A very Arabic Fall break!

Fall break was a very good opportunity for me to feel Middle Eastern again! With my three Arab friends from Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, I spent the ten-day break doing every single thing we all were missing about our life in the Middle East. Every evening, we would gather in the house of Mohammed, the guy from KSA. Then, we would begin explaining how wonderful it was to sleep for almost twelve hours and waking up at 2p.m! Neither my Arabic nor my English could serve me well here to elaborate on what unearthly exuberance I had in my heart and on my face every time I woke up, looked at my watch and found that I had been sleeping for twelve hours! And so was the case for my friends.

Later, we would sit and start negotiating what we would like to have for dinner –which became our main meal for ten days-. Everybody came up with some suggestions that clearly reflected how all of us missed the Arabic food. We finally decided that we would cook a different Arabic meal every day.

As Arabs culture has always been, everybody would “fight” for paying for the stuff needed. It was not just generosity, which a typical Arab person believes is one of his/her universal characters, but it was something all of us had missed about being home. We all wanted to feel that we are doing something very Arabic even though it might sound weird for Americans, preferring that everybody pays for himself/herself.

Anyways, we finally were “beaten” –as it would sound in the Arab world if you lost the fight of paying for yourself and your friends- by Mohammed, and he took care of buying every single thing needed.

Our first meal was Kabsa, which is a very popular meal in KSA. It primarily consists of rice, meat and some special spices. Everybody got his share of preparing it, and Mohammed absolutely was the chief. Later, we had the popular Palestinian meal “Makloba” –literally translated as Upside Down-, and some Lebanese salads and appetizers.

Away from food, we also got to watch so many Arabic movies, which I had not done for almost ninety days by then! We really enjoyed watching them, and sometimes our British friend, Daniel, would join us and just get lost with the very Arabic atmosphere we had! He always said that Arabic sounded aggressive to him, but for Mahmoud and Reem, the Lebanese guys, it would be really weird to know that, because the Lebanese dialect of Arabic is the smoothest of all the ones in the Arab world.

We finally would conclude our nights by smoking some Hooka –me excluded- and having a discussion of what would be interesting to do the next day, or actually that day itself since this was happening at 3a.m.!

I apologize for the long post, but believe me: “It was just as if I went back to Palestine, stayed with my family, ate Arabic food, spoke Arabic all the time, and hanged out with all my best friends!”

   

Today was a very wonderful day!

Today was a very special day! It has been almost two months now since I have left home. Back in Palestine, I used to go the weekly meeting of all Muslims in my area: the Friday prayer at mosque.  Muslims gather each Friday at around 1:00p.m. to listen to a preacher “known as Imam” who reminds them of what is good to do and what is evil. They also get to stand right next to each other –regardless of any differences, and pray to the Almighty we Muslims believe is one for all creaters. I MISS SUCH A FEELING of waking up early, take a shower, dress to look as handsome as possible, put some perfume and leave with my family to the mosque. I also miss my little 6-year old brother who always sat next to me, and fell asleep while the preaching was one. I miss the feeling of listening to what the preacher says, decides to follow the best of it, and pledges to nevermore commit anything addressed as a bad thing in the Khotba, which is the speech of the preacher.

Today which is Friday, I and over 15 fellows of the InterFaith Council gathered at 6:30p.m. and left to the mosque nearest to RC campus. I felt greatly splendid that my female fellows were excited to wear Hijab, the head scarf Muslim females wear, and that males were as excited to see how Muslims worship the God in a mosque.

We had three kind drivers of the Council members to give us a ride to the mosque. We arrived there on time for the prayer. We, Muslims, perform five prayers a day as a way of repenting to and expressing deep gratitude to the God for all his blessings upon us. So it was the fourth prayer –known as Salat Al-Maghrib-. We were warmly welcomed by the Imam and his fellows when we met them. We took off our shoes, and waited few seconds for the prayer to begin.

I and three other fellows were Muslims, so we participated in the prayer while our fellows were exploring the mosque and seeing how a prayer can be performed. When we finished praying, the Imam stood before us, welcomed us again, and went to give a brief explanation about Islam in terms of its foundations, traditions and view of Christianity and other religions. My male and female fellows had some interesting questions like: “What do Muslims believe about the Hereafter?”, “What is the role of women in Muslim communities?” and “Why there are a lot of misconceptions about Muslims nowadays?”. The Imam answered these questions, and it was really good for me to see that my fellows were getting the right information from the right person about Islam, while practically sitting in an Islamic place where the differences completely melt between the black and white, the young and old, the American and non-American when praying right next to each other, shaking hands after prayer, and saying “Al-Salamu Alikum”, which means peace be upon you, when leaving.

While I was getting back to campus, I gladly listened to what my fellows thought of this experience. Some of their conceptions about Islam got deeper. some gray areas got clearer for them.

Being accompanied by such wonderful, tolerant persons made me feel home! It got back to my mind the times when I went to the mosque with my family. The Imam’s speech reminded me of the Friday prayers, and talking to some Arabs in the mosque was a nice little surprise for an Arab who is missing the East and the traditions he had there. It was a wonderful day, indeed.