Did a Muslim walk on the moon?

Someone once insisted to me that a Muslim space shuttle made it to the moon before the American one did. She was a teacher I had in college, and she thought that fact proved that Muslims were superior to Americans. I asked her when that was and what the mission was called and she just kept repeating the word for “space shuttle” in Arabic and eventually I gave up.

Some time later I got on the internet and did some Googling in both languages and found out that there was a rumour that Neil Armstrong heard the athan on the moon and converted to Islam there. (The rest of this story is under a cut).

Pot Plants Found Growing In Canadian Cities

A pot plant (some sources report there was more than one) was spotted growing among other plants in a Vancouver traffic circle near Ontario St. and 19th Avenue.

At least one of the neighbours was in favour of it:

"Someone's bound to throw seeds in one of these places," said nearby resident Eric Lamond, one of several people on the scene Monday, who smelled the plant and inspected its buds.

He said he's noticed other marijuana plants growing in similar traffic circles in the area.

"I love it," he told CBC News. "It's beautiful, it's a beautiful plant, we should all be enjoying it right? It's nature." (CBC July 20th 2015)

 The plant was gone a day later, but it turned out to have been "legal and harmless" as it was a male cannabis plant:

Vancouver police Sgt. Randy Fincham said the plant was removed for analysis and found to be a male cannabis plant, which produces little to no THC, the chemical responsible for marijuana's psychological effects.

Fincham added it's unlikely police will find the person who planted the seeds. (Huffington Post July 23 2015)

If the plant was female, it would be illegal and would have to be destroyed. Police found the plant was male, which means it is just a (totally legal) hemp plant and the other marijuana plants in the traffic circle can remain. Toronto Star July 21 2015)

 It's likely the seeds were planted by marijuana activists:

Dana Larsen, a marijuana reform activist from Vancouver, said he’s tried to plant seeds a number of times, but the plants usually get destroyed.

“Normally, they get spotted by someone before they get so large,” Larsen said. He suspected the plant was grown from a clone or cutting in order to give it a head start.

Larsen said people plant marijuana in public spaces because they believe it should be legal, and like to see it thrive alongside other vegetation.

“If you put it in your backyard, you can get arrested. If you put it in a public space, everyone can enjoy it,” he said. (Toronto Star July 21 2015)

 This isn't unusual for Canada.  A week before, pot plants were found growing in public planters in Swift Current, Saskatchewan:

Swift Current RCMP found a different and unusual kind vegetation in one of the city's planters. Officers were called to the 200 and 300 block of Central Avenue North on Monday. They found several marijuana plants growing amongst other flowers, turning the plant holders into pot holders. 

"Somebody ... dropped some seeds; that would be the most logical reason," said Swift Current RCMP Staff Sergeant Gary Hodges.

"We have no idea of who was responsible for it."

RCMP officers have removed and destroyed the plant.  It is not known how long the marijuana plants have been growing before being detected. They have since been removed and thrown out.

Hodges also noted it was a type of plant which has a lower THC level than what would be found in medicinal marijuana.  (CBC July 17 2015)

The plants were certainly very pretty:

Beatboxing with a recorder

This is is Medhat Mamdouh, he’s a 22-year-old hip hop and dubstep recorder player from Cairo.  He’s been teaching himself this beatbox-recorder style since he was 14.  This article links to his social media sites.  He’s on Facebook and YouTube and Soundcloud.

Gracie is a stubborn cat

Our tabby cat Gracie sees me hold up my phone to take a picture of her and turns her head, every time. Not just a little bit, as far as it goes so I can't get a picture that isn't terrible. I swear she knows what she's doing. I posted a picture of her doing it on Instagram today, but that's only funny once.

So my Instagram is almost entirely pics of Jesse (and flowers, I photograph a lot of flowers), except on the rare occasion where I catch Gracie sleeping. But she clearly doesn't want her picture taken (do cats even understand what photos are though?), so I haven't been photographing her recently. People were starting to wonder what happened to her. Nothing, she's just stubborn.

