no, it wasn't a greek philosopher

2010-08-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

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I went inside the house of the super-catholic woman. In the middle of the religious images I saw him. Like an ancient greek philosopher. Some rationalism in the house of a passionate devotee of the holy family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph). Some light in the house of a woman who believes that to get pregnant without the "blessing of God" (read the catholic marriage) is a mortal sin. A nice image of a wise man. Even if they, the ancient greeks, were sexist, they tried to use their brains.

I thought...I remembered...

But no...

it was

Moses!

Sunni muslim women: "What a miracle sister!"

2009-01-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

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Friday. It was too hot. I had to wear the sweater and the big pants. I was late. On the corner of the building I saw a black small woman that I supposed was going to the same place as me. She quickly opened her bag and took out a headscarf before entering the building. I realized that I hadn't one so I managed to catch her before she went up to the second floor. I asked her for a headscarf "sister, please, could you help me with the...?" I said pointing to my head. She went upstairs and after a few moments she appeared again and apologized because the only hijab she found was very transparent. She tried quickly put the headscarf on me however and we both proceeded to the second floor.

It was a small mosque located on the second floor. It was Ramadan. We took off our shoes and crossed the big room behind the men that were praying. The women's room was small and there were few Muslim women. Normally there are few women who go to the mosque on Fridays, because the women with children prefer to stay at home with their children.

Almost falling asleep with the sermon of the imam. "Islam is not A path, it is the ONLY road" he said. After the sermon, some women gave a step in front of the others and put their hands near their faces moving their lips praying. Before some movements, they sat on the floor and moving their lips, they began counting something with their fingers.

There was a conversion that day. A young woman wanted to adopt the Muslim faith. An old man from Canada converted her. "Are you sure? Do you really want to do this? If you want you can have more time to think about it. This is something for life", said the man. "I am sure. I want to do it right now" replied the woman."Ok. Come with me" said the guy and went to the men's room. "What? She is going to be alone with the men?" asked a young woman with her eyes opened wide, like if that was a sin. "We have to go with her! She can't be alone with the men!” And very shy, we went to a corner of the men's room. She had to repeat in front of all, after the old man, that she believes in one God, Muhammad is the prophet...well, the Islam faith. I am not going to describe the whole process here, even if is something simple and small

Then on Saturday I had a meeting with the Muslim women.
It was a beautiful house with just women there, of course. We took off our shoes and since it was just women it was not necessary to wear the hijab. The women, who invited me, introduced me to all the women there. I took a seat in a very beautiful living room (there was two). A small woman started to talk to me. I replied and tried to ask some questions. She told me she was a lawyer who was raised a strict Catholic very much convinced of her beliefs who read the Bible. At one point in her life she wanted to be a nun until she met a nice man from Turkey.

He respected her with her Catholic thoughts and went with her to the church and never tried to change her mind or religion. But he, with his habits, praying, not drinking alcohol, etc., showed her how it was to follow Islam. "We don't start talking about Islam to anybody if the person doesn't ask. That is respect. We have to show with facts how good Islam is, not with words", all the Sunni Muslims (people I met) say the same.

The woman lawyer started to be curious about the Islamic religion. They already were married. She started to study the holy books in Islam: the Quran (the most important) and the hadith books and she realized that "Islam allows you to be reasonable, to think and analyze the facts", so she accepted Islam. She and her husband don’t have any children because they can't, but are thinking about adoption. She says "I am a lawyer, I have my career. My husband gives me the opportunity to choose if I work or if I don't. If he is going to give me all...of course I prefer to not work!” She, as many other Muslim women say that her husband treats her like a queen, even cooking for them. Another woman said "I couldn't come to the women prayers because my husband doesn't allow me because I have many things to do". The lawyer said "What? Ask him that you want to come here! You have the right to come because God give you the whole life...so, how you can't give to God 5 hours per week to learn about Him and about Quran and Islam! I know that on Saturdays I have to get up very early, clean, and cook and leave everything ready in the house to come here to this meeting with you all".

