approaching month 9

so, i wanted to update this week with some reflections of a few things that have happened recently and other just every-day type of things that take place here. recently, i went to spend the night with a friend and during my stay we went next door to visit a woman that had just returned from the Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca--part of the 5 pillars). since she has returned she is now deemed a Hajja as she has completed the Hajj. while at her home we were served dates and some interesting water. it was actually served in this little glasses that had Mecca printed on them and even had a little handle on them. picture a souvenir shot glass from Mecca...in it was this special water that they actually drink while there, but then bring back home with them to share with visitors and family. below is a photo i found online when doing a bit more research on the water and below the photo is some more info about this magical water...Muslims believe that the water of the Zamzam Well is divinely blessed. It is believed to satisfy both hunger and thirst, and to cure illness. Pilgrims make every effort to drink of this water during their pilgrimage. The water is served to the public through coolers stationed throughout the al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina. Pilgrims also fill water canisters from special taps, to take home as gifts for relatives and friends, and some of them also dip their pilgrimage clothes, ihram, in the water. The ihram are then preserved to serve as burial clothes when the pilgrim dies; thus he or she will go to the grave touched by the Zamzam water.
As the Muslim population of the world has grown, and air travel has made the Hajj more accessible to them, the Hajj has become increasingly crowded. There can be up to 3.5 million pilgrims performing the Hajj. Even though it is believed that the Zamzam well will never run dry, the Saudi Geological Survey has set up a Zamzam Studies and Research Centre, which is charged with keeping the Zamzam water both hygienic and plentiful.
Islamic history states that Zamzam Well was revealed to Hajar, the wife of Abraham (Ibrahim) and mother of Ismael,[2] around the year 2000 BC. According to Islamic tradition, she was desperately seeking water for her infant son, but could find none, as Mecca is located in a hot dry valley with few other sources of water. Muslim traditions say that Hajar ran seven times back and forth in the scorching heat between the two hills of Safa and Marwah, looking for water. God then sent the angel Jibril (Gabriel) who touched the ground with the tip of his wing and caused the spring to appear. On finding the spring, Hajar confined the pool of water with sand and stones. Other versions of the story say that the water just suddenly appeared at the feet of Ishmael, or that the angel Jibril scraped the ground with his heel or brushed it with the tip of his wing and the Zamzam appeared.[3]
The name of the well comes from the phrase Zomë Zomë, meaning ‘stop flowing’, a command repeated by Hajar during her attempt to contain the spring water.[1]
According to Islamic tradition, Abraham rebuilt the Bait-ul-Allah (House of Allah) at the site of the well, a building which had been originally constructed by Adam, and today is called the Kaaba, a building towards which all Muslims around the world face in prayer, five times each day. The Zamzam well is located approximately 20 meters east of the Kaaba.[1] All italicized info copied directly from wikipedia.org.
I just thought this was interesting. The doorframe of the Hajja's home had palm branches also from Mecca hanging from it. The actual Hajja was not home when we visited as she was at the mosque for prayer (and i would assume sharing with folks there about her Hajj experience).

Then we had Ashura the first week of January here:
For centuries the Jewish people have observed Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, with fasting and ritual. According to hadith, the tradition of the Jews of the time of Muhammad was that on this day, the 10th of Tishri, God delivered Moses and his people and drowned Pharaoh and his forces; so Moses observed it as a fast out of gratitude. This date has also been commemorated as the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, life and death, heaven and hell, the Pen and the Tablet; the deliverance of Abraham from the fire; and the reuniting of Jacob and Joseph.
In the early days of the Qur'anic revelation, Muhammad ordered that the corresponding date in the Muslim calendar — the 10th of Muharram, known as Ashura (Arabic for "tenth") — be observed by Muslims with a day-long fast. Although it was eventually superceded by the month-long fast of Ramadan, the Prophet continued to fast on Ashura, and recommended that Muslims do so, saying "I seek from God that fasting on the day of Ashura may atone for the sins of the preceding year."
Ashura is mainly observed by women and children. Here, the practice of mourning the death of an old year and celebrating the birth of the new year predated Islam; the extension of the practice into an Islamic context likely began in Shi'i communities that existed there between the 9th-12th centuries, and was perpetuated by the Sherifs, the descendants of the Prophet. Though the custom of mourning persists, it no longer has a specific focus. For the occasion, women make special raisin and nut sweets called krishlat, couscous made with the preserved tail of a sacrificial ram, and special fritters, flat cakes and porridges, eggs and poultry dishes. Also there are some pranks that get played on this day similiar to those on Halloween. There is egg, water, and tomato throwing at people even!
Just more interesting information about come of the celebrations known and acknowledged here. Italicized information from http://www.superluminal.com/cookbook/essay_ashura.html

