Summertime Again

The following is a special, on the spot report from the 'Condo by the Sea' - Yes! A report from Georgina!

It's that time of year again . . . when all the oversea family members migrate back to Libya for the summer. Yes, no matter which wonderful country they reside in for the other 10 months of the year, they all come home for the summer. For those two magical months of the year, Libya is the most wonderful, most religious, the safest, most family orientated country in the entire world. The Motherland sings her serene song to lure even the most hardened heart to melt with longing for home.

It is always a felicitous occasion, the first visit from the 'Prodigal' returnee. The first words out of their mouths are not 'How great it is to see you!' or even 'I have missed you so!', no, it is more likely to be 'Oh Mash Allah, you have gotten so fat, or old!', said with a smile upon their face. Then the visit proceeds with all the grand things they have in their homes in the other country. How much they own, earned, what special clothing they are wearing. This is closely followed by information of who in the Libyan community where they reside are worthy enough to be their special friends. This is dependent on the size of that person's bank account. All this is said with the ever pleasant smile in place, so you will understand that they are not being rude.

The remaining portion of the visit is spent in telling you ALL the horribly wrong things in Libya. How families have degenerated into wild heathens. The youth of the country are so spoiled, but as they say this they are asking where your computer is. . . . Because poor little Mohamed is soooo bored here with no Water World, amusement parks, his personal cable TV that is in his room back home, or his game boy, play station, x-box to keep him entertained here, all he has here is the internet. And by the way. . . . What do you do here for fun anyway?

Oh, how can you stand the food here, or the water? Then what follows is a recounting of every restaurant in town where you can get ptomaine poisoning. How only the swimming pool at such and such's house is good enough to swim in because they have their own pure water supply. . . with chlorine added to it to purify it, of course. Isn't it too sad that there aren't any McDonald's, Wimpy's, or K.F.C. places here? That their children won't eat anything BUT. . . . and they are so afraid that they will waste away to nothingness because there isn't a thing their children will eat. Nothing that is healthy enough for them.

These topics of conversations quickly peter out so they then start on the family members that live in Libya full time, not just for those magical two months of summer. Did you notice. . . . how Your (and it is always yours, not theirs, when something is wrong?) mother's uncle's wife's children has just let the family farm go? What about aunt so and so. . . . Did you hear that she did. . . .?? I heard that brother flan-flan's sons were going into business with that 'man' that everyone is talking about. What do you know about that? Sister blah-blah's daughter is getting engaged to you know who's son, my don't they have all that money? She is getting all that gold. Isn't she so lucky to be marrying such a rich man? Yes, well that ex-wife might be a problem for the girl but mylesh, she will be rich. That's all that matters! Ad nauseum.

So, by the time the visit is over, the last glass of tea drunk, the fresh fruit cleared away from the welcome home meal you had so lovingly prepared with the finest, freshest ingredients, in anticipation of a happy reunion with the out of country relative, you are so worn out from having to defend all and sundry of Home; it is with a glad heart that you bide them farewell. Ah, the good ole summertime. Can't wait for next year!

Busy

I've been off having some adventures, but I'm too busy to post about it now. I hope to catch up soon. There's lots of pictures too.

a lazy Friday afternoon

Yesterday was a lazy day, we went to the farm in the afternoon. The fields have turned brown and are full of stickers and thistles that stick to your clothes when you walk along. The sheep don't seem to mind. [click on the pictures for a larger size]


In the barn was a calf that had been born the day before. He looks like his mother. The kids were argueing over what to name him. I don't think they ever made a decision.


Plums . . .


. . . and peaches! There were also some early figs but my brother-in-law got to them before I did.


Ibrahim spent lots of time chasing grasshoppers while I was marking exam papers. He brought me this itty bitty one.


The kids found a dove's nest and had a look at the babies.


We filled up our drinking water containers - a weekly chore in the winter and bi-weekly, sometimes tri-weekly in the summer.


The neighbour's field was full of bales of hay.


Sara cut the remaining roses.


And finally, the drive home . . . Ain Zarah traffic at sunset.

a special request

Yesterday one of my students came to me after class with a request. I get lots of requests but this one was different. It's a murder mystery.

Way back in October of 1983 a Libyan man named Elamari Magdud was brutally murdered in Portland Oregon. The man was my student's uncle. His family has been able to get very little information about the crime other than the fact that two ladies found him in the north area of Portland, apparently he had been beaten and probably hit on the head with a heavy object. This information was given to the family by the Portland Police Records Manager who also said they believed that they had found persons who had information about the killing or who might have killed him, but at least one of the men was already being sent to jail for committing another crime. No names were given to the family and nothing was ever done to prosecute anyone for the crime.

