Muslims

[sarahaziz 0]

STI is such a bad company i swear - The cards I get are 100% no taxes or connection fees thats I go to that extracheapphonecards.com. If you buy 4 you get a little discount. The connection on that card has NEVER i mean NEVER failed me it's so clear. $4.65 (5$ card) currently gives me 35 minutes exactly (i checked on my call timer) It's better getting them online vs going out and buying them and people taking extra money from you.

oh yeah and using Local access numbers save you cents too

before the economy drastically started declining i was wondering if we'd one day experience free calls internationally ...lol just a pondering thought

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

we've talked everyday every single day. If there was connection problems he'd travel to another city or stay awake till 3 am over there. I swear the wait is soooooooooo worth it!!

I used to use phone cards off of stiphonecards.com They started misrouting calls so I'd wake up some poor Israeli people I've been just using my verizon cell phone now. I get rates for .20 a minute if I pay verizon $3/month. I switched for a while though to use virgin mobile phone (he left his cell here since it would not work in paletine). But even so we'd go through phone cards every other day. It's a pain:(

OK you can get 43-58 minutes for $5 (depending on whether you're calling a land line or a cell, and depending on which cell service) with the Aquarius card from Speedy Pin -- check it out at www.speedypin.com. I usually buy in bulk -- they give an extra 5% discount on $40 orders.

[palilover 1]

I'll check those phone cards out thanks. Habibi gives me ####### about my phone bill all the time (even though he doe snot pay it:) He has said to me before "you dont need to call me 3 times a day, just once a day is ok" haha but when I do call he does not complain then:) It's only if I complain about the bill so i stopped complaining.

Speaking of complaining....when I was in Palestine, I talked for free. My phone worked miraculously because verizon does not have sim cards in their phone and they only have the american technology. I did not expect my phone to work since it was unlocked. So I get there and i'm sitting in the waiting room at Ben Gurion waiting to be "questioned" and my phone goes off. I answer it and it's him calling to see if I was in Israel yet, lol I talked on my phone way too much in Palestine. ANd I've never been charged by my phone comapny for it. I hope they never find out about me using my phone for free on Israeli network:)

[Henia 11]

Well, I do agree 3 times a day is alot ... but if you can afford and your heart tells you that you must hear his voice ... then who cares! Afterall money does come and go! Soon you will hear it in personal enchallah!

[April and Mohamed 0]

I'm fascinated by how often any conversation about Islam or being Muslim turns into a discussion about hijab for women, especially among converts. Most Muslim women don't cover, but on message boards, you would think it's what Islam is all about for Muslimas. Strange.

huh??

I don't think she was meaning offence, just an observation. Maybe it is because we are women that we discuss hijab, I dunno. "wonders what main topics brothers babble on about"

lol i dont know but im confused i have been muslim all my life and everyone that i know uses hijab so that kind of shocked me......but i know when we are in pakistan u can always see the men that have women problems they set in the market drinking tea and all their friends trying to give them advise how to fix the problem lol it is very cute

awww hehe so men do same thing as women? Well, they'd never admit it though:) Interesting observation though. That did amaze me though when I was in Palestine. All the men would hang out with men and hardly talk to their wives. I kept asking my husband "Don't these guys have wives to go home to?" I thought that a bit weird. But to each his own I guess:)

My mom made the interesting observation out here that it's not that the guys want to be in the cafés, it's that they've most likely been kicked out of the house by the women who want to have guests over for tea, and my mom observed that women pretty much rule the roost here in northeast Morocco which I'd agree with so she actually felt sorry for all the poor chaps displaced in the cafés!!! Haha. We women get to make good food and good tea while the guys are stuck with the poor-quality ####### they serve in the cafés, I'd rather make my own stuff any day. And I actually like it when my husband goes to the café, it gives me a break, and I definitely like hanging out with the women of his family, it's like hanging out with my own girlfriends back home, because I need my girl time and he needs his guy time. I love it when relatives come back for the summers because then he's out with his cousins and friends who live in Europe and I get to visit with his cousins or his cousins' wives, etc. But I'm one of the lucky ones!

