Eid Mubarak from the Mukhabiraat

I recently received this disturbing report from Jordan.

Some brothers arranged an Eid picnic for around 30 children from the families of the shuhada’ fi sabilillah. These brothers have been arranging such picnics for a number of years and it wasn’t anything unusual that they should be doing such a thing.

Once at the park, the children started playing football and playing games when around midday, the secret police arrived and arrested all the brothers and ALL the 30children.

The youngest of the children was aged 4 and the oldest 15. They were released after 12 hours but had to report back to the police station in the following days to answer questions. They were asked questions about their parents, the interrogators using “I am your brother in Islam and your parents are my brothers and sisters in Islam” questioning tactics. A number of the children were beaten but the children it seems responded in due form breaking things in the station and resisting the questions.

All the children were released on bail and 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($US14,000) paid for each child. The children were ordered by the police not to attend any picnics with anyone apart from their immediate family.

At this time, the brothers who organised the picnic are still in police custody.

What can I say? Absolutely outrageous.

Allah Musta’an.

Dubai World Doom

I have been recently following the news of the Dubai debt in the papers. I can’t help but to sadistically chuckle to myself at the possibility of Dubai falling flat and the “charismatic, progressive thinking” ruler of Dubai with egg on his face. Why can’t he be content with Allah (swt) and His Messenger (sas)?

“O you who believe! Be afraid of Allaah and give up what remains (due to you) from Ribaa (from now onward) if you are (really) believers. And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allaah and His Messenger”
[al-Baqarah 2:278-279]

SubhanAllah, the Muslim rulers must think themselves very big and powerful to dabble in riba without fear of taking a notice of war from Allah and His Messenger.

Now, the news did say that Dubai was waiting for the maturation of their Islamic Bonds to pay some billions of dollars owed, however, the value of these bonds dropped dramatically and so Dubai has asked for an extention (until May 2010) for paying back the debts.

My question is how Islamic are these Islamic Bonds and how riba free is Dubai. Not very, one would guess upon basic outward appearances. The existence of riba banks all over the country, as well as the global dependence upon riba makes it almost impossible to be riba free, even for those who actively try to avoid it.

Even if these Islamic Bonds are largely riba free, the riba based investorship within Dubai cancels it out because the government is allowing riba investors to invest in their assets and developments. The hadeeth of Jaabir, (may Allah be pleased with him), it is reported that;

"The Messenger of Allaah cursed the one who consumes riba (interest or usury), the one who gives it, the one who writes it down and the one who witnesses it. He said: 'All of them are equal in sin.'" (Sahih Muslim #1598).

Riba is forbidden according to the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and definitive scholarly consensus. Whoever regards it as permissible is a kaafir, because the basic principle is that whoever rejects something on which there is obvious scholarly consensus is guilty of kufr. (Shaikh Munajjid with reference to Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Al-Uthaimeen).

In riba there is only loss.

May Allah turn the hearts of the leaders to the path of Islam and re-establish the superiority of Islam and restore the dignity of the Muslim Ummah.



Destitute and scantily clad herders of camels compete in the building of tall structures.(That red structure is the Burj Dubai tower)

Hijrah to Qatar

Doha

I used to not rate the UAE or Qatar as decent destinations for hijrah, but I had a long hard think about it

It took me a few months tomentally adjust to Qatar. Coming from the simplicity and poverty of Yemen, the opulence and sheer extravagant wastage of Qatar disturbed me. I forgot how people can be with too much money, too much free time and too little taqwa and basic understanding of life. However it is not all bad if I consider further.

To start with, Qatar offers the basics.

Adhan is still ala natural (no automated satellite link up adhan here). You get the adhan and the iqama nice and loud, and the Friday khutbah and prayer is broadcast all over the streets. Excellent!

You have less awra showing in Qatar than in UAE. In fact it is common to hear of people being escorted out of the malls for wearing inappropriate clothing.
Niqabi sisters in black are not harassed and are in fact the norm.
Men will not sit next to you in the bus and will vacate their seat for you if the bus is full.