on to much different topics...

above is yet another feast of ham! my roomie always seems to manage finding it at different places. this came from our Wal*Mart-esque store. We had quite the Sunday dinner on a Wednesday night:)speaking of the Wal*Mart-esque store...i was walking there the other day in search for raspberries and just thought this view was fabulous. it has been raining a lot this winter, which has been a blessing yet troublesome at times with flooding. i have even heard that some crops may ruin cause there has been too much rain. yikes! well, you can see how full the river is here. this week it has happened to get colder, yet i think we are in for some sunshine! yeah!
birthdays are just so fun to celebrate! recently our program director's wife celebrated 39! i made the ultimate brownie on the left from scratch (i am really getting into this whole from scratch thing) and my roomie made a great dark chocolate cake with funfetti icing imported from the States! it was a fun night ending with some Wii playing to help work off some of the sugar highs we had all gotten.
i actually captured this shot this morning! i was going out to check laundry and had been hearing some serious honking. well, the green bus was stuck. it just couldn't make the turn! there was an empty trailer in the way, so these guys from the auto repair shop had to come out and move it. and of course there was agruing to go along with it! you can see the congestion it caused. exciting times in our 'hood!

i was so delighted to receive a package on Saturday (making good with our package delivery guy has its rewards now!) morning from some dear Arka friends. in it was some taco and ranch seasoning packets and a recipe for some amazing taco soup. i was quickly inspired to make the soup and found myself cooking it up and now enjoying it with cheese, our version of sour cream, and/or homemade chips. yummy!

so, i can't hardly believe it has been almost 9 months since flying here back in April! time is flying and i am thankful for each every opportunity that have had thus far. sometimes i have to pinch myself. know that i love you and think of you often as i have encountered so many reminders of friends and family like you.

hope you have a great day and thanks again for all of your support, love, and for staying in touch:)

Sana saʿida (Happy New Year)

and a Happy New Year to ya! it was interesting to see how folks celebrate the New Year, since they had two in one week! since Muslim holidays are based upon their lunar calendar, but they also observe the Gregorian calendar, as does most of the entire world, this year the New Years of both calendars fell in this same week! also i noticed that many people would ask if i were going home for the rasel alm (which literally means head of the year) and i was surprised that they would ask about the New Year versus Christmas. well, i realized that many sorta group the two together in that they are both celebrations so close in time and gifts are given and Papa Noel is present. it has been such an interesting mix of French influence along with their own celebrations or lack thereof. Christmas isn't celebrated as the birthday of Christ, but is seen as a time of gift-giving maybe or is just clumped together with the New Year's celebrations. at our lang school we had a great party between the Islamic New Year (1430) and 2009...

