With every episode, there is a beginning.

And also an end.

With a heavy heart, as my time is up, I left Damascus.

Goodbye ya Shaam al Barakah….goodbye my teachers and all my friends.

In reality I have left you, but spiritually I am attached to you.

Alhamdulillah I have been given this chance by Allah SWT to live in Damascus…although for just a part of my life.

May Allah SWT accept from us all our deeds.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

As early as a week ago, the weather had been very dry, with no sign of rain. I remembered rain was in early October, for a good half an hour only, and that was it…no rain the following months… The people of Damascus begin to worry at the unusually late coming of winter. We waited and waited, but no sign of winter….

Until last week, when it rained 3 days straight….and the usually dusty Jabal Qasiyoun (Qasiyoun Mountain), turned into Jabal Abyad (White Mountain)…

Alhamdulillah………

I want to share something which I will never forget. Well, at least until something more hilarious happens.

It happened about 7 months ago during my trip to Aleppo (حلب) with some friends. We were about to have dinner at the rooftop of a backpackers’ hotel in Halab…when a guy from a European country approached us (I won’t mention which country).

He started to chat but since I was sitting at the outer part of the dining table, he seemed to speak to me more. Anyways, my friends and I were actually very tired. My friends answered his questions in monosyllables while I, more.

And then he spoke some Arabic. Seriously, he had good pronunciation of the Arabic letters, so I commended him by saying, “Your makharij al huruf is very good!”

And then suddenly this guy raised his voice slightly and said…..

“WHAT IS THIS?? YOU JUST KNEW ME AND YOU CALL ME A KHARUF ?!!(sheep).”

It was such a funny but tense situation and one of my friends who understood English started to look puzzled. Me too, but then I answered, “You got me wrong, Brother. I said ‘Huruf’, not ‘kharuf’. Huruf means letters. I was saying your pronunciation of Arabic  letters is very good.”

And that guy turned red and started apologising….

“Sorry, I’m sorry I am not really very good in Arabic…sorry I misunderstood”.

And he went on and on…and finally he invited us all for coffee later in the night. But we thanked him, and told him we had to retire early for the night as we will be continuing our sojourn to visit castles around Halab the next day…

So, that is my story on miscommunication. Have you any similar ones?

Peace Be Upon You…it’s been such a long time and I have lots to share, but so little time to spend in the CC (Cyber Cafe). So today, I decided that I’d do a quick post. I have moved! Yes, I finally moved. I was very sad to leave my housemates in my former house, but inshaAllah, this new home will benefit me as well.

This new place where I moved to a week ago, is not new. It is an old Arabic House, with 5 rooms, 2 kitchens, a woody balcony and a huge courtyard. My bed is in a room at a corner, and I share it with 4 other girls. What is nice here is the fact that I am living with native Arabic speakers, so I get to hear the language all day, and I have no choice but to speak the language Only me and an Indonesian sister are from Asia, the rest, which forms a majority, are from all over Syria.

Here’s a little picture to share. And inshaAllah, I will try to post more in future.

By the way, a fat cat sashayed out from the kitchen just now. As an Arabic house has an open roof, so..you can imagine how happy those stray cats are..but alhamduliLLAH, it has never been a problem. Just that we must not forget to close our room door, or else, one might come back home and find…..

I was recently at the Tekkiye Sulaimaniye or also known as the Silver Souq (Souq Fiddoh), when I came across artists at work. I was particularly interested in the art called, “Ajame” where artists, painstakingly paint art pieces onto frame, or treasure boxes, tables and even decorative tablets. Islamic arts is incorporated as no depiction of animals are visible and also, verses from The Glorious Quran is also incorporated at times. Here are some pictures I managed to snap…

Eyeing this piece….

The trees seem to hang sadly…

As I pack my bags to leave this blessed land…

I shudder…. and stop my imagination. Alhamdulillah, I am still not leaving yet.

But I do think about the day when I will leave one day….how will I be…to leave this place where i’ve called home for more than a year…

I’ll miss the lessons

I’ll miss the sounds of Adhan

I’ll miss my friends

I’ll miss my halawiyat (sweetmeats)

I’ll miss exploring the Old City again and again

I’ll miss Damascus

Terribly…

For now, I’m glad I’m still here…and will be here till its time for me to leave. Allah SWT knows best.

Damascus and me says a big SALAM to all my family and friends in سنغافورة

Really a beginner…

As usual I took the Dawar Shamaly service and then took Bus 35 to get to Kafar Sousseh. It had been 4 months since I rode the 35 bus because I didn’t teach English during Summer…

And with me, was just 35 lera Syria. I was planning to withdraw money from the ATM at Kafar Sousseh when I got there.

When the bus went past Jami3 Rifai’e, I felt something was not right…So I asked the girl beside me, and she said the bus DOES NOT go to Kafar Sousseh. So, I alighted. And I walked…I walked all the way back to Dawar Kafar Sousseh…a good 20 minutes walk. And then it started. I thought I could figure out finally and that I would end up where I wanted to be…but I didn’t.

Asked a lady along the street, and she gave me directions. But she reiterated, it was a DISTANCE away.

I looked at my watch, it was 4.30pm…I still have time…so I decided to follow her directions…till I came to a junction…where I felt lost than lost.

At the junction, there were 2 beautiful Somali sisters and a Somali brother. I asked if they spoke Arabic…and of course they did: beautifully, mashaAllah. So the Somali sister gave me directions, and so did the brother. Again, they reiterated that where I wanted to go was quite a walk away. I decided to follow their directions.

About 5 minutes into walking…I heard a taxi sounding its horn. I didn’t pay any heed to it, as it is normal here for vehicles to sound their horn like “the road belongs to them”…Then the horn sounded again, and next I heard a male voice….

“Yalla ta3i ma3an!”

SubhanaAllah…it was the Somali guy, and the 2 sisters…they told me to get on board as they were on their way to Masakin Barzeh…and I wanted to go to Damasquino…

Alhamdulillah…

I end this post with…: As our beautiful religion teaches us: Never fail to help others in need, even in little things. Because Allah will send his help when you need it…

من يفعل الخير ، الله يعطيه الخير

Just an update of what it is like here in Damascus…for the past few days, the weather has been milder and yesterday, it rained! For a good 1 hour it rained…and today, the temperature was a soothing 23 degrees celsius.

Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for the 4 seasons that you bestow us. SubhanaAllah.

This is a picture of a rainbow I snapped whilst in the سيارة اجرة

Starts to surf the site.

Sees more and more reasons

To discontinue surfing the site

And I’ve decided…

Goodbye “facebook”

It is a shame it took me such a long time

To finally realise

It is doing me more harm than good

It’s time you realise too

How many times have you surfed around the site

And ended up just wasting your time

“Checking out” what’s up with this person or that

And people are happily “showcasing” their lives

Lapping up the virtual “stardom”

I have had enough

I feel disappointed each time

I log into “facebook”…