Tate Modern

I took the girls to the Tate Modern this past summer. We have been before but it has been a few years. 

Ham sandwich in front of the tower bridge

There was some famous pieces we recognized and then there was some really weird stuff. We did not know what it was even supposed to represent...modern art! 

Stonehenge

Bike London

Yesterday (Saturday) the 29 July, we caught the train into London early with our bikes in tow. It was the annual Prudential Bike London day where roads all around London were closed off for cyclists to ride through the city freely. We rode past all the major landmarks on our little bikes. It was quite a way to see London. I absolutely enjoyed it. There was an 8 mile loop around the whole of the city and all the major sites. We rode around the whole thing once. Abby and her friend took off without us and lapped us riding 16 miles! wow! Such a great experience! Definitely going next year. I don't even own a bike but was able to rent one. I rented the ever-famous Boris bike (Boris Johnson ex-mayor of London - a bit of a buffoon in my opinion, but I love the bikes he installed for rent all over London). Anyway, I couldn't get that many pictures because I am not that skilled as a biker not to crash into someone while snapping pictures but here are a few pictures from our day....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arabic

 I now have 5 Arabic tutors/conversation partners - one from Aleppo, Syria who is a refugee in Armenia; one from a village near Aleppo who is a refugee in Istanbul; one from Damascus who lives in Dubai; a Palestinian who lives in Finland and an Egyptian in Egypt. Why in the world would I need so many tutors, you ask?   Well I think it helps a lot to hear all the different ways of speaking and accents. They each help me with different aspects of Arabic. I really love it. In fact, the most recent one I got from Egypt is tutoring me on reading the Quran. I absolutely love it. I think it helps a lot with my pronunciation of words. Reading the Quran is very different from reading other Arabic because it is written in a very old, traditional way so even classical or formal Arabic which is used on television news for instance, is very different. I could practice Arabic all day. When I am studying for two hours during Sadie's nap, I often get so involved in it that I forget completely what is going on in my life. For instance, last week, I finished my Quranic Arabic session and then woke Sadie and rushed off to school pickup (like I often do), I went in to pick up Alex and realized that she had ballet that day and I had arranged for someone else to pick her up but my brain was so far away doing Quranic Arabic that I forgot and confused the woman picking Alex up along with Alex herself!

I went to a photography exhibit the other day in a nearby city, where refugees had done a photography course and put together  an exhibit of photographs as visuals of what they thought of their new home. It was very interesting and the photos were quite lovely. I met some of the photographers as well. I made some new contacts and re-established some old ones. Through an old contact, I found out about a program here in the UK that helps settle refugees in our council (county). They said there were opportunities to meet Syrian families who had been cleared for asylum in the UK at the airport and mentor or support them in setting up their lives here for up to a year. The families were assigned different mentors to help with everyday life like getting children into school and setting up a bank account to other things like learning English. Having an Arabic background would be very helpful especially learning English because many of them come off the aeroplane not knowing a word of English. I am hoping this might be where I could be of service. It sounds like a great opportunity. For now, I will keep on study with all my tutors and conversation partners. Having five does get complicated at times but it keeps me constantly motivated and engaged in learning. I just have to keep straight what homework is for which tutor. But I feel like I am making more progress than I have in the past.

Birthday Get-Away

23 April 2017

This past Friday, Abby and I headed down to London for her birthday (a bit early). Charles had booked us a hotel for the night and we also had tickets to “An American in Paris.” Abby wanted to eat dim sum for lunch so we found a place near our hotel which was fabulous. We then went to our hotel and took a nap for 20 minute s and then headed out to the British Museum, which is what Abby wanted to do. We went only the places that she was interested in. We walked through ancient Egypt downstairs as well as the mummies upstairs, Africa and Japan. It was a lot of walking and we were definitely tired afterwards. We headed back to the hotel and watched some tv and rested for a while before getting all dressed up and heading to Five Guys American hamburger joint for dinner and then to the show. I had a massive burger and we shared some fries. We then headed to the show where Charles had got us front row seats in the middle. It was spectacular. I loved every minute of the show. The performers were superb in every way. We had watched the DVD with Gene Kelly the day before and I thought the main female and male characters they cast for the play could not have been a better picks. The scenery was inspiring and the story was so romantic and entertaining. The dancing was so impressive too. Afterward, we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep. The next morning we woke up and went down to breakfast around 8:30am and was treated very well with some lovely food. After eating we went back up to the room and read our books (Abby’s choice again) for about two hours. Abby was reading Harry Potter IV.  The internet wasn’t working so I picked up a book from the hotel lobby called “The Cultural Revolution” about the reign of Mao Zedong. I was so fascinated by the whole book but even more so I was thrilled to be reading in such a quiet, undisruptive place for such a long time. It has been a long time since I have been able to read anything for pleasure because I am always doing Arabic in my spare time and I really loved it. I was so impressed with Abby’s choices of thing to do. I know alot of girls her age are only interested in shopping. I was so proud that my daughter wanted to eat ethnic food, go to a West End show, hang out at a museum and read! I could not have been more proud! It was really nice to spend one on one time with Abby. We really got along great and it was really nice to spend time with her as a friend almost instead of a mum. I really enjoyed it. It is a trip I will remember for a long time.