we had loads of fun foods and a nice time just talking with the teachers and other classmates. we also shared what was something good about 2009 (or 1429) and what we look forward to in the future. i brought buckeyes and chocolate dipped pretzels you see there in the middle!
above is a friend's husband (on the left) and one of our lang teachers. i had some buckeyes left and they took care of them:)

i was so excited to get this mix from my dad and bonnie! i whipped it up for our New Year's Eve festivities. it doesn't taste just like it, but is close:)

had to get some decor up for the New Year's Eve celebration we had at our place. it was pretty low-key, but really nice and fun. jenn, kevin, sherry and i rang in the New Year playing games. we weren't sure what to expect on the streets, so we decided to stay in. there really wasn't any kind of hoopla going on at all. i actually found out today from my friend that people weren't celebrating because the King had said not to because of the situation in Gaza. interesting.

we had mostly just snacks, but my roommate made up a dish they eat in NM for New Year's: pesole. it was really good. it had pork, hominy, and red chili in it.
the snacks: veggies, the fudge, divinity, peanut brittle, buckeyes, and pretzels! and some yummy hot chocolate i got in the mail:) thanks guys!

ringin' in the New Year literally! i called all my family and some friends to wish them a Happy New Year a little early:)

so, Sherry found bratwurst on her last trip to the pork butcher! she grilled them up on New Year's day! happy 2009 to us:)

the brat paired with imported velveeta cheese to make up some yummy mac and cheese was a great meal for the first day of 2009!

Christmas in NA

well, Merry Christmas! we had a great one here full of fun, gifts, decorations, Christmas programs/parties, and friends to share it with. I hope you enjoy the photos that helped document this special holiday here...

this was right after we put up our tree. my dad had sent a basket for Thanksgiving, so i put the extra ornaments in there and put that under the tree as a little extra decoration. i bought the Christmas tree and ornaments from a friend that went back to the States. she was right in thinking that the holiday decor would help brighten up our season! i also was really excited to find this spray snow stuff for our windows. i knew that my roommate was used to snow, so i wanted to bring a little snowy feeling to our pad:)

nice and up close shot of the tree. in the middle there you can kind of see the genie lamp ornament--that was a gift from a shopkeeper in Egypt! fun!

so, my roommate suggested handing out goodies to our neighbors for Christmas. i decided to make up chocolate cookies, some mint candies, and these buckeyes pictured above! these are my most favorite things! i think i made close to 300 by the time it was all over. you will be seeing them in photos to come:)

my fabulous lang helper (and dear, dear friend) joined me for our Int'l Ch's Christmas program. it was a blast. it was a really neat, new experience for her and i think she enjoyed getting to hear more about why we celebrate. we had a really nice evening.

so, i got inspired by my lovely friend, Lesly, and made up some homemade gifts for my lang teachers, my classmate, and our building's concierge. i made up hot cocoa/mocha mixes. i was so excited to find everything needed to not only make up the mixes, but to wrap them up as well! the red and green wrapping is used for book covers here. it worked for me!

now, fast forward to Christmas day. my roommate was housesitting for a family, so we decided to have our group's Cmas there. here is lovely Shannon with a gift i got her and her family from Egypt. she cried, which in my family means SUCCESS! :) we had a really fun time opening gifts and sharing in the celebration.

of course we had to have great food! we decided that since we had gone all out for Thanksgiving, why not change things up a bit and go mexican for Christmas. i was in charge of the salad and fixins'. below was my first plate of food:) it was so delicious! enchiladas, beans, rice, pork tacos!

then came dessert! shannon made up delicious cherry and pecan pies (my two absolute favs). my roommate made up gingerbread cookies and of course there were buckeyes:)

so, after handing out the boxes of goodies to neighbors, we received gifts from two families in our building! one family brought flowers and a wonderful note of Christmas greetings while another family gave us this cute card with a wooden box for each of us! i was totally blown away! how generous and sweet this was!

after Christmas I had two friends, Ai and So, come over so they could check out our Christmas tree. they had never seen one before, so it was really fun to watch them check it out, take pictures, and comment on the tree and decorations. it was a really fun and the loved it all.

i have been so thankful for packages that have been sent! the one above came from Rogers and was full of some homemade peanut brittle, fudge, and divinity! i have gotten to know the package delivery guy and the folks down at the poste pretty well:) below are the goodies that my dad and bonnie sent to me along with the great box my dad painted up! i was so excited to receive these...thanks!