If you want to go further, Qatar offers a few extras in the package such as;
- Some Islamic institutions
- Quiet, peaceful lifestyle
- Less riba than most other Muslim countries
- Womens only venues and recreational activities
- clean streets
- You can say “Israel has no right to exist” without getting into trouble

Of course I can’t get it out of my mind that Qatar has a huge US military base in it somewhere, and has approved a French base too.

As a hijrah destination, Qatar will do the job much better than many other countries could, and definitely much better than my kafir country of origin.
Sadly, to live here in a decent manner, one needs a decent job and to get a decent job you need decent qualifications or to know someone high up in some department or company.

You might live here all your life and contribute positively to the country’s development and community life, but you will never get a citizenship. Blast the visa system!


The English ex-pat social networks don't offer much to Muslim English speaking ex-pats and life can be very bland and boring. Qatar offers employment and income more than it offers an Islamic environment. It can also be difficult to get to know the locals. (See article here)

Everywhere in duniya sux to some extent, but some places suck more than other places, and as a sister trying to make a go of hijra for the sake of Allah, sometimes we need to find the best balance between a not so perfect hijrah destination and not putting oneself in an unnecessarily undignified difficult situation.

Hijrah to Jordan

Sent in by Muwahida in Jordan

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله و الصلاة و السلام على رسول الله

I am a muhajirah currently residing in Jordan, I have been living here for the last 2years. Here is some basic information about Jordan for muhajireen.

Study visa’s are easy to obtain here in Jordan but as for work it is scarce and unlike some other Arab countries qualifications are very important for teaching or work in other departments but tutoring English privately can be an option for income.

Life in Jordan is expensive but in outer lying areas rent is cheaper than other areas. A normal apartment is about US$300 a month that’s not including electricity or water.

There are Islamic schools in Salt and a few good schools in Amman, but when I say good I don’t mean perfectly Islamic but as in better than any western school.
There are many good kindergartens as well mashaAllah and all pick the students by bus and bring them home.

For a low budget family I don’t advise Jordan as a place of hijrah but for those who want to implement the hadith of the Sham and be around the very small community of muwahideen, who are very hard to find these days, then Jordan is an ideal place.
Jordan is not picture perfect as say Yemen for example. Here there are a lot of women who do not cover and westernised areas especially in Amman. Some muhajreen live in Salt which is more or less conservative.

Jordan is one of the Al-Sham countries that the Prophet s.a.w told us to go to in the last days (akhir zaman) and for those who cannot then they were told to go to Yemen.

What I love about Jordan is the strong community of muwahideen here and the ability to show your true Islamic identity. My son has really adapted to the people here and has discovered his Islamic identity. He doesn’t have to hide who he is Alhamdulillah, which is a very big help in his tarbiyah. He is free to wear his Islamic dress whether it be Afghani style or Arabian style and head wear and not have to hide every aspect of his belief. This is something you cannot do in many Arab countries like the rest of the Sham countries (Syria and Lebanon) or countries like Egypt. The fact is that you can build yourself decent Islamic environment. The number of muhajireen here are scarce but Allah willing hopefully it will grow.

It is possible for single woman to live here alone. I for one am without husband and alhamdulilah the community is very helpful mashaAllah and Salt is the safest area to live in as it is still very tribal and protected by culture.

The thing is there is no perfect dawla yet and inshaALlah our aim of hijrah is to please Allah swt and we do it because it is wajib upon us so may Allah swt open the way for us and assist us in gaining or goal. Amin

Hiding Behind Walls

One of my first observations of the Gulf apart from rampant consumerism, was the social distance between locals and ex-pats. After 16 months living in the Gulf, I cannot count a single local amongst my acquaintances and not through lack of trying.

I figured that if I was living in a particular country I would get to know the locals and spend time with them on a social level, but that was not the case. I found the locals very polite and generous, but in no way interested in going beyond basic interaction. They lived in what seemed a parallel world protected in their houses behind high concrete walls. And it may be as simple as that – protection. Protecting themselves from what is happening to their country. The speed of development and change threatens their cultural traditions, conservative ways and family structure. A lot of ex-pats are kafir or not practicing Muslims and too much mixing with them has affected the younger generations who are starting to shed tradition and Islamic practices to copy the western trends.

