A time to catch up on people and places around Haifa

We start this post with something that is not seen often on Mt. Carmel in the middle of Haifa - a small tortoise; but they are far from rare, just shy. This little guy was captured with my cell phone camera while walking from the top of the Baha'i gardens on the way to work on a Friday morning. The Friday walk is nice once a month - up to a bakery in Markaz by bus to get some lovely grain bread (which we have for lunch) then walking down the terraced Baha'i gardens to work. Most of the bread in Israel is white, or rye with lots of pitta-style (Arabic) bread.

Back to my friend, the tortoise, the weed it was eating did not look too inviting to me and he scurried off at the sound of the camera --- but he made my day!
There are 19 terraced gardens cascading down the slope of Mount Carmel, with the Shrine of the Bab on the middle tenth terrace. Each terrace has its own beautiful garden radiating out from the centre and they are all connected through stairways and paths --- one of Haifa's most breath-taking sights.




Muna and I facilitate regular classes on various aspects of the Baha'i Faith - there is a wonderful culture of learning at the Baha'i World Centre, and whether young or older, every one participates and contributes.

Mike and Barbie Mundt organised a class in their flat which is right above ours - a real neighbourhood class!
Linda's class was another special one with wonderful participants
This shows a class with young people from many different countries, actually every class has many nations present.
Classes are generally held in flats or in conference rooms in the buildings on the Arc.
This photo shows some friends who serve in Akka. Munib was visiting at the time and joined us.
Sometimes the person organising the class does something special - apart from lovely food and a nice environment, like this class --- the organiser of this class invited only married couples!

This photo is taken in the Carribbean
and shows some of our former colleagues in Haifa who are now serving there. We miss them!

Other friends closer to home:
- Muna with Anne George and Ann Melville --- all looking gorgeous at Bahji during a Holy Day celebration. Also Carrie Allen and Badi Sudhakaran at the same event.
Harrison Foli from Ghana came to the Baha'i World Centre at the same time we did.
One dear friend from Alaska, Donna Detweiler (seen here with her fiance) has recently returned there.
Sally Weekes also left for the United States.
This quilt was made by the gifted Barbie Mundt and so generously given to us. It has lots of kangaroos on the back!
James and Annette True return to the United States in July, so we had a lovely dinner fare-well dinner for them with Carolina and Mark Baker, as well as Barbie and Mike Mundt.

Also visitng on pilgrimage were Mehrdad and Nahid Meshgin from Perth. We enjoyed a nice dinner with them at Maryam van den Bos's flat, along with some other staff members.
Sasha Stephens (former staff member) was also on pilgrimage recently - she used to help with gardening at the Ridvan Garden on Saturday mornings,
.....and the Higgins family from Japan - Shannon, Kayo and Emma.
Finally, this is a classic Israeli photo - the joke in Israel is that a Jewish family consists of mum, dad, two children and a dog. Even though everyone lives in flats - they all have dogs --- dogs as big as ponies, as well as smaller dogs of every sort. They travel (safely) on planes and on buses too.