عيد الأضحى

so, living here allowed us the opportunity to experience the Big Eid (عيد الأضحى). in preparation for the Eid many sites, smells, and sounds arrived closer and closer to the big day. this is when Muslim families slaughter a sheep (or another animal) in honor of Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismael, but instead Allah provided a sheep for him to kill.

the Sunday before the Eid my roomie and I went around town a bit to gather some footage to share with friends and family like you! here you see the delivery guys with a family's sheep. living in a big city, there weren't large sheep souqs (markets) all around like there would be in smaller towns. i am thinking that the family went out to the ranches or farms to pick out a sheep and had an agreement of when it would be delivered.


here you see the sharpening guys. it is if utmost importance to have a selection of sharp, sharp knives. the knife to slit the throat of the lamb must be ultra sharp cause you are to only take one stroke across the neck as mandated in Islam. so, these guys set up shop all around town in order to offer their sharpening services.


then the other popular necessity for this big holiday: the grills and charcoal! since the family now has an entire sheep to eat, they get creative in how to prepare it. suprisingly they love making the meat into brochettes (skewers) on the grill. it is amazing how much charcoal smoke we smelled and saw after the day of the Big Eid! imagine every house on/in your block/apartment building grill sheep!

so, then we came back to our apartment building to find a couple of guys delivering another sheep for yet another family in our building. we started to smell the hay, their food, the sheep themselves, and of course their bi-products. it felt like we were back at the County Fair 4-H barn:)
then, the big day came: i was invited to join my friend, La, along with her family for the Eid. above is a photo taken from the roof looking down on the sheep for the families in their building. two were for La's family: one for her immediate family and the other for her uncle's family.

below is a shot that i thought captured a lot. here the men were in charge of wrangling the sheep. imagine two sheep being loaded into and out of the back of my Ford Focus hatchback (which is about what happened). and then the kids looking on. some kids are excited and then some are really sad cause they know what will happen to their family's sheep. it is an interesting time.

above is my friend's family's sheep. i wasn't allowed to photograph the actual slaughtering, which i was okay with. but it was interesting. the other sheep was in the yard and they covered it with a tablecloth to keep the other sheep from seeing the other sheep getting the knife. this was done out of respect is what i was told.then, after the sheep was slaughtering the skinning, the gutting, and cleaning happened like clockwork. everyone had a job and knew exactly what to do to quickly prepare the insides first as the meat would be prepared later as it is mandatory to leave the meat until all the blood drips from the corpse. above is the table of labor: preparing the brochettes of organs. my friend is cutting up rolls of fat (which was laid out to dry) that will be wrapped around pieces of lung, liver, or heart. salt and cumin are spices of choice during this holiday.another shot of the table. now, you can see the grill, too. they would put the organ on the grill whole to cook it through and then taken off to be cut up and then wrapped up with fat and then put back on the grill. mmm good.seriously nothing is wasted. the legs/hooves and head are also cut off and then roasted over a fire to get rid of the hair. they must be cleaned and then are saved for the next Friday's couscous. i actually helped clean a head (which was pretty intense) and then later ate some sheep head couscous on that following Friday! Fear Factor here I come:)this was later that night when we grilled up again some brochettes. what i thought was interesting was that they grilled inside the home! it was super smoky. the meat was pretty delicious overall. i stayed the night and then the next day we had even more sheep meat of course.

it was an interesting celebration and i was thankful for the course i took at my school that helped explain why and what was going on exactly.

