London Eye

Abby got to go to the London Eye with her Primary Activity Days class from church. We gave her our camera and these are the pictures she took. The London Eye from the perspective of a 9 year old...

Abby and her friend Kendra at Trafalgar Square.

Backwards Party

I never got around to posting pictures of Sammy's 7th birthday party this past July. It was such a fun party and so easy too! It was a "Backwards Party." The invitations were written backwards, so her friends had to hold them up to a mirror to read them. It told them to dress as backwards, zany, inside out and crazy as you'd like. The best outfit would win a prize. So when the girls showed up in their crazy outfits, we had them fill out a questionnaire on all the things they hated i.e. your least favorite Disney princess, food you will not eat etc. We then had a "catwalk" and as each girl modeled her backwards, crazy outfit, Charles read out her dislikes but instead changed it saying how much the girls LIKED the particular thing. It was very funny! The outfits were great. We had t-shirts, shorts and dresses on backwards.  Hats backwards, sun glasses on the back of the head and crazy hair-do's.

The winner of the crazy outfit was the little girl sitting down to the left in blue with lopsided pigtails. She had a skirt on for her top and a t-shirt on bottom with her legs through the arm holes. Pretty creative!

Here is Alex walking the runway in her backwards dress.

And here is the whole gang...backwards!

We had backwards three-legged races, backwards running races, obstacle course backwards and backwards "Pass the Parcel" except we called it "Parcel the Pass." If you are unfamiliar with that game, I will explain. (It is very British and played at EVERY party.) The "normal" way of playing: You wrap up some kind of prize quite a few times with sweets in between the layers. You play music and pass the package around. When the music stops, the person who has the package, gets to unwrap one layer and take a sweet. The person who ends up with it last after all the layers have been open, gets the package. So we played it backwards.: We showed everyone the prize (Glow in the Dark fingernail polish) and turned on the music. They passed it around and when the music stopped, they had to wrap the present. The last person got to take the whole package home and unwrap it.

The girls ate inside-out hot dogs with the hot dog tooth-picked to the outside of the bun. We also had a cake with "Birthday Happy Sammy" written on it (somehow I did not take a picture of it). We sang the Happy Birthday song backwards. "You to Birthday Happy, You to Birthday Happy..." The girls loved it. We ate cake first and then had the hot dogs after. The girls got such a kick out of everything we did backwards. We had the party outside so there was not much decorating. However, I did have a Happy Birthday sign that was backwards. We also greeted everyone at the beginning of the party saying "Goodbye" and "Hello" when they left. On the gate to the backyard, was a sign that said, "Exit." 

At the end, everyone got pretty crazy and was putting all kinds of things on their heads and dancing around like maniacs! 

Sammy came up with the idea for this party by herself. It was the best idea ever. It could be done for boys or girls. The kids absolutely loved it. I will definitely throw a party like this again for Alex.

More Bombs, More Fear and Uncertainty...

I got the following email from my friend Areen (who lives in Damascus) the day the U.S. government decided to postpone the airstrike on Syria: 

"Hello Joyce How are you I hope you are in the best case I miss you We're fine 
The potential cancellation of a military strike does not affect much on the people 
We [get] attack[ed] every day from many sources At least the strike U.S. targets known 
The civil war useless goals Only death and destruction We live at the mercy of the civil war and the conflict between the regime and the opposition God protects Syria"

Today September 25, 2013, I received this email from my friend Areen:  

"Thank God you're okay I'm still in my work and children went to school but [not] became consistently Evening week of 7-12 and a week of 12-5 [Her children are going to school at all different hours.] This is because the certain security and intelligence centers took the headquarters of her school buildings [I assume this means that the government or opposition has taken over the school.] 
This is a disaster And I convey[take] my children to another private school Because the private schools remained the same it was not occupied by the security and intelligence services and the military Until today Yes majd Send me the money I need to pay school fees and buy the purposes of the study for children The situation is very difficult Today in the morning around Damascus bombing, sounds terrifying, scary God was mosquito kids to help them afford what they suffer Of fear and pain and horror Thank you for your help And when I'm needed anything there Allah, and you"

To read more conversations I have had with my friends from Syria, go to older posts and scroll through  the last few months.  

My NEW Antique Piano

I bought a piano recently. I found it on GumTree here in the UK. It is an antique, made in the 1870s! I am so happy with it! I could not be more excited about it!