Ms al Atiyat (Emirati events manager at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding in Dubai) said that there was growing anger and resentment among Emiratis witnessing a blatant disregard for local laws and culture. One notorious example was that of two Britons caught having sexual relations on a beach hours after meeting at a champagne brunch. Both Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors were jailed and deported in a sign of an increasingly hard line against offenders. (The national, 24/10/09).

“The barriers have been put up on both sides,” reported The National. “Perhaps because they (ex-pats) are here temporarily and the law does not encourage a long-term commitment to the country, expats can be very cliquey. There are those whose lives revolve around the country club on a Saturday and golf on a Sunday, and they get annoyed if they are reminded they are in the UAE.”

I had the intention to stay in the Gulf long term, perhaps for my whole career, but if I was not able to interact with the local people and their culture I felt no point in staying. Ex-pats come and go, and I wanted to make stable and long term relationships.

The outcome for Muslim non-Arab ex-pats can be a very lonely existence where one cannot befriend locals easily nor Arabs ex-pats and that leaves the eroding force of kafir ex-pats who have a great social life because they have managed to implant their munkar activities into the Gulf.

Most ex-pat Muslims came to the Gulf for money and duniya opportunity so finding actual muhajireen fi sabilillah was rare and sisterhood was sparse. There were a few good ex-pat sisters around, but very, very few, and in very spread out locations, so it was not always easy to meet up.

I fear the Gulf has lost its soul and cast over itself a glitzy shell and fancy lights which will one day fade and crack.

Yemen Hijrah Blog

Assalamu alaikum wr wb,

Al-Ghariba blog has decided to split into two separate blogs.

This blog - Glad Tidings to the Strangers will stay as it is, with hijrah information, Islamic issues and the occassional humourous story.

Yemen Hijrah Blog will specialise in what the title suggests. So no more Yemen articles will be appearing on Glad Tidings, they will all be on the new blog.

www.yemenhijrah.blogspot.com

We are slowly transferring all the Yemen articles from the past year to the new blog and will be adding new Yemen Hijrah information soon.

Wa salam
Al-Ghariba and Team

About the Strangers - Link

Read what the hadith means by "strangers".

Our Brothers Behind Bars

Last week after more than a month of deliberation, a jury found five of our Muslim brothers guilty of planning and/or supporting terrorism.

It was a massive trial, hidden behind a smokescrean of national security. It is only now that we are finding small parts of it emerging in the mainstream media.

The trial is reported to have cost over $30million Australian taxpayer dollars (another report estimated the cost at a more modest $9million). 300 witnesses gave testimony and the court was presented with more than 3000 exhibits of evidence during their 170 days in court. They spent 30 sitting days listening to or watching material related to police surveillance of the accused, including 18 hours of phone intercepts.One of if not the most expensive trial in Australian history and for what? To convict a few brothers on circumstantial evidence fuelled by years of anti-Islamic and anti-Foreigner government propaganda to life imprisonment.

Let them spend their money and Allah will make them regret it later as Allah swt revealed to us in Surat al-Anfal:36 when He said,

"Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to prevent (people) from the Path of Allah, and they will continue to spend it but in the end it will become an anguish for them. Then they will be overcome. And those who disbelieve will be gathered into Hell.

The Judge was quoted in the Australian Newspaper as saying that, "The crown does not suggest that the evidence reveals that they had reached any firm conclusion as to what precise action was to be carried out, what targets were to be selected, who was actually to carry the bomb, where it was to be placed, how it was to be placed, how big it was going to be, whether it was going to be in a vehicle or in a backpack, or how it was going to be taken to the relevant target."

Indeed, the jury only needed to be satisfied that there was an agreement - unspoken or otherwise - to commit the crime. "It is not like entering into an agreement for a house or anything like that. You do not need to have written it down. You do not even need to have spoken it. An agreement, in this context, can be reached by an understanding," Mr Maidment said.

While details of their planned target remains a mystery, the jury was told the group was motivated by "a perception that the participation of Australia in the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan ... were acts of aggression against the wider Muslim community".

