Ayam Zakat
My niece, Little Diamond in a comment on a previous post reminded me of the “cat containment center,” also called the cat house, that the Qatteri Cat once inhabited so that he could spend time in the garden when we weren’t outside. It had three levels he could climb up to and sleep on, and a long run to the exit. He didn’t like being contained, but he liked being outdoors enough to put up with it.
Little Diamond helped me put it together when it arrived. Little Diamond has a great big brain, she can find anything on the internet in four seconds flat, including all the lyrics to Put the Lime in the Coconut. All we have to do is mention wanting to know something, and she finds it. She also forwards all kinds of fascinating reading for me. She is SMART.
She is not so smart about putting things together. Like she said we didn’t need to look at the instructions, which were sort of in Chinese anyway, but I am a read the instructons kind of woman. Our first try was not so good. We had to resort to looking at the instructions. We finally got it together, but it never was quite right. It worked, however, well enough.
It even had a flag for the top.
Little Diamond speaks Arabic fluently. I only stumble around, but you know how when you are learning a language there are words that sound like other words, or you make jokes about the language that would make no sense to the people speaking that language but make perfect sense to the learner? (I have heard that the English word “unique” will send you into gales of laughter). Little Diamond and Adventure Man love puns, especially in Arabic. We can be rolling on the floor over things that will make YOU native Arabic speaker roll your eyes.
“On the flag” suggested Little Diamond, with a perfectly straight face, “we need to write ‘Ayam Zakat'”! and then we both laughed so hard we rolled on the grass with tears in our eyes, howling with laughter.
In Arabic, Ayam Zakat makes no sense at all. Ayam means something like times and zakat is charity. When you say it in English, however . . . it is the perfect flag for the Qatteri Cat’s house.
You can find the Cat Containment Center (condo) and all kinds of other items for entertaining and transporting cats at Midnight Pass/Kittywalk
Operation Hope Newsletter
Hot off the press!
Greetings OH Family,
Lots of exciting news to share with you! On Wednesday, by God’s grace 1,027 bags were distributed!! The grateful recipients of our labor bore mile-wide smiles, while some had looks of disbelief as we handed out winter bags to them. If you haven’t been on a distribution this (or a previous) year, please DO try as you’ll be blessed beyond measure as you come face to face with our needy brothers and sisters. You’ll never be the same after the experience ~ but don’t just take my word for it ~ come out with us to find out for yourself!
We have had a request to serve the TCN workers at Al Jahra Hospital. A date for that distribution will be forthcoming.
Rumaithiya street cleaners (all 120 of them) received a winter bag on Saturday. Today 250 street cleaners for Salmiya area received their winter bags; and tomorrow, by God’s grace the Salwa cleaners (150) will receive theirs! OH wishes to provide the same for as many neighborhood cleaning crews as possible, SO if you can find out where the buses load and unload for your area we’ll organize a distribution for them.
Thank you to the Catholic Church in Kuwait City for a donation of KD 50 from their summer library proceeds ~ also, to the BLS for their donation of toiletries, which we’ll give to the Philippine Embassy very soon.
Your patronage to the following activities will add support to OH’s fundraising efforts:
· November 10th: Harvest Festival at N.E.C.K
· November 11th: Beauty Bazaar in Salwa
· November 16th: Fall Bazaar in Mubarak Al Kabeer
· November 17th: KTAA Bazaar @ the Dar Al Cid
· December 4th: BLS Bazaar @ Al Hashemi (SAS Hotel)
· December 8th: AWL Charity Bazaar
For more details on exact location and timings, please contact Becky & Chelly on ophopevolunteer@yahoo.com
OH’s 2nd packing of 1,200 winter bags commenced last Friday. Called Student Day we were assisted by scout troops, the ASK National Honor Society, and many other students of varying ages and backgrounds. What an awesome sight to see our children knee-deep in charity work. My hope is that their experience will be remembered (and carried out) for a lifetime! Thank you to everyone who participated!