Look at the gorgeous detail on it. My piano tuner said that back in the day, everyone knew how to carve wood like this. All the pianos had beautiful carvings on them.

This is the maker.

There are two music holders. One that is hooked to the lid of the piano over the keys and the other that comes out of the top. It folds up and stows inside the piano. I was pretty nervous after purchasing this piano because I heard that most old pianos could not be tuned. I called a tuner and he confirmed what I heard. I was so distraught. I begged him to come and take a look anyway and be sure. He came out and found that unlike most pianos this old, my piano does not have a wooden frame but an iron one. That is really good! Wooden frames broke down after the wood rot and were no good. If there is wood inside the piano that the pins go into, there was difficulty in tightening them after the wood got old, because they wouldn't hold. That meant the piano was basically rubbish. However, he tested mine and the pins held. He couldn't believe what good condition it was in. When he opened it up he found many things original to the piano that he had not seen before. The damper pedal rod was in the middle which is really unusual because it is normally on the side and a few other things I didn't completely understand. I was so excited to hear this. He is coming back to tune it at the end of the month. He also told me that the two squares on either side of the carving (in the middle) held candelabras back in the day before electricity. You cannot find a piano with the original candelabras in it because everyone ripped them out when electricity came because they didn't want anyone to think they didn't have electricity. He said I could get replacement candelabras for it which I just might do. 

Here is the original paperwork. If you look closely, you can see the date 16 August1894 in the right hand corner.

This is more of the original paperwork that came with the piano describing its features.

Here is a piano I found on the internet with candelabras to give you an idea of what it originally looked like.

Violins and Salad

Abby just started playing the violin. She is very excited about it. She has not quit piano though. She is still practicing that as well and getting quite good. She is now considered to be on an intermediate piano level, which she is quite proud of. She also just won her second award for being the BEST French student in the whole school!! Way to go girl!  We had a dinner party last night and I told her when she gets a little better on the violin she can serenade us while we are all eating. She said she thought about doing that and how fun it would be but wasn't sure if she would be able to if Daddy was telling funny stories. She loves listening to the crazy stories he tells our guests. So if her Daddy can possibly shut his mouth long enough, we may have dinner parties with a LIVE violin player creating some REAL atmosphere in the future (we may just have to ban Daddy to the other room) .

Now on to my FAVORITE salad in all the world! I eat this salad almost everyday or at least several times a week for lunch and maybe dinner occasionally. It is not because I am ultra healthy and watching my weight and counting calories. It is because I absolutely LOVE it! The healthy part is just a bonus! I looked for these favorite salad items of mine while I was in the States recently and was greatly disappointed NOT to find any of them. Of course, I did not look at Whole Foods but here I can get them in a REGULAR grocery store ANYWHERE!!! These beans shoots are so good and really help to make the salad more substantial and fill me up AND so healthy too!

Beetroot is absolutely divine! It is precooked in malt vinegar. I usually slice several up for my salad and then eat one or two whole. Charles sees them and crinkles his nose in disgust but let me tell you, they are FAR from disgusting!

These babies add a bit if kick to my salad and I love them as well.

You can never have enough beetroot so why not buy salad with shredded beetroot already in it and then you can also add fresh beetroot as well!!! Woohoo!

This is what those beans shoot and lentil shoots look like. Tasty little gems!

Here is a close-up of one of those lovely beetroots. I think this one was photographed and then popped into my mouth immediately afterward...

I then add little cubes of cheddar cheese or feta and then drizzle this gorgeous oil on top. Straight from the golden, yellow fields I enjoyed looking at this summer. I also drizzle some balsamic vinegar and throw in some croutons...

And there you have it, my favorite salad in a take-away container ready to eat or take on the go.

Gone!

