Akhtarkhavari-Ru

Update with pictures

2011-01-08T08:01:00.001-08:00

2011 is Here

2011-01-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

2011 is already here!! Nothing changed much since 2010 it is the end of the day almost midnight I am with my cup of tea and needing to go to bed soon to start the day early tomorrow to catch up with all the endless list that I was not able to finish today. I am still working hard; the story of everyday what to cook for dinner and how to balance my life.

This idea of a balance life seem to keep creeping to my mind. Is it the fact that my mind can't stop worrying! could it be the few days I spent in the hospital was a good reminder of how fragile we are; is it the fact that I am getting older and realizing that I don't want to just do things to just fill my day that every minute matter

The last few days I have been thinking about my days and my hours. I am getting back to watching the sun set over the sea the most beautiful view, I have stop to feel the wind on my face, to walk a little slower from one place to another, I try to not just walk by the flower beds without taking my time to enjoy their beauty, few days ago I spent some time watching a bee farm in the garden going around busy with their work was the best therapy to forget about the world for a while. It is been a while that I have taken the time and watched my girls sleep. I notices that I have been too worried about what might go wrong and to busy trying to protect them from what I think might be a mistake that I have forgotten to enjoy them. It is so easy to lose track of what makes us happy. We get too busy trying to do things and get things that we forget to live.

The last few months I have been listening to much more music just doing that I been much happier for many reasons it seems that it awaken my soul. Remembering beautiful moments of my life things that made me happy. We are too busy feeling guilty about mistakes we have done or what other might think of us. Many things in life is out of our control but it is truly nothing comparing to what is in our control. We are such a free creatures but we build walls around our body and around our soul we work so hard to crowed our selves with material things and we feel trapped. We set so many rules and restriction that we suffocate our selves. Then we wonder why are we not happy.

This idea of contentment is such a beautiful concept but again how to balance contentment with not being lazy. Doing the right thing; helping someone; working hard for something you believe in brings such a joy yet it is an art to learn how to balance that with taking care of yourself. Taking care of yourself to be productive and useful not for the sake of taking care of yourself and not going over board and becoming selfish!. Again this idea of balance how much is too much and how much is enough and how much is just right. a simple chemical balance can give you the answer of the perfect reaction yet what can help us learned how to balance our life is something that my mind is exploring lately. I have not been a good friend to communicate with many of you so to balance that i thought a good place to star is getting back to updating this blog and postig what is going on my mind. Wish you a happy 2011!

Back to blogging after 2 years!

2010-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I just realized that in few days it would be 2 years since I last updated my blog. I don't really have a good excuse. I will not even consider updating you on everything; just looking back I am amazed of how many things happened in the last two years. Maybe the first thing I should do is add some pictures of the girls and you will see what I am talking about…

One thing has not changed is my English and skill of writing has not improved much but here I am writing what comes to mind – so you can take this as a worming of what might come..

Our girls are the center of my life and our service here in Israel. The girls are growing as you so much. Yasmeen will be 15 years old in 8 months; thinking about it makes me anxious, excited, happy, but worried as a mom. I pray every day that her life will be focused on serving humanity. Nadia is my little angel who is not little anymore. As much as I would like to keep her young she is growing up and will be 15 in 1 year and 9 months. Why 15? It is the time when they get to take responsibility over many things in their lives as youth over their spiritual growth. As parents we will continue to guide them and assist yet it is up to them from this point. They also have the chance to choose their path of which religion to choose. Even though they both are being raised as Baha’is they still will have to choose and decide for themselves and strive to live their own spiritual life.

Today is one of those day that I am sure I will not forget a sad indeed as I am sitting her while one of my favorite places are burning away. The Carmel Haifa Forest. Started yesterday were the sky is changing colors, the birds and all the animals of the forest either burning or escaping to find a new home. It is December and you would expect that we had many days or weeks of rain however this year was different almost not much rain yet since the early year. So the forest is absolutely dry the wind is hot and moving in a way to help spread this fire. Families and friends are calling from overseas with worries and concerns you can hear it in their voices we comfort them that the fire is far from our home and the holy places are safe and the wind is taking it away to the other direction. While our heart aches about the 40 people that were burned in the fire. Our girls are calling their friends from school who live close to the fire area panicking if they can’t reach them. our home is open for all the friends who might need to escape the fire.

People are getting together here and for a moment forgetting about war. Baha’is, Muslim, Christen and Jewish and others are all praying for the same God asking for rain and to stop the fire. Why is it so easy to put our differences aside when we are in pain and work together yet we have no problem inflicting pain on others? So much to think about and ponder upon!. Living in this part of the world for 4 years had changed me so much. It opened my eyes to so many things.

I am happy to be back and writing and wish you all a wonderful day!

Week In Texas

2008-12-06T03:24:00.000-08:00

I can't belive it has been over 2 months since I updated the blog. I am not going to get into explaing what is going on now. I will update the pictures for the last two weeks of our trip to the States and then will updated you on what is going on. Even thought I am dieing to complain and few things and telling you about so many excitting things going on with us now but I will be patient. It is so wonderful to think back of our time with families. We really miss everyone alot.

Our trip in texas was great. We got to see all Naim's family his sisters, brother, the kids grandparents and great grandmother and their kids and husbands and wife. Here are some pictures from that week in Texas I will post it now and add the comments later to the pictures.

2nd week of vacation in Chicago

2008-08-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Chicago was so much fun. Susan and her family also came with us which made it extra special. There are things that can never be capture in pictures or write about it is the special time when you are with someone you love; someone that you can be yourself with, it is the feeling of being truly happy.

Any free time the kids would run to the game room and watch TV, play Wii, exercises, wrestle, or hang with all of that and all the junk food that they like that Nesreen made sure to have before we arrived the kids were in heaven.

At night we went to this amazing dinner that Hilary and Nesreen had set up for us it is called the midieval time. The kids absolutely loved it and specially Yasmeen as she had a special treat since it was the day before her birthday

Hilary’s family his brother and brothers wife, his sister and her family, his aunt and several of the friends came to celebrate Badi’s graduation from the university, Daniel graduation from high school, and Daniel’s Eagle Scout ceremony. This was emotional time for Nesreen as both of her boys would be leaving home moving to Florida. They are both in Orlando now Badi is working as a computer Engineer and Daniel is going to college. Badi and Daniel will both still have someone to baby them when needed as Rosa is only one mile away from them. We are all very proud of and they are setting a good example to all the other kids in the family to follow.

Then we spent the next couple of days visiting museums and down town Chicago and going out with families to eat and spending the night talking and not getting much of sleep.

1st week of our vacation to the US

2008-08-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

Our trip to the United States was fantastic. We had the best time and every place we went we enjoyed every minute of it. Getting back to Haifa the trip took a lot longer than we expected as we could not make our connection to take the flight from Madrid to Tal Aviv. I should start the update from the first week and will tell you all about the flight home if you are patient to read through the four weeks before that.

The first week we spent it in South Florida with Susan, Kourosh, Naveed and Bayan. Who live next door to our old home in Sunrise. The same day we arrived we went to Bayan's game. He played so well we all were proud of him.

During the break the other kids join to play Yasmeen and Nadia were happy to be back at their old court playing basket ball.

After the game to celebrate the victory, Kourosh and Naim took the kids and went out for Ice cream to celebrate
The four kids had so much fun spending any free time out at the streets riding bicycles or scoters or just running after each other.
One of the things on the kids list was going together to Wannado city. For those of you not from Florida is it like a little city that the kids can run free everything is small size. They get to work and earn money from work as a doctor, police, a rubber, movie star, hair cutting, almost anything you can think of and then they can spend their money by going doing fun activates as rock climbing, candy, watching a show. It is really cool place for the kids and very well done. They ran around almost 8 hours in that place and had tons of fun and lots of candy.

For the weekend Hilary (Nesreen’s Husband) came to visit us from Chicago to Florida he had a class he was taking at that time which worked out perfect. Also Naim’s two sisters Ba and Ta came for the weekend. Susan and Kourosh had a full house. Kourosh fixed his famous kebab for B.B.Q and then the next day we went and spent a day at the beach at West Palm Beach the water was perfect we spent a lot at the beach swimming.

At the Beach at night

Naveed with Baba

Susan and Bayan

Yasmeen trying to decide if she want the pool or the ocean

After a long day at the beach went out to eat.

The last day in Florida before we left to Chicago a friend took the kids to ride in one of the Boom trucks. We saw how much fun the kids had and for the good old days Susan and I went up also.

But off course we had to stop by for a good breakfast first.

Enjoying the ride To give you an idea of how high the truck went up

This was the end of our first week; three more weeks to update you on will try to do that soon after I catch up with some sleep. Next was our visit to Chicago.

Summer Family visiting us in Haifa

2008-08-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

I will come back to update more this post after I get the pictures from Rosa and Hasson. For know these are some of the pictures I had said I will post for the family visit. I had to count on them to take pictures since we had some technical difficulties until we got back to the States and got a new camera.

Rosa at Bahji.

Ahmad at one of the churches in Nazareth

Eating at Yasmeen’s and Nadia’s one of their favorite restaurants. Roushan and Yasmeen having too much fun.

Nadia and Yasmeen making a sandwish out of Roushan. Roushan is giving Yasmeen a nuggy

Starting the terraces walk.

Still not too tired to enjoy the flowers.

Almost half way; we all are getting tired and Rosa is trying to convince us that we can do it all the wayGetting close to the Shrine.

About 1700 steps walking we made it to the top of the mountain. It was such a agreat feeling.

Nadia and Roushan admire the beauty of Nature.

On our way home

2008-07-20T10:25:00.001-07:00

Couple of more hours we will be leaving to go home to America after 2 years of being away. Feel like there is something I should be doing but can’t think of it. So here I am relaxing and write you. I packed my small carryon bag and the kid’s things are ready. The kids could wait no longer they said the time is not passing fast enough so Yasmeen was looking at the pictures and feel asleep and Nadia was readying and went next to her and feel asleep. They have been counting days for so long and the time is almost here. We spent yesterday at Bahji and I did not realized how attached I am to here until I was walking out of the Shrine and felt the peace inside that I have never felt before a feeling that I never want to lose. Today I wake up early and went to a meeting for work 2 hours away in Tiberius the drive is so beautiful and everything went well for the meeting and we are back home so tired but in good mood. Then I went to the Shrine of The Bab and realized that two years is a long time and so much happened and a part of this place starting to feel like home.

It has been a little over a month since I last wrote but to tell you the truth it feels like a life time. After you read all the things happened you know what I am talking about. The girls finished their exams and graduated. Yasmeen is going to Seventh grade and Nadia will be going to sixth grade in Arabic their marks were very good and we are very proud of them. They had a nice end of the year program for the Baha’i School and it was a lot of fun.