Thanks also to the New English School teachers who spent their ½ day off on Wednesday to help load vehicles for our deliveries! While they could have spent the day doing something else they chose to spend their time helping us to help others! What a blessing!!
OH needs more volunteers to pack this Friday, November 9th at 3:30 PM. A small set-up team is also needed that day to arrive at 2:30 PM. 1,200 bags must be packed that day so we’ll need a lot of hands on deck! Please RSVP your commitment to Kathleen on ophopevolunteer@yahoo.com
Thanks to Barbara R. for hosting a very fun and successful Bunco fundraising event for us today! We raised KD 125 having fun and so can you! If you are interested in helping to raise much needed funds to cover the cost of our winter bags, please contact Chelly and/or Becky on ohq8fundraiser@yahoo.com. Simply gather your circle of friends for a quiz night, talent show, Bunco, dinner party, or whatever you wish! It gives your friends something fun to do, but moreover it helps us to help others!
Someone asked me a few days ago if I ever get discouraged by the enormity of our job in helping the poor living in Kuwait. The truth is ~ yes. When I am depending upon my own abilities to get the work done I feel very discouraged.
A wise young Australian man who was born without limbs said this, “The awesome thing about the power of God, is that if we want to do something for Him, instead of focusing on our capabilities, we should concentrate on our availability. Once we make ourselves available for God’s work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? GOD”
So when discouragement comes over me I return (with humility) under the authority and leadership of the Almighty in this mission of mercy that I might become available so that His capabilities may be glorified.
“Madam, This is MY Job”
I had all kinds of ideas for my new garden – new climate, new challenges. Yes, I had been told that the climate was too hot for orange trees, but I want to give it a try. Yes, my gardening friends haven’t had much luck with lavendar, but maybe I will have better luck. I toted huge pots and bags of fertilizer, clipped bougainvillia and started more plants, wanting that half/half color, rising early to work in the cool of the day. Rosemary! Basil! Lemon trees! As soon as the weather began to cool, I planted my seeds to see what would sprout, what I could transplant, what would thrive. I’m willing to risk a little failure, but I was hoping for some spectacular results.
Inside once the sun had risen, having a glass of water, my front doorbell rang. Who could it be at this hour of the morning? I checked the security peephole, and it was the compound’s chief gardener. With him was the man assigned to take care of our house. He really didn’t know a lot about gardening.
“Madam,” the chief gardener started, with a wave of his hand indicating all the new potted flowers on my entry stairs, “this is MY job.”
I stood there, looking stupid.
“Madam, your job is to tell us what you want. You don’t want to take our work from us.”
I was stunned. People who garden, all over the world, share a sheer love of getting our hands dirty and watching gardens grow and thrive, we love the patterns, we love the floozies who get all the attention, we love the characters who give depth and texture, and we create the backgrounds, the stage, on which they dance.
Slowly, slowly, we worked out an arrangement. I would bring in pots and plants, the gardener would actually pot them – but I would show him exactly how I wanted it done. From time to time, I would pot one up myself, late at night when no gardeners were around, and he would pretend not to notice. I would do the starts from seeds, he would tend them. On a hot afternoon, he would occasionally drop by and take a rest in the garden, and I would pretend not to notice.
I didn’t achieve spectacular. I had some failures – lavendar and orange trees. I sometimes wonder whether we form the garden, or the garden forms us? My results were not what I had envisioned, but it had its’ own beauty.
Working together, the gardener and I created a lush paradise, a backyard retreat where my husband and I would sit in privacy and enjoy the bougainvillia, and the lemon trees, the pots of rosemary and basil and jasmine, making the garden aromatic as well as beautiful. The Qateri cat would enjoy the marvellous smells, and track the occasional bird who dropped by.
With the cooling temperatures in Kuwait, my hands are just itching to get dirty. 🙂
P.S. Those are illustrations, not my real garden.
