I do wish all of you peaceful days and all the best at the turn of the year!
Montag, 22. Dezember 2008
Montag, 10. November 2008
Some weeks later I’m done collecting plush toys. I’m still overwhelmed by the strong response of friends and colleagues. Thank you all so much!!!
So now I’m sitting in the middle of dogs, mice, rabbits, birds, bears (of course they outnumber the others…), sheep, cows, lions, elephants, monkeys, turtles, hippos and so many more and feel like in wonderland. I did wash and dry all of them...
...and now will put them into two big boxes and send them to Dohuk and Bagdad.
... I had to climb pretty high to get this pic ... ;)
They could be even more since a friend collected toys in her school but because of a misunderstanding the package went to a shelter for disabled children in Frankfurt/Main. Maybe she will collect some more and send them herself to Iraq. But I couldn’t stand the big brown boxes in my kitchen anymore and am happy to finally send them away.
Some of the collected will stay with me. I tell you which ones so you know what you don’t want in case you decide to collect plushies for peace too. Some of them I couldn’t clean without cracking them. Others had electric devices inside which make them talk or whistle or bark. Because Iraq is a war zone I wanted to make sure that nobody at the customs would suspect anything else but a friendly gift for children who need it. So some of theses devices I could remove, the others will stay with me in Germany and I have to think what to do about them. Somebody send me a very sweet little pink pig holding a heart. But in Islam pigs are impure, even worse than dogs. This knowledge led me to the decision to not send the pig to the kids of Iraq because I don’t want to offend anybody.
EDIT: The young man who is the reason of my little collecting story told me that he is sure nobody in Bagdad would have been offended by the little pink pig. But still, I remember an artikel in the Yemen Times, condemning "M&Ms" because of the big feet of the advertisement guys, and think my decision was not entirely wrong. However the pig now is loved by the daughter of a friend of mine *g*
My contact person in Bagdad promised to send me some pictures of the arrival of the toys in Bagdad. So stay tuned, I will post them ;)
So now I’m sitting in the middle of dogs, mice, rabbits, birds, bears (of course they outnumber the others…), sheep, cows, lions, elephants, monkeys, turtles, hippos and so many more and feel like in wonderland. I did wash and dry all of them...
...and now will put them into two big boxes and send them to Dohuk and Bagdad.
... I had to climb pretty high to get this pic ... ;)
They could be even more since a friend collected toys in her school but because of a misunderstanding the package went to a shelter for disabled children in Frankfurt/Main. Maybe she will collect some more and send them herself to Iraq. But I couldn’t stand the big brown boxes in my kitchen anymore and am happy to finally send them away.
Some of the collected will stay with me. I tell you which ones so you know what you don’t want in case you decide to collect plushies for peace too. Some of them I couldn’t clean without cracking them. Others had electric devices inside which make them talk or whistle or bark. Because Iraq is a war zone I wanted to make sure that nobody at the customs would suspect anything else but a friendly gift for children who need it. So some of theses devices I could remove, the others will stay with me in Germany and I have to think what to do about them. Somebody send me a very sweet little pink pig holding a heart. But in Islam pigs are impure, even worse than dogs. This knowledge led me to the decision to not send the pig to the kids of Iraq because I don’t want to offend anybody.
EDIT: The young man who is the reason of my little collecting story told me that he is sure nobody in Bagdad would have been offended by the little pink pig. But still, I remember an artikel in the Yemen Times, condemning "M&Ms" because of the big feet of the advertisement guys, and think my decision was not entirely wrong. However the pig now is loved by the daughter of a friend of mine *g*
My contact person in Bagdad promised to send me some pictures of the arrival of the toys in Bagdad. So stay tuned, I will post them ;)
Samstag, 8. November 2008
Birthdaytime again.
So after celebrating at midnight and some hours of sleep me and four friends entered a car and went to Gorleben. By chance my birthday and a big demonstration against the usage of nuclear energy happened to be at the same date. And since I’ve never been to this kind of demonstration before but think it’s an important subject these days I decided to go there and celebrate the fortune of life.
Compared to other demonstrations I’ve been to this one was the most peaceful and relaxed meeting of thousands of people. We were walking and talking und smiling and laughing all day long. Next to us, wearing green or black and being forced to stand straight almost all the time, were policemen and –women, some of them stunningly young, some smiling and others not batting an eyelid. It was impossible to ignore them but until the end of the day they were just standing there waiting.