The brother of one of the men said the guilty verdicts would increase the threat of attacks in Australia. "If you really go through the case and the words in the brief, you'll know it's bullshit," he said.

"If they think this will stop terrorism, imprisoning these people, I don't think it will stop terrorism. I think it will increase the threat on Australia."

The sister of one of the terrorists claimed the verdict against her brother was unfair, but said he would be prepared to endure a lifetime in jail.

She said her brother was a devoted Muslim, not an extremist, and accused ASIO of using extremist or terrorist tactics in investigating the men. She said the verdict was unfair because the jury could have been influenced by negativity in the media about Muslims, and that the decision would further damage the public's perception of the Muslim community.

Referring to samples of the cleaning product Domestos that police obtained from her brother's home, she said: "Everybody uses Domestos in their house ... it's my favourite cleaning product, not that I'm a terrorist and going to use it for explosives."

The brothers appeared defiant to the end. Yesterday, when the foreman read out the guilty verdicts, none of the five showed any emotion. Indeed, a couple of them smiled.

May Allah swt keep our brothers strong and steadfast and grant them Jannah. Amin.

Dilsi Does It.

In an earlier post it was claimed that Yemeni sidr honey cures all. It still does, you can catch up on that post here.

Recently a muhajirah sister claimed that Dilsi cola (Yemeni Coke) cured her stomach upsets. "It kills the bacteria", reported the sister, and then she promptly added that it probably killed a bit of stomach lining too, maybe even worms.

"The best way to drink medicinal Dilsi is to scull it," advised the sister. The sister highly recommended other sisters to try it, but also warned of the high likelihood of chronic burping.

We at al-Ghariba blog have not tried out this method of ridding oneself of stomach bacteria and do not necessarily endorse it.

More about Dilsi here.

Letter from a Muhajirah 7

We were a bit sick the first few weeks so now we boil the water that we buy for drinking for five minutes because it does not go through enough treatment. It’s pretty cheap here; about 25c US for 10L.

My grand-daughter is happy at her new school. She started about a week after we arrived. She is picking up Arabic now and knows lots of Islamic songs, duas, Hadith and Qur’an, marsha Allah. She goes on the school bus every day and goes off to school happily and comes home happy every day, alhamdulillah. I am so relieved that she is not being brought up in kaffir land.

Alhamdulillah, the main street here has lots of different stores and businesses so usually we can get whatever we need and only sometimes have to travel further to get other stuff.

The masjid is about one minute walk away so you can imagine how loud the athaan is. It is amplified too, so wow! At fajr you can hear about half dozen or more athaans going all at once and it is so beautiful. Every day when I hear the athaan I thank Allah for letting us be here.

We have met quite a few sisters who are also here studying Arabic and Islamic studies. They are from all over the world; America, Kenya, Britain, Somalia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Philippines, Kosovo Russians, Germans, Saudi, Egyptian....and more!

There is a brother here from Kota Bharu who has under his care about 20 teenage boys from Malaysia. They are here to study Arabic and Islamic studies. There are a lot of Malays studying here at the Universities and also at a special Islamic University called Jamaat ul Emaan.

Insha Allah if we ever get a car we can do a bit of sightseeing. There is a variety of places in Yemen with different landscapes and vegetation. Sana’a is one of the coolest, most temperate places in Yemen. Everywhere else it gets very hot. Subhanallah. The temperature range here is between about 17 to 26 in winter and 19 to 33 in summer. It has been very pleasant since we got here. Never had to say ‘it’s so hot!!’ And some mornings have been a bit cold. I had to borrow a jumper from a sister. It really freaked me out to feel cold after being in Asia for five months.
Sometimes you see a big willy willy (small tornado) ripping along. I spotted one a couple of weeks ago; it was picking up paper and plastic bags and lots of sandy dust about 30 metres into the air, I watched as it went along passed some buildings and then crossed the road and hit the qat sellers and chewers – hahahah! Serve them right, may Allah guide them.

