Life is Sweet and Sour

So many thoughts coming to mind, said my prayers tried to sleep but as you can see I am still up. So here I am updating you on few of the things happened since I wrote.

The girls have a calendar and they cross off each day as the day finish to count how many days before their aunt and her family are here, when their uncle arrives with his wife and mellion things they wan to do as we are looking at our plans to travel back home after 2 years of being here. How they will miss their best friends who will be coming from Florida to Israel arriving the same day we are leaving but then they ok with it as we will still be in Florida when they come back and we will see them there. Same times I am thinking how I will miss seeing a good friends that will be leaving Florida as will be arriving the same day. Things happen around us in way that we can’t understand and have no control over but can’t help to wonder why it happens the way it does?!



Final exams are back! September will be two years for us here Wow, I can’t believe it. The girls continue to amaze me of how they dealing with their exams how well their Arabic is getting and their adjustment to the culture. Nadia comes home and hid among her books and read her English stories, Yasmeen organize her room make a list of all the things she need to take back to her friends and cousins. No more long complaint about the hot days or the teachers screaming it is all becoming part of their daily life. At dinner we hear them casual mention the Toshah (fights) that happened in the school and who were the involved parties, which teach is pregnant, and we move on talking about the plan for the day.

The tenth Baha’i National convention was held here in Haifa in April 2008 http://news.bahai.org/story/629. Being part of the convention was something that I will never forget; watching over 1,000 people speaking different languages, looking so different, from different nations, colors, classes, coming together in such a unity and love to elect the Universal House of Justice. It really gives hope to the world it shows that peace is possible and it is not just a dream among all this madness and war. In a part of the world where people are scared to travel to, this beautiful flower blooms.

The picture below was taken one day before the convetion they invited the childreen and the families of the Baha'i World Center to go and visit the place where the convention will be held.

Our girls’ grandparents were here from Belize as delegates and they stayed couple of weeks after the convention to visit. We really had a wonderful visit with them. We went camping together and visited Nazareth and had and they did many project with the girls. They were a great help with the kids and I was able to concentrate at work more and spend more time working. They have such a radiant spirit and are so full of life and energy and full of love for the girls.

Few days before the end of the convention I heard the most heart breaking knew. I had told you before about one of the Arab security Guard that worked at one of the gates that I use to pass by almost every day going to work. I used to stop by and get my coffee with him we had our small talks I knew about all his grandkids, his family. For a week he had this paper in his pocket and will tell me about this trip that he is going soon and taking his three daughters with him. Few days before his trip I had my cup of coffee and wished him good luck not knowing that it will be my last cup of coffee with him he had a heart attack in the trip and passed away instantly. Few days later they had his funeral; I had dinner at my house that same night for over 15 people yet I am not sure how but I managed to cook and go to the funeral as I walked in, his wife cried and told me that before he left for his trip he had asked her to make me a pot of stuffed grape leaves as he knew it was my favorite. She looked at me and said he was gone. It is like my heart stopped and I froze but she guided me gently to a chair next to his daughters who had surrounded his body in silent an revering. As I watch the body and looking around me in a room full of ladies with black dresses and white silk cloth covering their head so dignified singing these sad songs. I could not stop my tears my heart was aching and I remember thinking this can be nothing but a dream yet I knew that it was reality. Driving back alone from the Druze village I cried all the way going around the mountain for an hour to get back home. Getting close to home I realized that I have dinner in my house with all these people coming soon. I ran to the kitchen finished cooking and had this wonderful meal with people that I love from different parts of the world one of them I had not seen for over 20 years. It was a beautiful crowd of people. Yet I felt so num really weird feeling as if I was watching a dream and I was not part of it.


I know I am getting really weird so I better stop and go to sleep as in three hours from now I need to get up and get ready for a meeting in Akka and help the kids off the school. SO Goodnight, if you are going to bed and wish you a good day if you are waking up.