On the train to London

Dim Sum lunch

Mummies at the British Museum

Getting ready for our night out



All ready to head out the door

Poster of our West End show in the tube station

Eating at Five Guys before the show

Front row, center seats and so excited for the show to start.

Relaxing, delicious breakfast

(oops out of order) British Museum

The book I got from the hotel lobby and they even let me keep it so I can finish it. Woo hoo! Loved my Abby weekend.

Dunkirque Refugee Camp

25 March 2017

I woke up at 3:20am hopped in the shower, threw on some clothes and waited downstairs for my friend to pick me up at 4am. We then drove over to pick up another friend and headed down to the channel tunnel to meet up with the other volunteers to go to the Dunkirque refugee camp. We met up with the crew and headed onto the train. On the train, we felt and heard a strange bump in the back of the car as we waited in the que. Come to find out the bloke behind us was putting sugar in his tea and accidentally rear-ended us. How English is that? Anyway, when we got to France we immediately headed to the camp. We unloaded some of the cars of donations we brought. We brought some lovely knitted blankets with handmade knitted teddies wrapped together in a beautiful package someone had put together and donated. Other packages were maternity packs for baby and mum with little outfits, blankets, sanitary items and a handmade stuffed teddy. I have no idea who donated them but they were hugely popular. We also brought a few school supplies and Easter chocolate. Eventually we went into the women’s centre and after handing out our donations, I got out the henna I had brought. A few Iraqi women were excited and immediately started painting my hands with henna. They were much friendlier than last time and I was able to speak with them in Arabic which they were very surprised by. A little Iranian girl painted another hand of mine and I painted hers. The Iraqi woman who did my henna then proceeded to do several other women’s hands. I was so glad that they liked the henna I brought. I even saw some of the other volunteers getting their hands painted with henna.

A little handicapped girl in a wheel chair who was sitting in the centre, started crying uncontrollably. They didn't know what was wrong until they figured out she was hungry. They gave her a carrot but she was struggling to eat it. Someone asked if anyone had something softer. I had made green muffins (spinach, banana, honey muffins) and gave the girl one to eat. She ate every bite and seemed to perk up and feel better afterward. I was so happy to hear that. Some of my own children wouldn't touch those muffins but this little girl loved them.

After working in the women’s centre, we proceeded outside, it was a gorgeous sunny day.  We began to shovel and rake rocks into buckets to carry over to the children’s centre where we were making  a ramp to the back door for the two handicapped children in the camp to be able to get into the school easier. We shovelled and raked rocks for a few hours until there were enough piled up to the height of the step and then mixed and poured cement for the ramp.  We (my friend and I) were then asked to put locks on the women’s shower stalls. The women apparently were too afraid to take showers because there was no lock on the doors, anyone could come in and showers were not relaxing when you are afraid of something like that happening. It has been a big problem. We gathered the necessary tools and equipment and headed over. By this time, we were joined by one more woman and the three of us determined to put these locks on.  However, the doors were not solid and when we drilled the screws in to hold the locks, there was nothing for the screws to secure themselves to so it wasn’t working very well. We also had problems because our drill wasn’t strong enough to drill holes in the metal on the door frame for the locks to slide into. It was so disappointing not to be able to finish this project because while we were doing it, the women of the camp kept coming in with big smiles, so happy to finally be getting locks on the doors. I still think about it and it makes me very sad that we were unable to do it. But we made the other volunteers that we know who go a lot more often, promise they would get the locks put on ASAP.