We went to “Old Sana’a” about a month after arriving. It was like stepping back in time. So amazing; narrow cobblestone streets lined with little shops selling all kinds of traditional stuff, clothing, jewelry, crafts, spices as well as some modern stuff. One brother was so amazed that we were Muslims all the way from Australia he wouldn’t let us go without giving us gifts and a big discount on our purchase of post cards, masha Allah. He was not chatty, alhamdulillah none of the men here are, but he noticed that we were foreigners and because he meets many foreign tourists who are all kaffirs, so he was so amazed and so happy that we were Muslim alhamdulillah.

I bought my son a gift of a traditional Yemeni sarong (mawas) and a jambiyah and belt (short curved dagger that most men wear here) Marsha Allah. My son was really surprised and he wears it sometimes on Jumah.

The butchers here are, well, different. They have their young cows and goats tied up outside the shop on the footpath, so you can see the condition of the animals before they are slaughtered. Chickens are done in three mins flat – "bismillah" – then skin and feathers all off in one quick action, insides cleaned, head and feet off, liver and heart washed and put back in, all tied up neat in double plastic bag and ready to go! Now that’s fresh! I haven’t got used to taking it home still warm though. Ewww!

One day when I got the chicken home (already cut into four) I put it in the sink to wash it and prepare it when a breast piece started twitching. I didn’t see it at first – my son did. He was laughing and telling me it was moving – I didn’t believe him and told him to stop teasing me. Then I saw it! Oh my goodness! It was really freaky. I threw it into the fridge and left it for a while before I cooked it up. Ewwww!

Getting gas tanks for cooking is not a problem, you can borrow the baqala’s (grocery shop) wheel barrow as my son does or you can pay a boy to roll it down the road for you. It’s scary to see these kids rolling these freshly filled 10kg gas tanks down the road, and the sealed road is scary enough – wait till you see them trying to get them down the unsealed roads! I hear them rolling down the road sometimes and make dua that they arrive safely. No one here seems to worry about it though. Subhanallah- not much OH & S here.

Hard to find Asian foods here though. Have to travel a long way to a big store to get particular spices and sauces.

Taking the (debaab) mini bus is one thing but some of the taxi drivers are lunatics! But you know, although they drive fast and seem a little reckless they are good drivers. They use their horns a lot to let other drivers know they are coming up beside them and not to move into their lane etc. I still find it hard to get used to being on the right side of the road. I keep feeling like we are on the wrong side and are going to crash into something.

Trying to cross any busy street here is very dangerous. Some drivers overtake even when there is traffic coming towards them. And some overtake cars that are overtaking other cars, so you see three lanes of traffic driving down a road meant for one lane of traffic on either side only. They are really mad.

The Yemeni people are interesting. Some women are very quiet and keep to themselves and others will come and give you salams cause they notice you are new in the area and are foreigners – they know when they see the kids. The men are very polite and not chatty alhamdulillah and will help you if they see you need help without talking to you or looking at you.
Every day the power goes off for a couple of hours, sometimes two or even three times a day. You get used to it though. Sometimes it means no water too because we need to run the pump when the tank on the roof is empty. It means more time for Qur’an reading because you can’t do the washing or the ironing or anything else that needs electricity, alhamdulillah.

Daily life here is sort of split into different shifts. Fajr at about 4.50am, kids go to school at 7am, (start at 7.30am) uni students maybe same time or a bit later. Shops and businesses open between 6 and 10 depending on the business. Most places shut from thuhr salat (about 12.15pm) until 'asr salat finished (about 4pm). School finishes at 1.30pm and kids are home by 2pm. They have a snack and then a rest till asr. Then after asr play time and home work time (or go to extra Qur'an class etc), dinner, maghrib, isha and bed by 8pm. Some businesses are open till about 7 or 8pm and others till late, up to 10pm. There is more barakah in time here alhamdulillah. School is Saturday to Thursday and only have Friday off. Most businesses shut Jumah morning at least but open again after asr prayer.

There is a park down the road which is only open after asr on most days but open from early morning on Jumah. It is nicely kept with nice green grass to sit on and some trees and pretty garden beds too. Lots of swings and slippery dips and see-saws. The kids love it. It gets very busy on Jumah. It’s about a 15 minute walk down the road and in the background the huge mountains, Allah Akbar.