Eid al-Fitr 2016

It’s dawn on Eid morning and there are no other Muslims here and no masjids.  No takbeer.  No one will ring my doorbell to ask for eidiyya.  No children in new clothes.  No Eid swing.  No cap guns.  No ma3moul.  I have a doctor’s appointment this morning.

Eid mubarak everyone.

 

 

Let me tell you about our cats

We have a female tabby cat named Gracie and a male black cat named Jesse. They're both around sixteen years old. They're both barn cats, but they're in the house a lot too.

Gracie isn't shy, but she doesn't usually like to be touched. Sometimes she does like to be touched, but there's no way to know which one it is this time unless you try. I don't usually try unless she's rubbing against my legs. I let her make contact first. Usually though, she just comes in and eats and leaves again. That's fine. That's how she is.

Jesse is very shy and very skittish. I lived here for months before he would even come near me. He's always out running around in the fields, but he's also skinny and he's always hungry. I used to leave kibble for him under the porch. When the weather got warmer, I started leaving the side door open to get some fresh air and he started coming inside the house to eat. He comes in and noisily chows down at least three times a day, and he's eating upstairs with my brother too. He's probably only thin because he runs constantly.

When Jesse finishes eating, he stands on the other side of the room from me and yowls at me to come pet him. If I'm busy, he will come closer, and I'll stick my hand out, but he won't come within reach, even if he's only an inch from the ends of my fingers. I don't know what that cat's deal is, but I always have to get up to pet him. And I usually do. My brother doesn't, but he says Jesse's been doing that forever and nobody knows why. He's unlikely to stop now.

My mom tells me not to let the cat train me, but I don't mind. Life is short and his life will be much shorter. He’s already sixteen. He won’t be around forever. I don’t mind getting up a few times a day to pet him and make him happy.

He's extremely affectionate and can't get enough attention, now that he trusts me. During the day, he will sit on the couch for a while, drooling and kneading and purring like an outboard motor while I pet him, and then go back out again for a while. He comes back in in the early evening and spends all evening and night sleeping on the couch beside me, snoring softly. I stay up all night while the whole house is asleep, so it's nice to have company, even if he's asleep too.

Zayd and Abeed

There once was a man who was poor but generous named Abeed who had a sister who was married to a miserly rich man named Zayd.  One day guests came to visit the generous poor man Abeed, and Zayd knew this because of their many camels which they had knelt down in front of his wife’s brother's house.  He was happy because he knew that Abeed would not be able to be generous to that great many guests.   Except that Zayd’s wife – and she hated his miserliness – bet him a hundred she-camels which she would give to him if her brother was not generous with his guests, and she would take their like from her husband if her brother was able to be generous with them.

Sarhan and the daughter of the King of Time

There was and there was not, long long ago, a beautiful girl named Za’afiran, who lived in the palace of her father the King of Time.  She refused to marry any boy, except one who could challenge her with his intelligence, and present her a riddle she had no knowledge of.  The case of Za’afiran became famous in the four corners of the kingdom and all of the wadis, and a number of young men presented themselves to her, but all of them failed to stump her with a riddle she had not heard. 

Bedour and Masrour or bravery is more important than blood.

It is said that a man had a beautiful daughter named Bedour, and his brother had a son who wanted to marry her, but her father refused and married her to a young man named Masrour from a far country because he was famous for bravery.

After some time had passed Bedour longed to visit her family, so she asked her husband to accompany her along the journey, and he agreed immediately to begin their journey as soon as he had arranged for his work during their absence and he prepared some presents from his goats for his in-laws, just as he prepared one of his purebred horses for the trip.

While they were on the road, night descended upon them, and they decided to stay next to a tree along one of its flanks, where they set up their tent and its mattresses and they wanted to kindle a fire so that Bedour could cook their dinner on it.  And they knew that there were people staying the night alongside them, so Masrour asked Bedour to go to them to bring a flaming torch while he would slaughter the ewe and prepare her for roasting.

