Mariam is back

Back to “work”, after having said goodbye to Dutch campers. It was nice to have the occasion to talk my own language for a change.

They are doing a challenge for a “good cause” : Holland – Aqaba (Jordan) – Holland in 3 weeks. This means they have no time to visit anything. Just doing the miles.

This morning they told me that they were supposed to drive to Dakar, but changed the route at the last minute because of the terrorist attacks in that part of Africa. The Red Sea route should become an alternative for them. “Them” is 4 times during the year a team of 10 cars driving the “challenge”.

Our place is getting known among the campers of which many have their own website.

“Work” is a big word today, as a cold storm wind is blowing coming from Siberia. Time for some chores in the house next to the burning stove.

I am told that last week it was freezing 16°C below zero in Prague at night. It is still winter in that part of the world. Not here. Spring has definitely started. The rose bushes are the first to show new leaves. Other flowers are popping up.

Soon I will know how much damage the unusually long period of frost has caused to the trees and plants.

This week’s most memorable event was the visit of Fozié. I hadn’t seen her for more than 1 year due to some disputes in the family. The latest dispute - which made her stay with nephews and nieces in Aleppo for a few months - was with her brother with whom she is living as he is not married. Her nephew Mohamed together with his uncle Mohamed got her back home. She claims there is no problem and just stayed in Aleppo because of some health problems (kidney stones).

Disputes and conflicts always end this way. In the end, there is never a problem, and all is well again… until the next time.

Fozié’s real name is Mariam. Her parents didn’t agree on a name, so they both called her differently. Nowadays, everybody calls her Fozié except for her brother.

Mariam is a common name in this region. It refers to Mary, mother of Jesus. Both described in the Koran. The big difference with the Bible, the Catholic version anyway, is that Mary never got married to Joseph. She was an unmarried mother who received her son from God. Jesus had many divine gifts even as a small child.

New trees

What a nice change in temperature. It doesn’t anymore like living constantly in a fridge and although still warmly dressed, 1 layer of clothing is going. Nature is recuperating, and so are we.

The wild dogs have returned to the areas further away from the villages. The chicken are calmer and sometimes spending a lot of time in the hen house. I wonder whether they are thinking about starting to lay eggs. 1 white chicken is huge and always avoiding the other hens. Is good friends with the rooster. Everybody says it is a rooster too. Maybe… is hungry all the time, comes when I call and walks next to me like a dog.

We are feeding them popcorn. It is cheap and they love it. Yesterday, I gave some grain and the white huge one refused to eat. Preferred to pick the growing weed.

We had our first campers this week, a German couple returning home after a 5 month journey. They stayed in Aqaba/Jordan for a month waiting for the end of the cold over here.

March will be busy tourist wise. The requests keep coming in for itinerary/driver/hotels. These are people coming by plane. I wonder whether the campers will come too. There are some returning home from their Africa trip and I guess that those that want to be home by Summer will start their journey in Europe too.

Now that the frost is over, olive trees have been planted in the garden. I also bought a new cherish tree. I’ve been told cherish trees don’t need a lot of water. And the one from last year was planted in a part of the garden where the rain water was flooding too. It died after the some heavy rain showers in April leaving it standing in the water for a few days. So, this time a better spot for the cherish tree.

The first half of the garden is almost cleaned up and looking good. I guess 1 more week and it will be looking great. A lot of work is waiting in the second half.

Rahaaf and Ahmed are helping out and they really are. Rahaaf will be coming by every day, she says, until the work is finished. Very enthusiastic, that girl. Her mother is designing a garden too, but for some reason it is not as interesting to work with her. Maybe because there are no trees, only vegetables and flowers.

The only trouble is that Yasmine is not happy when she is left alone by her sister and brother. She wants to come over too and help with the weeding and cleaning up. But fetching Yasmine means no work done. She still cannot walk and needs to be carried around all the time.

She is trying hard to get up and stand. It is not easy with 1 arm and shoulder not working. She is trying now by using her good arm and standing on her head. She will get there. Like Ahmed who couldn’t walk before he was 3. You should see him running around now.

They are back

The nights are really cold now. But the days are sunny. That’s a relief after 4 days of dark grey clouds and lots of rain.

Lots of rain. The soil is still humid. Good for the plants and trees that are growing again.

The olive picking is finished since this morning. Most of the olives are small and dry. The olive oil will be expensive this year.

The 2 white chickens are back, but not laying eggs. No wonder. They are traumatized.

As it happens, they were chased by the rooster on the first evening and they escaped over the wall to the neighbour’s garden. This is a big long garden full of olive trees. The first day when they were missing we asked around and searched for them. Nobody knew where they were. Then, in the afternoon on the second day of their disappearance, I saw Abdellah, the neighbour from across’ son, sitting on the wall and throwing white chicken into the garden and… the rooster.