After the lock failure, we went and built cupboards for the toys in the children’s centre. Throughout the whole day, I was so thrilled to meet so many Iraqi Arabic speakers. I got to use my Arabic much more than the first time I came to this camp. I loved speaking with the people. In fact, I didn’t even mind when a 20 something Iraqi man was asking me if I was married and was quite interested in me because he was so thrilled and surprised to see a blonde lady speaking Arabic. He would wait outside buildings for me so he could speak to me in Arabic. I didn’t mind, I loved the practice. I spoke to so many different people. I was so happy to communicate with them in their own language. It is funny because I felt nervous before going down to the camp, thinking I might not be able to communicate or that they wouldn’t understand my Arabic with my American accent. But they did! I spoke to numerous men, women and children throughout the whole day. I met an Iraqi man named Shearwan from Baghdad and his two daughters, 7 and 10. I showed them pictures of my daughters who are  the same age. I spoke to them for a while. He spoke to me in English and I kept responding in Arabic. He invited me and my friend Valeria to their “house.” There I met his wife, 7 months pregnant, sleeping on a wood floor. I didn’t even see anything soft in their shack for her to lay on. It was so tiny but the few items they did have were neatly stacked and organized.  They were praying to get to the UK to have the baby.  The man told me that he had decided to tell no one that he and his family are muslim. They had all taken Christian names and declared they were Christians. He was desperate to get his family somewhere safe and nice to have their new baby. The dusty, dirty camp with no heating or electricity and some many other problems is no place for a baby to be. Sadly, I don’t think his chances are good. I did get his phone number though and promised to check up on  them.  I also spoke to a 20 year old boy who had been in the camp for 16 months. He said he had left his family in Iraq and was all alone. So many sad cases, it breaks your heart because there is not much you can do for them other than give them the donated stuff you have brought etc.

Working with all the other volunteers is the most fun ever. I have met the best people you could ever meet volunteering at these camps. They genuinely care about humanity and the suffering of others and so much so that they actually go and do something. Most of them go several times a month. We all laugh so much as we work and especially when we travel back home, we are all delirious from the exhaustion of our work all day and the laughing and shenanigans are too much fun. I am so thrilled to be able to make a small difference in the lives of these refugees. I can’t imagine being in their position.

We spent several hours raking and shoveling rocks into a bucket. We then carried the rocks over to the back door of the school and piled them up to make a ramp for the two handicapped children in wheelchairs in the camp.

Here is the finished ramped drying with all our rocks underneath.

This is us in the children's centre putting backs and doors on the cupboards for the toys.

This is the Iraqi woman who took over the henna since I am really no good at it. She is doing henna for the little Iranian girl who did one of my hands.

Here is me with my Iraqi henna lady. I had so much fun chatting to her. She was so lovely!

Inside the Women's centre

Here I am trying to drill the locks on the stupid shower doors. So disappointing that we could not finish that job.  



This is the picture of the school or children's centre taken from across the road.

The lovely cupboards we built in the children's centre. We also put locks on the cupboard doors.  

Some of the crew of volunteers

Update

Sunday 12 March 2017

I have not written a post for this blog in a very long time, so here is an update from me:  I guess I will start with what I have been doing lately.  Over the past year or so, I have been studying Arabic again. I am so happy to be back into it. Before picking it up again last year, I had not opened an Arabic book since I graduated in 2003. I started conversation sessions in January 2016 and am still doing them. I initially started with an organization called NaTakallum which employs Syrian refugees to teach Arabic. My tutor is from Aleppo, Syria and is a refugee in Armenia. Her name is Varty.  I worked with only her all last year for one hour a week.

However, when I started again this year, I decided that I wanted more than just an hour a week with Varty, so I found another conversation partner through my friend Areen in Damascus. Her sister, Abeer lives in Dubai and is an Arabic tutor, so now I Skype with her once a week as well. I love talking to Abeer each week. She and I became friends instantly. We laugh through a good portion of the sessions. She loves the crazy stories I tell her in Arabic. Areen and Abeer call me their fourth sister. I love it. They are my sisters. (They have a little sister who just immigrated this year to Austria with her husband and two small children.)  

I also recently found through a Facebook refugee aid organizations, another Syrian woman from Damascus named Ola. Ola has only been here in the U.K. for a year and has recently had a new baby. He is three months old. I have desperately been searching for an Arabic conversation companion in the U.K. for a month or two. I made little posters and put my name on a bunch of the mosques notice boards all over North London and Luton. I really wanted to find a refugee woman in the U.K. who I could speak with in my same time zone.  I was hoping that I would be able to help her with English as she helps me with Arabic. Ola and I had our first session this week. She is lovely but struggling a lot with her new baby and not having any family around to help. Syrians always live near all their family traditionally, most of the time all in the same building. She seems a bit down and depressed being here so far from family. Her husband works long hours and she is too tired to go out to baby groups to meet people. So now I Skype with her once a week. I hope to be able to become better aquainted and be her friend most of all. I will help her with English and she will help me with Arabic. I am very excited about it. I can also help her with advice with her first baby. She is from Damascus and so we have some in common because of that as well.