The Western media shows an evil face of Islam, but I have to tell what I saw and what I read about Islam. Men are very protective with women. According to the holy book, the Quran and the hadith, the men must to assure that they are going to provide all the women need. And if the women work, they can spend their money in whatever they want, even if is not something for the house, because it is the men who have the obligation. The father, the brothers and then the husband must do everything to protect the women of all.

The hijab is something that here, in this Latin city of a strong catholic tradition, the Muslim woman can choose to wear or not to wear. But when they go to the mosque, they must cover their heads. The woman who wears a hijab are very convinced that it is to protect their chastity and dignity, and also is wore to not tempt the men and only their husband (and the nearest relatives like the father or brothers) can see their heads.

The Muslim Sunni women consider a lot of things as miracles. "It's a miracle, sister!" Very often they say to each other as they often treat each other as sister or brother. They don't have any mediation to ask things, as the Catholics do for the intermediation of Mary or Jesus. They pray directly to God and they don't use any image to pray. They believe in angels but not in images because "who can say how angels look like?”.

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At the meeting, I asked to one of the woman to put the hijab on me, they said "it looks good on you!".

Muslims are kind. The immam here (a tall man from Trinidad and Tobago) was very kind with me, he gave me two hours for the interview without saying anything uncomfortable because I knew (for other interviews and what I read) that it is not recommended that a woman talk alone with a man. Anyways we were in his office at his job with many people calling him. So, it was ok.

The woman who invited me to the women’s meeting gave me a "masbaha" (or tasbih) a Muslim rosary (beads). They count with the beads and they repeat thirty three times "Soubhan Allah" what means (according to the woman) "the glory is for Allah (God)", then they repeat thirty three times "Al hamdu lillah" what means "praised is God", and finally thirty four times "Allah Akbar" that means "God is the biggest". Muslims can't drink alcohol, but they eat a kind of meat: halal (allowed) meat. The animal is killed in direction of the Mecca (the holy place) and the man who kills must say some prayers and the animal has to die bleeding to death.

The kind woman invited me to Eid al-Adha, which is a religious festival to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael (for the Catholics it was Isaac) as an act of obedience to God. What a funny God, uh? "I want to prove your obedience so kill your son". Even if an angel (according to Muslims) saved Ishmael, and put in his place an animal, it was a "bad joke" of God that proves. I said "I am vegetarian", and she said "but your family isn't, right? Don’t punish them. Come, take pictures and take them meat". They always give meat to all the Muslims and the guests in the festival, and also to the poor people. That is good, but I am not interested in say "say cheese!" to an animal that died bleeding and take him a picture.

Another woman in the Muslim meeting said "when I was not a Muslim, I had started to cook, but since I became a Muslim I noticed that that when I started to pray before cooking and I do it, all my food is delicious". "What a miracle sister!" other woman said. I laugh inside because it could have two senses

Another memorable quotes:
"God sent the other prophets to preach and teach in their towns, but Muhammad was sent to preach and teaching in the world",
"God sent Islam as the perfection of the religion",
"We have to dress well to not make sin the other",
"We the Muslim have to teach with the example".

As in other religions, in the holy book (the Quran) the menstruation is something bad, something impure (sura 2 "The cow", 222). And something funny "the Wives have the same rights as the husbands. Men are a degree above them in status." Or in sura 4, "The women": "Men stand superior to women in that God hath preferred some of them over others, and in that they expand their wealth: and the virtuous women, devoted, careful (in their husbands) absence, as God has cared for them. But those whose perverseness they fear admonish them and remove them into bedchambers and beat them; but if they submit to you, then do not seek a way against them". Despite of it all, you can be surprised even more if you read the Bible, the New or the Older Testament.

I am not going to talk about the polygamy because it is a big topic.