Early in July Naim’s sister Nadra called and told us that his dad’s heath was getting really bad and the treatment for the cancer was not working so Naim went to the States and was able to visit with his dad for a week. our girls were in the middle of exams and we were still hoping that by July when we come that he would be doing well and we can see him. But unfortunately the same day Naim arrived back to Haifa his dad passed away. It was really hard on the kids and Naim went through alot but we know that his father is in a better place and he will alway be close to our heart.

While Naim is gone Rosa and her family came to visit us the day after the girl’s exams. Which was just the right time? The main reason for their visit actually was the 9 day Baha’i pilgramage but we were lucky to be here at this time and they were able to visit with us and spend more time after the pilgramage. It was just what I and the girls need to have someone that love us unconditionally around at that time. Rosa took care of me and cooked all the amazing food, we went everywhere together, the kids talked and playes and had fun and Ahmad was very supportive and patient with us. We had a great time also at the Dead Sea, and back in Haifa the last week the kids with other friends one evening walk with us from the lower terrace to the 19th terrace which is about 1,700 steps. Then we all went and had a nice ice cream.

Few days before Rosa left, Hasson and Afsanah arrived. It was really nice to have everyone together for few days. They also were here on Pilgrimage. It was the first time for all of them in the holyland. We had a very good time together. And as usually the kids had so much fun with Hasson playing with him and the girls bonded with Afsanah.

So many other friends come and many are leaving to go back home after their term of service is ending here at the holyland. It seems like so much is happening at all times.

I keep thinking how it would feel three more years from now when we will be actually preparing to leave this place and go back home. The kids have grown so much. I know that I have changed a lot. I somehow have found so much more peace within myself and seem to know myself much better. Still crazy but at least I know I that and happy with it.

Speaking of crazy. The girls are up and running around excited, so I better gets up and finish getting ready. For those of you in Sunrise, Orlando, Austin, and Chicago we can’t wait to see you soon.

I will be posting some pictures soon specially if Rosa and Hasson send me the nice pictures they took ;)

Life is Sweet and Sour

2008-06-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Random Pictures

2008-05-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Day Dreaming

2008-04-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

Still don’t have our own computer set up at home. So this update will be short as I am at work. This weekend we are planning to go camping to Jordan River park.. very excited about it. The girls are doing well we had lots of fun for their week of school. NO STUDY and we went horse riding, hiking, go-car raising, shopping and lots of cleaning. For the last few days life been back to school and work. I am happy to be back to work and catch up with things. But the rushing like mad and the stress for studying is tuff to get used to.

The nature at this part of the world at this time of the year is amazing. The wild flowers in a hick are prettier than any fancy garden or park I have seen at the states and we went to a lot J. We are doing well and miss you all. So many things for us to look forward to; Grandma and Grandpa Bart are coming to visit in few weeks, then in June Rosa and the family and Hasson and Afsanah are coming and we are counting the minutes. Then we are going back to the US to visit at the end of July and August. I am not asking for much when I go home being with my family and seeing my friends and spending few minutes at the beach drinking Pena Colada (no Alcohol) even if the Pena Colada does not task that good I promises I will be happy. When we go to Chicago it might still be snowing based on the way the weather been acting there we might catch some snow :). I better get back to reality and get to work with big smile in my face as just thinking of being home is wonderful.

Borders of love

2008-03-21T21:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Naw Ruz

2008-03-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

It is a little after two am and I wake up all the sudden and could not go back to sleep. I thought to myself it is Naw Ruz day I don’t need to wake up to eat for fasting why I did not wake up this early during the fast and eat as for several days I had to fasted with having a cup of water in the morning only that day would have been nice if I had woken up early.. But here I am up early and can’t sleep. A million thought is running in my head. I remember when I was a kids I would be so looking forward to Naw Ruz to wake up to the beautiful table full of sweet the clean house as it would have taken us days to prepare the painting at the windows the new clothes the beautiful table cloth flowing from the table. But that is not keeping me up now. My mom having the perfect house and my dad finding the needy and bring them home, all the neighbors visiting all day to the late hours of the night. My mom working hard to making them feel at home at the same time she is trying to put food on the table for her 5 kids, a husband and the endless number of guests that my dad managed to invite. And off course visiting my dad’s uncles who would be waiting patiently for our visit. that is how we would have spent our Naw Ruz.

As I sat last night with my cousin and his family (who are here for pilgrimage at the perfect time) at the lower street in Haifa with a perfect view to the Shrine above us, food kept coming the dessert on the table ready just on time after we finished our food, the kids playing, talking, sitting under the perfect citreous tree with the heavenly smell a lady walk by with roses and my cousin could not help but getting roses for the ladies on the table including his 3 month old girl. I could not stop thinking of my mom and dad and the people I love most. It was truly an amazing evening to break the last day of the fast.

During the day while my cousin and his family were in pilgrimage and it was my girls first day off school after their exams, we spent the day with a friend that is here visiting his sister. I know that it was a time that my girls would never forget. This young handsome boy of 24 years old who somehow connected to my girls like magic while driving to Nazareth with him he so freely talked about his past as a black child adopted by the perfect white Baha’i family then at the age of 12 both of his parents died a sudden death in an accident. How a white kid inside and black on the outside would have to survive this harsh world. He spoke of his long nights and where he is now and how he made it. I don’t know how we moved from place to place we started our day at 9 am and got home at 4 pm how the hours went no idea how we traveled so smooth from place to place and city to city so freely was amazing. I was fasting so my day at the end started to seem long and tiring but not sure where my energy came from. For a while we were at the beach of Akka we walked alone and the three of them it was nothing in their mind but tying to walk across the rock formation at the sea to make it out as far as possible into the open sea so focused working together in such a unity bonding together and talking about life. I know that I was giving my kids the kind of Naw Ruz that they will always remember.
To me as both my parents had passed away it is not about cleaning my house. Even thought to tell you the truth I have tried for the last 4 days to clean like crazy. We have what is called a sand storm. The whole city is covered of sand for 4 days you can hardly breath and as soon as you clean as soon as the dost accumulate so I was fighting a losing battle. But truly it is the time that I have with the people that I love what matters. It is not about how long you knew someone it is about where your heart is. Somehow after a year and a half I would think that things would get easy and I get used to being away from the people I love so much and the truth is it just gets harder everyday my heart aches to be away. It is so hard to write as I feel like it is impossible for me to express even ½ what I am feeling so many thoughts so many things happen all the time I can hardly process things and figure it out myself let alone try to write about it. If I would to write to you about the kids and how they survive the exams I would have to write forever. There are things like walking around the Shrine and being inside I would not even try to explain. If I talk about the struggle you would think I am the most unhappy person, if I tried to explain the feeling of joy being around the holy places you would have to leave and come as you would think it is heave and if I tell you of what is in my heart and how much I miss the people I love you would think that I am the most lonely person that you have meet. If I explain a joy of being at one of the dinners and the unity and love that is in that room the food the hospitality you would think I am the luckiest person in the world but the truth is that being here every things seem to be so magnified and somehow you manage to be that one person that is walking around with all of these feeling so now you can see why I have not written.

I know what I should tell you, I can talk to you about Yasmeen’s field trip to Jabal El Sheik “on the love borders of Lebanon and Israel” Mount Herman but I will wait to show you the pictures so the next update I will be normal and just update all the pictures and tell you about what is going on and not what is in my head at the early AM hours. Until then have a wonderful NAW RUZ and enjoy what the first day of spring will bring to you...

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha

2008-02-27T02:57:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing time of the year for our family. The spirit in the house is high, flowers, gifts, candy, chocolate and lots of actions, activities, parties and serve projects. We are having a wonderful time and enjoying every minute of these special days of Ayyam-i-Ha. I hope you all are doing the same.

I am really looking forward to the fast as it is a very specially time for me. beside all the spiritual part of it; I love waking up early and it forces others in our home to do the same ;0 specially those of us who don't like to wake up in the morning no need to mention names :)

Wish you a wonderful day and Happy Ayyam-i-Ha full of all the beautiful things your heart desire.

Rough Times..

2008-02-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks we had a rough time. Let me just say it is a time of my life that I will not forget. You know all of these times that I thought I had a good excuse for not updating my blog as often; forget it this time I have a real excuse. The fact that our two lap tops were stolen will be a good place to start. Last week someone decide to break into our house turn everything upside down and I mean upside down. They even flipped the bed in our room and pulled everything from the cabinets into the ground and took all our gold including my wedding ring and all the things that was given to me that were gold, the two laptops that we had everything on and the bag for camping. So I have been doing a lot of cleaning; and laundry is coming out of my ears “it is a say in Arabic meaning a lot of it”.

It is good I waited until the house is cleaned up and things are back in order to update my blog or I would have start by cursing in all the languages that I know and don’t know. But with time I calmed down and been able to count my blessing mainly that the girls are fine. The other thing is that they left Pepper “our dog” alone. Actually the only place that they did not turn upside down was the kitchen because he was there. God knows, that is something the girls would have not been able to handle having something happen to him. We been talking a lot with the girls and I cleaned up everything in their room and I even got Yasmeen new sheets for her bedroom and organized Nadia’s room with the little things on her disk that she likes. They are dealing with it really well and life is almost back to normal.

I try to convince myself that what is gone is gone and there is no point for me to keep dwelling on it but let me tell you it is not what the stuff worth even thought it was a lot, it is all the memories with every little thing that I am so mad about. Even though I am learning to deal with things better as I am realizing that memories are not only associated with things. My whole being is consist of the people that I love. The people that I wake up thinking of go to sleeping wondering how they are doing smiling every time I think of something we have done together is something no one can take from me. Few days ago I was really having a hard time and I went to the shower and had one of my flip flop turned side up and I reached out to turn it and thought of a story a friend of mine told me a while ago of being in the shower and trying to turn the flip flop to the other side and got hurt as in the middle east it is bad luck to keep it facing up. I remember going home and finding mom in bed not feeling well and telling her that story which made her laugh so hard so I found myself laughing as I continue to take my shower and made me forget about everything that was in my mind. Talking to my sisters and family makes me realize that I have so much to be thankful for as I can feel their love all the time.

There are few places that I walk in the holyland that I feel the presence of my parents. I understand now the reason my father would pick a sertain plants to plant on our yard or our villege home the color that he picked for our home. I see all these things around me here all the time. No I understand that he was trying to create the kind of things that made him feel at home and it is here where he felt at home. The sertain fruits that my mom loved the sweets that she would make or enjoy to go to the Arab restaurant and eat. Everything here is so intense and things happen all the time.

