Aashura in Damascus

This was our first Aashura in Damascus. It was probably the first time I have spent Muharram away from the khoja community, so it was slightly weird not knowing where to go and what time things were starting! By the 4th night though, we'd got into a routine of going to the Shrine of Sayyidda Zainab for the evening prayers and then sitting for the Arabic lecture there and then running to one of the local hawzas for a second lecture. We tried to pick out the lecturers that used simple, classical Arabic so that we could understand a little!

The government had put a ban on all things 'azadari' related. On Aashura day there were no processions, no open displays of mourning and no sabeel either (the stalls that give out water/drinks on the sides of the streets) There were even bus loads of soldiers placed at various points to control the crowds. Shame really. We were told it was for 'the protection of the shias' - whatever that means. It will be interesting to see what Arbaaen is like this year.

Most people were commemorating Aashura on the Thursday, whereas we were marking it on Friday (moon sighting issues are not just limited to London LOL). On the Thursday I went to the Musalla of Sayyida Zaynab's Haram and listened to the narration. I was surprised at how much Arabic I had picked up, as I managed to understand most of it. It was an interesting experience, unlike the khoja centres back home, there was no amaal of Aashura (it was good our Aashura was the next day!). I didn't realise that most khateeb's (narraters) read the actual naration of the story of Karbala from a book. Its reasuring to know that they are reading from authentic books and not adding extra spice like so many of our indo-pak shaykh's do (another post on that soon!)

Even though it's Aashura, the locals still keep their stalls open and try and make a quick buck from the pilgrims!

Banners in the courtyard of Sayyidda Ruqayya's Haram

Matam taking place in Sayyida Ruqayyah's Haram

Banners on the actual Dhareeh of Sayyida Ruqayyah

Cartoon narration of the story of Karbala in Farsi

Cartoon narration of the story of Karbala in Farsi

Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab

Banner outside the shrine of Sayyida Zaynab

The Reward of the Patient Ones

Our reading comprehension book features stories from the lives of the Prophets and Imams. More often than not, the stories featured give us food for thought, as well as increasing our Arabic vocabulary. Yesterday's story was about people who are patient.

It is narrated from the 4th Holy Imam who said that on the Day of Judgement, Allah will gather a group of the early people and the later people and call out for the patient people to enter into Heaven without having their deeds accounted for! So a group of people will stand up, only to be stopped by the angels. The angels will ask: "where are you going?" So the patient ones will reply: "To Heaven". The Angels will ask "Without being accounted for!?" The patient ones will say "Yes". The Angels will then ask "So who are you?" The patient ones will reply "We are the patient ones". And the Angels will continue to ask "And what was your patience?" The people will reply "We were patient in obeying Allah, we were patient against disobeying Allah and we were patient in the trials and tribulations of life".

Then Allah will tell the Angels "They speak the truth, enter them into Heaven. Only the patient will be paid back their reward in full without measure." (Qur'an, Chapter 39, verse 10)

This story really got me thinking. Living in the West, we are so accustomed to having everything here and now. If our blackberrys, laptops, ipods break down, if our email stops working, if our cars get a puncture, if the hot water heater breaks down... we are so 'put out' and 'inconvenienced' and 'feel we are experiencing trials and tribulations'. One of the things you realise when you move to the 3rd world is how unimportant these things really are. They are nice to have and keep, but really our lives don't depend on them.

And entering into Muharram and hearing the narrations of the events that transpired over a century ago in the hot sands of Karbala, you realise that those people lost everything - their family, their possessions, their hijabs all in a matter of a day. And yet when they were asked about their experiences, they replied by saying "I didn't see anything but beauty". This is really inspirational.

Even when I recite the ziarat of Sayyidda Zainab, at the end there is a line near the end which says: "Assalamu Alyki ayatuhas Saahibatul Museebatul Udhmaa" which means "peace be on you O the one who is the bearer of the greatest tragedy" and whenever I recite this line it puts everything into perspective. No matter what I experience in life, it will be nowhere nearly as tragic as what this lady went through in Karbala and after. It makes me that that I have no right to complain about the small things that go wrong in my life. Just deal with what life throws at you and move on. That's my new motto for life.