As for charity, I only do zakat once a year, and I do sadaqa (charity) once or twice a month, depending on when I can go hit up the ATM. My neighbor who lives directly across from me in an apartment building is poor and they have 2 little boys and her husband just had an accident at work, he's a carpenter and he cut off two or three fingers so basically he's screwed, so I try to buy them things that are a bit expensive like oil and laundry detergent and chicken, because her husband still goes to the shop trying to work so it's not like he's sitting on his butt saying "oh I'm such a miskeen" and she cleans houses too so I try to help out a little bit because they're both making efforts to help themselves, THOSE are the kind of people in MY opinion that really deserve charity, not the people glued to the sidewalk with their hand out, and they have a kid next to them posing as their daughter or son when it's really their neighbor's kid that they "borrow" to receive donations from people. It's my dream one day to sponsor a young couple who are poor and who want to get married, that I'll pay for their wedding and give a little extra $ to start with, what more beautiful kind of sadaqa could one give than to help a couple get married, after all it is half the deen It's unfair that couples are kept from getting married because the cultural standards of weddings call for such expensive weddings and it's heshooma if they have a small wedding so their families would rather not even bother which only puts the couple in a hard situation, don't you think? At least out here in the northeast, they'd rather break the bank and create debts with everyone they know than to have a small simple wedding, and for what? It's just one day! It's not like all that $ is going to guarantee that the marriage will be a success, if that were the case then of course by all means, go for the gusto. I'm lucky to have had a beautiful taksera wedding, but my heart goes out to those who can't afford it, out here, in the States, and everywhere.

[Henia 11]

Here too, in Algeria women rule the roost. Men are basically "displaced" to sit on the corner stoop or in the cafe. Esp, when I know these are unemployed men. I have a neighbour, who is pregnant, her husband does not work. Not that it is my business ... but I just want to kick him in his backside sometimes! Get a job, man!

I rarely see, amoung my neighbours ... the men bringing around their friends for coffee ... while the women have their guests over daily. Something, I guess become cultural acceptable since women in 2 generations pior did not even leave the house.

Saddening, how sometimes one can be coming home from functions and still see men outside just sitting there at 1 or 2am! LOL ... go home already! Makes me wonder what type of homelife they have ... maybe they donnot want to go home!

[April and Mohamed 0]

Here too, in Algeria women rule the roost. Men are basically "displaced" to sit on the corner stoop or in the cafe. Esp, when I know these are unemployed men. I have a neighbour, who is pregnant, her husband does not work. Not that it is my business ... but I just want to kick him in his backside sometimes! Get a job, man!

I rarely see, amoung my neighbours ... the men bringing around their friends for coffee ... while the women have their guests over daily. Something, I guess become cultural acceptable since women in 2 generations pior did not even leave the house.

Saddening, how sometimes one can be coming home from functions and still see men outside just sitting there at 1 or 2am! LOL ... go home already! Makes me wonder what type of homelife they have ... maybe they donnot want to go home!

Exactly! LOL I love it!! Hahahaha. Yeah I think that the whole not bringing their friends over for tea is because it's common knowledge that the house is the woman's territory and the cafés are for men's entertainment. I live in a tiny city here on the border and there are NEVER any women EVER in the cafés because everyone knows each other and that's just the way it is. Kind of weird at first but after my mom's observation it kind of made me happy that we get to keep the house and that it's not US being displaced elsewhere lol! I notice that the guys always stay out late when the women have guests over, and also in my husband's family the guys do have guests over, but when they do we know at least a day in advance because we're the cooks so we have to be prepared and we give the men our shopping list to bring us our ingredients, then when the guests come over we stay in the kitchen and close the curtain so they don't see us because we're all running around in lbass without scarves hehe. Especially in the summer when the kitchen gets way too hot! So you're in Jaza'er huh? I live in Ahfir, know where that is? I think our cultures are almost identical because here on the border we share a lot of Algerian customs and even language from the dialect, we speak a darija quite different from Western Morocco. Eat any bouzalouf lately? Do you guys wear jabador and jellabas and stuff like that too? I love it here, been here a year. How long have you been there? Baslama w tel belati inchallah!