Being here close to the Shrines and being able to say prayers inside the Shrines had helped me so much. At the same times I been watching the news and following what is going on in the world it just makes my heart ache. How could we allow so much suffering how could any human inflict so much suffering unto other. I am very thankful for being a Baha’i sometimes I think that it would have been so hard for me to deal with things if I was not. As being Baha’i gives me the hope that we as humanity will be fine that our soul will continue to progress that we will learn to live together and see each other as flowers of one garden. It is so sad though to think what a high price we as a human nation have to pay for learning.

Some times I feel like I am in another planet as being around all these amazing people that are serving here and are so focused so dedicated to working for the betterment of the world. Yet having those thieves doing what they have done to our home, invade someone’s privacy and have such a negative impact on the kids is just unbelievable. The amount of poverty in this county is so large the depression that you see some times in people’s faces is scary. I can write forever about how I feel but I can just see Rosa saying.. Fact what else is going on with you and the girls.. So, I will get back to updates..

In between everything else we had couple of earth quakes. One was late at night very small and one was in the middle of the day while the kids were at school. I felt the roof moving, the walls shaking and then few minutes later phone rang Yasmeen called to tell me that they are doing fine and they were under their chairs but now they are good. Other than that we been doing great the girls Arabic is improving a lot and they are doing well in school. I am still loving my work even though I had to work less hours as I been catching up with things at home and not having lap top I can’t work much on things at night. Naim is borrowing a lap top from a friend so I am trying to update you all and explain why I have not writing or responding to many email. So many thing in my mind and so many things happen here all the times it is impossible to give you a clear picture but one thing I can tell you that despite everything there is so much good. Just walking on Mount Carmel at the Shrine area or walking in Bahji or just around the city of Akka gives a new understanding and a feeling that I have never had any where else. You can see that I am still me, my thoughts are all over the place and still trying to understand myself and the world around me and for those that I love.. my love for you continue to grow…

Family Wedding

2008-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

So much to write about but it is getting really late and I got to get up early for work. But I had promissed Afsanh "my brothers wife" to post the pictures from this wedding. The bride is related to us through my father’s family. The groom is Afsanh's cousin. The grooms parents and his sister with her family are serving here. Really amazing family.

They looked absolutely perfect for each other. The Wedding was beautiful the reading and the program was really nice and they both had a radiant smiles that brightened the wedding.

Afsahne's aunt and her daughter.. I meet them for the first time but had a great connection

The middle couple is the groom’s sister and her husband who are serving here the other couple are friends serving here. Actually she is Naim's sister’s husband cousin. See with the Iranian you never alone you always find family any where you go :)

This was fun as one couple took a picture sitting like this and some people started picking on them and some how they ended up going around and taking pictures of several other couples with the same sitting.

Uncle and Aunts of the bride. I had an amazing time talking to them as few minutes after talking we started talking figured out exactly how we are related and then were talking about my grandparents and their house and it brought back all the wonderful memory form me as a child visiting my grandparents. They were telling me all kind of things about my father’s side of the family in Iran whom they knew so well.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

I wish this NEW YEAR will bring Love, Joy and Peace to your lives. This is the last set of 2007 pictures. I really miss you all but as you can see we are doing well.

New Year in Downtown Haifa

Food that can only be found in the Middle East

Rock Climbing - The kids done such a good job and had a great time

A day at the park with a group of Baha'i kids

Day of Service at the Garden in Akka - The girls and I spent several hours in the garden working.

Alka and Prem's Wedding

SOUNDS OF THE WORLD..

Picture Update

2007-12-13T14:27:00.001-08:00

Studying Math with Pepper

Welcoming Jasmine

Saturday - Service Project

Tonight was the last night of studying for the exames. So here I am up late at night doing something other than studying with the kids.

More pictures to come soon, for now I got to go to bed my eyes are closing.. Hope you are enjoying this Holidays season.. My best wishes to you for Love, peace of mind, health, and wealth

Been sleeping..

2007-12-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

I have been sleeping. Some how I have not been able to stay up late or work on the computer long hours at night for this last month. I think this has been the longest since I did not post to my blog. For couple of weekends we were out of town. One of them we went camping and had a great time but took a lot of energy as this was our first camping here in Israel so it took time to get set up and recover. We did that the week before the kids’ exams. This week is the first week of exams. To tell you the truth exams here are something else. We eat, drink and sleep studying for the last week. And on top of all that we all had some kind of stomach virus. As one by one we were feeling sick. Today is the first day I have been able to wake up early not feeling like my body is broken.

Also the girls will be performing in Sounds of the World. I think last year around this time I posted about it where the staff from the Baha’i World Center had an evening to show their amazing musical and art talent. Yasmeen and Nadia will be in an Indian dance. They have been practicing twice a week for couple of hours. They been really working hard as this is something they have never done before and not familiar with the moves. Some how the levels of activities just keep increasing here; so much to do and so little time. No complains that is for sure, just trying to explain to you how our days pass.

I also have done a lot of cleaning in the house we are not 100% set, one more room to organize but much better than we were few months ago. We spent couple of days just to organize the girls’ room. I will update you with new pictures. It is really amazing how much the girls have grown. I can see it especially in there clothes. As most of their clothes are getting small all the sudden. Speaking of the girls changing; they are also both doing some work on their teeth. Yasmeen have some sort of plastic retainer on both the top and bottom of her mouth and Nadia have this metal retainer on the roof of her mouth to expand her upper jaw. They both have been so amazing with the way they are handling all the new changes.

Ok, I better get going and make their breakfast and get their lunch ready. Sorry for the delay in the update and I will soon update you with all the pictures of the cool things we been doing. For those who are sleeping; hope you are having a wonderful sleep and sweet dreams and for those who are waking up to start your day wish you a bright day full of joy.

In Their Eyes..

2007-10-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

We were in the middle of exams and studying for Arabic test when Nadia objected that I keep interrupting her thoughts and she asked for a break. Well, I was ready to kill her so I figured we both need a break. I went on to clean the kitchen and fix some food and she went to here room and when she came back said mom read this, what do you think? I felt so bad that I was so frustrated with her that she did not want to study. But this is what she wrote:

"In their eyes"
I see fear in their eyes but love in their hearts
I see pain in their hearts but love in their soul
I see courage in their eyes and they still move on!

By Nadia Akhtarkavari Ru
Dedicated to the Baha'is in Iran

The reason we were rushing extra to study is because the mom’s had planned for one of the friends here that her husband was martyrdom in Iran to give a talk to the kids about her and her husbands story that night. A combination of getting ready for the talk and the fact that she read Olya’s story last month give her a good understanding of the situation. We managed to finish what ever we could do that day for studying and we went to the talk it was so amazing. http://info.bahai.org/article-1-8-3-15.html I had met the speaker several times before but had no idea of what she and her family had gone through the courage and the love for the faith and the strength she had is writing in her face. This is her picture with the kids:

Couple of weeks ago my Uncle (Amo) my fathers brother passed away in Iran. I remember him when we went to Iran as a child. The most beautiful memories running around with my cousins and being loved by my uncles and grandparents. Thinking of him in the Abha Kingdom with my father sitting together looking down at us I know they are in a better place. On the other hand Thinking of his family and wife makes my heart ache. I also can’t stop thinking of who he left behind and how hard it must be for them being Baha’is and living in Iran at this age and losing a father. So hard to try to make sense out of all of these things. But reading the ending of Nadia’s poem “they still move on” made me realize how we have no choice but to move on and like Abdul’Baha said to one of the believers “Little by little day by day” that is how things been with us. My thoughts my love and my prayers continue to be with my uncle’s family and all other belivers in Iran who seems so far away yet so close.

Time flies

2007-10-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it has been weeks since I posted. Sorry for that. I can’t even think of how can I start updating you. So much happening everyday is it really unbelievable. I am getting more and more involved with work and the kids have there exams this week. A lot of the friends from our orientation group that we came at the same time are leaving so lots of good bye gathering. New friends and pilgrims are here. Another amazing wedding for an awesome couple I can write pages just on that. One of the people that had a huge impact on Yasmeen and Nadia’s last year here been Dan and Gazalah who left last week to go back to the United States. That was really hard on all of us specially Yasmeen and Nadia as they had developed this amazing connection with both of them and attended Islam and Quran study classes that Gazalah conducted in their home with a group of youth and kindly allowed the kids to join. The knowledge and the love that she gave them will always be with them and we are very thankful for that.

Dear friends from back home Greg and Mary are here in their pilgrimage and we been spending any free time that they have together. Having them around it makes this place feels like home and home sick some how with the short 10 days they been here it has been so amazing. I will try to upload some pictures and put them on and will write more update when I am not on the run. Just wanted to tell you that just because I am not writing it is not that I have not been thinking of you all in the same way even thought I am not there I feel you in my heart always. Some things in life and feelings just do not change no matter how far apart we are.

Passing of the Last Hand of the Cause of God

2007-09-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

This week will be a week that is going to be remember forever not only by my family but through the Baha'i world. The Passing of Dr. Varqa. The Baha'i World Center Staff attending his funeral and celebrated his 96 years of service.

One of the wonderful things that happened to us being here this last year is being able to meet Dr. Varaq. In such a short time he had such amazing impact on the girls and they felt his spirit. The best way I can tell you about him is what the Universal House of Justice wrote in a letter announcing his passing "his manner was imbued with a luminous gentleness, a genuine kindliness and a natural dignity which combined to reflect the character of a saintly personality."

Updated Pictures

2007-09-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Meeting Pepper

Back from Turkey

2007-09-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Time really flies here. We got back from Turkey and our trip was amazing. We stayed in a hotel in Istanbul that was about 30 minute walk from Fatih, where Baha’u’llah first stayed when He arrived to Istanbul after being exiled from Baghdad.

