Tranquility returns to Haifa

The recent month has flown by and who can believe that there was a nasty skirmish in July/August. Muna is convinced we did not have a September this year, and I must admit, it feels this way! With the weather moving into northern hemisphere winter, Allan is doing less swimming in the morning in the Mediterranean Sea but still the water is not too cold so there is hope for a few more swims. It is definitely autumn, the days have shrunk, though still warm and our clock has gone back one hour – we now go home in the dark!

Muna’s niece, Sahba, visited recently for 3 days and so it was an opportunity to introduce her to some of the Baha'i youth serving in haifa and tour around Haifa. Here near a Druze village in Daliyat al Karmil – a great tourist hub!



Most of the shops and cafes are owned by descendents of one Druze man, Al-Halabi (of Aleppo) who left Syria and settled in these parts some 250 years ago. Their craftsmanship (woven tablecloths, placemats, cushion covers, china and glassware) is superb and very distinctive in patterns and colours. Jews think of the Druze as the “friendly Arabs”--the Arabic-speaking minority group who are loyal to Israel and whose men serve willingly in Israel’s Defense Force.
Muna and Allan visited a magnificent 12th century Crusader fortress, called Belviour” (beautiful views) south of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), last month; from this very high vantage point the vista is magnificent: spectacular views of the Rift valley farming lands and over into Jordan – in fact the road in one place is less than 100m from the border of Jordan.
















We have also been to Nazareth which is, naturally, an important city for Christians – the Church of Annunciation- which has magnificent mosaics from different countries around the world depicting Mary with the Christ child – the Japanese Christ as well as South American Mary are touching. There is a 2nd, much smaller Church of Annunciation (Orthodox) on a different site – both to do with the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary with glad tidings of bearing a special child. Nazareth is an Arab town, as you can see from the head dress. A classic sight is this shop selling Arab women’s head dresses (for modesty) and right next to these they advertise racy ladies underwear!!!





















Allan has missed gardening since we live in a flat here; so he has started taking a car-load of fellow enthusiasts (also with desk jobs) to do some Saturday volunteer work in the gardens at Mazra‘ih which is a very special house that Bahá’u’lláh moved to after more than 20 years of imprisonment and exile. Here are orchards with all kinds of citrus fruit and avocados and pomegranate trees – but it also has neighbours who throw their rubbish over the fence – hence a working bee to clean up the grounds.

Muna has been taking different friends down to Talpiot markets – the major Jewish/Arab fruit and vege outlet in Haifa. We go Thursday mornings before work and it is a lovely way to start the day. We’ve got to know most of the stall-holders and manage to give them a thrill every so often when we take young attractive staff members shopping with us. Here she is with Amelia from the USA and Ana Gerda from Brazil – the vendors ask which ones are our daughters – they guessed that Youngmin from Korea was definitely not ours!

So, we have survived our first summer in Haifa and continue to enjoy living here. May peace and tranquility reign here and all over the world, and especially where you are!