Ma'loula, Syria

  The following article appeared on a Syria blog I follow. It caught my attention because I have been to this historic town called Ma'loula. I feel devastated to hear of the possible destruction that has taken place there. I think everything going on in Syria makes me mourn for the country like it was a person who is slowly dying of some awful disease. All of this person's unique attributes are slowly disappearing as they slowly get worse and worse as the disease takes over their body.  Hearing about the town of Ma'loula especially saddens me since it is one of the only remaining places to speak Aramaic, a dying language, thought to be the language Christ. It is believed that the language preceded Arabic and Hebrew. I remember going to this town and seeing all the caves in the side of the mountains (like the ones pictured below). I stood at the Hotel Safir at the top of the mountain and overlooked the whole valley (you can see the hotel in the pictures below). I walked through the Christian church at the top of the mountain as well which is partly in a cave and has been in operation for thousands of years. I spent the whole afternoon with a family picnicking in the ravine near the town. In the entrance of my home, I have framed the Lord's Prayer which I bought in Ma'loula. It is written in English, Arabic and Aramaic. I am so sad to hear about the loss of this historic place and all the artifacts and Aramaic speakers who are being lost with it. I have not thought about much else today. I have spent hours going through old photographs looking for the pictures I took when I was there. This is really upsetting to me.... 

Jabhat al-Nusra and Other Islamists Briefly Capture Historic Christian Town of Ma’loula

Posted by Matthew Barber on Thursday, September 5th, 2013

A hard-to-reach tomb in Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

Jabhat al-Nusra and Other Islamists Briefly Capture Historic Christian Town of Ma’loula

By Matthew Barber for Syria Comment

Ma’loula (or Maaloula) is one of those unique places you may be lucky to visit—or perhaps were lucky to have visited, were you fortunate enough to have been in Syria before the conflict began. An ancient town in a hollow encircled by mountain cliffs descending from their heights to offer shelter to the homes built directly against their sides… exploring its many secrets is to be transported back in time. Ancient monasteries, old churches, rock faces with cave dwellings and tombs—the place is brimming with rich historical treasures.

Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

Ma’loula is also unique for being among the minority of Syrian towns where Christians comprise a majority, though this status has by now eroded to the point where Christians are only a slight majority. Still, the town represents the survival of the Christian community stretching back to the early days of Christianity.

A Church in Maaloula. Photo: Kellie Stirling / Syria Comment

But the cultural wealth preserved in the town precedes Christianity; Ma’loula is one of the last places on earth where the pre-Christian language that once dominated the Near East, Aramaic, is still spoken. In use from almost 1000 years BCE, Aramaic was the most important language of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia by the time Christianity entered the scene. Aramaic remained the lingua franca of the Near East until its ascendent position was supplanted by Arabic when Islam spread east, west, and north from the Arabian Peninsula. Aramaic had been an important language for conducting trade from Egypt to the borders of India, until the arrival of a sacred text—the Qur’an—whose effect was strong enough to issue the challenge that its own language take the place of most important tongue.
The dialect used in Ma’loula is labeled “Western Aramaic,” and is now only spoken in this small city and in two neighboring villages. A few years ago, President Assad began to officially support the efforts of Ma’loulans to conduct language preservation through Aramaic education programs in local schools. Though the generous Ba’athists never extended this right to the Kurds, it was a positive step toward strengthening the health of the local culture of Ma’loula. But yesterday, both the actions of Syrian rebels, as well as the response of the regime, will have the opposite effect on this fragile community.
Today, the position of such highly endangered languages is made more precarious by instances of violent conflict. It is important to note that most speakers of Aramaic dialects—Eastern and Western—are minorities: Christians, Jews, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Mandeans. We’ve been able to observe clearly the destructive toll that conflict in the Middle East takes on minority and Christian communities, a phenomenon that unfolded before the world’s eyes in Iraq, and which has also been recently intensifying recently in Egypt. As the Syrian conflict has developed, we’ve also seen that minority Christian communities are often some of the most vulnerable segments of the population, and their numbers have already vanished from many of their cities, after fighting has become intense, or after rebels gained control of their areas. Being caught between warring factions, as well as a sense of exclusion experienced as non-Muslims when something that Islamists call “Islamic law” is implemented, prompts many Christians to emigrate from their homelands in the Middle East.

Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

Image: New York Times

The Syrian conflict has certainly affected every Syrian to some degree, but it affects some areas more than others. Many towns have still managed to escape direct involvement, but given enough time, the conflict manages to find its way to everyone’s doorstep.
Until yesterday, the community in Ma’loula had avoided the direct presence of the conflict, but that all changed in the early morning (Wed., Sept. 4, reportedly around 5:30 am) when a Jordanian suicide-bomber named Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi (yes, same name as the famous al-Qaida figure) detonated a car bomb at the checkpoint guarding the entrance to Ma’loula, killing the soldiers there and allowing al-Qaida-linked rebels to roll into town in 20 pickup trucks with machine-guns mounted in the back.
Here’s a photo of the bombing of the Ma’loula checkpoint from Jabhat al-Nusra:

Nusra also posted photos of the bodies of the soldiers they killed at the checkpoint:

The following video shows rebels in the center of Ma’loula, firing weapons. It’s not clear if they are firing at specific targets, or merely announcing their arrival by firing into the air. Regardless, it was quite effective in terrorizing the local inhabitants.