After visiting the Holy Places, we spend the rest of the day walking around and shopping. The mosques there are so nice. Nadia said this must be heaven for Muslims as there are mosques at every block. The next day we just went around did more site seeing in Istanbul, the last day we got up early took the metro to the train station and from there to Aderne which was the next place The holy family was sent before they where exiled to Akka. Visited more mosques and walked around town, took the bus back and then went to Taxim a shopping place in Istanbul. Went around until after midnight and went back to the hotel. Our ticket from the travel agency said that our flight was at 2 pm so we thought we had a lot of time to get there and take it easy that day. To make a long story short, the lady that arranges our travel call at 8 am and said you need to leave in 10 minutes the taxi is waiting for you and go to this airport your flight is at 9 am. There was not time to ask questions, we have never moved this fast but we some how fitted everything in the travel bags and ran down stairs. Well the cool thing is we got home early and we did not have to do the 3 hours early in the airport. This trip was for sure the right choice as when we came back the kids were very happy to hear Arabic or Hebrew spoken as they realized how much they can understand vs. in Turkey we could not understand much and not many people speak English. The people were so kind and helpful. We would show the map or ask for train station and they would just walk with us and direct us to things. We came home to start school the next day. A lot was going on that was distracting the kids that there was not complaint about school. Well, not really no complain at all but not as much as we expected. The weekend after we came back we had two wedding to attend one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It was such an amazing weddings, both couples were just the perfect people for each other. The spirit the program the family that came from different part of the world is more like a something out of a story book. Tonight Ramadan starts and it is Rosh Hashanah so we have been watching the fire work at the beach from our home. For both our Muslim and Jewish friends hope you have a wonderful holyday.

As you know the search for the new dog continued until couple of days ago. We went with a dear friend that took us to a pet store where he got his dog and there the girls found this dog that they feel in love with after many visiting to different pet stores. The new dog is absolutely adorable. It is a small dog Chinese Pekingese.

As usually the time I start doing this is so late at night and my brain is half asleep but I am sure by now you are getting used to it and you understand me. I really need to get to bed as I have a meeting tomorrow morning early. I just wanted to update you and in the next couple of days I will post the rest of the pictures. I know that is not nice but the battery is out of juicy and I will have to charge it and upload the pictures. So, you will have to wait to see the pictures of Pepper “the new dog”

Hope for a new day

2007-08-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

We are leaving to Turkey tomorrow for few days for vacation. I can’t keep up with all the things that are going on here to write about and for sure I can’t keep up with all the thoughts and the feeling that I am having. Life some how seems like you are watching a movie in fast track. For the last couple of weeks I had made an extra effort to slow down and spend time with the girls. It has been really nice for both of us.

I can write a book about what happened with us the last few weeks . But I am bad in writing and don't have the time so, I will just have to explain one major event that I am sure will impact the girl’s life forever. You know how our girls are crazy about animals and specially dogs. It has been their wish for several years to get a dog. So finally we looked around and had a long consultation and decided that they wanted to get it from the pound so we went couple of times and it was the day before the Farahvashi family leave so Kourosh and the boys went with us and we picked up the cutest little dog. Having Naveed and Bayan here to do this together for them made things even more perfect. They spent a week before they got to know him well and agree on a name so finally they decided to call him Shadow. Even thought we had taken Shadow to the doctor the first day we got him and he seemed fine; a week later he was not eating well and was throwing up. To make a long story short, we found out that he had a virus and ended up staying at the veterinarian and died few days later. It has been really hard on the girls but they also been so good about it. It is so amazing how different they are and how they deal with things so different. At first Yasmeen was crying and did not want to accept what happen and Nadia tried to calm her down and did not cry much. Then when Nadia was really sad and seem to have hard time Yasmeen told her, he (Shadow) would have died anyway at least he had really good few weeks with us and had a family and we will always love him. It is amazing how can they just support each other and drive each other crazy some times but I will not go into that now. With all this process they have been asking so many questions about God and why things like this happen ohh, can turn you hair white. Honestly Parents job is a hick of a hard job. I have been reading “The Purpose of Physical Reality” a book by John S. Hatcher. It is an amazing book. It helped me so much to explain to the kids and use some of the analysis and stories that where used in the book.

On the light side, we are completely moved to the new house. We had few things left and this weekend we went and picked up the drum set which was left for last for good reasons. This move had been so different maybe it is just I have been extra emotional about things and miss home more so everything I touched reminded me of some event or someone. Then I realize that the value of what we have is not in the money. Most of the things we have were given to us specially by family members and friends each thing carry with it an amazing memory and value. Things like painting, rings, cups, half a dollar, books, carpt,.. is something that have so much history behind it. Then I started thinking of all the people that influenced my life and all the things that I had learn through the years I felt so lucky and OLD. But it is truly an amazing feeling when I think of everyone that had crossed my path had something to give me and teach me and they are not even aware of it. I am truly thankful for what I had and what I still have and will always have with me as a wonderful memory. I don’t know if I am making sense?! Well, that is the problem of writing late so many crazy thoughts.. Speaking of night. The sun had been set for a several hours but when it did this is how it looked like looking across the balcony. Amazing that no mater what the sun will set each night and will bring with it a new hope for a new day...

I better go to sleep or I will spend the next few days of my vacation sleeping. Goodnight, sweet dreams

The Farahvashi's visit

2007-08-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

I finally have the chance to upload the pictures from the Farahvashi's visit. We had an amazing visit. I will try my best to pick a few pictures to give you a feel of what happened.

It is hard to capture the beauty and majesty of the Baha'i Shrines and their garden's in pictures

On the way to the Dead Sea..This was fun.. It feels like home...

Hard to sink - dead sea

Back to the Baha'i Holy Places..

The Old City of Akka

HOT ;)

Lets see how silly can we get Shhh ..mom is taking pictures.. Jesus Christ's Mother’s home an amazing church is built over it

Back to Haifa Beach It is hard to say GOODBYE

Grandparent Visit

2007-07-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

Last I wrote the kids were in school. We had a major shift in life the last few weeks as the kids had finished their school and made it through the first school year here with flying colors. Their grads had surprise everyone; they have done such a good job and we are very proud of them and proud of their attitude of learning and their acceptance to the new culture they are in. Well, it is more than accepting the culture as they are becoming part of it. Even in the style of music and moves they do walking around the house.

We had a great time with the girls’ grandparents visiting from Belize. The visit was of two parts one for family visit and the other is for their 9 days Baha'i pilgrimage. during our time with them, we went to the Shrines, and several other holy places together, went to the beach, they did many art projects together with their grandmother everything from making earrings, to sawing to drawing, we went shopping, visited the Druze village, had a nice visit to old Akka, Grandpa took us to many nice ice cream shops. They were a great help with assisting us to move to the new place and started the unpacking process. I was able to focuses at my work and was able to spend many hours working, which I love to do. The last week grandma got sick and we all were worried, she ended up in the hospital for a day. She thought it was a combination of something she caught and a food she ate outside the house. Thank God she was able to enjoy the last few days with us and we all were able to go again to the Shrine of Baha’u’llah in Bahji and the day after visit the Shrines in Haifa. We spent the last day packing and just enjoying family time together. I was amazed to find out the number of youth that knew from Belize and how many had actually been through their Maya Mountain Lodge and had spent some time as part of the youth summer projects there. It is really an amazing place and the people are supper friendly. Naim, the girls and I visited several years ago and had a great time.

They also had the end of the year party for their Baha’i children classes. It was so nice and they had a wonderful play and performed so nicely. Their children classes teachers had worked so hard and the kids did an amazing job.

Ohh, the move, I am not really sure I told you how we ended up here. It is a long story I will try to make it short. For a while we been thinking of moving as our old place is not too close to the school, the girls room where really small, we had a wonderful living room but we practically had to eat, study, have guests everything in there. But what really pushed us to rush and move was the fact that we been having problems with mildew in the house and couple of people came to check it and try to fix the problem but it just kept getting worst to the point that in the end the girls room were really bad we could not use much. So here we are in this place that is absolutely right for us. Few minutes to the school, had an amazing Baha’i family that is living next door to us and my brother’s wife’s cousin and here family lives across the street from us. The view is absolutely out of this world. For those who know me well know how much I adore the sunset. The place we are at now has a balcony that looks right into the sea where you can sit outside and watch a breath taking sunset. The rabbis are in heaven as they can run around all day and hid in cool places and happy as can be.

I have so much more to tell you but it is getting too late and I better download the pictures of the camera as it has been full for a while and I have not had the chance to do so.

We are already looking forward to the grandparents visit back in April, 2008

Pina Colada,

2007-06-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

I wish that I was at the beach drinking Pina colada. Well, being a Baha’i we don’t consume alcohol. I love pina colada with no alcohol; and there are certain things in life that they are just made to go together and after you taste it once then you are in trouble because you know exactly how it should be. The combination of that and beach are just what I need. Especially with my present situation; I am sitting between boxes at 2 am in the morning. I know, I know I just finished bragging few blogs ago how well settled we are. I even took out my nice china and had all the pictures on the wall. But we are moving again. The boxes are nothing in comparison to the smell of the mildew in the bed room. I guess a water pipe is leaking in side the wall and slowly the wall in one of the bed room started to bubble and now is nice mildew is combining with the heat, ohm, don’t even try to imagine it is too painful. But I will not dwell on the unpleasant things in life ;). What is so cool is on the other hand I think we are so lucky as the awesome and I mean awesome place became available at the same time we are looking into moving that we will be moving to. It has an amazing few of the beach. And had a patio which we can move the rabbits to. Ohh, I got to tell you about this. You remember the dwarf rabbits that we bought. And the guys we bought them from promised that they are dwarf and they don’t grow. Well, guess what? I think they are the largest rabbits I have seen in my life and they don’t seem to stop growing. Poor things, they can hardily fit in the cage we have for them. Yasmeen and Nadia are good in feeding them (maybe too good) and talking them for a walk and they are really the cutest and codleast pits that I have seen.

More of on the bright side of life. The kids are done with their exams and they are so happy. Today me and another mother took about 10 kids to watch pirate of the Caribbean. It was funny and they had great time. This was the first move we watched on the big screen. They really enjoyed it.

My in-law will be starting their pilgrimage tomorrow it has been so amazing having them at this time. I was feeling bad about not doing a lot of fun things with exams and the move and my work but they been a great help and I am very thankful that they are visiting.

Well, my eyes are closing by themselves and I don’t have a clue anymore what I am writing which could be dangerous; kind of like talking in your sleep and you don’t remember in the morning what you have said. So, I better go get some sleep.

Have a wonderful day.

Midnight Update

2007-06-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

It is midnight and I was working again. I guess that is a good sign, that I actually use work to relax, that means I really like what I am doing. I am still working part time and spending the evening studying with the kids or that is the main thing we do.

We are in our final exam week two more weeks and the girls will finish with this school year. I can’t believe that we are actually going to make it. I know don’t count your chicken before they hatch or something like that, so I will wait to write about it in two weeks.

This week Grandma Suzi and Grandpa Bart are visiting. They are still getting adjusted to the new time. With the exam week it is hard but we are managing to keep a balance between studying and enjoying some family time. Yesterday we went to Bahji since the kids were off I had the chance to take them and spend few hours there. I will update you with few pictures and promises a good email with better English (notice I did not say good English just better) that I will write before midnight after the kids finish their exams. Goodnight for now..

