Happy Feast to all of you

Today is the second day of Eid here in the Arab and Muslim countries.. most of them at least!! i really can't understand how some countries see the new month's crescent while other countries don't... don't we all have the same moon or what?!!



As i was saying, today is the second day of Eid, and we got the chance to get out. according to Arab and Islamic customs, going out in the first day is a little bit hard, because men have to get out and visit all the sisters, aunts, relatives... etc in the first day, which makes it more like a visiting day.. while in the second day you can go out, that's if you don't have a big family, because if you do, visits may extend to the next day ;)

This is a simple ride that is all around Gaza, and unfortunately it lacks the slightest means of safety, but children love it, and wait for their turn in crowds.. even horses are stars in the Eid.. they are bathed and dressed so children can go for a ride around a block or two..

Crowds waiting for their turn in the only amusement park in Gaza..

Mmmmmmmmmmmm... cotton candy... it's called here "shaer banat" which means "girls' hair" :D

A cute girl eating the cotton candy.. and you can see my little devil sitting in the end... he's drinking juice because there isn't any sodas in Gaza because of the closure.. only locally made juices..

And of course, what's Eid without taking your kidz to the biggest toy store in town and making them drive you crazy???!!!

In the End i would like to take the chance and wish you all a happy Eid.. Eid Mubarak.. and Inshallah many returns :D

an eye on gaza

I always wanted to give you my dearest readers a chance to take a little look into Gaza City.. and at last, here is the chance...

After long and hard trials, i finally managed to collect 102 beautiful pictures of Gaza City into one video. And you my faithful readers are the first to see it..

so, thanx to me and my great efforts...he he he "Joking" :D but nothing of this could have happened if it wasn't for the help of my dear lovely friend "faith"... so thank you dear.. thank you a lot ...

and now... let me hear some drums... i would like to introduce my first published home made video..

please don't judge me.. it's my first ;D

Hope that you liked the music.. it's Mais Shalash's song "Sabah El-Kheer" "Good Morning".. :)

What Ramadan's all about ;)

Ramadan is one of the most greatest annual events in the arab and muslim world... it's a month when we muslims fast from dawn till dusk, and exert all efforts to read the Holly Quran for at least once during this month, and we also try to do all the good deeds possible hoping for forgiveness...

What's really funny is that we twisted the concept of Ramadan, it's meant for us to feel the suffering of the poor and the underprivileged, and to concentrate on worshiping not food and daily life... now Ramadan means food and food and lots and lots of food !!! There is even a certain type of arabic sweets that's specially made in Ramadan and only Ramadan.. it's "Qatayef".. just follow the link and you can find the recipe.

Qatayef is a dough that can be stuffed with different stuffings, some stuff it with cheese, others with walnuts, raisins and cinnamon and some even stuff it with cooked cream "Qishta"... it's really delicious, i love it.. but haven't done it yet this Ramadan.. maybe tomorrow :)

Another Ramadan related activity is "fire crackers"!!! seems that children only play with fire crackers in Ramadan. I can't figure out the connection, but looks like it's a ritual or something like that :s I'm afraid that i'm gonna turn deaf by the end of Ramadan, either that or i'll get a heart attack cuz of the continuous booms!!! he he he he

A symbol of Ramadan also is the "fanous" i don't know what's called in english but you can see how it looks from the pictures attached. In arabic traditions children should carry these small lamps and wonder around in the neighbourhood singing special old songs from the arabian heritage, like "wahawy ya wahawy" and "hallo ya hallo"and other songs, now the "fanous" is already singing the song by it self.. which also drives me crazy because it keeps going on and on and on..... :)

Ramadan Kareem................... :)

Back to school...

It's school... again!!!

Today, we started a new scholastic year here in Gaza, and all over Palestine..

This year children have to face too many obstacles, not that they haven't faced any in previous years, but as i said earlier, this year is "different", the first and most important obstacle is the infighting, people are scared that the fight will find its way into school rooms, which -if happened- may cause huge and terrible consequences.

The other major obstacle is suffering from is the extremely bad living conditions since last January, because of the international economic embargo on Hamas, which has increased after Hamas taking over Gaza and the closure of all crossing points either from or to Gaza.

Many students haven't bought new uniforms or bags for school this year, as most of the employees haven't received a salary for more than 6 months now, families are knocking charity organizations' doors looking for any assistance...

Another obstacle is the teachers' threatening to strike, as they haven't been paid also... which imposes children to find themselves in the middle of all what's happening and a tool of pressure on the two governments.

another ironic obstacle is the duality of governments, according to which government will the exams be? or even the weekly holiday... will it be Saturday or Thursday...!? i wonder...

What can i say but... "have a good year" and by the way... "Ramadan Kareem" :)

Darkness in Gaza

I'm holding my pen, not knowing where to start from...