She Did Everything Right
When I was a little girl growing up in Alaska, we had neighbors who lived just across the creek. Our neighbors had a daughter 6 years older than me; she was my first babysitter. Growing up, those six years made all the difference – we didn’t know one another as friends, the gap was too great. Our families were very close, however, and when my parents would go to parties at her parents house, they would take us and put us to bed in her bed.
I saw her now and then through the years, but our lives were in different places. When I was just getting married, she had big boys, by the time my son was a teenager, hers were getting married and going to college. We reconnected in Florida, of all places, where we both ended up at the same time due to our husband’s jobs.
Having our Alaska childhood in common, having grown up together and knowing each other’s family through all the years created a strong bond. We saw each other often; she was like a big sister to me.
She always had it all together. She had a group that bicycled together every morning, and then had outings later in the day. She was a fitness buff, and ran in the mornings before she bicycled. She kept herself thin, and she loved to cook, but she could eat what she wanted because she exercised it all off.
She was a reader, and would pass along the really good books to me. She and her husband were also news buffs, so when we would get together with our husbands, there was never a dull moment at the dinner table.
She and her husband were sent to Egypt, and to Rumallah, and to China, and they made the most of every minute. They loved traveling, they loved their sailing boat, they loved their family. They would come to visit us in our places of the world, and we would have great reunions. They were so alive.
She could be annoying. She would chide me about not exercising enough. She would comment on how much food people ate. She always knew the latest in medical research to back herself up. She kept her mind active, and she kept her weight down. She exercised, she travelled, she took care of her parents, she did good works for others. She did everything right.
A couple years ago, we joined her and her husband for dinner. She hadn’t combed her hair. She weighed about 20 lbs more, and didn’t seem to notice. She couldn’t remember the last book she had read, and she couldn’t remember her recent trip to Mexico, or an earlier one to Spain.
It’s been downhill since then. Her loving husband is strong and able to care for her, this once-beautiful, sprite-like, spirited woman. I think she still knew me, when I saw her last summer, but she can no longer really express what she is thinking. She is restless, up and down from the table, and not able to participate in the conversation.
I am haunted. I am so much like her; I tried to live up to all that she has taught me. A part of me wants to scream at God “This isn’t fair! She did everything right!”
Perhaps doing everything right gave her a few extra years, and I am just not seeing things from the right perspective. Meanwhile, I get no answers, and my heart breaks when I think of her.
Wind Up Lights for African Homes
My husband gave me a wind-up flashlight (British English = torch) and I love it. In movies like The Blair Witch Project or crime movies, the flickering and dying of a flashlight always foretells something really really bad is about to hapen. I love it that I have a flashlight I can keep winding up.
In our national legends, we have Abraham Lincoln doing his schoolwork on the back of a shovel, next to a flickering fire. That must have taken real dedication. Imagine what your own life would be like if we had no light after sundown. . .
From BBC News AFRICA:
The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa.
The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans.
The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes.
Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months.
Light and life
Kristine Pearson, director of the Freeplay Foundation, said few Africans in the continents most vulnerable areas had access to electricity to light homes.
“Their life stops or is very narrowed when the sun goes down,” she said. “Two extra hours of light would make a big difference to their life.”
You can read the rest of this article about developing this technology for Africa HERE
Poor Witness
I had hoped to miss the worst of the traffic yesterday morning when I got on the highway, but for some reason, traffic was still heavy. Suddenly, in less time than it takes for me to write it and for you to read it, there were silver and red sparkles in the air, a shrieking of tires, and a car two cars in front of me trying to regain control, bouncing between two lanes.
Everything slowed to an almost halt, without – thanks be to God – any further collisions. One car, weaving in and out, had clipped another.
I’ve often been amazed at how closely these cars whip in and out without crashing. I think I’ve just never seen it happen before. That impact sends the car that’s hit totally out of control. By the grace of God, no one appeared to be physically injured.