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the park to play for a while on Jumah in the afternoon. On the way home it was nearly maghrib time and the sun was shining on the mountains and there were huge clouds piled up above the mountains and it was awesome to see that the clouds were huger than the mountains. It was so spectacular – two of my most favourite things together – clouds and mountains, (my other favourite thing is the sea) Subhanallah! Nothing is better than the creations of Allah swt.

The night sky here is so beautiful too. The sky is very black and the stars so bright subhanallah.
We can get Islamic satellite TV stations here. It is so good. There is Islam; Questions & Answers, there are tajweed lessons, Qur’an recitation, Hadith, Islamic history, Seerah of Rasoolallah saaw, seerah of the Sahabah and sahabat. Science in the Qur’an, kids Islamic cartoons and al Jazeerah in English and BBC news channel. So good, alhamdulillah – what a relief from the garbage on television in Oz. So if you need a little break and have a little spare time you can watch something of benefit – alhamdulillah.

I am sitting typing this and it is isha time, I can hear the imam reciting Qur’an in the first two raka’ah of the prayer, echoing down the roads and across the buildings. It is so beautiful.

Thank you Ya Allah! Ya Rahmaan! for sending me out of the land of kuffr and thank you oh Allah! Ya Kareem! Ya Ghafoor! for providing me with so many ansar and so much barakah!

Wa alaykum salaam warohmatullahi wabarokaatuhu

Your sister in Islam

Muhaajirah from Oz.

Letter from a Muhajirah 6

MY NEW HOME!

Well subhanallah, after many months of travelling I finally made it to Yemen, alhamdulillah and I don’t miss Australia at all! I miss Kota Bharu very much but I do like it here too alhamdulillah. They have very different physical environments and climates. K.B. is so green and a bit humid and Sana’a does not have much greenery and is very dry. The thing I like about both of them though is the Islamic environment. It is such a blessing to be in an Islamic country after living all my life in a kaffir Western country.

When we flew in we couldn’t land because of a dust storm. We had to circle Sana’a for about 40 minutes until visibility improved enough to land. Then we were given a hard time by the authorities at the airport. Seems if you are a kafir tourist you are welcome but if you are a practicing Muslim from outside Yemen they immediately suspect you. They find it hard to understand that a Muslim would leave a “Western” land and prefer to live in relative hardship so they could learn Arabic and live with Muslims and be able to hear the athaan five times a day and Qur’an and thikr on the tongues of the people instead of hearing the athaan of the shaytan – music, and the foul mouths of the kaffirs. Anyway alhamdulillah by the mercy of Allah swt we did get in and we are now studying Arabic and we all have a one year visa.

We stayed with a sister for about a month before we rented our own place which is just across the road from her alhamdulillah. It is just behind a “baqaala”, a grocery shop in a side street, so we don’t have the full noise of the traffic and it is still so close to the main road and shops.
It is a brand new three bedroom house that has a separate lounge and bathroom for the visitors. It has a small driveway / courtyard outside (with a huge 3m high metal gate) and until the owner extends by adding another level on top of us, it is private.

Masha Allah the house is very comfortable and we are very grateful to Allah swt. The windows are classic Yemeni design, large with arches and beautiful metal work on the security bars. Metal workers have plenty of work here making the ornate gates and security bars for windows. They are really good craftsmen, masha Allah. All the houses and apartments are painted inside with gloss paint – which is really good for cleaning but the workmanship on just about everything else is shoddy.

There was paint, plaster, sealant and even concrete splattered everywhere. No corners are 90 degrees. Door frames left unfinished, filling and painting left undone, bad scratches on beautifully carved wooden doors, damage to the bath and sink etc. Never mind, alhamdulillah after a couple of weeks we don’t notice any more and it’s not really important on the scale of things but just sad that the work is not done properly and care is not taken. It is amazing to watch them building though – all timber scaffolding – they build floor by floor, timber bracing everywhere while the concrete is setting. And these buildings are really solid, masha Allah. The walls on most buildings, even interior walls are a foot thick or more and make good noise and temperature insulation. A lot of the homes have beautiful coloured glass work in the windows. It’s not stained glass work but similar.

