More Bad News From Syria

• Here is a series of emails from my friend Areen, still stuck in Damascus, still suffering beyond anything I can imagine. Her husband is still in Egypt where he fled to get out of military service, so she is all alone and frightened trying to take care of her two young sons. I wish more than anything I could help her somehow but it is illegal for Americans to send money to Syria right now with all the sanctions. All I can do is pray that she will be safe and have the strength to continue on...
  
  Areen Alali

  Hello How are you doing We're fine until today In the last week, things were Kudsia (area or neighborhood) near our house very bad
  Were violent clashes between factions of the opposition Free families from the army fought each other It was a terrifying night for me and the kids Before yesterday, a mortar shell landed near the kids school near the Iraqi embassy area Maliki School and broken windows and burned car The shell near the Chinese Embassy which is close to the school

  
   10/2, 12:32am Areen Alali
  The situation in Syria is nothing more than genocide Extermination of the people By all parties Salafis Daash and Nusrat Islam and the army free and regular army All kill We see death everywhere

  We've become afraid of everything all the other accused of blasphemy and treason We victim of stupidity opposition and subtle system Who could make the opposition Fighting itself

  I love you too Greetings to you from my kids When I need something I have God And you

  مع السلامة
• October 2
• 

  10/2, 9:40pm

  Joyce Stuart Farnsworth

  I know I was reading about the numbers of dead just the other day. I can not believe how many people who have now been killed. It is terrible. Will it ever end? I dreamed about Syria again last night. I am always thinking of you Areen. I always wear a ring on my right hand that I bought in Damascus so I will not forget about you and Syria. It is always with me. You are always in my thoughts and prayers. Be strong for your children. They need you.
• October 11
• 

  10/11, 12:06pm

  Areen Alali

  Hello dear Joyce How are you and how children I hope that's okay I am very sick I went to the doctor (There are no doctors in Syria, mostly traveled out of the country) The doctor said I need to work fast surgeons I have a tumor in the uterus This causes severe bleeding during menstruation And must quickly lumpectomy But the physical conditions is currently not hear me Because of health insurance in the bank canceled since the beginning of the crisis in Syria Operation cost more than
  $1000 I was waiting for the return of health insurance, but the government did not return pray God to protect me for my children
  سلام
• October 15
• 

  10/15, 10:54am

  Areen Alali

  Dear Joyce We spent a terrifying night flight was restless The shelling did not stop So far We were not allowed to leave the Kudsia (neighborhood or area) because the army closed all entrances to Damascus The Eid al-Adha festival sad There is no joy or pleasure At all events happy eid adha
• October 18
• 

  10/18, 2:50pm

  Areen Alali

  We did not celebrate the holiday Because the electricity remained cut off for long periods of time And water as well as I'm tired lot and sick and finally found a doctor and said to be of surgery So I decided to do a wound

  i decided to do the surgery
• October 21
• 

  10/21, 12:13pm

  Areen Alali

  Backtracked on the decision of the surgical procedure, because the amount of money is not enough for surgeons I am very tired So I lost part of my income because of the majd (her husband) travel He had a loan installments Become of my salary paid This did nothing left to live in. I'm unhappy not because of lack of money but because of my fear on my kids I hope that you can help me And I promise you that I will seek to pay off all the amount I receive when conditions improve
• 

  10/27, 11:53am

  Areen Alali

  We are from fifteen days trapped in Kudsia we could not exit and entry And are not allowed to enter the food and bread No gas or diesel None Transportation I went outto day because the children have exams through the houses of the Republican Guard after recording my car and my name and my identity The way it took two hours and it does not exceed the 10 kilometer The situation is tragic We do not know when it ends Become piles of garbage and flies spread
• 

  10/27, 11:55am

  Areen Alali

  I forgot the pain and illness due Trov we are going through Pray for us
• Wednesday
• 

  10/30, 9:39am

  Areen Alali

  Dear Joyce I'm tired tired My heart and spiritual fatigue weakened I was unable to secure my children I hope you help if you can send a sum of money to the glory which will send it to me I do not have shelter or aid, only you The Kudsia trapping far Possible that bombing this week The system has closed all the roads with sand bags and put the army On the other hand, the opposition refuses to surrender I'm sorry to ask for money But you are my friend and only offered assistance Even the glory has no money is in a very bad situation, a patient with anemia because he does not eat well and sad and lonely I am of the Syrian people oppressed and unhappy people Thank you in advance for your help
  *****************************************************
  
  
  I dream that I am in Syria several times a week. I wish more than anything I could help my friend Areen.  I am so sad to hear how much she is suffering not only from war but now from some physical ailment. I cannot imagine the pressure of looking after two young sons in such a situation with no husband around for help and support. How she is feeding herself and her sons, I do not know. I am not even sure if she is still in her house in Damascus now. I feel so helpless and sad for her. Joyce

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!