A Moroccan table

Again, and as I mentioned in previous posts, food always has this “magical and beautiful way of bringing people together”

This time we are in the house of a Moroccan couple.

About the guests and food. 

A Modern version of the Amazigh Tajin. 

The wife invited me and a lovely Pakistani middle aged woman, who brought along 4 of her daughters, for lunch at hers. She had already prepared most of the dishes the night before. So we -the guests-  didn’t really contribute much in the food making. We enjoyed watching her fix the last dish – Tajin –  which was meant to be served hot straight from the stove, though.

A different Ramadan table.

As Ramadan approaches I can’t help but think about the previous Ramadans, spent in different places on the globe.

What benefit have I gained from it? What shouldn’t I have done? What should I have done instead? Self evaluation is pretty crucial to me. I try to learn from the past as much as I can.

Ramadan 2012 was the first month I’ve ever spent with a family other than my own (i.e. my family-in-law). It was a new experience for me; one that I had never thought about or even imagined in the past.

North African/Amazigh Tattoos.

I drew this in order to give an idea about where
some tattoos are done and what they look like. 

Tishraat (Lewshem, Harquus) are words used to describe the different patterns tattooed on the Face, the neck, the back of hands and knuckles, wrists, forearms, feet and knees by the Berber women in North Africa. These patterns come in specific shapes, such as, diamond ones, squares, thin zigzagged lines, dots, triangles and crosses. They can also form shapes of the local jewellery designs.

These Tattoos are an ancient tradition. The native North African Berber ladies (the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia, Siwa Oasis in Egypt, North Mali, Chad, Mauritania and the western Sahara) have them done for various motives.
Some of these reasons are:

• To beautify themselves. 
• To indicate their pride in belonging to a particular tribe. 
• To indicate the marital status of the lady or the number of children she has got. 

Greetings

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم 

اللهم صل و سلم و بارك على محمد 

ربي إهدنا فلا هادي لنا غيرك، و وفقنا لما تحب و ترضى 

 اللهم زدني علما نافعا 

"Azul!" is how Numidya greets people. It isn't just her, it is the way the Amazighs of North Africa greet each other. That was the Numidian's greeting is the past. It remained the same until now. That's how we greet in Tamazight language. It simply means 'Hello' in English.


Why Numidya? 

Let's go back in time, shall we? The time of Massinissa and Jugurtha ... the time of Syphax ad Micipsa.

...[Numidia was the name of an ancient Amazigh kingdom (aka the Berbers by the Greeks and Romans). A land that stretched from west Carthage (Tunisia) covering all of north Algeria, and went all the way to enter Morocco, passing Oran by a few kilometers. That territory was inhabited by two significant Amazigh tribes; The Masylii in the east, led by King Gala, and the Masaesyli in the west under the reign of King Syphax.   >>> See map.

The Amazigh presence was not limited to Numidia only. They were widespread across North Africa. They were -and still are- in Western Egypt (Siwa Oasis city), Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara and the Canari islands. They are also found in North Mali, Niger and Chad. The Language, culture, food, traditions and the lifestyle are still prominent across all these areas.]... 


So, to answer the question, I am an Amazigh lady from the land that was previously called Numidia. I love history, cultures and identities. Therefore, I picked  this name for my doll and blog as it represents me (or I represent it) and everything else I like. The rag doll is also another representation of myself, hence, her presence here.

Why a doll?

I love cartoons, puppets used by ventriloquists and rag dolls. Plastic ones aren't really my thing. My dream was to either create my own cartoon, or make my own puppet show. I tried making a Manga when I was a teen. I also tried making puppets with socks, but they weren't good enough. Now that -with God's will- I managed to make this doll, it's a way for me to revive the dream and give it flesh.


What's this blog about?

With God's help and will. I intend to break up this space into different categories depending on the topics I'll be posting.

The posts will include topics that include but not limited to:

• Hobbies
• Crochet
• Food and recipes. 
• Leisure activities 
• Anecdotes and stories.
• Teaching.
• Social interactions - cultures, identities, traditions. etc 
• Memories and Souvenirs. 
• Things taken for granted. 

Thank you for visiting and I hope you find something interesting here.

xxx

A soothing moment.

Tina, a lovely lady, in her 40s, lives in a small apartment in London. She is unemployed because she is physically impaired. She suffers from Arthritis. Through some friends and family members, she got to know of a wealthy lady -in her late 50s called Sally. Sally lives in a three story villa with her children and husband. She has everything she could ever wish for. She spends her days running errands that involved spending money abundantly. Sally heard of Tina's condition, and thus, decided to get closer to her. She would invite Tina over to her house. Then, she would exhibit all the different kinds of desserts, leftover of delicious meals, sweets and drinks that fill up fridge to her guest. After that, she would offer to make her a cheese or a plain/dry chicken breast sandwich. Tina would always accept the food politely and thank the host appropriately before she leaves.
One day, Tina was invited to go over to Sally's house. As usual, Sally goes to open the fridge to show off the blessing god’s bestowed upon her, but this time something unusual followed that…