General Update

I feel good and in very positive mood. I took the kids and Naim to work and came back to update my blog and start my day. At the gate to Naim’s work we stopped and chat with an older Arab security gentleman, something we do often, who insist on us getting a fresh turkish coffee that he makes at his stand. About twice a week I go to the market to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables for the day and walk around and take my time to talk to people. About once a week, I stop and pick up a falafel sandwich and eat it as I am chatting with the owner of the shop. Other times I stop to walk at the gardens of the shrine and just look across the mount to the streets of the city a little further out I can see the Mediterranean Sea with its busy port. What a way to start the day.

To update you on the kids, they are still doing well. Studying hard continue to find ways to make new friends and enjoy life. We visited the zoo with one of Yasmeen’s friend’s family and we had good time. Now they can actually put their books for the day without my help which is step forward. Nadia is more interested in learning the cool things. She goes in front of the mirror and practices how to do the sign for no. As most Arab speakers know what I mean, for no they make this “Chic” sound with their mouth and move their heads upward and some times left up one eye brow. In the evening they still play with their Jewish friends in the neighbor hood and now they mix Hebrew words with their Arabic. So slowly there are figuring things out.

Naim is doing well he is working hard and seem to always be occupied with things for work on his mind. As for me, I know I said that I will not start working for another few months but I could not really help myself. I started few days ago working on this simple project to gather information about drinking water, then will evaluate the data and look into new filtering systems to use for the buildings. I am getting to know myself better and now that I am much happier when I am involve with things that challenge me and keep me thinking and learning. I am also trying to be realistic so I will only be working at one project at a time and work most of my times with the kids.

I hope you all had a wonderful week and please keep the email coming as I would like to also know what is going on with you.