[palilover 1]

In Palestine (at least my husban'ds house) the men and women can all have guets over. the houses are so big there that teh men take up one side and women stay in kitchen. Sometimes they go into the tv room to watch tv but thats it. But I only like staying in the kitchen when they are making food:) lol

[Nita&Assaad 0]

I talk with my hayati everyday, around twice a day. I use STI to buy my cards, took me a long time to find a good one that gives me about 42 mintues to call Lebanon. Since there are rolling blackouts in Lebanon, we get cut off when we are chatting on the computer at times. Plus hearing each other voice is much better then the computer ...

N

Well, I do agree 3 times a day is alot ... but if you can afford and your heart tells you that you must hear his voice ... then who cares! Afterall money does come and go! Soon you will hear it in personal enchallah!

[palilover 1]

I talk with my hayati everyday, around twice a day. I use STI to buy my cards, took me a long time to find a good one that gives me about 42 mintues to call Lebanon. Since there are rolling blackouts in Lebanon, we get cut off when we are chatting on the computer at times. Plus hearing each other voice is much better then the computer ...

N

Well, I do agree 3 times a day is alot ... but if you can afford and your heart tells you that you must hear his voice ... then who cares! Afterall money does come and go! Soon you will hear it in personal enchallah!

My husband does not know how to use a computer Or I would be talking to him ALL DAY!!!!

[Nita&Assaad 0]

I talk with my hayati everyday, around twice a day. I use STI to buy my cards, took me a long time to find a good one that gives me about 42 mintues to call Lebanon. Since there are rolling blackouts in Lebanon, we get cut off when we are chatting on the computer at times. Plus hearing each other voice is much better then the computer ...

N

Well, I do agree 3 times a day is alot ... but if you can afford and your heart tells you that you must hear his voice ... then who cares! Afterall money does come and go! Soon you will hear it in personal enchallah!

My husband does not know how to use a computer Or I would be talking to him ALL DAY!!!!

[Nasturtium 500]

Mine didn't have internet except for at work... and couldn't take the time for internet cafes... he needed to get home to his village. So we did the phone thing the whole time.

[Bassi and Zainab 1]

STI is such a bad company i swear - The cards I get are 100% no taxes or connection fees thats I go to that extracheapphonecards.com. If you buy 4 you get a little discount. The connection on that card has NEVER i mean NEVER failed me it's so clear. $4.65 (5$ card) currently gives me 35 minutes exactly (i checked on my call timer) It's better getting them online vs going out and buying them and people taking extra money from you.

oh yeah and using Local access numbers save you cents too

before the economy drastically started declining i was wondering if we'd one day experience free calls internationally ...lol just a pondering thought

I use uniontelecard.com. I like them because they have many different cards to choose from so you can search for the best rates for your country of calling and after every $100 that you spend, they give you five dollars as a bonus. So, it's a nice addition since I still spend a lot of money on the cards to talk to my SO.

[nunyab 0]

Wow ladies.. thank you for the calling card advice... I 've been talking to him so nice when he is not near a computer but the cell phone is so hard to hear. I would prefer him to go on aland line but like the convienece to be able to talk to him when I need to. Soooo missing him. but i see some ladies here have been without seeing there hunny for a year????? I don't think I can do that.... insha'allah none of will much longer.

[April and Mohamed 0]

In Palestine (at least my husban'ds house) the men and women can all have guets over. the houses are so big there that teh men take up one side and women stay in kitchen. Sometimes they go into the tv room to watch tv but thats it. But I only like staying in the kitchen when they are making food:) lol

Yeah, I forgot to mention that when it's the immediate family, we do all eat together, like my husband's brother and uncles and cousins, there's no problem there, we all eat at the same table even. Which is good because I love talking to his uncles and brother. Some families I know don't even "mix" company even when it's the immediate family members! My husband's family is traditional and conservative but not in the extreme, not to a point of overkill alhamdulillah, and the guys always have different topics of conversation so I like to mix it up a bit now and then. My brother-in-law is coming out in 3 weeks insha'Allah! I'll be busy in the kitchen in the hopes of giving my MIL more time to spend with him and his wife and their two kids. We're thinking of hiring a maid for two weeks to help out because we're going to have 6 house guests all at once for two weeks and it's just going to be a circus! I love the chaos though, it makes me feel alive.