Yep—this is the Arab night episode. Sorry it took so long—I have
been away, you see. More on that later. For the moment, this is about what the
Jerusalem Center Arab festivities entailed:
Arab Décor: I helped to decorate the Oasis for the evening.
We strung lights from the arches, covered the tables with clothes and kafyas,
set out baskets and pieces of pottery, strewed beans and seeds and corn kernels
here and there, and set up a photo shoot area with multi-colored draperies and
bean bags. If I do say so myself, it looked pretty awesome when we were done. I
also enjoyed speaking Arabic with our amazing chef, Ahmed. My favorite
conversation was thus: I looked at the decorations and said to him, “Hatha
jamiila—this is beautiful.” He replied back, “Inti jamiila—you are
beautiful.” Aw, shucks. J
Arab Costume: As I told you before, I bought a dress. And on
this occasion I wore my dress. I also swapped my sparkly blue scarf for
Catherine Chipman’s plane cream one and used safety pins to make it into a hijab—an
Arab woman’s head scarf. The dress was a little big, so I made some
alterations. It now has a very fashionable dart in the back that I sewed on
myself. I am quite proud.
By the way, I was one of the winners of the costume contest.
My prize was Mentos chewing gum. Hooray!
Arab Religion: The evening was kicked off with a
presentation from a father and son who chant the call to prayer from the
minaret at the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Haram Es-shariif (the Noble Sanctuary, aka
Temple Mount). They chanted Surat Miriam (the chapter of Mary) from the Quran,
detailing Mary’s calling and the immaculate conception (Muslims do believe that
Mary was divinely called and that Jesus is important—but in their doctrine He
is a prophet and not the son of God). They also showed us how the Muslim
prayers worked. They both had beautiful voices, and it was fun for me to listen
and hear phrases and words I understood from my Arabic class—such as “Bism
Allah ir-rahman ir-rahiim” (in the name of God, the merciful, the magnificent)
and “Allahu Akhbar” (God is very great) and “Ilhamdu L’illah” (Praise be to
God).
Arab Food: What can I say? Many spices, much rice, copious
pitas, and a whole lot of meat—that about sums it up. We had lamb, chicken schwarma,
beef, roasted vegetables, rice, pitas, hummus (lots of hummus, which we
all love—Ahmed’s recipe is the best), fried things of different
varieties, and Sprite (not very Arab maybe, but still).
Dessert was also nice,
sporting a wide variety of pastries I have never seen and don’t have names for
but that I did take pictures of. My favorite is Kanefeh, the orange shredded
wheat looking one. It’s delicious.
All in all it was a magnificent meal.
Was it healthy? Not really. Did I eat too much? Absolutely. Did I feel a little
sick afterwards? Maybe. Was it worth it? Oh, yes.
Not-so-Arab Women: Everyone took it in turns to do the photo
corner after dinner. After a short trial-and-error period, a few of the boys
ended up making a dozen or so girls (yours truly in her awesome costume included)
stay sitting while the boys took it in turns to sit in the middle and pretend they
were surrounded by their harem. It was pretty funny. I didn't want to add to the camera juggle that was going on, so I still need to get some of the good ones from other people, otherwise I would post one here.
Arab Dancing: I ran downstairs and changed out of my dress
to go have fun dancing. I was a little surprised to see that our instructors
were really no older than we were—maybe younger even. They taught us some Arab dance
steps—complicated, yes, but bouncy and fun.
I finally started getting it down
as the evening wore on. Part way through, we had what in Irish is called a
step-out—everyone standing in a circle and various dancers taking turns showing
off their stuff in the middle. I did a few Irish leaps and felt a little
abashed that they were so clumsy—but then Katie motioned to me from the other
side of the circle that we should go out together, and I emphatically agreed.
We skipped toward each other into the circle, leapt and soared past each other
midway, then danced out again. Even though she has done a lot of dance and is
majoring in music performance, Katie doesn’t like being on stage or playing in
front of people all that much sometimes, so I was thrilled that she was willing
to dance with me. When everyone started dancing again, we did a few of our old
World Dance class steps in the corner. My shin splints were acting up again by
the end of the night, but it was worth it. I didn’t realize how much I missed dance until then.
That’s all for now. Next up—Jordan!
I love the Arab dress! What a great picture! Arab night sounds like a blast. The food looks great. You are having some fantastic experiences. I like your new background for your blog. It's so colorful!
ReplyDeletelove, mom
Ohhhhh, Rachel! You look beautiful in your arab attire. Love it! Love you lots n' lots & Miss you tons n' tons. :)
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