Qum vs Damascus

One of the first things that people ask me when they meet is what the differences are between studying in Qum and Damascus and which one I prefer.

I prefer Qum, without a doubt. The city there was geared around studying and students. You can tell someone there that you can't do something or go somewhere because of exams and they will believe you. Not only that, if you go to the mosques at exam time, you will see people studying together. There are also big supermarket-type-stores that sell things at a discount and once in a while, the school gives out things like rice, material for chadors, vouchers etc.

There's something magical about the atmosphere in Qum which I just can't put into words. And that just doesn't exist in Syria. Sure, Damascus is a great place to come and learn Arabic, and you can get pretty much everything here (in the city centre) and I love living a 7 min walk away from the shrine of Sayyidda Zainab, and it's great seeing so many people passing through here on pilgrimage (we didn't get that many visitors in Qum), but there is definitely something missing here.

We have private classes in Damascus, so I really miss the social aspect of studying in a university. No one to practise Arabic with at break times (I am the only girl in the class!) But the upside is that I have a 2 minute commute to class!

Word Associations

Our teacher is obsessed with them. He shows us how most of the words in the English language have been derived from Arabic. One lesson, he was telling us how many of the places in Africa have come from the Arabic language. Just like when the Europeans landed in America and named the city 'New' York, in the same way, the Arabs when they reached Africa named the city 'Nairobi' or 'Nay (new) Aruba (Arabia). Mombasa is 'New Basra' and Arusha is 'Arustatal Bahr' or Bride of the Sea (i.e. Mermaid)!

Nigeria comes from 'Nay Gariya' (Gariya is how the coastal people pronounce 'qariya'- village)

Even Europe comes from 'Euroba' (Aruba- Arabia!)

Quite possibly the gay-est email I've received in a while...

As-salamu alaikum brothers and sisters,

Are you going to fast tomorrow? Think about it, it is Eid Al-Ghadeer when it is highly recommended to fast, and Thanksgiving! So why not time your dinner for iftar? If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, then fast anyway! If you have days to make up, this is a perfect day to fast. It is Thursday, Ghadeer, and a short day.

If you have days to make up then make sure your intention is to make up fasting days.

Please make dua for me and all the believers.

Tourist guide, part two

Etiquette of Ziarat (Visitation) of the graves of the Holy Personalities

(Notes taken from Sisters' Study Circle and accounts from zawaar who visited Agha Bashir Najafi in Iraq recently)

The word Ziarat comes from the Arabic verb zaar which means to visit, but it also has roots in the verb zawara which means to turn away. Seems a bit odd that we should turn away from someone when we visit them! Actually it means that we should turn away from everything and everyone EXCEPT the person we are visiting. Ziarat is a form of united oneself with the person who we are visiting and that means standing for what they stood for. So, someone visiting the shrine of Sayyidda Zainab in Syria needs to appreciate the things that she stood for in her lifetime (truth, justice, hijab etc) and make sure to apply these principles in their own lives.

There is a saying that 'a believer is a mirror for the beliver' i.e. try and rub of good qualities onto each other. In this case, try and follow the examples laid out for us by the Holy Prophet and His Household.

There is a saying from the 6th Holy Imam about using ziarat as a means for asking for your needs and Allah will not turn you away.

A scholar once visited the shrine of Imam Husayn in Karbala and saw all the people around him asking for their burdens to be increased! In other words, they were asking for material things (the more material things we have, the more we have to account for). So rather than asking for increased burdens, we should try and ask Allah to remove our burdens and our attachment to this temporary life and help in our goal towards perfection.

The first time we visit a shrine, we should just go and pay our respects to the personality and not ask for any of our wishes. The analogy is a bit like getting in touch with your long lost school friend. You don't see each other for years, but as soon as you meet, you tell your friend - nice to see you, but actually I only came to see you because I need x, y and z!

The other etiquette to maintain are the obvious ones - recite the 'idhne dukool' - permission to enter the shrine supplications. You wouldn't barge into someone's house without permission, so it goes without saying that you don't just go into a shrine without seeking permission. Be humble, don't push anyone (just because the Iranians push, it doesn't give us a licence to! LOL) and don't litter the place either (again, just because the locals have no respect for the environment, doesn't mean we shouldn't either!)

