March 2005

For March, I offer a series of three events. The first was a day trip to the Druze village on Mount Carmel. The Druze religion originated from Islam, but today the Druze are a distinct group with a distinct culture. Today the village is a busy main street with shops selling everything from local textiles and glassworks to cheap imports from India. The best thing about our visit was haggling for ceramic plaques with "Shalom Y'all" written on them and watching the traditional Druze woman pictured below make bread. On this trip I also managed to get a string of plastic chillis (meaningful for both Arabs and Texans apparently). The second event was a "Refresh and Gladden" gathering at my flat (or "apartment" for the Americans who now want to do me harm for writing "flat"). We basically just went around and shared something that made us happy. And by something, we got a story of killing cockroaches in Africa, an explanation of why a certain type of bug is beautiful, photos of a very large extended family, a sample of decoupage craftwork. I loved this version of "show and tell"; it's such a great way to get to know some of the amazing and amazingly diverse friends here! The third event was a Naw-Ruz, or Baha'i New Years, celebration. Naw-Ruz takes place on March 21st and follows 19 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset. Although the celebration was sponsored by a group that normally puts on talks in Persian, it hosted an evening of songs and dances from a diversity of cultures, including a killer salsa performance (see the photo of the verifiable salsa king and queen below!)