Happy Birthday Yusef!

It's hard to believe that Yusef is already sixteen. It seems like only yesterday that he was born. I almost lost him that day, but that's another story.

Happy Birthday Yusef! 

Making Arrangments

About a month ago my mother-in-law went off to Tunis to have medical treatment. She ended up having balloon angioplasty and returned home looking much healthier than when she left, thank God. For a while she had a houseful of guests but things have slowed down. 

I visited my mother-in-law on the day she came home, after that I stayed away. The kids stopped by from time to time on their way home from school to visit their grandmother. One day my daughter Sara informed me that her grandmother said she wanted to have me take her out shopping. I guess the stream of visitors has died down and now she is ready to get on with life... and probably needs to restock everything that the visitors have used up. 

I called her on the phone and we had a cryptic conversation:

Me: Asalamualaikum!

Hajja: Walaikumasalam wa rahmatulla wa barakatuhu! (she's been studying at the mosque)

Me: How are you?

Hajja: Elhamdulilla! I'm fine!

Me: I'll pick you up tomorrow morning. Ten o'clock.

Hajja: Bahi!

Me: Bye

Hajja: Bye

We hang up.

We always have to make our arrangements this way. If any of my sisters-in-law find out we're going shopping they will want to come along too. But I know when my mother-in-law asks me to take her out it's because she wants to get away from them for a change.

Retail therapy begins tomorrow at ten... we're gonna have a good time!

Sprouting!

The flower seeds I planted are starting to sprout! So exciting to see. Watch and wait.... tend carefully... soon there will be flowers... I hope.

They're so tiny!

Truly a blessing

I've been a reader all my life. As soon as I learned to read I began to devour every book in sight. Always eclectic in my tastes,  I read everything I could get my hands on including even dictionaries and the phone directory! Growing up, I think I spent most of my spare time in libraries and bookshops... a true bookworm. Whenever I got out of line, my parents would punish me by not allowing me the privilege to read for a day or two.

When I moved to Libya in 1989 I had to make the choices of what to bring, and what to ship, and what to leave behind. I whittled my library down to books that would fit into eight boxes and watched as they were put into the shipping container. That was the last I ever saw of them as they were seized immediately upon arrival in Libya by the censorship authorities. So sad, especially as I had been very selective in what I had packed to make sure that nothing would be looked upon as being taboo. I kind of suspect that a bribe would have released them, but neither my husband or I work that way. In a way it felt as though my children had been wrenched away from me. I was upset and very bitter.

After settling in I met others who loved to read and we exchanged what few books we had. Anyone going home would bring a few books back in their carry-on luggage and they would be added to the small lending library. After some time the restrictions were eased slightly and my sister and friends would send books, shipping them using a special postal rate that was cheap but slow to arrive. Each arrival of books was a special day.

There have been a few bookshops in Tripoli that deal in mostly Arabic books, and mostly those of an academic nature. The majority of books in English were related to learning or teaching the language along with some books about Libya. On the first day of the year I went to the opening of a new bookshop in Tripoli and was pleasantly surprised to find a nice selection of books in English. Not only that, you can even place orders with them. I bought a few books and placed an order for Remarkable Creatures, a new book written by Tracy Chevalier.

How wonderful to have the New Year begin with books. Libya is changing and I feel truly blessed!

Morning Hysterics

Week two of the kids exams starts today and what do you think happened? We all got up late! There was a mad rush to get everyone out the door and off to school. The kids pushing and shoving to be the first in the bathroom, even though they have three to choose from. Banging around in the kitchen trying to slurp down too hot tea.

              'Where's my bag?', 

'What happened to my shoes?', 

                                                                                                                   'Hurry UP!',          

      'Get in the car so we can GO!' 

Maybe this is a good thing... adrenaline is pumping now -  the blood flow to the brain has begun! Next week the school holidays will begin. A two week break for the kids. So far we haven't planned anything.

A Resolution

I made a few resolutions. One of them was to spend more time taking photographs. So in order to help keep my promise to myself I created a photoblog. You can find it here: Picture This .

On the radio

I seldom watch television because I find it so boring and I can't sit still for that long. I prefer the internet because I can be doing more than one thing at a time. For me, audio is better than video, maybe because it loads faster. NPR has really fantastic programs but for some reason I don't like their news (too much like VOA which I don't like either).

I listened to this story this morning.  Life is such a precious thing. I especially like the part when the mother said it was as if they were holding an angel... Oh they were, they were!