Don't put money into the shrines in Syria. Unfortunately the money in the shrines goes to the person who owns the land and not to the upkeep of the shrine. If you want to donate to the servants of the shrine or the maintenance fund, you will see boxes in which to put the money in.

Last but not least, look after your possessions! Taking valuables (or flashing around expensive mp3 players, phones and cameras) is never a good idea in a 3rd world country. There are many stories of people being engrossed in praying or trying to touch the shrine and having bags stolen or pick pocketed.

Syrian English

Or Syrilish. Its sooo bad its funny. Here's an example:


Instead of 'Building Muslim bin Aqeel', they have made poor Muslim into a middle aged balding man. (bin means 'son of' i.e. Muslim son of Aqeel)

And another example:
I actually thought it was a sweet shop selling baklava and other Middle Eastern Delights, until I walked a little closer and realised that they meant to write 'suites'

Tourist Guide, part one

One of things that people ask me when they come for ziarat is where to eat. Here is my list of recommended eateries:

1. Safir Hotel (The Hotel and the Fresh Delights 'tent' next door to it. The pizza and shawerma are both highly recommended, as it the fresh juice. (I recommend the fruit cocktail with ginger, but beware, its an acquired taste!)

2. Meraj Hotel serves the best Indian food in town. The chef has been trained to feed khojas, so the food always has added spice! (n.b. The chef here used to work at Safir, so standards are high!) Although some things need to be ordered in advance, the chicken karai is always available. The chicken fajitas are not too bad either.

3. Paninos restaurant is near Noorudeen/Dar al Taqwa/ Al Hussain Hotels and near the Iranian Bazar. The mexican chicken is good, as is the pizza. The bill usually comes to half the price of the Safir restaurants. Fresh juices are good too. The owner speaks English, so most of the time you can get your order how you want it. My tip is to tell them to skip the salads and add extra fries!

4. Mahabba Pizza is located near the Iraqi street roundabout. The mini cheese and tomato pizzas are good (and cheap). The shawerma here is good too.

5. KFC: There are about 7 in the city centre. Jumping in a taxi and telling the driver to take you to KFC usually works!

6. Cham City Centre Mall (Yes, they spell is Cham here!). There is a basement full of restaurants. Taxi fare from Sayyidda Zainab area will cost you about 200 liras. Supermarket in the basement is good to buying olive soaps and shampoos. United Colours of Benetton and other clothing stores in the upper levels.

7. Damascino Mall (right behind the Cham City Centre Mall) has a Costa, Subway, KFC, Italian Pizza place. The supermarket here is worth seeing.

Dessert Places

A. Ice cream place near Meraj hotel has a range of ice creams, baklava, cakes and desserts. The hot baklava is particularly recommended! The shop has seating outside and also sells baklava to take home and biscuits.

B. Fresh Delights, next to Safir Hotel serves a nutella fruit salad - chunks of nutella and biscuit, with some of the 5 a day thrown in. Death by Nutella! (Too rich to eat alone!)

My tips:
A. Don't eat shawerma off the streets (apart from Safir and Mahabba). If you saw how they are delivered (and we have!) its not worth it.
B. Stay away from coleslaw (and salads from unreputable places)

A gift from the American people?!

We were out grocery shopping the other day and we saw this being sold in the store:
Yup, we couldn't believe our eyes either! (The pic is a bit small, but basically it is food aid that the USA sends to 3rd world countries. And it was being SOLD in a gorcery store!)

Pasta really sucks here (not nearly as good as Iranian Tak Pasta!) and we were really tempted to buy it! But luckily our consciouses overruled!

Go away ants!

My kitchen is controlled by ants! They are everywhere. And I've tried everything! slices of lemon, cockroach spray, clove oil.... as soon as the swarm of ants goes from one part of the kitchen, I find them re-populate in another part! If anyone has any tips, please feel free to add them in the comments bit!

Want to buy a tacky doll?