I wondered if I should stop, but I realized I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know for sure which car had been the hitter and which had been the hittee. I would be a very poor witness. All I saw was this firework like explosion of silver and red – the tail light, I am guessing. And heard the sickening screech of tires as both cars tried to avoid a more serious collision.
A good witness isn’t someone who is guessing. I continued on. Saw the aftermath of an almost identical accident just another kilometer up the road. The good news is that it slowed down the traffic, made it more meditative. . . life is short, folks. There is nowhere we have to be in that big of a hurry.
Operation Hope Options
What I love about Operation Hope, in addition to the good works they are doing in the Kuwait Community, dreaming big and making it happen – is that they offer a variety of ways for the public to support them.
If you can give hands-on help, they welcome you.
If you cannot – they welcome your donations!
Here is there most recent newsletter – please, if you can help this worthwhile effort, in whichever way you are most comfortable, please, help. You could have a lot of fun helping pack the winter clothes, or delivering the bags. Or you could have a lot of fun throwing some of your money at the problem.
OPERATION HOPE – KUWAIT
A Mission of Mercy
October 28, 2007
Greetings OH Family!
Exciting news ~ 1,200 winter bags were packed Friday afternoon. Thanks to numerous volunteers the colossal task of setting up, packing, and cleaning up was very quickly accomplished (with the bulk of our winter apparel packed in about an hour’s time!). Moms, dads, children of all ages, business exec’s, and even someone’s grandmother helped to make the miracle happen! My daughter says the pile of bags resembles Mount Everest. . . I think I agree with her!
Another 1,200 coats, thermal underclothing, hats, socks and gloves will need to be packed this Friday, November 2nd at 3:30 PM. This packing date will be a very special one because it is the OH – KUWAIT Student Day. All students (pre-k to university) are encouraged to participate. Kindly RSVP your confirmation to Ms. Kathleen on ophopevolunteer@yahoo.com at your earliest convenience. We’ll require a set-up team to help at 1:30 PM as well. The set-up group should be strong and team-oriented.
The cement foundation for our new headquarters was laid yesterday, and the tent ought to be erected by the weekend ~ God willing. Thanks again to Mr. Nasir for his generous donation!
Thanks also to Debbie B. for donating some of her handicrafts for OH to sell at the bazaars this fall/winter. We appreciate your support!
Deliveries to the poor will begin on Wednesday, October 31st. We’ll need six drivers with SUV’s to arrive at my home at 12:45 PM to load & deliver 324 winter bags in Jabriya. (Mubarak Hospital janitors/porters)
Our second group of volunteer drivers should arrive to my home at 5:45 PM on Wed., October 31st to load & deliver 250 winter bags in Khaldiya. We’ll need 4 SUV drivers at that time. (Kuwait University janitors/porters)
Our third group of volunteer drivers should arrive to my home at 9 PM on Wed. October 31st to load and deliver 128 winter bags in Jabriya. We’ll need 2 SUV drivers at that time. (Mubarak Hospital janitors/porters)
Our fourth delivery will take place at 5 AM on Thursday, November 1st. OH Administrator, Jaye Lynn; Student Ambassador, Emily; and I will make that delivery of 73 bags to Mubarak Hospital janitors & porters.
Kindly RSVP your committment to Ms. Kathleen on the address mentioned earlier for the day & time you can help us deliver. We’ll also need one or two OH photographers are on hand at each delivery, please.
Donations have been steadily coming in ~ glory to God! We still need an additional KD 250 to pay for the next 1,200 hats, socks and gloves that students will be packing this Friday. Your support is most appreciated.
Currently the outstanding balance for the 5,000 coats that were shipped in is KD 17,475.000. Please prayerfully consider hosting a fundraising event, or making a donation that we may continue to pay off these coats. For those who have hosted a fundraiser or given a donation I thank you so very much! The number does seem rather large BUT God’s provision is larger! Each update to follow this one will feature the total outstanding balance at the start so that you may be blessed to watch the sum fall!
