Families enjoying their weekend at Aspire Park yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula
DOHA: Visiting parks in Qatar, especially Aspire Park, by expatriates provide a great opportunity to many families of different nationalities to know each other and to make friends and build new relationships.
Some of these relations develop to that level that instead of meeting only at parks they exchange home visits offering chances to one another to know about diverse cultures.
“As a resident, Aspire Park means every thing to me. I meet my friends and we discuss the situation of our countries either politics, culture and economy there. It is the only relaxing place for us,” said Sobhi.
For her part Mariam from Sudan said that she would visit Aspire Park every weekend with her children and sit near the play area where many families would also come.
“Because, we meet almost every weekend, we have become familiar with one another. Sometime when I do not come they call me to inquire about my health and the reason behind my absence.”
“Some of my friends from this park have also visited my place thus our relations strengthened with the passage of time,” she added.
Many families who spend time in close proximity speaking different languages help learn about different cultures including languages. “I noticed that my child uses different words, sometimes from Arabic language and sometimes unfamiliar slang. When I asked him form where he had learnt those phrases he replied that from the children who were playing with him in the play area.
This not only happens with children. I too have memorised many words due to hearing them frequently. The families sit near to one another especially in the play areas because they want to sit near their children to have a careful watch on them,” said a resident from India Mohamed Afsal.
“Some of the families also bring their dinner there and share it with their park friends,” he said, adding that the most beautiful activity at weekend was outing, visiting parks with family, playing and meeting friends.
Aspire Park attracts thousands of families who want to visit the place because it provides all the needs and services to visitors to spend enjoyable times. Also it offers service of supervisors and security personnel in case of missing children.
