Miss Mona D

 

 

So here I am almost at my 3 month mark.  I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to post something. Mostly b/c I’m lazy. Also b/c work mentally and physically destroys me. Although it doesn’t require me to exert any sort of physical energy, I feel it seeps my mind of any mental/intellectual juices that is possesses, causing a simultaneous draining of my physical energies. I think I’m also going through this weird kind of culture shock where I really don’t know how to describe my surroundings to people that ask. I mean, I can make mention of random things here and there, but I cant seem to string together a series of thoughts and interrelating sentence that would explain what it’s like for me living here.  So rather than trying to explain, what I’m going to do is just name off random things that stick out to me, while living in this city, and talk a little bit about them.

 

CATS

I have never seen so many stray cats in my entire life. It’s like they own the streets or something! I have seen hybrids of cats that I never want to see again until the day I die!  You’ve got old cats, middle aged cats, young cats, kittens! They’re short, tall, fat, skinny, malnourished! I hear them at night when I’m sleeping. I’m not sure if they are engaging in some sort of combat or if they’re procreating. Whatever it is the sound effects are naaasty. They don’t bother us. They just kinda roam the streets. I’m not sure what they do all day. I see them hanging around dumpsters mostly. Sometimes you’ll see the odd cat in a random location – either chillin out, taking a nap or what have you. The city knows they have a cat population crisis, but they don’t seem to do anything about it! I even see civilians putting food out for them! Don’t ask me why they would want these overgrown rats to continue living. I guess the people and the cats have coexisted together in peace for so long that they’ve just gotten used to each other. If the people an the cats can do it then why cant the Jews, Christians and the Muslims? 

 

DOGS

The dogs never have leashes. Half of them don’t even have dog tags. Yet they all roam the streets. I don’t know where their owners are. I don’t know how they know to get around and how they find their way back home, but they manage to do it. You don’t see as many stray dogs as you see cats, but atleast with the dogs, you have this feeling as though they are “owned,” meaning they have an owner. The cats are just vagabonds. Another thing about the dogs is that they are butt freaking ugly. Words cannot describe how heinous these dogs are! They look like a mix between a giant rat, some prehistoric canine, a hyena, and then any other random animal that you can think of. Half the time I cant even look at them, so I cant even imagine keeping one in your home! Imagine waking up to that nasty face in the morning. Ew. Creepy.

There is one dog though that’s definitely out to get me.  Whenever I walk to Naysan’s place, I have to walk down the Shifra stairs, which is a massive set of stairs, that practically go all the way down the mountain.  I only have to take some of them down until I reach Abbas, which is the street Naysan lives on.  Anyways, along both sides of these stairs there are homes or flats. One of these flats has a dog that always hangs out outside. And by hangs out I mean is chained to some metal rod by their back door. I can never really get a good look at it because it’s always in the shadows, but the dog is massive! It’s basically the size of a pony! Maybe the darkness allows me to play up my imagination a bit and think it’s the size of a pony, but I truly think it is! And it’s bark is viscous. It doesn’t seem to bark when anyone else is walking by, but as soon as it sense me coming around it starts to go completely postal. I’ve tried shining my little mini flashlight on him a couple of times, but this just adds to his venomous rage, so I quickly lower my light and run on by. I hope he never gets loose. The thing could definitely jump the fence its owners have put up to keep people out (more like to keep the creature caged in). Nevertheless, I’ve named him Barky McBarkerson.  I think it suits him well.