Roma!

so, i had a nice, long layover in Rome on the way home from Cairo. i think i got into the city around 9am and caught the 4:30pm train back to the airport, so it was a quick trip, but well worth it! when i was in the airport terminal i stepped into a shop that had loads of English lang magazines--it was overwhelming! i was looking through an adventure magazine and found this little slice of heaven on a page that you see below. it instantly brought a smile to my face and i had to document this brilliant moment in print history:) ha! hey, it's Arkansas, the Natural State--you just can't mess with that.

so, onto the quick tour of the eternal city. i ended up taking a hop on/hop off double decker bus to tour around the city. it was a great deal and allowed me to see many sites from the bus, but also allowed me to get off at stops to explore particular sites of interest more in depth--a good option in my opinion. also, there was audio that gave some insight on the different sites along the way. anyways, onto the first stop: the Colosseo. the area around it was a little different than i had expected, but it was truly beautiful and amazing of course.


i didn't actually go inside (again, got to save some things for the next trip, right?) as i wasn't sure how much time i would have and spent all my euro cash on the bus fare. but i did walk all the way around peeking in on different openings to get glimpses of the inside. i was so happy that it wasn't raining yet. it was a nice morning for sure! i couldn't believe i was actually there!
then it was back on the bus where i saw many sites of course, but the next big one was the Circus Maximus that now operates as a park for the city.
then onto Campidoglio-Capitolino, the big steps. i tell you what, the bus offered some great shots on the fly!

then later, onto San Pietro square! again, it was different than i had expected, but pretty incredible to say the least. behind me is where the Pope gives weekly addresses as well as others. it was lightly raining at this point.it is just so huge! look at the people there at the entrance. i didn't wait in the really long line to go in here either (again, gotta save some stuff for next time:) but you can also see all the chairs they have out for people to come and listen.

i really liked this photo above. i feel like it captures it all. the basilica, the piazza, this man of God, the huge screen to broadcast the Pope, the fountain, the statues of saints up top, etc.

then i buzzed over to Trevi Fountain. this was much larger than i had expected. Romans knew how to go big, huh? there were a lot of visitors here as well. i can't imagine what it would be like in higher tourist seasons! i was just a tad happy to say the least here:) i also ate some yummy gnocchi for lunch just down the way from this fabulous fountain.then i followed lunch up with a healthy serving of gelato! right when i left the gelato shop it started to downpour! so, i rushed over to the closest bus stop to wait and try to juggle my gelato, umbrella, and bus ticket. thankfully there was an empty seat on the bus, so i could sit and enjoy my gelato while watching from the comfort of my seat.

then, it was onto the pantheon! i wasn't sure if i would have time, but suprisingly i was able to get around the city rather quickly, although i didn't spend hours at each location it was a neat experience to take in so many beautiful sites.inside the dome actually had this opening. the building was huge! at this point it was raining pretty good and the opening allowed rain into this place of worship. they had the wet area roped off, so it was just raining down on folks. i thought that was interesting.

so, it was a quick trip, but hey, you get what you can! i am really thankful i got to visit here as well. it was kind of a lot to take in just a week, but again, i am so thankful. if i look tired in the photos above, you have to know that i only got maybe a half hour of sleep the night before as my flight from Cairo left out at 4:30am. but it was worth it! as my sister would gladly reply: hey, you can sleep when you are dead. i don't try to abide by this advice, but i think sometimes it is worth it in the opportunity to experience some amazing places, foods, and interact with charming people.

also, a fun thing that was a total surprise on the way home: the airline i was flying with canceled my flight from Rome to NA, so i was on standby with another airline. well, after waiting til all the folks were checked in and other folks got picked to fly, i was told i would get on that flight! i was so excited as i was pretty exhausted and wet at that point. so, i hurried to the gate to find out that my seat was in first class!! wow! probably my first and only time in first class. it was an almost 3 hour flight, so it was fun. they served some nice salmon, bread, butter, a beef steak, veggies, fruit and finished it all off with cheese--very french inspired! also, i was totally blown away that they served champaigne and wine as the airline was that of NA and alcohol is not favored in this Muslim society. that was interesting for sure. thankfully, there was plenty of room to catch some sleep. to say the least, this trip was pretty fantastic. i just wish you could have been there with me:)