The streets around the Sayyidda Zainab mosque are not only filled with shops, but also stalls and people who have laid out tables/mats on the floor and are trying to flog their wares. Normally it wouldn't be a bad thing - people coming to us to sell their wares. The problem is that they not only take up the sides of the streets, they also crowd the streets, making it hard to walk. And they actually shove their tacky jewellery/socks/dolls in your face. Needless to say, I've become very quick in dodging away from them!

Dirhams...

We're now learning the numbers in Arabic. Sounds easy? It's not!

Anyways, our teacher sometimes diverts and tells us interesting stories in Arabic to liven up the classes. Today's story was about a king who was trying to teach his son the value of money. One day, he asked his son to go out and work and bring home his wages. Instead of going out to work, the son asked his mother for a dirham (currency commonly used in the Middle East). When he got home, his father asked him for his wages and the son presented his dirham. The father threw the coin into the fountain and told him to go back to work the next day. The same thing happened the next day... the son took a dirham from his mother and gave it to his father and the father threw it in the fountain. The 3rd day, the son was a bit puzzled by his father's behaviour, but instead of asking his mother for money, he actually went out and worked. In the evening, he presented his father with the dirham that he'd earned and just as his father was about to throw the dirham into the fountain, the son grabbed his hand to stop him. (i.e. how can my father throw the dirham I've sweated to earn into the fountain!!)

Middle Eastern TV

We didn't have a TV in Iran, so we're fortunate to have a TV and a satellite dish in Damascus. We get all the Middle Eastern channels here (MBC, Dubai One, Fox, Iranian channels) and we also get Ahlul Bayt TV and all the other international ones too (CNN, BBCWorld etc).

Its weird watching Indian films dubbed in Arabic - it just souds sooo wrong (they don't dub the singing and dancing). Fox airs a whole host of 'straight-to-DVD' films and also all the crappy shows that never went past a second series. Oh and there's an episode of CSI on every other hour - there are only so many gruesome murders and rapes I can cope with in one day.

All the swear words and nudity scenes are blocked out. But the funny thing is that if the swear word is made up of 2 words (e.g. mother f@$%^&) then they don't bother to beep it! And even though nudity scenes are cut out, they still air shows where adultery is the main theme.
It's probably a good thing that the TV here is crap - it means we get more studying done!

Arabic Classes

We're now entering our 4th week of Arabic classes. We have an amazing teacher who has developed his own programme. Its really cool - we learn grammer rules without even knowing that we're learning them! We also study saying of the Prophet nd analyse the grammer and also a 3rd book which has reading comprehension passges. We have classes 5 days a week (Thurs and Fri are the weekend for us)

Our teacher keeps us on our toes. He has quick fire questioning sessions and god forbid if you are sleeping! you miss your turn! He has also figured out what our weaknesses are... for example, one of the students has issues in determining where the 'is' in the sentence goes, so the teacher ALWAYS asks him.

Our classes are in the afternoon - a little different to Qum (where all our classes were in the mornings). It just means rearranging the day so that homework, housework and cooking are done in the mornings, class in the afternoon, shrine of Sayyida Zainab for evening prayers and then home for dinner.

Garbage

I realise that we were a bit spoilt living in Qum and having the orange-clad street sweepers cleaning the streets every night and picking up our garbage. It was a little too good to be true. In Damascus the garbage is picked up once a week, umm, no make that a month, umm, maybe annually? Actually I'm not sure. In my month here I have only seen one garbage truck. Instead there are little piles of garbage here and there.
The sadder thing is seeing people going through the garbage and trying to salvage things that they can sell.

Airplanes

I've taken a lot of flights this year and passed through more airports that I can remember.

Watching the safety instructions are often a good indicator of how the rest of the flight will pane out. Take BA for example.They show a safety film that features an English mother, coloured father and mixed race children. Very politically correct. Emirates on the other hand flicks between actors wearing national dress and ex-pats (4/5ths of their population is not Emirati after all). While all the 'better aircrafts' tell you to turn off ipods, blackberrys and laptops during taxi, take off and landing, the poorer relative (Iran Air) tells you to turn off your first generation game boy. Does anyone actually still own one of those?!

But the airport that takes the biscuit is Damascus Airport. The only excuse I can give them is that they must have built it with the intention of only sending out 2 flights a day.