 

DRIVING

I think road rules in this country do not exist. People go as fast (or as slow) as they like. It’s not unlikely to see someone going 180 on the highway while their neighbour (the one they are whizzing by and leaving in their tracks) is going 80.  I never see people pulled over by the cops. People honk at each other for no reason. The other day I was with a friend in his car. He was stuck behind 5 other cars which were stuck behind a bus, and yet the car behind us was honking at us and freaking out. I’m not quite sure what was going on in his head, and I cant be bothered to understand. Sometimes people just start driving on the lines. There are clearly two or three lanes, but buddy decides that he wants to be a renegade (or he may be asleep or drunk) so he/she starts driving on the lines. Another thing that’s classic is when 2 lane roads somehow become 3 or 4 lanes. I’m not sure how all the road warriors figure out the logistics of it while they are on the spot, but they do, and they do it quite well. I never see accidents here. I’ve seen some potentially close calls that could have been catastrophic, but no big bangs just yet. One of my friends likens driving in Haifa to Mario Cart.  I couldn’t agree more.

 

POLICE

The police have their lights on all the time. When I first came here I thought they were always on a mission to crack down on something or bust someone, but then it slowly started to occur to me that no - they just have their lights on all the time - they just want to make their presence known.

So seeing this has become completely normal for me. I don’t care when it happens, nor do I want to know why they carry on in this manner. I just find it funny.

 

SCENERY

This place is beautiful. It’s a city full of stairs. It is a city that was carved into the side of a rocky mountain, but has trees and flowers and so much greenery! The views in this city are incredible. The view from my flat is incredible! I can see the Mediterranean Sea and the entire coast line all the way up to Akka (which is on the other side of the bay) and beyond.  I love seeing palm trees. It’s December and there are palm trees. That thought alone brings a smile to my face every time I’m walking home from work.

 

HUMMOUS AND BREAD

I live off of this stuff.  I got sick of it after the first week, but then by that point I think I had developed some sort of addiction to the hummous which caused me to constantly buy from the food centre.  When all else fails this duo can’t be beat.

 

VISITORS

I’ve been lucky enough to know people that have come in every single pilgrimage group so far. And I’m not talking about random people that I met one time through a friend of a friend. Everyone’s been really cool and everyone’s been a delight to spend time with. I’m really grateful to have constantly run into so many familiar faces.

 

HOMESICKNESS

I had it really bad for about a week or a week and a half. I think I just hit a point where I realized I was going to be here (with no chance of going home to see my family and friends) for another 9 or 10 months. It doesn’t help that I don’t have a TV.  At least that could have reminded me of my North American life back home, but instead I’m constantly face to face with Israelis and Israeli culture. Don’t get me wrong the people here are incredible and the culture is admirable, but it’s a huge shock when what you’re accustomed to is seeing Paris Hilton every night on ET or pictures of Brangelina on the cover of every magazine at the check-out counter. Anyways, how I ended up combating the homesickness was downloading every episode of Grey’s Anatomy (which I'm now addicted to) and watching it for a week straight. Not only did I rise out of my depression, but I was also reminded of how gay life is in North America – and by gay I do not mean happy or homosexual.

 

 

Well, I think this is enough to quench your thirsty minds.  Now you have an idea of my surroundings. Come to think of it, I don’t really think I did a great job of selling this place to anyone. Not that I was ever trying to sell it, but talking about nasty cats and dogs, convention-less roads, and hummous and bread definitely do not suffice. This is an incredibly beautiful city. Don’t let the ramblings of this tired and speechless (when it comes to describing Haifa) woman fool you. This is definitely one place that, given the chance/opportunity, all of you must see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, now everyone knows what's happening, and people can stop asking my I'm still here. lol. Dont worry all, you'll be rid of me real soon! But until then, I'll see you all around  

 

  Mona 

 

Since so many people have been asking me about the details of my upcoming move to Haifa, I figure I will give a brief synopsis of what lead up to my decision to apply to work at the Bahai World Centre.