Should i start with the ongoing show of killing and shooting of innocent people either by palestinians themselves or by israelies?

Or should it be the closure of Rafah Crossing (El-Mabar) and the increasing numbers of people stranded on the Egyptian side?

Or maybe i should talk about the salaries of thousands of poor PA employees who haven't received a penny since months, without any obvious reason... looks like everything is going wrong with out a reason from the first place!! which also reminds me of the large piles of garbage almost blocking Gaza's streets and the awful fumes that can knock you dead, all over the coastal strip, because of the municipality labourer's strike.. they also aren't receiving any salaries!!

Perhaps it should be the Decision of the EU to cut it's supplies of Fuel to the Strip, which allowed Isreal to announce "also" it's decision of cutting the Electricity supply it provides to Gaza. Well, looks like electricity now is also used in this revolting game of "who cracks first" that everybody is playing.. i think they are calling politics now a days... the only ones loosing and suffering and also "cracking" are the simple citizens... who have nothing to do with all this nonsense..

Schools are opening in few days, Ramadan is approaching and then comes Eid..all events that are known to be met with wonderful ceremonies and cheerful celebrations in such a way that makes you forget all the bitterness and sadness that we are all living... but this year.... it's different. You walk around in the streets, you see people with dark faces.. hollow looks... nothing is the same anymore. before we lived and went through bad and rough times, but... in the end, we still had each others. but now, it seems that we loosed everything, maybe even our cause... i'm afraid.

You rarely hear the word "Palestine" anymore, you switch the channels -in the few hours we have electricity in-, looking for any news about Jerusalem and the tunnels dug beneath it, but also.. zip.. nothing.. sigh.. All you can see are politicians throwing accusations here and there, pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame.

So much for a happy summer vacation... could things get any worse?!

From Gaza....

These are some pics that i took while wondering around in Gaza City....

A florist shop.. most of the flowers are artificial ... :)

The destroyed statue of the "Unknown Soldier".. in the middle of Gaza City.

A gardener sprinkling water in the garden of the "Unknown Soldier"

Some roomers of a salary for the PA employees who haven't received their salaries for 2 months or more have spread...

"Shawermah" one of the most popular meat sandwiches in Gaza, and maybe in the arab world..

Al Rimal Street

The donkey is still considered to be one of the most popular means of transportation in the strip.. i'm still scared of them..

every cloud has a silver lining

the last couple of weeks were.... can't describe it with a word less than "hell"... i've been in and out of hospitals and private clinics, and in the end, i came down into one and only fact, medical care in gaza sucks!!!! i used to think so at first but now i really believe it...

I've been in a medical crisis at the first place because of a medical error, two weeks ago, and since then until today i've been everything but fine... :(

the funny thing is that while being in the hospital numerous number of doctors stand around you and try to prove there stupidity one way or the other, each of them gives an opinion that could have made me laugh if it wasn't me the subject of argument!!! one of them was insisting to take me into surgery the other was blabbering something about exploration!!!! me... they actually want to explore ME !!

I've always heard about a "near death experience" and how you see ur whole life flashing in front of ur eyes... but.. that didn't happen to me... i wonder why? the only thing i was worried about and thinking of all the time was... "what will happen to my son... my sweet little duckling.. "raed""..

"every cloud has a silver lining".. and that really proved to be right, during my illness, my friends proved to be true friends, they've helped me get through my rough times and made me feel a lot better...they didn't leave me alone even for a single moment... they felt for me.. they cried for me... and most important of all... they made me laugh in my darkest hours... :) That's why i would like to thank them all for helping me and cheering me up.. and i'd like to specially thank Rana, Nuha, Hana, Fadwa.... thank you all... you are really my guarding angels...

a schedule for life...

It's funny how our lives is plugged to electricity in this strange way, imagine living without electricity for 4 hours everyday...what will you do? i couldn't imagine it too, until i received this new "SCHEDULE" of electricity!! yup, they will cut the electricity in these hot days according to a schedule, imagine that!!


I didn't care at the beginning, i thought : "ah, at last, i'll be forced to do some tasks and chores that i've been pushing away and postponing all through the week".. but when the moment of truth came, i felt as if i couldn't breathe, as if even air is generated by electricity :( didn't know how to do anything, my whole life depends on electricity... TV, radio, washing machine, microwave, iron, vacuum cleaner.... and most important of all... my computer....





was walking around the house, tidying up, nothing big, when the electricity suddenly died, i freezed, as if a part of me died . i looked around in denial, trying to convince myself that the bulb has burnt out or something, but it really was the electricity.. i stopped doing anything and threw myself on the couch, counting seconds until the electricity comes again... funny how you can't even do anything without electricity...





