit strange. If it was possible, the boy wanted to bring his falcon, but the licensing restrictions didn't cover Sakers. Despite flying his falcon more for sport than competition, Khalid had to spend a few hours each day training his bird. Falcons were partners, not pets, and deserved a great amount of respect.

In his opinion, a mother not devoting her life to raising her children was being neglectful and abusive. Women were the foundation of the household while the husband made money to support the family. Women were also capable of having children, so that alone earned them respect. The closest Khalid had to a nanny was a maid who mostly did housework, but sometimes would babysit if necessary.

"Nothing that out of the ordinary. Between school, religion, horseback riding, football, and falconry, I stayed busy. I went shopping with my friends, we played on the beach, went to festivals, went to majalis. I don't read too much. The books I had were either the Qu'ran or school textbooks, maybe a biography or history book, but nothing interesting. How about you?"

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn released his hold on Spur as the gelding finally settled into an easy walk, the idea of doing any more galloping for now seemed to be out of his system, though the boy wasn't relaxed enough to think that the gelding wouldn't try and take off should he feel the need to, though he was sure that the gelding had more manners than that.

He nodded, imagining that with everything, it wouldn't leave a lot of time for anything else. He smiles as the question was directed back at him. "With gymnastics and this guy, there's not a lot of him for anything else." He confessed. "I like photography, part of me wants to look into photo-journalism, Just cause I know that my father would open my mail and hit the roof at the idea." He smirked at the thought. "I also like learning about mythology, not focusing on any one area. And languages amaze me." He shrugged, feeling a little self-conscious for revealing more about himself than most people knew, especially when the start of their acquaintanceship hadn't been the best, but the mythology and language thing wasn't something that could be used against him. It wasn't liked he'd confessed that he was terrified of the dark or that he took a narcotic to get through some days.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

"Have you tried learning Arabic?"

Khalid wasn't exactly keen on the idea of teaching someone his native language, but it might be nice to have a 'secret' language while in America. And just hearing Arabic again at a conversational level sounded rather pleasant. Khalid could think of quite a few expats who never bothered with language learning, and they always annoyed him. People in Doha speak Arabic. Sure, most everyone knows some English, but even saying 'hello' in Arabic got foreigners a lot of brownie points.

"Ancient Egyptian mythology is pretty interesting. Horus is my favorite, personally. Though, I never heard much about other mythologies. Have you thought about working for National Geographic or a big newspaper?"

He hated formal photo shoots with a passion, but newspapers always had nice photographs, and he flipped through a couple copies of National Geographic at a friend's house. That sort of photography looked like more fun.

"And if you think your father is bad, my mother would hit me with her shoe if I so much as owned a fiction book."

The boy hoped that Finn was choosing photography because it was his passion and not just to spite his father. Parents deserved respect and love no matter how aburd they could be, and Khalid wouldn't even touch a work of fiction so long as he lived under his parents' roof.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn laughed and shook his head. "I haven't been friends with anyone who speaks it before." He replied, and it was the fact of all the students from different part of the world that he had met at his last school that had sparked his interest in languages.

He nodded about the Ancient Egyptian thing, and the fact that so much of their tales coincided perfectly with the Catholic theory was a hoot. He pressed his lips together. While the thoughts of him actually going into photography upon graduation had started out as a huge joke, the idea of working for National Geographic actually sounded like something he could do. After all, he would peak in gymnastics in his mid to late twenties and would need something to fall back on. Unlike the girls, who peaked much earlier, he had years yet before he had to worry about making an Olympic team or not, and the though of attending college after graduation and studying photography was actually sounding more and more like something he could actually do. "I'd be able to travel the world if I worked for National Geographic."

His eyebrows shot up and he looked at Khalid at the news. "Wow, the thought of my parents being so absent while I grew up is sounding better and better. Excuse my ignorance, but what's wrong with fiction books?" He used his seat and legs to guide Spur around a corner as they joined back onto the main Rocky Ridge trail.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Khalid knew Arabic was a difficult language for English speakers. There were few cognates, and the writing system seemed to baffle most people. Some of the letters sounded very similar to one another, there were four forms of each letter, and the whole reading right to left thing was confusing. But, it was a pretty language with a rich history and culture. Then again, learning English was rather difficult. The grammar and spelling seemed to make no sense, but years of dedicated study and practice got Khalid to conversational fluency. Grudgingly so, traveling the world taking photographs to be seen by millions of people all over the world sounded pretty great. It wasn't Khalid's dream in the least, but it wasn't a bad one. Despite the rough start, Khalid found himself disliking Finn less. Even if they never became friends, cordial acquaintance wasn't bad.

"Well, my mother is not um...she's very conservative and literal with her beliefs. Please don't think all Muslims are anything like my mother. We believe that lying is a sin, the same as Christian and Jews. Fiction isn't true, so my mother believes writing fiction is lying. There's also a hadith, a saying by the Prophet (ṣalla llāhu ʿalayhi wa-alehe wa-sallam) which says something like 'woe to he who speaks and lies to make others laugh'. Another hadith says idleness corrupts, and idle people will be judged harshly at the last judgment. So, we should not read to be idle, and most fiction books are for entertainment. Also, we shouldn't read things that teach things counter to Islam or glorify sin. It's best to avoid things that tempt us away from Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala). Personally, I think a lot of fiction and fantasy books are so unrealistic that it's obvious it's just story telling. Telling stories is definitely allowed. I think Game of Thrones is bad because there's too much sex and violence, but Harry Potter is supposed to be a good series."