 

It all began in November of 1997.  I was 15 years old and (along with my family) was going on my first (and hopefully not last) 9 day pilgrimage.  The months leading up to it were definitely not filled with anticipation - well, not on my part anyways.  My parents were ecstatic, my brother was too young to really comprehend the enormity of the situation, and I was a 15 year old kid that wasn't very happy to be leaving school and all her school friends for 2 weeks. Needless to say, my opinion, my way of thinking, even the person that I was changed after I experienced the blessing of going on a 9 day pilgrimage. After it was all over, rather than being happy to go back to school, back to my friends and back to Canada, I was miserable - wishing that I could stay in Haifa for another 9 days...or 9 months...or 9 years! I just didnt want to leave.  I vowed that I would apply to do a year of service once I had completed highschool. It was 3 years away, but it was a commitment that I made to myself and one that I was certain I would keep.  The years passed and when it came time to apply I found myself caught up in all of the university hype.  I was elected valedictorian, I was offered scholarships and bursary money. I was receiving numerous awards and recognitions. I decided that these were confirmations that I did not want to pass by, so I decided to go straight to university out of high school and put the Haifa thing on the back burner until I was finished university.

 

As this was my last year of undergrad, I started thinking back to the days when I had promised myself that I would go on a year of service.  Yet, once again I was caught up in the hype. More specifically, it was the "I've finally graduated and now it's time to work or move on to professional school" hype.  In my case, I had hoped to work for a couple of years before going back to get my Masters.  But this time something happened that completely changed my way of thinking.  My cousin Mariam went on her first 9 day pilgrimage with her mom and sister.  When she came back, and when I spoke to her, I was totally reminded of myself when I was 15 years old.  Mind you, Mariam will be 22 this year..but anyways...the point is that her response and her reaction to her pilgrimage was very similar to the way I had felt towards my own.  Her stories and the way she vividly described her time there actually took me back to my short lived days in Haifa. The more she spoke about it the more I missed it.  The more she described it the more it conjured up many of my old memories of that sacred place. Finally, she told me that she was going to apply for a year of service and that she thought it would be a good idea if I applied as well. She knew how badly I had wanted to go in the past and realized that this was as good a time as any for us to atleast apply.  Now, I was already contemplating going away to Japan for a year, so having Haifa as another option made the decision all the more difficult BECAUSE it was obvious that Haifa was my #1 choice, and having to wait to find out whether or not you're accepted is an unnerving experience!  If patience was our only virtue, I definitely wouldnt be a virtuous individual.  Anyways, I decided that I would apply to work in Haifa. I had wanted to do it for almost a decade and I knew the time was right. Japan immediately became my #2 choice. 

 

So we applied....and then we waited....and waited...and waited.  I wrote my finals. I took my TESOL course. I worked. I saw the family. I saw friends. I didnt tell anyone (except for Soulmaz) about my decision to apply because I figured why make it into a big deal when nothing has really come into fruition? 

 

So I guess I'm writing this now because a couple of weeks ago I received word that I would be working as an editor for the Department of the Secretariat at the Bahai World Centre for my requested 12 month period.  Coincidentally (but not really) Mariam found out that she will also be working for the World Centre for the same time period.  I cannot think of another person that I would rather go with. What a blessing for the two of us to not only be able to live together for a year, but to be able to experience, work and serve in Haifa.

 

So it's official. We leave August 15th or 16th and we come back the same time next year - unless we decide we want to travel around Europe for while .  And that's basically it!  I am studying for two courses, spending time with my family and loved ones, packing, trying to move my stuff out of my apartment bit by bit, running all my last minute errands and trying to keep the butterflies in my tummy somewhat at bay.  Very soon my life is going to change, and while a part of me is so excited to move ahead and see what the future has in store, another part is quite nervous because I've never been very good with the unfamiliar and the unknown. But, at the end of the day and when I'm about to fall asleep, I remember myself as a 15 year old girl....on the terraces....looking out onto the the Mediterranean Sea...wind blowing in my hair...a very serene calmness in the air...and I remember that that was the happiest and most fulfilled I had ever been in my life. It had nothing to do with money, jobs, guys, possessions, friend or foe, school, status, etc.  It had to do with something much much MUCH greater.  It may sound strange, but that thought has put me to sleep or calmed my nerves many times over in the past 9 years. I guess that's why I know this upcoming year is going to be just fine