When you first get there, you have to pay 50 lira ($1US) for a trolley.That's not an issue - even Gatwick trolleys are a pound. The issue is that about 3 porters come and try and 'help' you with your luggage, even though you (a) didn't ask for help and (b)can manage perfectly by yourself. And of course they expect a tip.

The second issue is that everyone departing has to enter the airport through one door. That's right, one door. And Arabs don't know how to queue. And you get 5 'senders off' for every passanger also trying to squeeze in. And once you get to the front, there is one guy trying to check everyone's passports. Not fun nor the best way to start a long haul flight.

The next step is getting your luggage scanned - that is all the luggage, not just the hand luggage. Even though the metal detecter beeped on every second person, no one was searched!

Finally the check in desk. As mentioned previously, Arabs don't queue. So its fun and games again.

For a 3rd world country the duty-free isn't half bad. But getting on board the plane is another scramble. First there's the queue at the gate, or should i say 5 queues that merge into one. Then when you do finally get to the front, they guy checks EVERY single page of your passport. Even though the passport has already been checked at the airport entrance and twice at security and there is no way on earth one can get to the gate without the correct stamps, they still feel the need to check everything again.

Oh well, at least there is some consolation in that the next flight I take will be out of good ole Heathrow.

Out and About

Funny things have a way of happening to me, but nothing to report so far. Unless you count the incident where I wanted to buy 2 carrots and ended up with a kilo! (The lowest coin here is 5 lira and many fruits and vegetables cost 10 lira for a kilo, so its not really possible to buy a quarter kilo of something!). I had to put carrots in everything I made for 10 days!

The other thing is, unlike Iran, you can buy eggs individually!!! But they still come in a plastic bag, so half of them end up breaking on the way home. At least I can buy what I need, rather than buying to the nearest half kilo.

Arabic Classes

Not being one to sit at home and do nothing, I started Arabic classes to try and get a head start before school starts in September. I'm hoping to join the Imam Khumayni Hawza (religious school) to learn Arabic, but in the mean time, the Husband and I started the University of Damascus Arabic books. Although I have studied Arabic Grammer before, I was finding that while I could understand the Qur'an and prayers, my Arabic wasn't helpful for say buying a kilo of tomatoes in the souk.

The books teach Modern Arabic and jump from the basics (Alphabet and joining letters) straight to present tense verbs. I must say that I much prefer the teaching methods of our UK Arabic teacher!

Souk Hamidiyah (Hamidiyah Market)

This is one of the more famous markets of Damascus. Its probably the oldest and its the one that that the family of the Holy Prophet was dragged through after the event of Karbala in 61 AH. In recent years a tin roof has been constructed over the souk. The holes in the roof are a result of French bombings and celebratory shootings during weddings!You an get practically anything you want in this souk. As well as the regular stalls, there is a whole host of people selling from tables and the floor.
(Excuse the quality of the photos... the husband was making me walk quickly!)

Belly dancing outfits...

Tacky dolls....

Children's clothes....

A new watch....


A funky vegetable peeler...

Or perhaps some new underware?

LOL

Habil (Abel)

Habil, son of Adam, is buried just outside Damascus. The Qur'anic story is quite similar to the Biblical one. Qabil (Cain) was jealous of his brother and killed him. The event took place in a cave in Mount Qaasiyoon. Because it was the first murder on earth, the mountain was so appalled by what Qabil had done that it wanted to crush itself down on Qabil and kill him too. But that wouldhave meant the end ofthe human race, so an angel was sent down to hold up the roof of the cave.
After Qabil had killed his brother, he wasn't quite sure what to do with the body. After all no one had died before. So God sent down 2 crows. Both crows fought, resulting in one killing the other. The alive crow dug a small grave in which he buried the other crow, ths showing Qabil what to do with his brother's body.

Habil's grave is huge! And its quite a distance from Mount Qaasiyoon, which means that Qabil would have walked around with his brother's body for quite a while before realising what he had to do.