Proceeds from Kuwait’s largest charity bazaar (December 8th @ the Crowne Plaza Hotel – Farwaniya) will be donated to OH – KUWAIT!! Please support this exciting one-day event by volunteering (and attending). We estimate we’ll need 40 – 50 volunteers. If you are interested in helping please contact Ms. Kathleen as soon as possible. This may be an ideal opportunity for Boy/Girl Scouts and National Honor Society members to fulfill their obligations to community service hours. Also, if you wish to participate as a vendor, please contact Bazaar Coordinator Karla K. at 626-6223.
Brothers and sisters there are so many opportunities to help ~ so many means in which to make a profound difference in someone’s life. Let us not allow a busy schedule or even a social stigma dictate to whom and how much compassion we extend. Jesus didn’t just help people. He inspired others to do so and encouraged helping behaviors. My prayer for each of us is that the Lord would prompt us to lend a helping hand to the needy and deepen our compassion amidst suffering.
God bless,
Sheryll Mairza
OPERATION HOPE – KUWAIT
Be Thin, Cut Cancer Risk
Be thin to cut cancer, study says
This is from today’s BBC Health News
Even those who are not overweight should slim down if they want to cut their risk of cancer, a major international study has claimed.
The World Cancer Research Fund carried out the largest ever inquiry into lifestyle and cancer, and issued several stark recommendations.
They include not gaining weight as an adult, avoiding sugary drinks and alcohol, and not eating bacon or ham.
Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight.
People with a Body Mass Index (BMI), a calculation which takes into account height and weight, of between 18.5 and 25, are deemed to be within a “healthy” weight range.
But the study says their risk increases as they head towards the 25 mark, and that everyone should try to be as close to the lower end as possible.
Recommendations include:
Limit red meat
Limit alcohol
Avoid bacon, ham, and other processed meats
No sugary drinks
No weight gain after 21
Exercise every day
Breastfeed children
Do not take dietary supplements to cut cancer
Comment: This is not a new study, but a compilation based on the committee looking at hundreds of studies done on correlations of weight, diet and cancer risk. The troublesome issue to me is that these are things we have been told, things that we KNOW, and things we aren’t doing anything about.
Hey! The weather is great! Let’s go for a walk!
(You can read the rest of the BBC article here.
Kuwait Protection
Kuwait is the only country I’ve lived in where people caught taking bribes or embezzling public funds get to keep their jobs. I understand in one ministry, a man is still in a job where he was convicted of embezzlement, and no one knows how much he has to pay back because they are still discovering all that he embezzled. He gets to keep his job?
This is from the Arab Times.
KUWAIT CITY: The Kandari tribe elders are planning to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the ‘sacking’ of the director of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Security Department, reports Al-Watan daily.
The elders considered the ‘discharge from duty’ as exaggerated punishment particularly since the ministry had earlier praised his efforts and promoted him to a higher rank just a few months ago.
Earlier it was reported two directors of security departments in the Mubarak Al-Kabir and Capital governorates were being investigated for their illegal activities. The daily also added some senior police officials, whose identities were not given, were involved in alcohol trafficking and gambling.
The daily went on to say one of the directors from the Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate was getting commission from an Asian man to run a gambling den and other illegal activities.
Interrogations revealed the director dispatched a police officer to a bank to change quarter dinar banknotes for KD 10 notes and a counter clerk at the bank branch said it was not the first time he had changed the quarter dinar notes for the officer. The quarter dinar notes were reportedly given to the officer as commission by the Asian.
In another incident a policeman was caught selling booze using police vehicle and when the uniformed man was arrested and reported to the director, the director is said to have overlooked the incident and refused to take action.
Moreover, it was also reported pressure had been applied on the arresting officer to withdraw his case.
It was also reported an Asian was caught selling alcohol and during interrogation he admitted to working for the director of the Capital governorate.
