Mt.Carmel Team

One of the girls favorite thing to do in the weekend is to watch and cheer for Mr. Carmel’s Team. In about a month one of the players will be starting a team for the Baha’i kids. The girls are really looking forward to playing basketball again.

Our path

We got the winter clothes out this weekend and we will probably not be walking as much as we have been. Our home is 20 minutes walk from where this picture is taken and our favorite walk is down the mountain to the Shrine, Naim’s work is next to the Shrine, we stop to eat lunch together, and continue all the way to the lowest terras.

Back to School

I feel like I am back to school being punished for all the things that I did not learn as a child I am learning them now with my girls. I can’t wait for them to learn enough so they can start doing some of the homework with out me. Now I have to set next to them any time they working in their homework. I leave for few minutes to pick up the phone I come back to find Nadia had feel asleep on the carpet waiting for me.

Several families here send their kids to either Arabic or Hebrew school and they themselves don’t speak any Arabic or Hebrew. I can’t even imagine how brave these moms are. I guess I would need to be a lot more detached to do such a thing. Most of these kids are born here and adjusted really well. To them this is the only home they know. I guess it is not that different in south florida with a lot of kids going to English school with parents only speaking Spanish. But anyway. But the fact that I speak arabic I am feel that I have the responsibility to help these kids. One of my friends daughter is 13 years old. Beautiful spirit very independent in her studying and thinking had to do a report for school on the book Al AjniHa Al-Mutakasira “Broken Wings” a story by Jubran Khaleel Jubran an author that I think he is brilliant. It was 22 years ago that I read this book and could remember the main story, but not enough to help her write the report. So, I took the story home and read the book over night and cried. It is amazing how reading the story as young girl I just felt sympathy and remember thinking ohh these things only happen in books. Now reading it as an adult I see and feel things so different. Reading her summery from a 13 years old girl was interesting and then talking to her about all the other things that he was trying to present that she did not see was even more fun.

I am so looking forward to Yasmeen and Nadia being comfortable enough with Arabic so we can ready poems and talk about books that they read. I try to do that with them now but specially Nadia she can read English books much faster than we can talk about them. This will open for them a whole new culture that they can learn about. Then we all can work on our Hebrew. Speaking of Hebrew my Hebrew class is going really well. The teach is very good and the class is fun. I did not realize before that there are so many words that have the same roots in Arabic and Hebrew. Knowing Arabic is helping me a lot in learning Hebrew. The kids are also learning Hebrew in school but not in the same intensity as Arabic at least not yet.

The most excitement news in our house is that Nesreen (my sister) and her family are planning to come and visit us in December. We are constantly talking about places we want to visit and things we want to do together. Can’t wait :)

The girls have off from school Monday and Tuesday in addition to their normal Sunday and Saturday weekend. Naim only have Saturday off and half day Friday. We have tons of things to do and places to see on the following 4 days so I better go get some sleep to be able to keep up with them.

Goodnight.

"And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." - Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

HOME

Our place is really looking like home now. We actually had friends over for dinner twice last week.

At least two night a week we are invited out to dinner to friends homes. This Friday night we had a special treat a Counselor of the Baha’i National Teacher Center gave an amazing concert. She had a master in Music and you can tell that she is so in love with music. She is an American and lived in Africa for few years where she studied African music. She also talked about the important of music in the Baha’i faith and the effect it has on the soul. I could not help but watch the way the kids were intensely watching and listening to everything she said. The next morning Yasmeen wake up and said mom, I had a dream that Mr. Lincoln is living with us and she played the piano every morning.

The kids’ school is good. Friday after school I brought home five girls from Yasmeen and Nadia’s friends and had a great time watching them trying to communicate. I am the official translator now but I have a feeling that few months from now they will be speaking really well. They are trying and the kids in school are very supportive and loving with them.

Watching the girls at school is constantly reminding me of myself as a child and my first HOME. Going to the market speaking Arabic, the food, the music is bring all these amazing memory of my childhood with my sisters and brother and wonderful parents. I guess after 20 years being away from this part of the world to come back makes me feel as a child again. It also makes it harder in some ways. I am not only home sick to America which has been my HOME for the last 20 years and all the friends and family that I left behind. Being here makes me home sick to my first home also. Yet there is a part of me that feels closer to my parents here. Last week I went and bought some sweets from this place that my mom had told me that my father used to take her to. I remember the pictures that my dad took while working here and can almost close my eyes and see him. Next weekend we are planning to take the kids to old Akko for the first time and get them to see the place where my mom was born and grow up. In that holy city that Baha’u’llah was exiled from his home and imprisoned and spent years of his life.