Syria

After a busy few months jetsetting and working, we finally reached our next new chapter - our move to Syria to learn Arabic. We arrived in Damascus in the middle of the summer season. People from neighbouring gulf states come to Syria in the summer as its the coolest Middle Eastern country - the days are about 35 degrees and the nights are pleasant. Well, that's usually. This year the days were over 45 degrees and the nights felt just as hot!
Within a week we were fortunate to have found an apartment to rent 500m away from the shrine of Sayyidda Zainab (the grand daughter of the Holy Prophet). Being summer season, the shrine, like the rest of the city is crowded, and most days I would have to go to the mosque an hour and a half before prayer time just to secure a spot near a fan!


Blogspot is blocked in Syria, along with Facebook and a whole other range of sites. Blogs have been used in the past to critisice the government - a crime that is punishable by imprisonment. So while I've written this blog in Syria, I won't be uploading it until I get to London. So if anyone has any ideas on how I can update the blog while I'm in Syria, please post a comment!

The other issue is that we dont have internet at home. Its quite hard to foreigners to get internet, so that means that we'll just be regulars at the local internet cafe. So don't expect regular updates!

Syrian School

I've been watching the Syrian School BBC serial in preparation for our move to Syria. One of scenes showed a family watching a news flash about a footballer being offered xxx million to transfer to another team. The young teenager made a comment about how life in Europe is easy and how Europeans have everything they need and they don't have to worry about the future.

I'd just like to say that life is difficult in the East and the West. One is faced with uncertainities in whichever part of the world you live in. The grass always seems greener on the other side. My advise would be to make the most of the life you have now.

Notebook Messages

Notebooks have random messages in English. Some of them make no sense at all - like this one on my Farsi note book.

Update...

Its been ages since I've last blogged!

Since my last post, I've been travelling around the world and am currently spending some time with my family in London.

I'm hoping to use this time to upload the pics from Qum which the internet in Iran didn't allow me to!

Meanwhile, here's a Farsi clip from youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SqaD2wPhm0&feature=related

Crisps/Chips

Iranians seem to have a love affair with junk food. There really doesn't seem to be a concept of healthy snacks - everything is crisps or cakes (and the cakes are really nasty and dry)

In most of the supermarkets I've been too (and when I say 'supermarket' I mean the little corner stores), there is at least one wall filled with crisps. You get all kinds of flavours and shapes here. Infact, one of my relatives loved the crisps here so much that she took 2 boxes back to Canada with her!

I'm strictly a Walkers (Lays) girl. If it isn't salt and vinegar Walkers, don't bother offering it to me. Although I am finding a suitable alternative here... Cheetoz lemon flavour are not bad. Sounds gross, but they are really tangy.... a bit like chilli and lemon, but without the chilli. The other alternative is to buy plain crisps and sprinkle chilli powder on them. In fact I have a salt shaker just for chilli powder!

Another Encounter with a Taxi Driver...

This is what happened to me today...

So, I got a taxi off the street as I was out and about. (Don't worry peoples, it was a real taxi driver, not one of those unmarked cars posing as a taxi driver). I asked the driver to stop somewhere along the way so I could rush into a shop to get something.

While I was in the store, the driver's wife called him and started yelling at him. I got in the car and he was really, really angry saying things like "I provide for you every day and just one day I forgot something and you start shouting at me" etc.

So the driver cuts the phone and starts yelling at me about how good a husband he is and how ungrateful his wife is etc. Not that I really care about his martial stuff. I thought the 'smile and wave' Madagascar-film-not-the-country approach was best here.

So this guy is really vexed. We're going towards home and suddenly he stops the car and tells me to wait. I'm thinking he's going to buy an axe or machete to kill his wife. Instead, he picks up a banana peel from the middle of the road and chucks it in the bin. He comes back into the car, a completely changed and calm man and explains how he once saw a motorcycle go over some garbage in the road, have an accident and break an arm.

Random act of kindness, although I wish he'd been a bit calmer with his wife!

Syria

In preparation for our move to Syria later this year, I hopped over there for a week to check the place out. The Husband and I are hoping to learn Arabic properly over there, before continuing our studies in Qum. Thing is, you can learn Arabic here, but you don't really get the speaking environment in which to practise and they really concentrate on teaching the grammer parrot fashion, so off we go to Syria!