He didn't adhere as strictly to the law as his mother and disagreed with her about which hadiths were more important than others. Surely God wouldn't be angry with people watching football in the afternoon with friends when they made sure to eat permitted foods and turned the tv off when it was time to pray. Relaxation and entertainment let the mind rest so it could be more productive in the long run.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn listened with interest as the other boy spoke of his beliefs. "Kind of reminds me of a saying my grandmother used to use whenever she caught me sitting around after gymnastics. Idle hands are the Devil's playthings. Well, it was similar, but no where near the same, and Finn almost wished he had as strong a faith as the other boy, it may have stopped him from doing a few things... There again, dedicated parents would have done the same. "I never got into the whole Game of Thrones thing." He admitted with a shrug. "As with most things, the Harry Potter books are so much better than the movies and you pick up so much more information that they skip over on the big screen. And the best thing about Harry Potter is that it well and truly fits into that category of being so unrealistic that it stands out as being make believe. A long winded fairy tale, if you will."

He fell silent as they continued down the trail, sure that they had exhausted all of the topics as well as touching on a couple that he would never have thought of, if they hadn't come up. He looked up as Spur tugged at the bit, and his eyebrows lifted as they exited the trees and the path looping around back to the barn was ahead of them. Great, he'd been out and hadn't come back with a single photo. Maybe he should have taken the waterfall trail? More chance for photos there.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

After he had finished explaining, Khalid realized it must have all sounded rather silly to a non-Muslim. He knew his mother was opposed to her children getting any ideas about magic and witchcraft which were the Devil's work, and some fictional pieces had an almost cult-like following. It was unhealthy to put fictional characters above Allah. Then there were series like The Fast and the Furious which sexualized women, had criminals as the main charcters, promoted drinking alcohol, and was incredibly violent. Sure, watching fast cars race sounded like fun, but the whole franchise was generally anti-Islamic.

"I'm not familiar with either the movies or the books. It sounds like a fun read, but I would hate to spend my parents' money on things that they think are haram. And it's not like I'm going to buy alcohol."

As the barns came into sight, Khalid could feel Nasr getting eager to return home. He held the gelding back as it would entirely irresponsible to let a horse gallop back to his stall.

"Which barn are you going to? Nasr lives in the White Oak barn. And let me know if you ever want to learn some Arabic."

They were housemates, so it was inevitable they'd see each other again before too long, and the school wasn't nearly that big. The offer to teach was a formality, and Khalid hoped he wouldn't be expected to follow through on it. He mostly only knew his own dialect and could read a bit of Modern Standard when he had to. Given the expat nature of Doha, he could understand most other dialects, but even that wasn't perfect comprehension.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn nodded and chuckled at the comment about buying alcohol. "They'll have the books in the library, then you wouldn't have to worry about spending your parents' money if you wanted to have a look at them. Good luck with the alcohol thing." He commented. "You'd need an ID to buy it, though Boot Scootin Boogie in town is pretty cool. It's a nightclub - and I use that term loosely - designed for teenagers. Loud music, non-alcoholic cocktails and a dance floor. It's a good place to go to just forget about the stress of school for a night." He shrugged, as he didn't go to the nightclub as often as he'd like, just because by the time Saturday rolled around he was tired, which was the only night that made sense to stay out to all hours since Sunday was his only day when he didn't have training.

"Spur lives in the other barn, Red Willow." He smiled at the offer for lessons in Arabic, though Finn had a feeling that the offer was just there out of being polite. "Thank you for the offer. I'll get back to you on that one." He said with a smile, and he might even take him on on that, even if only to learn the basics.

Approaching the barns, he halted the gelding and swung out of the saddle before running the stirrups up and loosening the girth. "I apologise that we met the way we did," he said as he looked over at Khalid, "but I am glad I met you on the trails. After all, while their House wasn't exactly bursting at the seams, there was a chance that it would be a while before they actually ran into each other.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

It was impossible for Khalid not to laugh at the idea of obtaining a fake ID to buy alcohol. Even night clubs were off limits until he was an adult, and that was mostly appealing for the chance to relax with guys and drink soda.

"I have never considered buying alcohol. It's haram, and I would be flogged for owning alcohol even if I never drank it. I don't even want to get close to the Western hotels in Doha on Friday or Saturday when all the foreigners get drunk."

Khalid was in full agreement with his parents that any substance that caused him to lose control of his action should be avoided at all costs. Praying while drunk was meaningless, and it was fairly obvious that people did harmful and regretable actions while inebriated, high, or stoned.

Dismounting Nasr felt like falling off a cliff. It was a much farther ways down than he was used to with the smaller Arabians. Even running up the stirrups felt like a reach. He flipped the reins over the gelding's head.

"Yeah, sorry you never got that photograph. Nshoofk ala kheir."

He led Nasr towards the barn to be untacked and brushed. So maybe they didn't have the best first impression of each other, but Khalid didn't think he would object to talking to Finn again. He reminded himself that even just maintaining an agreeable relationship was important for a wasta.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn grinned when the other boy actually laughed, he felt that he'd accomplished something. "I can completely understand. I'd get kicked off the gymnastics team if I did something like that, and the Congressman would probably have something to say about that. And trust me, drunk adults aren't as much fun as it sounds." That was the best thing about his parents being so absent, he didn't have to interact with drunk adults as much as he'd have to if they always had the parties at their own house.

He lifted the reins over Spur's head and shrugged the photo comment off. "Don't worry about it." He replied. "It wouldn't have looked good on a Christmas card anyway." And the kind of photo he'd wanted would have taken quite a few goes to get, so it probably wouldn't have got the perfect shot that day anyway. "Until we meet again." He said with a bow of his head and he led Spur into the barn.

After removing the gelding tack and giving him a good groom, he threw the horse's winter rug on and led him out to the pastures. "Go and terrorise something." He muttered affectionately as he removed the halter and jumped back as the gelding spun on his haunches and thundered off across the pasture, kicking up chunks of dirt as he went.