Our family has always been very conscious of how everything we do affects the environment- not just our immediate surroundings, but the world environment as well. The children don’t necessarily know the “Reduce Reuse Recycle” mantra, but they do understand the principles and practice these in their everyday lives. The[…]
I sit dumbfounded by your arrogance unveiled you paint the world with your own thick brush blur lines between cultures, traditions personal freedom lost so we all become blind followers of the Western ideal cover girl clones you want us to breathe the fetid air you expel spent, lifeless, carbon[…]
The knock comes in the middle of the day. Not an ordinary knock; rather, a loud, insistent pounding at the door accompanied with the gruff voice of the man who guards our building, raised and excited. For a minute I am not sure what to do. Mujaahid, my thirteen year[…]
Today, October 16, was named, by someone, somewhere, “World Hunger Day.” My Twitter feed was filled with calls to sign petitions and send messages to lawmakers. As I read various blog posts discussing the subject from different angles- though not a single one was actually written by anyone who had[…]
Community. A simple word with so much meaning, so many possibilities. As we continue our search for a community to move to here in the States, I find myself thinking back to different places we’ve lived since beginning our journey as a family, trying to sort out and understand what[…]
I’ve made a commitment to commit my Yemeni Journey to paper, and try to get it published in book form, insh’Allaah. This has become a priority for a number of reasons. One is simply that my heart bleeds for my second home and its beautiful, strong people. Yemen faces so[…]
I passed my road test last week for my driver’s license. I was relieved, and happy. I had originally gotten my license when I was sixteen, back in Wisconsin. One of the many hats my dad wore was that of driver’s education instructor, and he trained me well. I found[…]
When my husband and I began our first, tentative inquiries to each other when we were contemplating marriage, one of the things that came up and immediately bonded us was our desire to homestead. We wanted to get some land and raise our family away from the hustle and bustle[…]
With Eid al-Adha, the Eid of the Sacrifice, approaching, women are cleaning their houses from top to bottom. Men are painting windowsills and doors, and making sure their cars and motorcycles look their best. The shops are crowded with people buying new outfits for themselves and their children for the[…]
One of the most difficult things I have had to deal with here in Yemen is the lack of proper disposal of garbage. As the society has been inundated with convenience foods- such as cheese curls that cost the equivalent of about eight cents a bag- their old way of[…]
