Poetry Cafe

Last week we had "Poetry Cafe" night at Tigergirl's school. It was such a wonderful event for the parents and for the children. In a nutshell, all elementary school children (teachers and parents too) are given the opportunity to perform an original poem in front of an audience made up of other students, parents, and teachers. The children use time at home as well as time in the classroom during the 2 weeks beforehand to prepare their poems. The parent committee (of which I am a part) decorated 4 rooms with various themes (Spa, Garden, Living Room, and Curtain-call) to make room for all of the poets. The rooms were amazing, covered with meters of gauzy materials and beautiful background collages. I wish I had snapped some pictures but I was too busy acting as one of the MC's. The poems were read simultaneously within the four rooms with 3 sections of 8-10 poets in each room. I think those numbers show you how successful the event was and how much the children enjoy writing and reading poetry. I was especially proud that Tigergirl chose to participate. Here is her poem:

My Cat

My Cat has three colors

Orange, white, and black

With a cute black stripe

Right across her nose

Her eyes are as green

As grass

Her belly as fluffy

As cotton candy

She rubs my chin

Purrs and purrs.

When she is excited

Her pupils open wide

I love my cat

I always will

By: Tigergirl

I'm so happy that the kids can attend a school that encourages and supports events like this. :)

Syria and Jordan Part 2

Our last sightseeing day was spent exploring Mt. Nebo and the site of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan river. We found Mt. Nebo after 2 hours of driving through the back country. It seemed to take a tad too long to get there and we found out later that we were right about that as Mt. Nebo is only 10 minutes from the hotel. That is, IF one were to turn left rather than right upon exiting the hotel. Live and learn (or mutter if you are Tigerpapa). It was too hazy to see anything from the lookout point but here's a nice plaque telling you what is out there on a clear day, The Promised Land:


The Jordan river:


The place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus:


Come to visit me and I will take you to all of these places....without any muttering!

Syria and Jordan

We had such a great trip to Jordan (and Syria)! Jordan was so CLEAN and QUIET and the people knew how to DRIVE without causing me to have a heart attack at any moment. I liked Syria too but in a different way. It's kind of like having 2 boyfriends. One is dependable, comforting, and looks good. The other is dangerous, dirty, and a bit of a bad-ass.

It only takes an hour or so to reach the Syrian border from Beirut. Then we waited about an hour while Tigerpapa sorted out my visa and registered the car. It wasn't unpleasant although the anticipation of "trouble" can be somewhat disconcerting as you never know if some border guy is going to decide that you cannot enter that day. We got through with no difficulty and proceeded to drive to Damascus where we would spend one day exploring before continuing to Jordan.

Damascus was an interesting place and I look forward to going back there so that we can see more of it. Due to our time restraint, we only saw the souk and the Umayyad mosque:



The entrance to the souk from the Mosque. You can see how old the pillars are here:


The entrance to the souk from the other side:


Some of the things to buy in the souk:







The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Jordan after spending an hour trying to get out of Damascus. I heard tigerpapa mutter something about a F-@#*$-ing Labrynth and then something about how my map-reading skills weren't very good and if he had his friend so-and-so with him we wouldn't be so lost.....blah, blah, blah!

Anyhoo, we eventually made it to the border where we waited another hour or so to do all the visa-getting and car-registering we had done at the Syrian border all over again. Soon enough we were pulling in to our Bedouin camp to spend the next 3 nights of our trip. Bedouin Camp:



Near the camp:


The camp was very close to Petra so that is where we spent the first day we were there. Petra:



The second day in Jordan we drove down to Wadi Rum and (using our very own Rav4) explored this vast and beautiful desert area. I started out doing the driving but, after a few fishtails, Tigerpapa took over whilst doing some more of his muttering....blah, blah, blah. Wadi Rum (7 Pillars of Wisdom):


Wadi Rum, The Camel:


The morning of our 3rd day in Jordan, we moved to a really nice resort hotel on the Dead Sea. Here is the view from our room:


The kids enjoying the mud from the Dead Sea:


For some reason I can't add any more pictures to this post so I will end here and put the rest in a "Part 2" post later.

Mata ne!