My poor son is also a tv addict, specially the Tom and Jerry show, he can't live without it, if it's not on tv, it's on the dvd, if it's not, then it's on the computer, over and over and over again, so when the electricity dies, he does nothing but cry, so i downloaded a couple of shows on my mobile phone, just to shut him up...





We've been escaping this hot weather the last couple of days by going to outdoor restaurants so raed can play a bit.. cuz, in gaza, there are no parks or large green landscapes where children can play, the only place available is the street, and there's no way that my son will grow up to be a street boy...

still trying to find something useful to keep myself busy... hope that this "schedual" won't last for a long time.... cuz i'm scheduling my life according to it :(

The impossible

here we go again... looks like happiness or even what is so called "normal life" is an impossible dream for us in palestine and specially in Gaza... :( there has been an Israeli incursion to our neighbourhood last week, which resulted in 11 martyrs, all of them are under 25 years old, just young men, who haven't even started their lives yet...

Imagine, 11 grieving families, 11 grieving mothers..... loosing a son is so hard, it's devastating... my sister lost her 4 months little boy 2 years ago, and is still suffering till now.... so how will a mother who has raised a son for over 20 years, and saw him growing day after day in front of her eyes,nursing him, feeding him, taking care of him for 2 decades.. and suddenly.. he is gone..it's really unbearable.

As a neighbour in a small and limited society like Gaza, you must at least know one of them, and sadly i did... my friend's brother died... he is just 22 years old, i went and tried to offer her some kind of support, but she was a wreck, i tried to feel her pain, but i couldn't... i have a brother who lives in England, and just the thought of loosing him drives me crazy, and it's been now 8 years since i last saw him... so how will she feel... living with him all day, talking to him, sharing him his dreams and thoughts?!

All this is happening while we are still fighting... who is Fatah and who is Hamas, still pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame.. still throwing accusations here and there... i'm trying to put some sense into what i'm going through right now... but nothing comes across my troubled mind but "madness".... complete and absolute "madness"...

FrOm GaZa

Have we reached the point of Civil War, have we reached the place where there's no way back, or is there still a little window of hope opened some where for the two factions to bridge their differences?! I hope..

Today at dawn, the Imam of the near by mosque burst into tears, no one attended the dawn prayer, not even one muslim, everybody was scared to leave their houses... this is how bad the situation is here in Gaza, it's been four days now, the sounds of gunshots and bomb shelling haven't stopped, and still, there are no signs of any settlements, not even an unstable one..

Everybody is thinking about leaving gaza, looks like things are gonna stay this way for a while, a looong while i think :(, i chatted with a number of friends all over the strip, and they are all considering the idea of leaving gaza, the thought have never left my mind, as i don't carry a palestinian ID, i have a 2 year Jordanian passport, which makes leaving Gaza to Jordan a possibility, but my husband refuses the idea of denying his historical right in Palestine...but i'm afraid that there may be a day when leaving Gaza is a must not an option.

I thank God that we haven't been directly damaged by the ongoing fights, as the flames haven't reached the middle refugee camps, where I live, and I pray for those who are stuck in the middle of the fights... Hope that Allah may have his Mercy upon us...

my first post

hip hip hooray.. at last, i had the enough courage to write my first post in my own very special blog, really dunno what to talk about exactly, too many things on my mind, but yet, nothing to write about, so i decided to write a bit about every thing...

Gonna tell you a bit about the most important person in my life, my 2 year old son, Raed, or "batta" as i like to call him :), he is the only reason why i'm still fighting and struggling here in Gaza, he draws a smile on my face in the middle of all the madness going around over here

there is nothing more fun than being a mother, even if you are a working mother, as i am, cuz you are given a chance to create your own human, with all your ideal thoughts and dreams, yes he is an independent charecter, but you have the greatest influence on his additude, actions, morals... everything you can ever think of.. there are ofcourse some bad or even "dark" days when you curse the day you thought of even having a baby :), but at the end of the day, when your son lays between you arms and asks you to tell him a story and draws that angelic smile on his face... well... you really can't imagine your life with out him...

looks like motherhood is gonna take a big space of my blog, but what the heck... i love being raed's mom... ha ha ha

the next thing that i can't help NOT mentioning is the situation here in Gaza, things over here tend to change rapidly from bad to worse, never allowing it to get better, but no one has an idea who to blame, both parties "Fatah" & "Hamas" are liying, both of them are committing crimes, and both of them are leading us to distruction... unfortunately, no solution is appearing in the horizon :( which keeps us "the people" trapped in the middle.... so staying at home is the best solution for now.

To step out of misory, lets talk about my most beloved hobby... COOKING.. i love to cook, all types of food, today i made "Maklooba", which is well known for us the Palestinians... YUM O... gonna write the recipe later...

That's all for now, gonna write soon Insha'llah...

Dew ;)