Arabic word of the week

il-mujamaleh: The art of sucking up to someone; also called haz dannab or maseh joukh

Not sure when I'll use it, but it's a fun one!

A Rite of Passage

Yes, all siblings do it.

I distinctly remember my brother cutting my sister's hair in our house in California, although I can't remember my mother's reaction.

I imagine the conversation between Amelia and David went something like this:
Amelia walks into the living room, carrying the small craft scissors for the kids: "David, you want cut hair for Mia?"
David gets a mischievous grin on his face: "SUUUURRE, Amelia."
Snip.
Snip.
Snip.

Well, here they are. Sorry for the poor quality, but these were taken from our camera phone:
Before the incident, outside with daddy

And after. You can't see the back, but David cut off a huge chunk there, too.



I keep telling myself, it will all grow back in a few weeks, it will all grow back in a few weeks.

I think I need a tattoo

Yesterday I went to visit a friend of mine who works in a bookstore. I've been trying to help her improve her English skills so she can take a test this summer, but we also spend a good deal of time chatting in Arabic. When I had visited her a couple of weeks ago, and she had a couple of customers come in, look at me a bit strangely (after all, what kind of foreign Christian woman comes over to sit and chat with a Muslima? And she speaks Arabic?!), and ask me where I was from. When I told them I was from the United States, the next question was, "Are you married?" Now, I felt like saying, "What do you think?! I'm sitting here with my son and I have a ring on my finger!!!" but instead I just smile and say, "Yes, I am." After I had got that question a couple of times, I asked my friend, "Why is the second question out of their mouths, 'Are you married?'" she said probably because they have a son or nephew they want to set me up with. We laughed about it, and I went home.

Back to yesterday: Again, we're sitting in the bookshop, chatting away, and I'm trying to give her some writing assignments in English. People are walking by and staring at me, but I'm SO used to that, so I just ignore them. In comes a group of women, and of course, what are the first two questions out of their mouths? Yeah, you guessed it! This time I was sitting with my daughter, and after about the fourth time, I thought to myself, I should tattoo on my forehead, I am from America and yes, I am married. I wonder if they see me and think, "AMERICAN VISA FOR MY SON!!!" Anyway, now that we've gotten past that stage of introductions, I hope to develop some good relationships with these women over the next few months. Please be praying for that!

A glimpse into our choir

The Liturgi-Kal choir that I'm singing in continues to be challenging and fulfilling. Most of the group is composed of Messianics (Jews that believe Jesus is the Messiah) and foreigners (like those of us from Nazareth), although there are a few secular Jews. I sit next to an AMAZING soprano with a bright yet dramatic voice, and she's easily the best singer there. When my friend Hannah asked her about her musical background, where she had studied voice, etc, she smiled and replied, "Oh, I've never studied voice. I play (insert long list of instruments, mostly brass and percussion) and studied at the conservatory here." Wow. And she has perfect pitch. And she trains horses. Basically, she's some sort of prodigy. I should be jealous, but honestly, I'm just glad she's in our section because I need all the help I can get. Between Golden Voice that rarely misses a note and our Rhythm Queen who rarely misses an entrance, our section is holding together well. Can't say that for the altos, poor things. They don't have any really strong singers in their group, but my experience is that the altos and tenors generally have the most difficult time in a choir, especially with a beloved yet difficult piece like Handel's Messiah.

We're in the enjoyable phase of the music now because we've gone over all the music in rehearsal; my pronunciation problems are all sorted out. I still have a lot of work to do, as oratorio is not the easiest type of music to sing. We have two rehearsals this week (yikes!), but then we have a few weeks off for Pessech and Easter. I hope all of our hard work won't fall apart during the break!

Recent picture of the family

For those of you who are curious what we look like now.

The Cooking Bug

Over the past few months, I've started feeling embarrassed that I've lived in the Middle East for almost five years, and I've rarely cooked an Arab dish in my own home. I did a few times when we first moved to Jordan, but not since our move to Nazareth. However, at the start of the New Year, I said to myself, I'm going to try to cook a local dish at least once a month. It could be Lebanese or Palestinian or Egyptian, but something regional. Also, both my cooking abilities and my familiarity with local cuisine have significantly improved over the past 4+ years, so it was time to give Arab food another try!

I should state, Arab food is a bit of a misnomer. It's like saying "American" food. Sure, there are certain things we all serve, but there are also many dishes that are indigenous to a particular region, like Cajun or Southwestern cooking. Most of the main dishes in this part of the world (Jordan/Palestine) feature rice paired with some sort of spiced meat, occasionally served with a sauce. There are variations on this formula, such as stuffing squash or rolling grape leaves with the rice/meat mixture, or adding vegetables to the dish.

My first attempt started out simple - ruzz hashway, which is basically rice and ground beef mixed with spices and sprinkled with pine nuts and/or almonds. It was a dish I had made before, but like I said, it was in Jordan a few years ago, and to be honest, it didn't come out very good! This time, it was much better, so I upped the ante for the second dish and made ma'luubi, another rice/meat dish with fried veggies and spices. It's a bit time-consuming, but very tasty.

For Arab dish number 3, we had a guest from the USA staying with us, and I wanted to make something special, something he'd probably never eat on his own. Enter mansaf, the national dish of Jordan. I was feeling rather brave and my confidence had soared after successfully making the first two dishes. My husband had just come back from Jerusalem with some jameed, essential to the mansaf cooking process. Jameed is a ball of dried, salted yogurt made from sheep's milk that needs to be reconstituted. To make the mansaf, I used this recipe, as it most closely resembled what I'd eaten before. Here are some pictures from the cooking process:

Making the jameed into a sauce

Adding the lamb, which is simmered in the yogurt sauce

Spices have been added and meat has simmered for a while; almost done!

Finished product!

I will tell you that, although the dish is very tasty, the smell is incredibly strong! I don't think I'll be making this again any time soon; it's INCREDIBLY labor-intensive and I don't like the dish enough to deal with the smell. Some things, like lard, I can deal with the smell because the finished product is fabulous. However, since I didn't grow up eating mansaf in my home only on special occasions, it's not something near and dear to my heart. I'm glad I tried to make it though; the guys really liked it and there wasn't much left when they had finished eating!

Funny things a two-year old says:

Upon trying soda for the first time: "Mmm, it has sparkles for my mouth!... MORE!!!!"

Canned tomato soup: "It tastes like ketchup!"

Beer: Ha ha, just kidding!!!