The masonry work is very attractive too. Some are highly decorative especially in the top part of the window arches. This is where a lot of the coloured glass work happens too. Some ceilings are beautifully decorated with floral or classical designs that are also beautifully painted. I think when you see the view of a suburb or town area it may look a bit hectic, crowded and plain, but when you get to see up close the beautiful work that goes into the buildings inside and out, it is very surprising.

Of course some homes are highly and lavishly decorated inside. Maybe it is because there is a lack of colour in the natural environment so they fill their homes with colour. But subhanallah! – the mountains!! Allah Akbar!! I never get sick of looking at the mountains. The hugeness, the grandness, the changing colours and textures in the different light at different times – I just love them. Sana’a is surrounded by mountains. Some days you can hardly see them because of the dust storms. They’re not storms in the sense of high winds etc, the sky is just full of very fine sandy dust that just seems to hang in the air for hours and hours.

During the summer here we have the ‘wet season’ so it rains a couple of times a week and even thunderstorms sometimes. We had hail one afternoon. Apparently the rest of the year it just doesn’t rain.

None of the streets have storm water drains so when it rains the streets stream with water and because most of the side and back streets are dirt roads they get very muddy.
The air here is very dry, no humidity at all it seems. It’s great for drying the washing. The dryness means lots of static electricity too so you have to watch out touching the car doors and stuff.

You do see trees and plants here and there in people’s yards and the odd public park and some of the main roads have been fixed up and have paved footpaths and median strips with nice trees and flower beds planted along them. You see some native Australian trees here too. Bottle brush, acacia and eucalypts – I guess because they are drought resistant. There are also Bougainvilleas around and they are in colour now, beautiful crimsons and reds.

You don’t see many birds here – sparrows and pigeons and a few others. My daughter in law said she saw some very pretty yellow birds, I haven’t seen them yet. There are cats around, but not as many as Kota Bharu, (Kelantan, Malaysia). A common feature amongst the black and white ones is that they have black spots under their nose so they look like they have black moustaches. It’s very funny looking. One has adopted us. She is about 4 months old, black and white, fluffy like a Persian cat but has a normal cat face, not one that looks like it survived a ‘head on’ with a Mack truck. She was very timid and nervous at first but now thinks she owns the place and even waltzes into the house sometimes. I think she may have been someone’s pet as a small kitten because she is definitely not feral. Most cats you see here look quite healthy and well fed.

One day my daughter in law and I saw a huge tom cat with a head as big as a soccer ball and a big jaw walking along the top of a wall. He stopped and looked up at another wall about a meter away and was calculating his jump to the top of that which was at least a meter higher than the one he was on. Well he took his jump; Wallahi we were amazed to see that only his right foot caught the top of the wall and his other feet were on the wall's side. He paused for a moment then hoisted himself up with that one foot assisted by his other feet scrambling up the side. My daughter in law and I looked at each other with our mouths open in surprise and my daughter in law said to me "I wonder if he has a chin-up bar at home," - we cracked up laughing.
There’s plenty of garbage here for the cats to eat as everyone just chucks their garbage out onto the street. The cats and goats usually get into it before the garbage collection comes.

The goats really make a huge mess ripping open the bags and strewing the rubbish around. They sure look healthy though. Goats eat just about anything. I have seen a couple of different herds around here, but I think they stick to their own areas. Some people even have chickens running around.

There are some dogs around but they stay in their territories and are very shy of people and don’t come out around the neighbourhood until late at night when everyone is in their homes. They are not dangerous at all. They look very healthy too. My son said he saw some dogs and cats sitting around relaxing together! People here generally don’t have cats or dogs as pets. Some people keep dogs as watch dogs though – I have seen them guarding the big brick and tile yard down the road and the ‘qat’ field.

My son said he saw some amazing lizards the other day. Bright blue/green heads and orange / tan bodies. They were sun baking on a wall. I would love to see them.