We went home when it got dark, not without sitting for some minutes with the people that planned to stay the next nights to the moment when the as we call it castor would arrive, trying to stop it at least for a few minutes. For the time of the whole demonstration three people had stopped the train near the french-german border chaining themselves to the rails. But walking back to our car we saw lots of police stepping in order, giggling as if being on a trip with classmates and preparing to encircle our sitting comrades. Watching them was the only negative hunch of the day.
Lucky me!
So after celebrating at midnight and some hours of sleep me and four friends entered a car and went to Gorleben. By chance my birthday and a big demonstration against the usage of nuclear energy happened to be at the same date. And since I’ve never been to this kind of demonstration before but think it’s an important subject these days I decided to go there and celebrate the fortune of life.
Compared to other demonstrations I’ve been to this one was the most peaceful and relaxed meeting of thousands of people. We were walking and talking und smiling and laughing all day long. Next to us, wearing green or black and being forced to stand straight almost all the time, were policemen and –women, some of them stunningly young, some smiling and others not batting an eyelid. It was impossible to ignore them but until the end of the day they were just standing there waiting.
We went home when it got dark, not without sitting for some minutes with the people that planned to stay the next nights to the moment when the as we call it castor would arrive, trying to stop it at least for a few minutes. For the time of the whole demonstration three people had stopped the train near the french-german border chaining themselves to the rails. But walking back to our car we saw lots of police stepping in order, giggling as if being on a trip with classmates and preparing to encircle our sitting comrades. Watching them was the only negative hunch of the day.
Lucky me!
Sonntag, 31. August 2008
Long time no sign.
I have been quiet busy since returning from Jordan to Germany. I left some friends there and at other places in the world. So now it seems to be time to write about my travelling in the language all of them can understand. The good news about that: I will write much shorter – and I know that some of you will really appreciate that. That’s okay with me ;)
I visited Egypt, returned to Germany, found a flat, finished my studies, tried to keep my Arabic, met old friends and started working again. Two days ago I came back from a trip with my bike to Bremen and back home and saw some things I would like to present in here. I also sorted the pictures of Egypt – which definitely was hard work – and will show some of them. But I guess this will take some more time because the computer sometimes is doing strange things when it’s about pictures …
In the future I will invite my friends from time to time to see what is going on in my life because I’m very, very bad in staying in touch and want to give them the chance to find out where I am. To the ones who found these pages without my help: You are very welcome too.
Since I think my time in Jordan was way to short I plan to go to Syria for at least a year. Thinking about how to earn money a friend in Damascus had a wonderful idea: Teaching German. So I will start new studies during the next weeks and learn how to become a teacher. This will take about one year time, so I hope to see Syria in 2009.
Besides I will hopefully improve my Arabic and do some things for my fathers folks. As all of you will know changing a flat means to let things go, to give them away, often even throw them in the trash. I had lots of plush toys in my cellar for years and now decided to give them away. I read about a orphan’s shelter in Dohuk, Northern Iraq, and will try to contact them and send my toys for the kids. So if you are in Germany and have some toys you will never play with again, send me your little loved ones.
I have been quiet busy since returning from Jordan to Germany. I left some friends there and at other places in the world. So now it seems to be time to write about my travelling in the language all of them can understand. The good news about that: I will write much shorter – and I know that some of you will really appreciate that. That’s okay with me ;)
I visited Egypt, returned to Germany, found a flat, finished my studies, tried to keep my Arabic, met old friends and started working again. Two days ago I came back from a trip with my bike to Bremen and back home and saw some things I would like to present in here. I also sorted the pictures of Egypt – which definitely was hard work – and will show some of them. But I guess this will take some more time because the computer sometimes is doing strange things when it’s about pictures …
In the future I will invite my friends from time to time to see what is going on in my life because I’m very, very bad in staying in touch and want to give them the chance to find out where I am. To the ones who found these pages without my help: You are very welcome too.
Since I think my time in Jordan was way to short I plan to go to Syria for at least a year. Thinking about how to earn money a friend in Damascus had a wonderful idea: Teaching German. So I will start new studies during the next weeks and learn how to become a teacher. This will take about one year time, so I hope to see Syria in 2009.
Besides I will hopefully improve my Arabic and do some things for my fathers folks. As all of you will know changing a flat means to let things go, to give them away, often even throw them in the trash. I had lots of plush toys in my cellar for years and now decided to give them away. I read about a orphan’s shelter in Dohuk, Northern Iraq, and will try to contact them and send my toys for the kids. So if you are in Germany and have some toys you will never play with again, send me your little loved ones.
Donnerstag, 28. August 2008
Mittwoch, 27. August 2008
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