UPDATE: Ola and I had our second Arabic conversation session today. I feel like I made a break through with her. I asked her to help me understand a song. She helped me work through all of the words. Then she listened to some articles I wrote in Arabic and I got her laughing. That was the best part. We definitely bonded today. She shared with me some other songs she loves in Arabic. It took her some time to understand my Arabic. Arabs aren't used to hearing people speak their language so they have a difficult time at first with the different accent and of course my pronunciation isn't always the best which can lead to some funny moments.

I am also hoping to start Quranic Arabic soon with a tutor from Pakistan. We will be reading through the Quran and working on my pronunciation. I am very excited to start these sessions. I would love to learn more than the first verse of the Quran which I memorized years ago.

Lastly, I still go to the refugee camps in France. However, the biggest camp there, the Jungle, has now closed but a smaller one of about 2000 refugees is in Dunkirk and I am going there on the 25 March to volunteer. They have asked us to do some pampering for the women there. I just bought henna pens and will bring my henna kit. I am sure I will be tutored in the art of henna more than I will be doing henna but I welcome it. I am also hoping to bring some Arabic music to listen to and a few tubs of chocolate. Hopefully it will be a nice day.

The past year as I have studied Arabic, many people have asked me why I study it and what I want to do with it. I had to really think about this for a while. I have finally decided that all I want to do with Arabic is to help people with it, whether that be just to speak to a refugee in her own language or help them acclimate themselves to their new surroundings or simply just have a friend in a new foreign place who speaks their language. I don’t care to make money with my skills just to help others. I may even try to volunteer with British Red Cross Refugee Support office which is near our house in the future. I feel like I have been given a great gift in the fact that I have a husband who has a job that provides really well for our family and that I do not necessarily need to work. Therefore, it allows me the opportunity to fulfil this dream without worry as to how much income it will bring, I can simply have the goal of helping someone else. Studying Arabic makes me so incredibly happy. I love speaking the language and writing it and even reading it. I am not incredibly amazing at it yet but little by little I am noticing progress and get very excited when I get a paper back from my tutor that is not as marked up as I thought it might be. I am also feeling more and more confident in my speaking abilities which I find very exciting.

I have also been helping my friend Areen who still currently lives in Damascus with her two sons and mother. I help Areen translate documents for her work. She works in micro-finance. Since I have racked my brains and cannot seem to find any other way to help her, I am so happy I can help with translation of these documents. I have learned a lot about the banks in Syria and emergency plans for employees and loans etc. Its not bad and Areen is so grateful for my help, so that makes me very happy. I Skyped with Areen and her family about a week ago. It was so fun to see her and we had a very animated conversation mostly with them all laughing at my Arabic. (I don't mind.) Afterward, I got thinking about it and noticed how tired Areen and her mother look. I asked Areen's sister about it and she said the stress of the last 6 years of war are really taking a toll on them both. Areen was recently in hospital for hypo-tension which is a result of a lot of stress. Her poor sons have known war for so long now, they don't seem to remember life without it. They feel it is normal. Areen is still very fearful of the real threat of them being kidnapped and thrown into the fighting. They are now 14 and 12 years old, I think.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged to be involved in a huge clothing sort out through an aid organization called Herts for Refugees and with my church. I ended up coordinating some of it and doing most of the set up for the big day. I am still the stake refugee coordinator.  We had a couple of van loads of clothes donated from the movie Paddington II (most of the clothes were brand new). We ended up with mountains and mountains of clothes. People just kept driving up on the day and dropping off car loads of clothes. There were so many clothes that I started to worry that there was no possible way we would get it all sorted and boxed and transported. I thought we would have to cancel church the following day. However, we did get it all done which was absolutely amazing. The clothes have already gone to male refugees in France as well as clothes for women and children and babies to Syria and Iraq (which are being delivered this week!). So lost of exciting stuff and I am so glad to be a part of it all.   Here is a link to a song that almost makes me cry every time I listen to it. I know it is in Arabic but it is called "My home" or "My Country." It talks about the beauty and majesty of a person's homeland (originally written by a Palestinian but has lately been adopted by all people or refugees who have lost their homeland in the middle east).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbl3EChIhZ8