Quick Update

2007-05-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

I could not sleep so I started couple of hours ago wanted to do few minutes of work and not sure how it is already 2:30 am. I figured since it is already late and I will be tired tomorrow anyway, I checked my email and the comments in the blog and decided to take few minutes to update my blog.

Just when I thought my life can not get more busy, I was wrong. I know it is absolutely crazy. But you will be happy to know that a lot of it I am enjoying very much. Well except for the part that I had to go to the kids school for about 3 days to translate a 2 hours test for Yasmeen each time. It is this general exam to evaluate the schools and they will take some % of it and add it to their final report. So some one at the school had this brilliant idea that I can go and translate for her. Let me tell you it is not easy to try to translate without giving any hint then she looks at me with her puppy eyes and ask me if she gave the right answer and I had to say I can’t tell you; thank God it is over. The good thing about it is I can really see where is here strength and what is her weakness and will help me to work with here specially in the math.

I know that I can get very talkative when I am tired, so I will just stop talking and add few pictures which I know is what you are waiting for.

Vahid's and his beautiful Wife "May" visiting from Florida

At Jordan River by Tiberas – Walking around all the wonderful memories as a child were coming back. The kids had a wonderful time, I loved watching them being so close to nature.

Family/love/Happines/pain

2007-05-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Family is such an amazing thing. It is those people who know you, understand your pains and rejoice for your happiness. It is those people that you are not worried to be yourself around, be silly, or just lay there and be lazy while they fix you a meal and you will not feel guilty about it. They don’t judge you and don’t expect anything back. It is those people that love you with all your imperfection. It is someone that is miles away but knows when you are having a hard time someone that you close your eyes and can feel them close. I am lucky as I know what it means to love and how it feels to be loved. You might wonder why all the sudden this change of style of what I am writing. What is it that is making me think of all these things? It is part of who I am and who I will always be. In between this amazing experience these beautiful pictures and wonderful evening a part of me is always home sick. Home sick not to a place it is to the people I hold close to my heart.

Partly it is the music CD I was listing to this morning, and partly my brother’s fault he called couple of hours ago. We talked for an hour. We kept getting interrupted by the kids at both ends; we talked about all kind of unrelated topics. But when he hang-up I could not stop crying, he had called to wish me happy mother’s day. Few days ago my family got together for a memorial service for my mother and just before he called I was looking at the pictures for the memorial service. I can’t believe it is been four years since my mother passed away on mothers day. I remember one night as I kneeled next to her bed while she was sick begging her not to leave us she said that I should not cry and she is a lucky person how had done everything she wanted to do in her life and that my dad been waiting for her for too long. It was almost 20 years since my dad had passed away. For all these years my mother took care of five kids alone and always talked about my dad as he was next to her. She managed to sent us all to school watch us graduate one by one, got us all married, watch us have kids went travel teaching to Russia, China. The last thing she did was going to her Baha’i pilgrimage while she was sick. She made it despite the fact that the doctors said that no way she will make it. She connected with everyone she met, she gave so much of her self even when she was sick. For those of you who don’t know her she was an amazing lady; one of a kind. She lived her life doing what she thought is right which was not always the easy way or the most comfortable way or what her heart desired. Speaking of doing the right things. Nadia can’t go to sleep and needs her mother so I better go.

Happy mother’s day for all the lovely mothers and for those of you who are lucky to still have your mothers around make sure not to take any thing for granted.

What Have we been doing lately

2007-05-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Israel..

At the Ridvan Garden in Akka

Visiting Mom’s old school in Akka “Terasanta”
On the way to the Dead Sea

Floating in the Dead Sea

Visiting Masada on the way home from the Dead Sea

The signs of spring

The first day of Ridvan Celebration

Our new pets, the cutest little things the girls already got them potty trained

We found him in the street and had him over for sleep over for one night for observation.. Please don’t ask.

How we spend some evening when we are not studying

Mother's day celebration - Yasmeen's class with the Arabic teacher.

Vacation is over

2007-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Wow I can’t believe the kids two week vacation is over and we are already back to school. We had a good and busy vacation. To make a long story short the main highlight of the vacation we spent a lot of time together the girls and I, we went one day to old Akka and just took it easy, walked around and found my mothers old school and eat lunch there, went to visit the Shrine more often than normal, Spent some times with the friends, we all went one day early in the morning to the Dead Sea and return late at night had a great time. We bought two rabbits 4 weeks old so cute so cute. I will not duel on the unpleasant things in life and will not go over all the things falling apart in the house and water leak in the bathroom and the storm dust that we been getting but these things become part of our normal activates here. The kids got the school report and we were so happy and proud of them and their hard work. Yesterday for the first time Yasmeen went to the room and did her homework without my help. She said she got math and she knows what she needs to do. Not sure how much got done but I am sure it was nice feeling for her as well as for me. I back to work as I was off while the girls were out of school Naim has been working none stop not that I am complaining as that is the main reason we are here. He will be going to the States for about 5 days for work. The girls are not too happy about the idea but I am sure they will be fine. Well it is almost 4 am I put the kids to sleep and was readying and did not realize what time it was. So, I better go catch some sleep.

Take care and have a wonderful week..

I am Back

2007-03-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

The kids are finished with their exam and we all survived. So I am back to keeping up with the blog. They will get their report soon but they been getting some of their grades and they are getting mostly A’s and few B’s. I was telling Yasmeen how proud I was with her last night she started crying I said what is the matter? She said I have to do this all over in June no way I can’t do it. I wanted to laugh the way she said it but she seemed so serious that I had to hold my self. Honestly after thinking about it I felt like crying also that I have to do this all over again in June for the end of the year exams. But thinking of June I can’t believe that in the end of June that they will finish their school year. Haw it seems like the year just started and we are already talking about the end. Our time here goes by so fast it is so amazing.

My uncle (father’s older brother), his son and wife are here for nine days. It is been 15 years since I last saw him. It has been such an amazing time for my family. We got to spend a lot of time with them. This morning the weather was perfect and my uncle been wanting to walk all the terraces so, I took them with Yasmeen and Nadia and left them at the top and came home so I can pick them up at any point that my uncle is tired. But he was able to make it to the last stair and still full of energy. Then we went to Bahji and Akka. I am learning so much from him about my dad and his life here and about the history of the Baha’i Faith. Walking with him through Akka I just felt so lucky. He is a sweet, knowledgeable and such a humble man.

Ohm, I forgot to tell you but few days ago we went to the Shrine of the Bab and from there to the visitor center. As usually Yasmeen and Nadia area always ahead. When I got to the door they were so excited making me rushes to come and meet this lady that spoke Arabic who is part of the pilgrim group. They were playing with her little girl then she asked them how come their names are Arabic names then they found out that she spoke Arabic. When we started talking I realized that she was the same little girl that used to live next to my fathers’ uncle’s home and we used to play together in Jordan as kids. Now she lives in Iceland and has two kids.

Well before I get too tired I better add some pictures As I had promised you to post some pictures of some of the things we have done during Ayyam’i’Ha.

Two days before Ayyam'i'Ha. Two of their friends came over and spend the night. They made midnight pancake.

The day before Ayyam'i'Ha the Parents organized a service project at one of the Baha’i holy sites where the kids went and picked up oranges and cleaned up. Then they had great time playing together and from there we went with a group of friends out and had dinner.

The next day their dance teacher was leaving to go back to France and her friends had open house so we went to that. She was amazing, we will all miss here.

The day after we went to our a friends home for a party that they had. We all had a wonderful time.

The day before last we had this cool party at our home with all the kids around our kids age. It was really nice.

The last day during the day parents organized a party for all the kids with games, pizza and lots of fun. At night Hoda came and had dinner with us and got nice gift for the girls and helped them do their homework.

Last Week

My Amo and Family..

Naw Ruz Celebration..

Kids' Exams

2007-03-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

Things have been so busy, sorry I did not write for a while. Let me tell you about the fun things before I start complaining ;). We had wonderful times during Ayyam’i’ha. We tried very hard to make it special for the girls especially it is a big gap to fill with them away from their cousins, aunts, uncles and the rest of their family and friends. I will add later some pictures with the highlight of the events. This week has been tuff with the fasting and the midterm test for the kids. The not eating part of the fasting really does not bother me. The exams have been really hard. For example yesterday I went to work until 2:30 pm then picked up the kids Yasmeen and I studied 3-4 hours after school and then I studied an hour with Nadia. I felt so bad as Nadia could not study alone and was waiting for me so I asked her to go to sleep while I am studying with Yasmeen and I will wake her up early. She made me promises to wake her up at 4:00 am. Which I did and we got ready and studied for couple of hours before school this morning. It is more stress and studying for me than being in the engineering school. They got the first test results back and they both got A’s which is very encouraging for them. One more week to go and then we have 2 weeks off and we can breath.

Not like it not enough to deal with exams, the language, change of culture, being away from the people they love and the things they know, they are going through training and drill exercise for war which seems to be something normal here. But since this is their first time it is adding to the stress factor. To add to that for us many things need to be taken care of back home with the rental and the finance and our life back home specially since we left in such a short notice. It is so hard to get anything done from here and it is all going on Susan to take care of knowing how much work and the kids and Baha’i activities she is doing I feel so bad. Honestly we would have not been able to do it if it was not for her and Khourosh. But hope to come back in few years and be able to pay back and help them.

Waking up in the mornings for the fast so early is really nice. After getting over the fact that I have to wake up early and get out of bed after I am fine. Then we eat and sit down so quite to say prayers you can hear the silent break with the sound of the birds so honestly so heavenly sound.

I have been working more hours. I really love what I do and just wish that there is more time I can spend on the project. We got two new engineers that join the groups and they are really nice. I can’t wait until the actual construction phase and seeing all these plans in action. My eyes are closing I better go get couple of hours of sleep and get up and cook before the girls are back.

Have a wonderful day.

Picture Update

2007-02-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

After five months both girls now feel like they have best friends at school. Both are doing an amazing job adjusting to the new culture

Below are pictures at the artist village. It is a small village south west of Haifa where artists live together and we walked around and saw very nice art work.

The beach has been our playground for the last week

Once a month we have a music devotional night for the Baha'i kids at our house. It is so much fun

We had a wonderful time at my sister in law's (Hasson's wife's) uncle and his family home for dinner.

Few families got together arranged to have a devotional meeting every couple of weeks each week at a different home. The kids prepare the program for the evening. It is so nice and the kids been doing a great job.

The kids had their last hip hop class with Yasmine an amazing youth who volunteered to give them several classes prior to her departure back to France.

Friends from South Florida came for 9 days pilgrimage and we stopped by the pilgrim house to see them and had some sandwiches together.

Once or twice a month we attend an amazing talks.