I stayed with some friends in an area called Sayyidda Zainab, which is named after the granddaughter of the Holy Prophet, who is buried there. The mosque complex is really nice (if a little small). The surrounding area, however, REALLY made me appreciate Qum. Garbage is only picked up once a week there and the streets are only swept once in a while. Compare that to Qum, where we have orange-clad street sweepers who pick up the rubbish every night and clean the streets.

And not only that, the place is CRAMMED full of Iranians. The shopkeepers all speak Farsi and accept Iranian currency. (Iranians are known to shop, even though the merchandise in Syria is exactly the same as Iran!). Infact on my flight back to Iran, every single person was overweight by at least 10kg. (apart from me - I only had 9kg in total :-) lol!).

But on the plus point, the supermarkets in Damascus City Centre are well stocked up. I saw all the things that I've been missing in Qum (like flash kitchen cleaner, puff pastry and kellogs cereals!)

It was also nice to meet some of the Westerners who are studying out there. The family I was staying with even took me to a place called Maloula, which is an hour away from Damascus. Its the only place where they speak Arameaic (the language they spoke in Jesus' time). Transport is quite cheap, so it cost about a dollar each way. The town is famous for a girl who was supposed to get married, but at the last minute changed her mind and became a nun. The townspeople were furious with her, as her fiance was one of the richer members of the town, so they tried to burn her, chase her away etc. but each time, something happened to save her. It is said that once she was being chased by soldiers and she stopped to pray and the mountain opened up in front of her letting her escape.

Update on the eggs!

We can now buy eggs the same way as 'back home'. They still get sold by the kilo, but now they come wrapped in cardboard and plastic and actually survive the 5 min walk from the grocery store to home!

I photographed the label, it's translation is quite corny...



The bit on the right read "Its yolk is gold in reality"

Only in Iran

Chocolates for change!

One of the really annoying things about Iran is that when you're in a grocery store and you hand over your cash, if the change owed to you is really small, the shop keeper will sometimes give you a small chocolate or sweets instead of giving you the money. Personally, I'd rather have the cash.

Thing is though, the chocolate is usually bi-mazeh (tasteless) compared to Galaxy or Cadburys... so I have a collection of chocolates/sweets in a little dish at home. Chocolate anyone?

Barf

In Farsi, 'barf' means snow.
In other languages, it means something else! LOL

Inna lillaahi wa inna ilaihi raji'oon...

... To God we belong and surely to Him we will return

Khanum Zahra Hajj Khalili passed away on Thursday.

Please remember her and her young family in your prayers.

Happy New Year!

Happy (Belated) New Year!

Hope the year to come is filled with health, happiness and lots of blog-ilicious smiles :-)

Water Supply

Sometimes I really dispair at our water supply.

We're lucky to have a drinking water filter fitted in the kitchen. Qum water is salty and so you have to fit a filter, or fill up from the nearest 'sweet' water tap and then drag the cannister back home. Our filter can store 12litres at a time and takes about an hour to fill up from empty. Its quite funny trying to 'squeeze' water out of the filter. It dribbles out and reminds me of old man's pee. LOL

We're currently supplying our neighbour with 'sweet' water. Just have to remember to change the filters every now and again!

The worst thing about living on the top floor is that our regular water supply is rubbish. We're the last priority for water. So even if we're having a shower or washing dishes and someone downstairs turns on the tap, our water stops. Imagine being in the shower with shampoo in your hair, only for the dude downstairs to start washing dishes... it sucks. Not only that, but once the water comes back online, this nasty yellow stuff comes out first before the regular water. Perhaps I'm writing this in the hope that the landlady reads my blog and does something about it?!

Yesterday, the neighbour comes up to ask for water, which is cool. His cannister is 12 litres so it pretty much cleans us out of water for an hour. I filled up his cannister and even though I needed to cook, waited for a bit for the tank to fill up. (we use 'sweet' water for cooking) While I was waiting, decided to wash dishes with the Qum salty water and guess what - the dude downstairs starts using the water. So not only did he clean us out of 'sweet' water, but then cut off the other water too.

Only one more month to go. Only one more month to go.