And another video shows the rebels declaring their capture of the town after entering:

The video and photographic evidence available after the attack indicates that the operation was a coordinated effort between (at least) the following groups: Ahrar al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra, the Baba ‘Amr Brigades (a rebel group possibly affiliated with the SIF – Syrian Islamic Front), FSA Commandos Unit, and Soqour al-Sham. A video from Ahrar al-Sham can be found here. A video of shooting, apparently as part of the initial attack, is here.
My own Ma’loulan sources tell me that displaced people from Duma (between Ma’loula and Damascus) had taken up residence in Ma’loula, and cooperated with the rebels to facilitate their entrance. Ma’loulans now resent them for acting as a 5th column inside the very community that gave them shelter when they fled their own town as refugees. The danger with such cases is that it will generate suspicion and ill-will toward refugees generally.
Other photos of rebels posted online after taking Ma’loula can be found here, here, and here. One poster of photos from the operation to take the checkpoint refers to the soldiers as “apostates.” One poster seems to be from Somalia (unknown if he participated in the attack).
A Facebook page shows an alleged photo of one of the soldiers killed in the attack. Reportedly, at least 8 soldiers were killed on the first day.
Ma’loula only has one mosque. When the rebels entered the city center, they went to that mosque to declare victory and perform a typical chorus of takbiir (the shouting of Allahu Akbar).
According to Ma’loulans I spoke with, the attack involved two fronts. After the checkpoint was disabled, the Safir Hotel, located on the rocky cliffs overlooking the city, was appropriated by the rebels, who used it as a staging point for shelling. Some have said that they shelled the city from there; it seems that shells were fired from outside the city, as well.
The Safir Hotel can be seen atop the cliffs in the following two images. The strategic value of the site for anyone wanting to attack the town is obvious:

Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

After the Islamist-led rebel alliance took the town, the Syrian regime responded by sending in aircraft to attack the rebel positions. This is the ever-disastrous pattern to the Syria conflict: rebels take a town doing its best to mind its own business, and the regime comes to the defense of the town and destroys it in the process. I spoke yesterday with a Syrian Christian who traveled near Ma’loula during the time of the attack. Like many Christians in the country, he has no love for the oppression of the regime, but remains somewhat “pro-regime” in relation to the conflict, since the threat of Islamists showing up and taking over his town outweighs his dislike of the regime. I asked him, “Regardless of the fact that these rebels invaded uninvited, would it not be better for the regime to just leave them alone, rather than conducting an airstrike on one of the most historical places in the country?” He responded sadly: “They don’t care. They will destroy anyplace the rebels are to be found.” He reminded me of other historical treasures that have been damaged through the regime’s response to rebel incursions, such as occurred in Palmyra, and recently at the Qal’at al-Hosn (Crac des Chevaliers), a magnificent Crusader castle and important tourist attraction that the regime bombed after rebels set up base inside. For someone who has defended the regime’s side during the conflict, his attitude of exasperation toward the scale of their responses was telling. Still, residents of Ma’loula have expressed gratitude for the military reinforcements sent in to expel the unwanted rebels. Many in Syria still prefer the devil they know to the one they don’t—though they’re getting to know the latter all the same.
Footage of a helicopter filmed by rebels discussing whether to try shooting it down can be found, here.
After the regime’s counterattack, the rebels withdrew back inside the Safir Hotel. Initial reports said that after a 3-hour battle the military was able to drive the rebels out of the town. Today this has proven to be otherwise; rebels remained in the hotel all night and all the next day, and fighting resumed around 6:00 pm today, when rebels conducted another attack. The rebels lost the town yesterday in the sense that those in the city center were driven out, and only those in the hotel were able to remain. But the presence of rebels was not eliminated, as hostilities resumed today. Today’s fighting was allegedly more intense, as rebels moved through the alleys between homes, shooting. Apparently, young residents of the town tried to defend their areas even though they lacked weapons, and some were injured when standing up to the rebels.
The big question is: Why Ma’loula? What need is there for rebels to capture this town? Talk of “liberation” certainly has no currency when the local residents aren’t asking for any and would prefer to be left alone. Was there any strategic importance to the town? Or was it merely an easy target for “victory,” not well-guarded and unable to resist being taken over? Some have suggested that taking the town was needed in order to link to opposition resistance efforts in the nearby Qalamoon region. Jabhat al-Nusra’s official account, however, referred to the attack as part of the “Eye-for-an-Eye” revenge campaign, initially declared after the chemical weapons attacks in the Ghouta.
Al-Jazeera’s reporting was one-sided, as usual. It explained the attack exclusively in strategic terms, noting the town’s connections to other nearby communities with a rebel presence. They failed even to mention Jabhat al-Nusra’s presence in this campaign, instead referring only to the FSA’s involvement and ignoring the central role of Islamists in the operation.
When the rebels first came into the town, they reportedly told people “Don’t be afraid; stay inside your homes.” A video posted online by the Katibat Souwar Bab ‘Amr shows a rebel speaking to his men, affirming that (paraphrase, not verbatim):