Last week we had dinner at our home with few friends. The food the music the spirit of the gathering was great.

Family, Friends and Cooking

2007-02-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Things been happening so fast I have not even been able to keep up with pictures. I just downloading the pictures from the camera and thought thank God for pictures to make me slow down look back at what we been doing. Writing in this blog is also my way to feel connected with everyone. Life here is amazing and things happen all the time. Several friends from back home already been here for their nine days pilgrimage and we got to see them and spend some time together. Several years ago we went to a conference in Chicago and meet a lady from Yemen who was a friend with Nesreen. Two days ago while walking at Bahji she passed by and then asked me if I was Nesreen’s sister. I said yes and recognized her. We ended up having lunch the day before she left and had a wonderful time. I felt like I knew her for a long time. Things like this happen all the time here that you meet people you either knew or they new my family members from all over the world. Another cool example is my kids Baha’i children classes teacher went home to the US for few weeks and came back. When she got back she told me that she had dinner at my brother house. I said you knew him she said not really but her family just moved few months ago to my brother community and when she went to visit her family he invited them to dinner and off course when she said that she is working at the Baha’i world center he told her that his sister and family where here and you can figure out the rest of the story.

This is the first morning that I am actually home in the morning while the kids in school for the last two weeks. I just made banana bread and have tons of things to do but I missed writing. Speaking of cooking, I had friends over for dinner few days ago and I made stuffed Squash. For those who don’t know it is a long process where you empty the inside of these small squashed and then stuff it with meat, rise and spices. Anyway, I was trying to figure out how much mix to make so I don’t have too much or too little. And then more complicated how much to stuff the squash so when the rise expand it will fit just right and not come out and not be half empty. Off course being and engineer I counted who many squash I had, figured out about how much rise I need to fill each one based on my experience of making rise and then what is the ratio of meat to rise and in my head figured out about how much I need. The whole time I was stuffing the small squashed kept monitoring the how much rice and squashed left and trying to make sure I balance what is left. I was determined to make it fit just right. Then I made tabbolah, chicken and few other things and used my mother’s recipe for pineapple upside down cake, which came out good despite all the challenges with the oven. I could not help but wonder what did my mother or my grandmother thought of when they made stuffed squashed I am sure it was not what I was thinking of. As I remember my mother would sit at the sofa and empty the inside of the squashed and stuff it and either help me with my study or more like yelling at me for not paying attention and trying to get me to read but I will not elaborate on that just incase Nadia or Yasmeen decide to look at the blog. I am not sure why I am spending all this time writing about this silly thought. I guess that is just me I am always try to compare how things where with my parents and how it is for us. I guess a part of me things of what I had as a kids and what my kids to experience the same things, but the older I get the more I realized that it is impossible in so many way. No matter who much we are like our parents we are different at the time and no matter how much we want our kids to be like we were they are in different generation. Living her walking in the same area’s that my mother was born and grew up as a child where my dad worked and became a man is amazing. But in many ways I know I walk the same land yet knowing what I know about their growing up and recalling the stories they told me. It seems as we are living in totally different planets. The more I am reading and learning about the history of the Baha’i Faith the more things make sense. They lived at the tale end of what the Baha’i’s call the Heroic age and now we are living at the Formative age. I better change the subject as I can go one talking about this forever. Yet what is so cool to watch my kids smell the same type of flowers eat the same kind of candy and listen to the same kind of music I listen to as a child and actually enjoy it. Maybe for me I feel like I am living my childhood through them again. That is a cool part of living here.

I am sure you all want an update on the kids. They are doing well. We had an art show few days ago and both of them created a beautiful drawing to put at the show. Since we are new and did not have much time to prepare for these things we where running around the last minutes and I did not have time to take their pictures to get framed I walked around the house and found pictures that were framed that would work and used the frames I had to framed their work for them. It really looked good. Yasmeen also used the swing machine made a baby quilt and was sold at the art show and the money was used for the Baha’i fund. We were proud of both of them. Their school is good and I am spending a lot of time arranging things for them to be able to spend time with their friends where they have friends from their school come over to visit or they go to their friend’s homes. Nadia is friendly with everyone but she found for sure her two best friends and they love each other very much and three of them spend all the time together. Yasmeen have a lot of friends also but she is still not sure who she wants her best friend to be. I think partly she feel like she have a best friend back home and she still write to her and they talk on the phone once a month. But she has two friends that come here and I let her go to their homes and their families are very nice. There are few loud and mean kids like anywhere in the world. But the large percent of the kids have an amazing manners and very respectful and loving. The family bonds are very strong and the parents are so involve with their kids daily lives you can really feel the love and security that the kids have. I am sure the fact that the kids go to a good Catholic private school has something to do with it. But that is the environmental that the girls are growing up with here and we are very thankful for that.

The kids are also learning the meaning of budgeting. Last week we were negotiating about how much allowance they should have a week. When they asked me how much, the first thing I could think of is half a dollar. They both gave me this look like I was crazy. Then Nadia looked at me and said you know mom if you said 2 or three shekel would have sounded much better and it would be the same. So we spend 15 minutes just around which one sounded better. Then Nadia said since I like the half a dollar why don’t we make it a dollar and a half and this way they will have more money and I can keep my half dollar. I could not really argue with that so that is where we ended up with. What I don’t understand what is the purpose of the allowance if every time they want to buy something they come to me for money and they never use what they have. And when I asked them why don’t you use your money. They look at me like are you kidding spend our own money. I am not going to try to figure that one out I think it will take many years and lots of research so for now I will just site back relax and watch where will this money end. I got nothing better to do for the next 10 years.

There is so much in life that we want and so much that we need and so much that makes our hearts ach but that still should not stop us from living and enjoying the little thing in life and count our blessing. So, I hope that you all will take the time to think of these little things that makes you smile and would be great if you take the time to email me and keep me updates with what is going on with you. Not to mention names but unlike my middle sister whose name start with Rosa she promised to send me new picture of the kids more than 10 days ago and I am still waiting. Hay Rosa if I was not scarred that you will spend all the time cursing me for waking you up, I would have called you last night at 11:30 pm your time. I wanted to make the pumpkin Cookie and could not remember or find a copy of the recipe. I will call today, I really miss you.

Waken By the Sound of the Wind

2007-01-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-05T00:41:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

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 :)

Happy Holiday

2006-12-31T03:09:00.000-08:00

This is such a special time of the year as this month have a holiday for most of the religions I can think of. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, and Bodhi Day. Wish you all a wonderful Eid al Adha, and a happy New year full of love and happines

Things are good with us here. We had a wonderful time with Hilary, Nesreen, Badi and Daniel. I will post some of the pictures from their visit soon. The girls are out of school and enjoying the time off. The weather is actually cold. For some one like me who got used to Florida it is very very cold. I feel like no matter what we do to heat the house it is not warm enough. The insulation is really bad and things are not set for cold weather. As I understand it is only about two months of cold weather a year. That is long enough for me.

The girls and I studied Arabic for two hours this morning and they are taking a short break watching TV (Tarzan in Arabic) and they are laughing more at the characters speaking Arabic than on what is going on in the movie. I better get ready as I told them we will be going to the Mall before we go to their tennis class soon. I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful holidays.

Being in Haifa

2006-12-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

It is been a while since I sat down to write. This is exam week for the girls and they have been studying hard. I know it seems like they just finished taking the last set of exams. They are very big on exams here!

It is getting hard for me to write as it is so amazing how many things happen. I am not sure where to start. First I thought I wish my English was better or that I had more time or that I was a better writer. I am not good at any of the above and when people asked me why I went to chemical engineering my answer was that my English was much worst than my math but in this case it is not the reason why it is hard to write. Thinking about it, it is like trying to describe being in love. When you write about it people think you are crazy, as nothing logical about it, yet it makes so much sense. If a psychologist checks you they will think you are irrational yet everything feels right. Doctors will thinks you are sick as your heart rate is off the roof, but you feel great. Being here in some ways like that. Every time I write I feel like in no way I can describe or explain things or give you the true feeling of being here. When I write I am sharing with you at those few minutes what come to mind but I don’t think I can every explain the beauty of being here and some of the tests and difficulty that comes with it. But one thing that is clear is that I am continuously growing much faster and much intensely than ever before.

Now that I said that, I feel like I can tell you a little about my week. I can start by saying that it was a week I am sure we will never forget. We went to the Baha’i Archives with the kids for the first time. Five years ago, my mom, Naim and I came with the kids but they were too young to attend the archives visit. Nadia just turned nine years at the end of September which was perfect timing. It is something that each Baha’i has to experience for themselves.

The kids’ school studies still occupies most of my and their days. They are reading in Arabic very well now. When I tell Nadia I am proud of her when she reads, she says what good is reading if I don’t understand what I am reading. It is hard for them to be patient but they are doing great. Yasmeen has an amazing Arabic teacher who has been coming twice a week for an hour to give her private classes at home while I am working with Nadia. This way we can get couple of hours of family time without studying. Since the day is shorter with the start of winter.

Early last week a tennis trainers came to the Arabic school to talk to the kids and test them in tennis. Nadia came home really excited said that the guy thought she was really good. To make a long story short, out of hundreds of kids from the school for 4th grade and under, they picked Nadia and 4 other kids, where they will give them full scholarship to train with the best trainers here in a tennis club. Someone from the US had donated the money for this program. After the trainer called me, Nadia asked me if I will take her. I said I will think about it. She looked at me and said “but Mom, you can’t say no, they will even give me shoes for free.” How can I refuse such an argument? So now Sunday and Wednesday we have tennis for Nadia. We were thinking to put Yasmeen in the regular program. They said they will give her a month of free classes and then we can decide. Her heart is in music and basketball, but we will see.

I am starting to get more involved with some project work while the kids are in school. I have tons of things to get ready and prepare in the house before having to do all the drop offs and pick ups of the kids, but I know that I am much happier when I am using my technical training.

I forgot to tell you, but I got a dish washer. Yes, I was doing the happy dance after I got my first load done. We have this small room next to the kitchen in which we managed to fit the washer, dryer and dishwasher all jammed in there and you can only open one at a time. You can run only one at a time and the heater can’t be on at the same time, because if you try any of the combination the fuse will open and we have to go outside to switch it back on. So, multitasking is not even an option for the household that required electricity. And God forbid that you need to bake and run the heater and the washer at the same time, then the fuse for the whole house will open. Whoever designed the panel for this house was thinking of an old lady with no electrical equipment.

In less than week, my sister Nesreen will be here with her family. Nadia has a paper next to her bed with the number of days left and Yasmeen has marked on her school calendar how many days are left for them to come.