Being close to all these holy places not just for the Bahai Faith but for all the other religion. Thinking that we are walking where all these prophets of Gods walked and breath the same air is a feeling hard to explain. Being here close to the heart of administration of the Baha’i faith's makes it is easy to look at the Baha’i world and see the large picture. How everything fits to together in God’s plan. When I left to come here one thing I had a hard time with is feeling like I am giving up my carrier and that when I come back I will have to start over. Yet, that fear is slowly going away. I am starting to feel stronger and think that the job is not about the title or the large office. It is about waking up the next day and feeling I did my best and I can do that anytime any where.

I miss going to work even thought I hardly have time to think. I have couple of option for work at this point but I am most likely going to wait for couple of months before I start working. Naim’s job is very demanding for his time and the girls’ school is very demanding for my time. Between helping both girls I spend about 4 hours after school studying or negotiating things to do if we study. There are also a list of books that I been meaning to read and just never had the time to read so this is my chance to do so.

This week Naim and I will be starting Hebrew classes twice a week. He will attend Sunday and Tuesday and I will go on Monday and Wednesday evening, for five weeks. That is going to make things a little more crazy but I think in the long run will be good for the family and our service here.

This is it….. Until next week.. Take care and Be Happy..

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth

Enjoying their friends during the Baha'i Holyday

September 22nd - Martyrdom of the Bab observed at about noon in Haifa next to the shrine of the Bab.

Yasmeen in red dress and Nadia next to her in green dress.

Productive Week

We got the car (Mazda 6) silver color, hurray! We also bough two satellite dishes and got them installed. It was a great deal we get all kind of Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Persian channels. Personally I am loving the Arabic music. The first couple of days I managed to point out only the Arabic channels and the kids thought that is all they have. They were so happy to have TV that they did not complain much and watched the cartoons in Arabic, and were amazed to find that all their favorite cartoon characters spoke Arabic. A few days later they discovered that we have channels in English. So, the negotiation started finally we agreed that for each Arabic show they can watch a show in English.

Nadia is readying Harry Potter 4 and she is almost done. That girl can read all day if I let her. Yasmeen is getting into the Game Boy but she does not play more than 45 minutes before she gets tired. She really loves to go outside and play. Cats and dogs are everywhere here and the girls love that.

Yesterday was a major Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. So from sunset on Sunday night until sunset Monday people don’t drive. We went out walking on Sunday night and the streets where full of kids, youth and adults driving there bicycles in the middle of the street, kids with their roller skates and scooters. We live in a mostly Jewish area so driving for that day was out of the questions. We had a great time in the evening discovering more of the area we live and found another park that is close to us. Monday morning Naim went to work but the kids and I were off from school. So we walked for about one hour to go the Shrine of the Bab. We go to the Shrine about once a week but we walk around and in the gardens almost every day. We said our prayers and continued our walk for another hour to the bottom of the terraces to meet a Baha’i family. They are from the Philippines and they have been like a second family for the kids. Their house is a minute from the school. We spend a few hours there and by then it was sunset, so they drove us back home. My legs are so sore I can hardly walk. I am not sure where the kids get all this energy, but they seem to really enjoy it.

Today they finished school at 1 pm. I drove to pick them up for the first time with the new car. Driving can be a nightmare here, but I am getting used to it. The kids school is at the bottom of the terraces at Abbas Street for those of you who know the area. It is in area which is predominantly Arab.

After school I asked the kids if they where up to getting lost? They both did not seem to mind, so we drove down to an area called Wadi which is like a marketplace and shopping area of town. Bad area if you are trying to diet all the good food I like but I am walking enough to make up for it. We finally found a place to park and walked around. We managed to follow our sense of smell to find a falafel place where I got a sandwich. Then we found a bakery and got the kids a Manosha (bread with Arabic spices) and walked around eating. While walking we realized it was Ramadan (fasting period for the Muslims) as we saw the banners up in the area. So, we went to the side and finished eating and continue our walk. After that we bought some fruits and vegetables (the fruits are so fresh and smells so goooooood) and somehow found our way home.

The girls seem to compare a lot of the things here to things back home and make sure to point out when things can’t be as good as back home. They still miss everyone a lot, we all do.

Haifa is truly an amazing city. The cultural diversity in this little community is just unbelievable. Jewish from all different background, Muslims Arabs, Christian Arabs, and Baha’is live together with such a harmony in this town compared to many other places in the world.

Finally, for those of you who said that they wanted to come and visit, we got the car, ALMOST all the boxes are open and found a place in the house, and we know how to find our home when we get lost driving, so, we are ready for you. Just let us know when you are coming!

I better go get some sleep. We got a full day of “I am not sure what” but I am sure it will be full of excitement. :)

Good night.