We don’t shoot at any church or at civilians; we’re only here to push back against the oppression and will only target those who target us. They (the people of the town) are our people and part of our country. The regime has persecuted everyone, from all sects. Here we are in front of the church and everything is safe and the houses are safe.

Despite the affirmation of goodwill toward civilians and the pledge to not harm churches, I was told that the first mortar fired by rebels hit a church. Since then, others have conveyed to me that churches and monasteries have been damaged in yesterday and today’s fighting. Even if the damage is unintentional, local residents will likely not feel very understanding toward their uninvited “liberators.” I was told that at least some of the rebels cursed some Christians and threatened to kill them for being infidels. The rebel speaking in the video quoted above may reflect one group’s approach to taking the town, but several groups with different ideologies were participating, and Nusra’s presence confuses things. When Nusra’s revenge campaign began, many threats were voiced against towns and civilians. Though it seems that civilians survived largely unscathed in the events in Ma’loula, it is disconcerting to see the attack associated with a revenge campaign. One of Nusra’s photos for the attack on Ma’loula was published on Facebook with a verse from the Qur’an stating: “Allah give us patience and victory over the infidels”—perhaps not the best slogan to use when launching an al-Qaida-led attack in which a Jordanian Islamist blows himself up at the gate of the oldest Christian village in the country.
It is hard to know how unified they were on their post-invasion behavioral code, but we have more than one report (including from my own contacts) alleging that multiple churches/monasteries were damaged and/or ransacked. Reports online of churches burned in Ma’loula are false and can be attributed to propaganda sources with a pro-regime orientation, exaggerating the degree and kind of damage that occurred. However, my own source alleges that the Mar Taqla monastery was hit with two shells, and there are varying reports of other attacks. Three articles on Lebanese and Syrian websites offer conflicting reports on exactly which churches were damaged: 1, 2, 3. In one of them, the Melkite patriarch is quoted claiming that rebels broke into multiple Christian homes and churches, burning crucifixes and icons. The other two articles give conflicting accounts of the report received by the head nun of the Mar Taqla Monastery. One account has her claiming that 15 nuns and the orphans they care for had to sleep inside of a cave in the mountain, while the other has her claiming that the monastery was not attacked.
While we’re waiting for more details on the actual damage, my contacts claim to be certain that Ma’loula’s Aramaic Language Education Center (an institute that works for the preservation of the language) was broken into by rebels and looted.
There are no details on what was stolen, but that this particular institution would be targeted seems to underscore the earlier point about the vulnerability of religio-linguistic minorities. This vulnerability is what has prompted Pope Francis to issue a statement today to the leaders of the G20 countries, opposing military intervention in Syria.

… amid the U.S. threat of military intervention, Vatican and church officials have warned that a world war could erupt, with Christians in the region bearing the brunt of the fallout…

Though many details on this story need further clarification, one thing is certain: the situation led to the fleeing of many Ma’loula residents to Damascus. An area that previously received refugees is now sending out its own, and the dwindling numbers of Aramaic-speakers are no longer comfortable within their remote mountain fastness.

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Ma’loula, Syria. Photo: Matthew Barber / Syria Comment

For an interesting read about Ma’loula during the conflict, see this article by Robert Fisk.