The body was sent back to Libya for burial and according to my student the casket was sealed but the family opened it and found the man had severe trauma to his head. [On the original post I had written that the family found the victim had gunshot wounds, but my student has since stated that according to his mother the victim had severe head trauma and his mother wanted me to change the post to state this.]

My student asked me what could be done - the family wants some kind of closure, even though the crime was comitted over 20 years ago the mystery remains and it's hard for the family to feel at rest. I tried to look up the information on the internet and can find nothing. So I thought I would mention it here on my blog. Maybe someone reading this might have some more information or ideas about what can be done.

Statistics

Last week I was looking at my site statistics. I check them from time to time out of curiosity. I like to see who's reading my blog of course, and it's also interesting to see the other things like where they were referred from which is how I find alot of other interesting bloggers.

Another thing I look at is the amount of time people spend reading my blog. For instance, last week someone at the State Department spent 8 hours 21 minutes and 30 seconds reading my blog in just one day. The following day they logged in another 5 hours! Wow! Imagine getting paid to sit for hours reading blogs! I wonder how much this person's salary is? I'm sure it must be more than minimum wage. Where do I send my resume????

Exam results, doctors, dentists and Ibrahim

Tomorrow the results will come out for the kids final exams. Actually I already know that Yusef and Jenna have passed and Sara has failed history. My sister-in-law came upstairs today to tell me. She got the news from one of the teachers at the school. I've decided not to tell the kids that I know. Now I am prepared to hear Sara have a big crying fit tomorrow when she finds out officially. She'll have to take the resit exam. Adam and Nora's results should be out tomorrow too.

Since school has been out we've been trying to get all the kids medical and dental work done. We've put off stuff waiting for summer vacation. Adam will be having surgery to have his extra teeth removed.

Adam has had all the consultations with the dentists, but now the negotiations are going on about the clinic's fees. He'll need general anesthesia and the clinic wants to charge over 1000 dinars to rent their theatre for two hours. We think 1000 dinars is rediculous! They said they will charge 25 dinars for each meal served (you can eat at the Corinthia for almost that much!) - Adam will be having dental surgery I don't think he'll even want to eat or be able to but they will charge for the meals anyway. The list of their charges goes on and on. In the end it will cost over 2000 dinars. You must remember that the average Libyan earns about 250 dinars a month. So we are negotiating the price and trying to see if they will lower it.

Adam has another surgery to remove a cyst scheduled for the 19th of June. Jenna and Ibrahim also need dental work done too.

Mustafa has also decided that Ibrahim should have a break from his medicine to see if he's improved. Well, guess what? He hasn't! We've had all kinds of excitement since he's been off his meds. Fires in the kitchen, running through the house with scissors and knives, throwing the cat down the stairs and using the broom to beat at all the light fixtures that hang from the ceilings, just to name a few of the fun things Ibrahim has been up to. I hope Mustafa will see the light and give in and give Ibrahim his medicine again - hopefully before a disaster happens! (or I loose my mind completely!)

Never a dull moment in my life!

Libya's Walk for Hunger

Recently I posted a notice about the 'Fight Hunger - Walk the World' campaign which is held once a year in cities all over the world. This year Tripoli was also on the list of cities that would take part in this global event.

The website had set the place as beginning in front of the fairgrounds, but later they changed it and said it would begin an hour earlier in the Green Square - Too late for me to change plans as I had already told some people I would meet up with them in front of the fairgrounds.


I went with my husband and two of my daughters and while we waited in front of the fairgrounds for things to start happening we found some yucca plants that were blooming, so we had a close up look at one of the blossoms. I'd never seen one up close before, it was pretty.

Only a few of the people who said they would meet up with us arrived. Everyone's main complaint about the event was that it was on a Sunday. But in most parts of the world Sunday is a day off work. Most Libyans were either working, studying, or sitting exams so I expected there would be a poor turnout. We didn't let that bother us.


Finally, about an hour late, at five minutes to eleven, the 'Walk for Hunger' approached the front of the fairgrounds preceded by a marching band.


The walkers carried banners and flags. My husband complained because they didn't have a Palestinian flag and he said they are most certainly hungry. I told him 'I think there are hungry people in even the wealthiest of countries' - he watches too much Aljazeera - that and the heat were making him crabby! - I decided to ignor him.


I took some pictures and then we followed along for part of the way. I must confess we didn't complete the walk - I had to get home and cook lunch and get myself off to work. Maybe next year the event will fall on the weekend. At any rate, I enjoyed seeing this and also meeting Molestine who showed up to take part in the event too.