The man was reportedly deported from the country immediately which aroused suspicion. Sources say the man was deported because he was a key witness in the case.
Now this one is from The Kuwait Times
KUWAIT: MP Dr Faisal Al-Muslem recently urged the First Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense cum Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to order the formation of a special committee to investigate recent press stories concerning a Mangaf house that had been allegedly turned into a ‘night club’ for Americans where they had liquor and various illegal stuff. Informed sources noted that special body guards had been placed in the house’s surroundings to prevent any of the neighbors from approaching it.
This is a social disaster that needs immediate attention,” stressed Al-Muslem noting that such an act was a clear violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty, religious beliefs, and constitutional rights to have a peaceful and secure residence.
In view of the fact that no security forces had been able to interfere and stop such violations, Al-Muslem wondered about the identity of the apparently high-ranking security official who had been protecting the owners of the night club. Al-Muslem also urged the Minister of State for Housing Affairs Abdul Wahed Al-Awadhi to form a specialized team to check on whether the owner of the night club had any right to violate the rules of the Housing Public Authority.
Furthermore, Al-Muslem suggested providing all expatriates (both newcomers and those renewing residency visas) with special brochures clarifying Kuwaiti social and religious concepts and asking them to show full respect and observation to them.
it gave me a smile thinking special brochures are going to change behavior. Somehow, this “nightclub” is getting protection. And people caught delivering alcohol in their cars are receiving protection. As long as these practices, contrary to Kuwaiti social and religious concepts are protected, what is a special brochure going to change? Some of them will drink and (ahem) do other illegal activities because they can! Because someone is providing protection for these activities.
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Comment on Obesity Post
I normally won’t post a comment as a new post unless it meets two criteria – the author has a blog that is legitimate and the post is so well written that I don’t want it buried in the comments. This response to the Obesity Fuels Cancer in Women Post only meets the well written rule, but the reference blog was non-existent. Too bad – the comment is so full of good information that this commenter should be writing her own blog, and I hope she is.
Guess the link between obesity and breast cancer is significantly higher in comparison to other cancers because fat has an oestrogenic effect, which stimulates the lining epithelium of the mammary glands. The more stimulated the gland the greater are the chances of spontaneous mutations happening which could result in cancer.
By that metric, women with rather large breasts could also be at risk. Suddenly, breast augmentation doesn’t sound like a brilliant idea anymore.
My prof. would insist you could cut your breast cancer risk in half simply by taking a brisk walk daily for 45 mins and cutting back on red meat, smoking, alcohol and spicy food.
This after undergoing molecular testing for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation analysis if a first degree relative suffers early onset breast or ovarian cancer ( before age 45) so that you can begin annual screening by mammography alternating with an ultra-sound, a full 10 years ahead of the rest of the population starting at 30.
What’s useful to know is that you should not change your radiologist or the mammography machine as there can be wide variation in result interpretation with different machines and/or operators.
A final word of caution – ladies, don’t let’s apply deodorants under our armpits. Studies claim a higher incidence of cancers in the left upper quadrant of the breast due to such an application in mostly, right handed women. It is a truism – every little helps; baby steps can go a long way.
Monthly self-examination of both the breasts with flat of the palm; taking care to avoid the time of monthly periods can enable the detection of small pea sized cancerous lumps.
It is a step in the right direction that Q8 is slowly but surely awakening to the need of mass public education on breast cancer through TV and print ads, as well as through sharing space with commercial ads in cinemas and the distribution of flyers and brochures with the testing of perfumes and cosmetics in malls and shopping arcades across Kuwait.
It is unfortunate that similar campaigns are not being directed at men for lung and prostate cancer as well as to raise the awareness of the rare breast cancer happening in men with a far worse prognosis.
November 10, 2007 Posted by intlxpatr | Blogging, ExPat Life, Health Issues, Living Conditions, Women's Issues | blog comments, cancer, Obesity | 11 Comments