The discipline of the Muslim faith is bigger than the Catholics. Muslim obligation is to pray five times per day...and Catholics should go to the church on Sunday and another 10 commandments like "don't kill" and "don't steal". And the Spaniards introduced Christianity in America stealing and killing.

For talk about Islam, one should read at least some facts about it, know that Sunni is not the same of Sufi or Shii, that being "Muslim" is not the same as being "Arabic", Mohammed is not the God of Muslims and Iran is not an Arabic country. It is important to say that if a woman is convinced of some believes, nobody has to obligate her to do something, and in that environment, the woman is going to think that to act in one way or another way is completely normal. Anyways, we can't say the same for any place in the world. A woman in taliban's Afghanistan can't choose if she wants to or not cover herself completely. But in some places, for example places where the majority is Catholic, the women can choose how deep they want go, and how to manifest their faith.

To sacrifice animals, to ask a man a permisssion for go out and cover my head because of the weakness of the men? It doesn't fit me at all. Thanks a lot to the Muslim women for their hospitality but I prefer keep walking without Religion, King and "Homeland".
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a chicken in the bag

2008-12-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

Zugger and me went trekking. After hours walking through the mountain, we arrived to the street and a dump truck gave us a lift. I was scared puting my leg on the wheel to go up and thinking "hey sir! please don't start to drive or you are going to grind my legs!". The dump truck has sand, and it was a great and happy trip, with the wind on my face. When we got down, to the end of the road, my sneakers were full of sand.

We kept walking and we went to the mountains again. Finally we found a nice place to rest, the view was great but we realized that the "owners" of the place (we don't think that it was private) were felling some trees. That was sad. The city is growing up, and to build in the mountains is very common because is expensive and the poor people are not going to be able to get a house near the buildings of the rich people, or maybe the tree felling was for other purposes

On the road back, in the middle of nowhere, we found a "house". A family out of place was living there: three children, the mother and the father. They had to leave their house because of the situation with the paras in their pueblo. The man worked making charcoal. The children somehow always know how to laugh and play in any situation. The youngest boy had some chickens, and he played putting the chicken inside a bag and some stones on it.

I talked to a friend who is an editor of a newspaper about writing a story about this family. She let me borrow a cameraman, a car and a driver. The children were in the school. We took some pictures, I wrote the article, but she never published the story.

I went there with Zugger again. He was suffering because of the starving dogs, but I was sad because of the children. They were going to stay there, until the job of the father had finish. Then they had to walk with their things and try to get another place to live and another job. There are a lot of out of place people near to the rivers or in the cities begging money, but there, in the middle of the mountains, is not so common. It is not a nice landscape for trekking.

Married to journalism

2008-12-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

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I am studying journalism in an underdeveloped country, or euphemistically "developing country".

I study with a lot of guys that begin their articles like "Mrs. González always wakes up at 4am. She milks the cow, cook the lunch for her 3 children and then walks 8 km to take the bus to go to the city and sell some arepas. She as 35 million of people in this country...".

Ok, and where is the research? there is not. They write their papers in 30 minutes (I have heard them, It is so annoying). They want to be like the writers in this country: old glories who write whatever they want, even nonsense or a lot of rude expressions.

Journalism is my husband (but another husband is allowed), and I'll do my best in this place with the tools we have, like the Flintstone's video camera (They bought new video cameras, but just 3 or 4 and they are not enough)

My other (and personal) tools:

my notebooks my recorder

my camera, an almost disposable chinese manufacture.

And my watch, very important to have my mind in the time and space. I also have a silver ring with "journalism" engraved on the inside. I like the calendars with beautiful landscapes. This one is from Germany.

As you could see, English is not my mother tongue, but I'll do my best.
I am not going to make research papers here, but to write some experiences living in my way.
So...here we go!
I always wake up at 7 in the morning...

DrA. Livingstone, I presume?

no, it wasn't a greek philosopher

Sunni muslim women: "What a miracle sister!"

a chicken in the bag

Married to journalism