We do fun stuff at Hawza too!

There's an office in our Hawza (religious school) dedicated to culture! Their job is to organise non-academic stuff (e.g. we're doing a module on basic first aid/nursing skills this term) as well as competitions. Most of the competitions are hard! They involve reading a book and doing an exam... but since it takes me an average of 5 hours a night just to decipher my course books (learning the stuff takes another 5 hours!), the last thing I want to do is take on extra work!

So I was over the moon when they decided to hold a cooking competition- finally something I could take part in! I made a fake oreo cheesecake, but couldn't find the right kind of cheese, so it wasn't my best effort. On the day of the competition, they laid out all the food on tables and everyone helped themselves... it was a mad rush (so sadly no pics!).Results came out 3 weeks later at the mother's day celebrations! All the teachers who took part got a prize, as well as 6 students (all of them were Syrian!). There was some consolation in that I had helped one of the winners assemble her dessert!

There was also an arts and crafts competition. I managed to get some pics:

New (ish) supermarket in Sayyidda Zaynab

(I took this pic a while back and forgot to upload)

A new supermarket opened up in Sayyidda Zaynab over the summer. It's called 'A&T' and like all Middle Eastern things started off really good. Now, 7 months down the line, it's starting to go downhill. Sometimes we have to ask the employees for basics like salt and flour and they don't have any?! But the upside is that they have a good (ish) selection of freezer things and its clean (er) than shopping in most of the other cockroach infested stores.

The joys of the third world.

Power cuts

Everyday we get an average of 8 hours without electricity. The cuts come in chunks of 4 hours and they change the pattern every Wednesday. We like it when the power cuts happen while we are at school (happens quite a bit) or in the middle of the night (rarely happens).

The power cuts were getting really disruptive - imagine having to study by candle light wearing 5 layers and gloves! So The Husband bought us a generator. Its noisy and expensive to run, but at least we have lights and the fridge works + one other appliance (micro or washing machine or hand blender or small heater). So no excuse to not cook or study!

Things that make me chuckle

Someone once told me that if you live in a humid climate, its a good idea to put a few grains of rice in the salt shaker to stop the salt clumping together.

This restaurant was taking things a bit far LOL
(The cafe inside Grandmart Supermarket, Cham City Centre, Damascus)

Meet Irtibaat ba Khuda!

Each culture has a 'must have' prayer book. For us khojas, its the famous Tohfatus Saeemeen. Even though it's riddled with grammatical mistakes in the Arabic, no khoja household is without it.

For the Iranians, this book is 'Irtibaat ba Khuda' or connection with God.




I found a page stuck inside the front cover of this copy. It translates: "Don't backbite, Don't speak lies, Don't eat haram, and then your duas will be answered"

New blog category!

There are a lot of things in Syria that make me chuckle. Like the man that stands on the street corner with a ram, waiting for farmers to bring his ewes... and well you can guess what happens next! Sometimes they even have a lamb on display to show what the ram is capable of!

I read this on the back on a spring roll box and it made me laugh too (albeit a frustrated laugh):



"Please recycle"

Dude, please tell me where! I'd love to recycle bottles and cardboard and cans but the closest I've seen to recycling is the people searching through the garbage looking for things to sell and the cats eating the scraps of food! A little bit of me dies everytime I throw out plastics and paper and magazines with religious stuff? I take them back to London every summer!

Azem Palace

One of the other 'must see' touristy things in Damascus is Azem Palace. It was built in 1750 for the Ottoman ruler of Damascus called Asad Pasha al Azem.

The house now houses a small museum of art and traditional crafts. Out of all the museums we've seen in Damascus, it's probably the best in terms of cost and things to see.



Here's what Wikipedia says about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azem_palace

The architecture is an excellent example of Damascene traditional houses. The structure itself consists of several buildings and two wings: the harem and the salamlik. The harem is the family wing, which was a private space for the residents (originally, the Azm family). This wing includes the kitchen, servant quarters, and the baths, which are a replica of the public baths in the city but on a smaller scale. The salamlik is the guest wing, and it comprises the formal halls, reception areas and large courtyards with traditional cascading fountains.

Used in the building of this palace were several types of stones including limestone, sandstone, basalt, and marble, chosen to provide a natural decoration for the structure. The ceilings have painted wooden panels that display natural scenes. In fact, Dr.Andrew Petersen, Director of Research in Islamic Archaeology at the University of Wales Lampeter states that the use of Ablaq (alternating courses of white limestone and black basalt) in this building is “A characteristic of the monumental masonry of Damascus.”^[1]

In 1925, the Azm palace was heavily damaged by French artillery during the Syrian revolution. It has since been restored and became a museum of arts and folk traditions. It received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983.

One thing to watch out for is the dodgy guards... They will often keep the inner doors closed and then open them up 'especially' for you in return for a tip. Very annoying!

The best room is the one with the religious items and the 'going for pilgrimage' display. There's an egg with a whole chapter of the Quran written on it! On my last visit, my friend managed to keep a look out while I snapped a quick pic on my phone!

Surah Waqia written on an egg!

Pic from school...

The weather is still freezing here! It's so cold that even the marble floors that they love using in their houses are like ice! So much so that when we remove our shoes to enter the prayer room at school, it's very tempting to take off our shoes at the door, so our poor socked feet don't have to touch the ground, rather than put them on the shoe rack and having to walk across the frozen corridor.

That was until this pic went up at the end of the week...




And here's a close up of the sign they wrote up....



It translates:

"Dear Sister,

From the will of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) to his son Hassan:
Allah, Allah, organisation in your affairs

Dear sister, do you love order and organisation??? How are you in your houses? Perhaps this is how you put your shoes?

Which picture surprises you? We want your comments."

Okay so the whole sign and picture thing was totally OTT. Although the message still stands... we are sooooo okay with throwing litter in public places, putting our shoed feet up on the seats in public transport and leaving the toilet messy and unflushed after using it. But we wouldn't dream of doing these things at home!

Back in London at our local Islamic centre, it was so common to see people going home without cleaning up after themselves and their children. Truly, it doesn't take more than 2 mins to leave your spot clean (i.e how you found it!) and save a poor volunteer having to stay back and clean up afterwards!

Message of the day - the world would be a much nicer place if we all pitched in a little!