Waken By the Sound of the Wind

It is hard to think of anything but the sound of the wind as it is 4:30 am it is a cold night/morning. I can’t sleep so I got up to read and here I am updating my blog. The sound of the wind so loud it sounds like I am in one of those scary movies.

Things are good at our end. The girls are getting into a new stage where they seem to know what they are doing and what is going on with school. They are calling their friends less and less to ask about homework or other school related questions. It is defiantly a new stage yet it has its own challenges. They can understand and feel like they should be able to speak but they are not there yet. They are doing well in Tennis and enjoying it. They will be starting Basketball this weekend.

This week was such an interesting week. We had and amazing privilege which is being at the holy land to celebrate the twin birthdays of the Bab and Baha’u’llah. The program was amazing for both events. The celebration of Baha’u’llah’s birthday was our first Holiday in Bahji. We had a wonderful time. Our perspective on life and the important of service becoming more clear everyday. A lot to be thankful for and we have much more to learn and to give. While there is this part of us that we left behind it feels like unfinished business which is one of the most uncomfortable feeling. Weeks like this makes it harder to be away. We just found out that Naim’s grandmother is not feeling well and is going into the hospital for surgery and his father is not feel well also and just finished having a surgery. At the same time the kids can’t stop talking about missing all their cousins’ birthdays as it was Bahram’s 9th birthday and we called to wish him a happy birthday and the girls kept saying you know we really should be there. It feels like a part of us is missing by having the people we love are so far away. Especially in nights like this it feels so when I can't go sleep and the strange sound of the wind does not help. I got up and put on a music CD one that a friend gave me few years ago for my birthday and it made things worst and made me more home sick.

To change the subject, I am not sure what made me think of this but you know one thing amazes me here is how in many ways things are almost crazy when you think of driving and parking in this city and people stop at the middle of the road to drop someone or if they see someone and want to talk and they just expect you to understand and wait patiently behind them or hunk and they know very well how to ignore you until they finish or you find a way to go around them without killing yourself. What is amazing is these same people would not cross the street if the walking light is red. You can look both sides and there are no cars yet you find everyone standing at the edge of the street to cross the road then when the light changes to green they don’t even look they just start walking. It is almost like a robotic movement. There are so much contrasts in thing in here I have never seen anywhere else. Another example is the beauty of nature in this city is amazing, yet there are some area you drive by you can hardly breath from the smell of the factories, the level of contamination in some areas are hard to believe. The Arab and the Jewish neighborhoods are so different. Yet at the end of the day or early in the morning you still can count on watching the most beautiful, breath taking sunrise and sunset. Speaking of sunrise, I better get some sleep before the sunrises and my two angels wake up. Hope you find happiness, love and peace in all you do.

The pictures in this postes are for Yasmeen in tennis class. Every Sunday and Wednesday when the girls have their class I set on the mountain side looking into the ocean watching an amazing sunset. It is really a wonderful way to end my day.

Tuff week

Not that much to write about but here I am with short update. Last couple of weeks had been really tuff as I got really sick and was in bed for 5 days. I am feeling so much better but still don’t feel 100% myself. In term of the development of the girls it was a very exciting week. They are watching more of the Arabic TV and actually enjoying it. They are starting to talk in Arabic using full sentences. Simple sentences but it is big improvements. They both took such a good care of me and helped fixed the meals and got things ready.

Thanks to Nesreen and Hilary who helped us while they were here the house is more organized and things look more like home. Just what I needed when I was home for long time.

This week also I am starting to work more regular hours and starting to feel more involved with the project. It has been really exiting and I am very much enjoying learning new things and using a lot of the things I learned in the past few years. The office is here in Haifa but the project in Akka so I end up going there whenever we have something going on site. Akka is about 35 minutes from Haifa. The people I am working with are amazing. My boss is very smart and I have a lot to learn from him. I have always been lucky that God sends amazing people my way to work with and learn from and share with them what I know.

The girls and I been playing cards games. Until now I am still the champion but they are learning very fast and I am sure soon I will lose my title. Naim is doing well and been working hard as usual. He came home early today complain that he was not feeling great and went to bed early. I hope that he did not get whatever it is I had.

Well, that is really about it for these last few days. Hope you all are doing well and keeping warm. For the friends and family who are in Florida enjoy the warm weather. We miss you all.

The end of the Morris's family visit

Day 5
During the day they went into the Tour of the Arc and at noon all the kids had a nice visit with Dr. Varqa

After that we visited the Druze village for couple of hours and at night we all went to a talk at the auditorium where the boys meet several friends that they knew from Chicago who are serving here.




Day 6

At one of the talks we meet someone that knew my dad; and mom was his teach when he was in 5th grade. He invited us to lunch. Told us stories about mom and dad. We had a wonderful time. He and his wife where both very kind and amazing people.


At night we went to Tiberias and a nice dinner.







day 7

During the day Hilary with Badi and Daniel took the girls and went to visit Elijah's cave, other historical places, the beach around Haifa and McDonalds of cours while Nesreen and I stayed home and cleaned up. Later that evening we also went to Bahji together

At night we had a nice dinner at a friends house and from there went to Nazareth for a Midnight Service for Christmas at the largest Church in the Middle east in Arabic.










Day 8
Badi and Daneil got up really early and went to work at Bahji Gardens for the day. That night we had a nice dinner at our home












Last day

Hilary really wanted to walk from the lowest terrace to the most top terrace despite the fact that it was raining. He was patient enough until the rain stopped and convinced Badi and Yasmeen to walk with him. So, I drove them to the lowest terrace and few hours later went and picked them up after they completed their walk to the last one tired but with big smile. The night the boys with Yasmeen and Nadia went to a talk by Dr. Varga and we packed and off they went :( We really had a great time.

The Morris's family visit continue

Day 2


Visiting the old city of Akka started with the Most Great Prison and continued into the city
I left early to pick up the kids from school Nesreen and Family with Hoda continued and had lunch there and from there went to Bahji to visit the Shrine of the Baha'u'llah.











Day 3

In the morning Yasmeen and Nadia went to school, Hilary and the boys went to the monument garden and Nesreen volunteered for one day. At night their was the Black men gathering presentation and they talked about their trip to African it was amazing

The Morris's Family Visit

So many nice pictures hard to pick what to post and what to write about. Daniel did a good job saving all the pictures for me by day before her left. I will try to pick the highlights of each of the 10 day they spent here.

Day 1
Visited the Shrine of the Bab, then went to the visitor center for some hot tea. Finished just on time to pick up Nadia from school. Yasmeen had hurt her foot the night before just bad enough not to go to school but well enough to spend time with the family and go around with us.




From there we walked to several holy places around the Shrine area and then walked to the market area and got so lunch


Later that evening we had a wonderful dinner at Hoda's home. Where the Morris family visited with old friends that they had not seen for several years.




Day 2 To Be Continued :)