Hope your day is full happiness.

Growing kids

2006-12-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

Yasmeen playing cool

Nadia in her costume for a holiday at school.

Tour Through The Kids Cameras

2006-11-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

At the Gardens in Bahji Behind the Shrine of Baha'u'llah

We were feeling so guilty about giving away or selling most of the kids stuff before we moved. The last week before our departure we went and bought them each a small digital camera. These pictures were all taken by Yasmeen and Nadia. They both love to take a close up pictures of their friends and of each others lots of silly faces but in this post I wanted to selected the ones that will give you a feel of where we are. I am sure when they start their own blog they will make good use of the other pictures.

Walking across the Lower Terraces at the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa

Looking through the window from our living room, to the right is the mountain to the left the busy city of Haifa

Walking in Old Akka. I did not include any of the pictures to the Baha’i holy places in old Akka. As I would like to do that in another post later on after we do our staff visit and I will include some of the historical events that happened in this city

This is one of the view we see on the way to school. We also get an amazing view of the Shrine of the Bab just before we turn to the main street to their school. It is really hard to capture this city in pictures as every corner different.

At the Zoo next to our home

Our Dreams

2006-11-20T00:46:00.000-08:00

There are so many thing on my mind not sure where to start. Our girls; which is always a good place to start. The girls seem to get in each others nerve more often there are so many new things that they both are trying to adjust to and things here are in constant change. Yet in between all this madness there are so much good and they do so many little things to help each other all the times. This morning I read this quote:

O YE RICH ONES ON EARTH! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease. -Baha’u’llah

Reading this I starting thinking as we grow older we seem to lose all these wonderful dreams that we had as kids. Those dreams that will help fix the world and make it a better place. We become more and more busy with life and work we don’t have time to see those poor people let alone have time to help them. But we all know they are everywhere in the USA or here at in the other side of the world where they are more visible.

Through the eyes of my kids I see the world in such a different way. Things that we feel like it is out of our control and we just want to accept and move on they seem to have a simple solution for it. I think it is these dreams that will make the world a better place. I feel like there are few things in life no mater how painful we should just except as God’s will and move on. Yet that is not the case in most of the other things around us; we can change if we try.

Other than for punishment for giving our parents hard time and it is pay back I think that having kids is Gods way to help us not forget about our own dreams and give us another chance to stop and think and help them make their dreams into reality. Questions are coming at me from all sides with the kids. I don’t even know where to start. Yasmeen wanted to know why they don’t have many black people here among the Arabs and Jewish community. She looks at everything and notices everything. She has this sense of justice that is amazing and nothing seems to really scare her. She is growing very fast and seems so mature; she uses her music to escapes when she is frustrated. She can’t play the drums as the area we are in is very quite and people around us are not that easy to figure them out. Everything seems to bother them since they are older and only few kids around. But she has her key board and she plays that all the time.

Nadia has this plan to open an orphanage in Lebanon for all the kids that got hurt and have no parents. In her diary she writes the name of the people that she talked to and said that they will support her. She have sketch for the rooms and the layout of the place and the dog as kids need pets to make them smile she said. I am not sure exactly how but she think by the end of our 5 years here she will have all the money and the support she needs. Watching the news before our departure seem to have really effected her. Lately she has been thinking about it a lot, few days ago I noticed that she was in the shrine for extra long time saying prayers I asked her if everything is Ok and what was she saying prayers for. She said for all her cousins; she names them one by one and for all the kids that got hurt in the war. Then she said she always say few extra once in case she forgot something while she is praying she can ask for it.

I hope that you have a wonderful week and that all your dreams will become reality.

The Mountain

2006-11-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

Getting out of this crowded city into the mountains was wonderful. The kids had good time. I walk around and saw wild flowers like “Asayet El Raye” which I used to pick as a kid from the mountain and bring back to my parents.

Nothing like being on top of the mountain with a friend

Don't they look like they are ready to save the world?

Sounds of the World

2006-11-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Once a year talent show done by the staff for the staff at the Baha'i World Center. An amazing concert. Watching a group of people from around the world with all sort of background come together to produce this amazing night is breath taking.

After the show the kids goofing off on stage

The Master's House

2006-11-13T00:36:00.000-08:00

We had really nice week. One of the main events is that we had the privilege to visit the house of the Master. This is something we can do once a year or in special occasions. I still can’t believe that we are here and we can do these things. We are especially thankful for the timing as the kids could only go after the age of nine years old. Nadia just turned nine last month. For the kids to learn the history by actually seeing these holy places is amazing. It is located few blocks from the kid’s school. I believe it is the only residence of the Baha’i family that were built during Abdu’l-Baha’s time most of the holy residence were rented or bought since the holy family was here in exile from Iran. Later on this also because the resident of Shoghi Effendi and Ruhiyyih Khanum.

On a personnel level also this is a very special place for me as that is where my dad has his room and lived here during Shoghi Effendi’s time away from the rest of his family that had returned to Iran. It is so wonderful feeling to walk around and see the little things that I recall from stories that my dad used to tell us a children.

Below is the general update of this week.

General Update

2006-11-13T00:09:00.000-08:00

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.

Ladies Night Out

2006-11-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

At Bahji with Ekitti

2006-11-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

Girls School Tests

2006-11-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

It is almost 2 am and I am half asleep. I had a lot of things to follow up on after the kids went to sleep and just realized how late it is. I can’t believe it is already Monday and I did not want to forget about updating the blog. A lot is happening but the main thing is the girls tests. Yes, the girls are taking tests for the first quarter already. The least I can say is that it has been a challenging week for all of us specially the girls. I feel like I been living in the school meeting with teachers or dropping and picking up kids. The principle had agreed that we don’t need to worry about taking tests the first quarter and wait until few months for the next tests until the kids language is better ;but Yasmeen and Nadia are the ones that been more pushing to get involved with the test process. For the History tests, Yasmeen did not want to just set and do nothing while the other kids take the test but she could not read the test to answer so she took a paper and wrote the history lesson in English. She knew the events as I been readying for her the history in Arabic and translating it to English. The teacher was very impressed and gave her 100% in the exam. She was walking around the house singing an Arabic song 100% Habbitic. Nadia came home after her math test crying and said that when she saw the arabic in the paper her hands and legs started to shack and she think she forgot everything and did bad to be exact she said she thought she got F-. Friday she came smiling and I said what is going on she said she got 19/20 in the math test. I said what happen to the F- she said well I guess I did not do so bad. The math questions are in Arabic but the numbers are in English. They also got so far A in Geograph and Science.

As for me I was I was trying to ignore a cold and hope that it will go away but it did not work and I ended up losing my voice completely for a day and then sounded funny for few days after that. Which made it harder to study with the girls but we managed. I thought that is God’s way to ask me to be quite, reflect and meditate during the day so no complaint but the truth is I was not able to do a lot of resting. I hope I can do that this week.

The most exiting event for this week is having a very dear friend visiting from Florida. Ekitti is visit from Sunrise. He is here for his nine days pilgrimage. We were able to spend some time together. We saw him shortly on Thursday between his program and Friday night we had dinner together at a nice restaurant. Saturday we went to the Market picked up some food and went together to Bahji “Akka” to visit the Shrine of Baha’u’llah. This visit was extra special as for the first time the Mansion at Bahji “the house of Baha’u’llah” was open for visitors on Saturday and the girls where able to go for the firs time. We spent all the day at the shrine, the gardens, and the Mansion and had a wonderful day.

Naim and I both are still taking the Hebrew classes couple of more weeks to go. As much as I am enjoying it and learning as much as I am ready for it to finish as it is getting harder with doing that in the evening and spending all this time working with the kids study. I am sure all will pay off soon. But for now all I can think of is my bed is waiting for me.

Hope you have a wonderful week.

Mt.Carmel Team

2006-10-29T23:20:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-16T00:31:00.000-07:00

Enjoying their friends during the Baha'i Holyday

2006-10-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Orientation Week

2006-09-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

Another eventful week, we mainly spent it at orientation. Which started last Sunday and today is the last day. The orientation was really amazing it is for the new group coming to service at the Baha’i World Center. It consists of about 40 people from 17 different countries. We are very thankful that it started on Sunday because the girls were off school so they were able to attend the first day and got to bond with the group. I cannot really do justice to explaining the spirit of this group mainly youth leaving their family behind and coming to a totally strange land to service. But I can tell you I have never meet such a radiant group of people in one room. Most of them will be here for a year to two years. We are looking forward to get to know them better. Couple of night ago we had a dinner together for the entire group at one of the families serving here. It was at the roof of the building as the roofs are flat here. The place had clear picture of the shrine and the Universal House of Justice building at one end and the sea at the other end. We all had so much fun, games, great food, and the kids specially got to see everyone again.

We also had the privilege to attend our first Baha’i Holyday here which was Friday night the Martyrdom of Bab observant at about noon. The program was wonderful the prayers were out side the visitor’s center and at the end of the program near the shrine of the Bab.

Saturday (Yesterday) was the first day of Baha’i Children classes. As you can see from the picture they had a great time and getting to meet many of the kids. During the Children classes Naim and I went home fixed lunched and went back picked up the kids and went to Akko to visit the shrine of Baha’u’llah. Many of the friends were there and we had lunch at the visitors center together and by the time we got back it was time to fix dinner and go to sleep.

I need to run to go pick up the girls. We just wanted to let you know that we are still doing well and thinking of you all.

First day at Baha'i Children Classes

2006-09-24T02:22:00.000-07:00

Buying a car -- simple? Noooo.

2006-09-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I’ve take out to post. I've been working since a few days after we arrived, even though we have not had our "Orientation" yet. In theory you are not supposed to go to work before that, but they needed me to start and there is so much to learn to become productive here. The amount of work to be done is really overwhelming. I am really looking forward to helping out.

Things are very busy here, and there is little time to even think with all we are doing to try to figure out to get settled. Right now one of the projects is "buying a car". You wouldn't think that would be very complicated, but trust me, it is amazingly more difficult and time-consuming than it is in the US. Since Baha'is have a tourist status in the country, there is certain paperwork that has to be done and go through many different offices. Fortunately we have been getting lots of help from staff at the Baha’i World Centre, or it would take forever.

Anyway, we started the process of ordering the vehicle and today I have to go give them my passport and drivers license so they can bring the car through customs -- which they don't do until AFTER you have paid and given your papers. After all that, it should take 1 to 3 weeks to actually get the car -- and they will keep my license and passport the whole time!