It was time for them to go into the chicken house, but the white ones didn’t want to. They were very confused. When the sun was down, they settled in a corner of the garden. It was a piece of cake to take them up and to put them into the chicken house. They did not leave it for 2 days.

Nowadays, they go out in the sun and know me as “the feeder”. Yesterday, one of them flew on my shoulder. Does that mean she likes me?

It is hard to feed them with 4 others in the neighbourhood. Those are robots programmed to eat. They spot every bit of food immediately and attack it in no time.

The white ones are slow and cautious. Handicapped as their beak has been cut. Used to being in a warm spot (heated, if necessary), getting their mushy food regularly. I’m sure they don’t get enough to eat. They are learning gradually and I do defend their food spot for a while before the others come in.

As for the rooster… the next afternoon he was missing again. The 3 red chickens came towards me making a lot of sounds, flying up onto my shoulder and head, as if they wanted to explain that he had flown over the wall again.

I sat down before the chicken house and waited for him and 1 minute before sunset he flew back over the wall. Probably had been doing that for a while, but nobody noticed. I was in Belgium for 2 weeks. We cut his wings.

During the dark grey days, we had 3 German campers (2 vehicles). As by coincidence, they arrived on the same day. Despite the weather they liked our garden and were so happy to find a spot to relax that they all stayed for 3 nights before moving on. When the sun came out, they liked it even more.

The retired couple, Linda & Hans, is travelling for 6 months and will be staying the winter in Aqaba, Jordan. They will return in February to stay a few more days with us.

The other one, Jürgen, will discover Syria extensively with a friend flying in on Monday. They will visit Lebanon for a few days and then Jordan. Maybe we’ll see him back or maybe he’ll go back to Europe via Egypt. He assured me he liked Syria so much that he will come back with his wife and children.

When Linda saw me picking the green tomatoes – I had to because they were not becoming red and the chickens were eating them - she gave me a recipe to make chutney. I had all ingredients but vinegar. She gave me a bottle. It is quite easy to make. And very tasteful.
The rest of the green tomatoes have been pickled.

I have started handing out to the children the tons of used cloths, calculators, torches and other goods that tourists left with us over the last month. Together with the stuff I brought myself, it is a lot.

It is heart warming to see how easily these children are pleased, although I must say that most of the cloths are in perfect condition and the best quality.

A few days ago, I gave a box of colour pencils to Rahaaf. She was over the moon. Her brother, Ahmed, was given a pair of plastic sun glasses and a calculator. She was not jealous at all and all excited with her present.

In other homes, children parade in the pair of jeans and sweaters they received every time I visit and tell me when and how they have played with the toys.

It’s great to be Santa Claus.

An egg

After a few weeks of relaxing holidays in Belgium, it is back to work now.

During my absence, several German tourists used the camping. A couple of them on bicycle. That’s quite late in the season, as the autumn has set in with showers and cold wind. During the days it can still be very warm, as I discovered yesterday.

I started out working in the garden with a pullover and soon had to take it off. A t-shirt was still too hot in the sun, but at 4 o’clock sunset starts. Time to grab a pullover.

The first thing I did when arriving home was inspecting the garden. Not a lot of rubbish lying around, weeding not really necessary (there is always some), the egg plants are still producing a lot, the okra is finished (I took the plants out), the trees and plants beneficiary to a regular supply of rain water are growing.

Unfortunately, another hen has died. She was having trouble breathing when I left, as a result of a bad cold. The rooster is now living with 3 hens that are becoming quite big. 1 is coughing a little bit.

Sunday evening, Mohamed announced the purchase of 2 white hens. Full grown and providing eggs. The next morning I opened the hen house and did not find them. They disappeared leaving behind an egg. No trace of them in the garden, dead or alive. We asked around. Nobody has seen them. Me neither. I first thought it was a practical joke, but it isn’t.

In the house, a lot of works… The roof and the entrance at the front door downstairs are fully covered with tiles. A group of workers are in the process of “cementing” the walls in the stairway case.

As it is difficult to get in and out the house, I decided to go and help picking olives. It has been very hot and dry in the summer. The olives are small and the harvest will be poor. Let’s hope the quality of the oil will still be high.

I did not have a lot of time to work, as Rahaaf and baby sister Yasmine were asking a lot of my attention and energy.

My home

Views from my home





The house (appartment on top),
as seen from the backyard














I am in Belgium for a few weeks and using my parents' broadband connection. So, finally you can see some of my home.
There's still a lot to do. A lot has already been done.
I added a picture of the solar panels, as the latest achievement is installing them and having hot water every day. Next project is tiling the roof to prevent the water from sipling through the ceiling.