Imti and Jebel al-Akhdhar

On the last day of the Eid holiday we went out to Imti, a small town in al-Batinah province.  The census data I can find says Imti had a population of 72 in 2010, but it has to be more that that.   My friends pointed out the houses of people they were related to - quite a few.  We walked around the house and their uncle showed us his fruit trees - banana, papaya, lemon, some citrus and a Malaysian fruit I couldn't find a name for in English, the famous Khalas date palm with dates spread out drying in the sun.  There were pigeons in a cage, and a honeycomb swarming with bees in the Malaysian fruit tree.  We sat inside and visited, and ate way too much fruit and meat and rice.  These friends always give me a separate plate and a spoon and eat together from the main platter with their fingers - it's kind, but I'm not sure why they do it.  

We had a brief nap and my friends woke me up - they were going to Jebel al-Akhdar (the Green Mountain), did I want to come.  So seven adults squeezed into a small SUV meant to seat four (a few people sat on the floor between the back seat and the hatch) and set off up the mountain.  My friend's uncle was driving way too fast and passing on the oncoming lane on switchback turns where you couldn't see if anyone was coming.  People kept telling me about terrible accidents that had happened on that road and I spent the whole trip clutching my purse and praying and peering over the driver's shoulder.  Then we went to the Jebel Akhdar Hospital, which was small and nearly empty (there were six patients listed on the whiteboard at the nursing station) to visit the uncle's granddaughter who had been in hospital for three days with a respiratory infection.  I always feel awkward visiting people I don't know when they're sick, but they didn't seem to mind strangers standing around. 

Solanum spp. (devil's apple or apple of Sodom) growing in the hospital parking lot.  It looks a lot like a tomato and it's related to the tomato, but it's quite poisonous.

There were also datura spp. growing in the parking lot.  Also poisonous.

I thought the hospital parking lot would be all I saw of Jebel Akhdar, but after the hospital we went to Wadi Bani Habib.  The parking lot was full of trucks with people selling pomegranates off the tailgates.  

A boy saw me taking pictures of the pomegranates and tossed me two and wouldn't let me pay him.  I walked down the stairs in the wadi a ways and took some pictures of the old village, but there wasn't time to go all the way down into the wadi and then back the other side to the village.  I would have liked to see the houses up close, but the path would have been too steep and long for me to make it anyhow.

Jebel Akhdar was cold and had trees, just like people said it did, although they were scrubby little ones.  I didn't get a close enough look at the trees to know what they were.

We were planning to drive back then, but an aunt of the girl who was in hospital phoned my friend's uncle and insisted we visit, so we went to see her.  The yards in her neighbourhood were crowded with pomegranate trees laden with huge fruit, I had never seen so many.

I think I took this at their uncle's house in Imti.  The pomegranates in Jebel Akhdar were larger and rosier.

We ate tons of fresh pomegranates and oranges and coffee, everyone sharing three cups and rinsing them in the fingerbowl between turns.  By that time it was nearly seven pm and everyone had to work tomorrow, but the lady wanted us to stay for dinner.  She made Eid kabobs, and flatbread with potato curry and hummus and cheese and olives.  I felt awkward not doing anything because she had about eight small children to look after, and she'd gone to a lot of work to make that much food, but she was glad to have guests.  We passed the smallest baby around to keep her entertained, and she was so cute.  The girl who was in hospital's father signed her out of hospital that night against doctor's orders, so her aunt would have less kids to take care of at least, because she had been taking care of her sister's kids while her sister stayed with her daughter who was in hospital.

And then we went back down the mountain in the dark - their uncle didn't drive as fast that time, and went around the police checkpoint so they wouldn't have to notice how many people he had in the car.  His nephews run the checkpoint so he could do that, but I didn't intially know that and was kind of scared.  Going around checkpoints is a really bad idea in most places I've lived. 

When we got back to Imti, the men were just being served supper, and we had more coffee and fruit and talk while we waited for them.  And then the long drive back to Muscat, where my room was hot and stuffy and empty and I lay awake for a long time. 

I didn't get much sleep, but I did have a nap on my office floor this morning.  I wore men's one-riyal crocs to work - I only realised I was still wearing them when I got in, oops. But the boss isn't in today, but I come in early and leave late and we spend all day in the office with the door locked, so hardly anyone will notice.