We are settling down a bit. Our shipment came. It is wonderful to have our things, but our little apartment is stuffed with boxes and everything is everywhere. Slowly we are finding ways of organizing. Our A/C has been fixed after a few days without, and our fridge as well (after loosing all the food), we have a washer and dryer now (ahh, to have clean clothes!!) and now we know that we can't turn on everything electronic in the house at the same time -- dryer, stereo, and microwave -- or the main fuse blows and the lights go out. :-) So we are learning how life is here and getting used to it.

It is really wonderful to be so close to the Baha'i Shrines and Gardens. Yesterday Yasmeen and I took a walk and found that about 1/2 a mile from our flat there is a raised pathway behind the mall and hotels at the top of the mountain where there is terrific view from the mountain ridge over Haifa and the bay. A little later, after dark, we returned with May and Nadia to show them the glowing city below us. We continued on further down that path and arrived at the top of the Baha’i Terraces, with the pathways down the mountain all lit up like strings of pearls, and had a breathtaking view of the golden glowing Shrine of the Báb in the middle of the terraces.

Greetings to everyone,
- Na'im

2nd week

2006-09-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

My wish for things to slow down did not come true and there are no signs of things slowing down any time soon. This is my first time at home alone for couple of hours and I have the chance to write. A friend that is working in the same department with Naim has been giving us a ride every morning to school. He has such a positive attitude and the girls love to talk to him on the way about their day and what is going on. Na'im and Payam are taking the girls to school this morning and I will follow soon.

So much is going on just with the girls school, I am not sure where to start. The main thing is they still have their positive attitude and are still smiling. They both had a night where they cried while we were putting them to bed and were asking to go home, but most of the times they are very happy. The school is so different here with so much work and preparation... not to mention buying the books, suuplies and getting the books all re-covered with decorative paper (everyone does that here). The day-to-day responsibilities are a lot. They have so many books. They also don’t leave anything in school so every day they have to take with them the books they need for their schedule for that day. They are using the muscles they built in their Karate class to carry the bags up the stairs to get to school.

For the girls it is all new and they are learning both Arabic and Hebrew at school. I asked Nadia the first day how her class was. She said not bad. I said what was the hardest part?. She smiled and said I spent all day trying to keep my eyes open in class; the teacher talked all day and to me it sounded like bla, bla, bla,.. and I did not understand a word. Then, Yasmeen said it is bad enough that I am trying to learn Arabic and can't understand it, my Hebrew teach talks only in Hebrew and then to be nice she explain few things in Arabic and I have no idea what is going on. The good thing is they both really like their classmates and their teachers. The other kids in their classes have been really supportive. And, the Baha’i friends have been life-savers. Two moms especially have been taking care of us and helping a lot. Both moms have kids Yasmeen’s age plus other kids. One of them lives couple of minutes from the school. The girls love to go to her house all the time. Things would have been really tough if it was not for them.

I guess you figured out by now that we still do not have a car. Buying a car here not as easy as going down to the car dealer and giving them money and picking up a car. Ohh no, we had to wait for our visa and then we had to wait to find an agent who can speak English and then we figure out which car we want and pay the money then we wait two weeks at least to get the car from the port. I can’t believe I said it but, when Naim asked what car we should get, I knew exactly which one I wanted when we went to the dealer... but I had my priority straight and my choice was the one we can get with shortest wait. We are almost there Naim is paying for it today and hope to be able to have a car in about two weeks.

Now about the move. I think I said before that the area we are in is really nice however, to be close to the other friends, the kids’ school and work we were thinking about moving closer. Couple of days ago I took the girls to school and went to meet Naim at lunch. How I got there I will tell you later. We were suppose to discuss if we wanted to move or stay where we are and I was going to update him on other flats (appartments) that I went and saw the day before. The conversation was very short because we received a phone call 10 minutes after I got to his office saying that we received our household shipment from the US and we got the visa and that it will be delivered in an hour or two to our flat. So, we had to run get a taxi and arrange for someone to come and pick up the furniture that we already had in the house so the movers can move our thing into the house. Fortunatly everyone was so helpful and came through for us, so that it was possible to coordinate everything at the last minute. The short version is we made it and are still alive. The furniture is in the house but I will not get into the detail of how we got the large furniture up a narrow stairs into a small doors with no elevator. But with a miracle all things are in the house.

The house is really starting to look nice and looking more like home. The girls were so happy last night to sit and eat dinner at our dinning table. We got the washer and dryer working. Nadia slept in her bunk bed and wake up with a big smile. Yasmeen put her music box (the one Nesreen gave her) to go to sleep.

After school almost everyday we have private tutor that works with the kids mainly on their Arabic. Saturday is the only day they have no school or tutor since we will be starting Bahá’í children classes in a week or so. To make up for all the study we been more flexable with ice cream, chocolate and going out more often to beach or mall or other things that they enjoy, whenever we get the chance.

Last thing I want to tell you about is how I made it from the kids school to Naim’s work. I found a gate that leads to the Baha'i terrace gardens next door to the kids’ school gate. After I dropped them off and talked a little to the teachers I went down the street to the the gate and walked in from Abbas street for those of you who were here before. It was early in the morning. It took me about two hours to get to Naim’s work at the CST building. If there is such a thing as heaven on earth it would have been that walk. It is amazing how you could get out of the crowded school and noise of the city, and within a minute be into the gardens of peace. Half way up, when I had a clear view of the Shrine of the Bab, I sat down two terraces below; the sound of the water flowing and the birds singing was breath taking. I brought a book to read but could not pass the first page because every time I started reading I heard an amazing sound that made me I look up and see different type of bird... so close, so real. I sat there and ate my Man’o’sha that I brought from home with a bottle of water and then continued my walk. In my mind I could really see my dad at every part of that mountain.

I guess this post is long enough to make up for not writing for a several days. Please email us and keep us updated with things at your end.

Our girls started school

2006-09-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

Monday was the first day at school for our girls. The first few days were just fun and activities which was perfect for the girls, as it gave them the chance to meet the kids in their classes and get to know them prior to the start of serious studies.

They spent the first two days playing and attending different plays, games and fun activities. The second day I voluentered to help at the school and was around helping with the lines for the different activities. We spent last night finishing getting ready for school and getting the books and the notebooks ready.

For the friends with kids in the United Stated, just wanted to let you know that getting ready for school took on a whole new meanining here. We got a list of items needed including the books, supplies, and special notebooks. Then we had to cover every single book and notebook with a paper cover.

The kids take everything with them back and forth from school every single day... all their books too. Many classes have several books and notebooks, and it has been a chore just to figure out what they need to take every day for each subject. We're still figuring that out!

So far things are going well, but we will see how things go over the next few weeks when they really start studying.

Our 1st Week

2006-09-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it our first week here. We are hoping things will slow down a bit. We spent this week running around and getting things done, like paper work, shopping for car, registration/uniforms/supplies for kids’ school, etc... Not having a car makes things a bit harder, however the community been amazingly supportive.

We spent some time yesterday visiting the school and meeting some of the kids’ teachers. The school is very organized, and the teachers and principle are very supportive. The kid’s will be starting school on Monday.

Last night three families arranged for us to ride with them to the beach and we all had dinner there with them and their kids. All the kids had a great time. The beach is only few minutes from where we live. With the Shrines, the mountain, beaches and good friends, it helps make the transition easier.

One of the things I miss is having a dishwasher, and I have been trying very hard to figure out if I can fit one into my small kitchen. No luck yet but I am sure with time I will find one that will fit as I am desperate. I never realized how hard it is not to have a dishwasher and how long it takes to wash dishes by hand.

We took so many things for granted while living in the United States. As much as I love having my window open and having fresh air I still wish I had my nice air conditioning with the constant temperature throughout the house. Here we have the AC unit only in the living room so we have to have a path of fans to direct the cold air traffic to our bedroom. And I will not dwell much on the clothes washer and dryer, as we hope to be getting our shipment next week and we will have our washer and dryer.

We actually have a small but strange (to us) washer from Germany. However, the labels are all in German and the manual is in Hebrew. Naim used Google to translate the labels from German to try figure out how to use the washer, and nothing matched up with the familiar cycles of US washers. But he tried it out and after about 2 hours it finished a wash cycle, so today was the first day we were able to wash clothes. Also, last night May was trying to bake some potatoes in the oven but did not have enough time to figure out how to turn the oven on, so that will be a project for this next week. 

Thank you for your comments and the emails. We will try to keep you updated and please send us email to let us know how things are going at your end. We still have our email at daystar9.

Well, it is 1 am at my end, way passed my bed time so I better go get some sleep.

First day at our new home in Israel

2006-09-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Arrived at our new Home

2006-08-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

We arrived safe at the airport in Tel Aviv, the capitol of Israel, on Saturday. Our flight was long but our journey could not have been smoother. One of the Baha’is met us at the airport and took us to our new home in Haifa.

When we arrived to the house, two wonderful families meet us at the door with a surprise in the car. Their four kids were waiting to welcome us with flowers and home cooked food prepared by the moms. Since then all the kids have been inseparable.

The next day we went and visited both Baha’i Shrines which was amazing experience.

The last couple of days we have been trying to take care of paper work and get things organized for the school. The kids are signed up for school and will be learning both Arabic and Hebrew.

Yesterday our family was officially introduced to the staff at the Baha’i world Center at the weekly devotional meeting. Today the moms had a get-together at a mall where there is an indoor carnival. The kids had a wonderful time and met most of the kids here that are around their age.

The main challenges for us at this point is that we live on top of the mountain and since we don’t have a car YET, when walking around, we realized how out of shape we got by living in flat South Florida.

Things are so quiet in here, which I love. Even the government has what called a quite time from 2-4 PM and from 11 PM to 6 AM and at these times people should not have major noise doing work or any other activities.

The nature here is so beautiful. We can look across the mountain and see the bay. I also love the fact that I can open my window in the kitchen and hear my kids playing outside from our third-floor flat and not be worried about them being safe. They went downstairs today and came back running and asked if they can play soccer with kids “that they can’t understand”. So, we asked how they know that is what they where asking? The girls said all three of the boys worked together to be able to put a sentence together in English to ask them if they can play.

After their soccer game they came home red-faced from running, washed, ate a big dinner and fell right asleep! .. I better go to sleep before they get up and ready to go again… Goodnight.

Moving out of the house

2006-08-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yasmeen & Nadia
Last night at our home in Sunrise.

Departure Plan

2006-08-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we recived our confirmation from the Baha'i World Center and our tickets to travel to Israel on Friday August 25th.
For the last week we have been living with Susan and Kourosh. They had a wonderful surprise goodbye party for us last night. It was great to see many of our friends and neighbours.
The girls are going to school and working hard, May is still working and Naim is taking care of all the move logistics. The reason we decided to start this blog is to be able to update family and friends about our journy to the Holy Land.