WHO'S WHO...ME!



In 2003 I was surprised to have me name listed in the Directory of America Top Pediatricians issued by American Consumer Research Council. Since then, I have been relisted in subsequent issues . Moving a step forward, I guess, I will be listed in The Global Register's WHO'S WHO in Executives and Professionals to be published in 2007. Not bad for Jabalat Habshi (Jedhafs) and Al Naeem school graduate.

Planting A tree on his Birthday


Today we all enjoyed the long weekend of the memorial day holiday, but we enjoyed it for another reason; It was Ali's birthday. Ali, whose today 11, showed great enthusiasm for the idea of planting a tree on his birthday. It was a red Oak tree that could really grow big. I had him do most of the work and he did a good job. The real excitement, with jumping and screaming came when his brother Hesham gave him his special gift; an IPOD video 30G with FM transmitter. After the yard work and filling the ipod with songs (no videos yet) we all headed to Ali's favorate Japenese resturant and then we went to the movies to see a movie of his choice "over the hedge".. Happy Birthday Ali and take care of the tree. 

Its green again

Within 10 days the color of the city has changed. The ugly brown grass rapidly changed into beautiful green. And it is getting greener each day. The weather is beautiful, with temperatures hitting 75F (24C), it is time for outdoors. You could see the pace of the city changing, people are in a better mood, everybody is out doing something. Cycling and running are favored around my neighborhood. Following Mahmood foot steps I started some gardening work in my back yard. I have planted 3 apple trees last summer and hope they survived the harsh Alaskan winter. I think it will be another season before they give me some apples. With the summer come the long, really long days which are getting longer. The Fajer prayer is 2:30 am while isha prayer time is 1130 pm! I don't mind long days, but it is hard to convince kids to go to sleep while it is still bright outside at 1130 pm. If Ramadan Comes in the summer some people here could die of hunger.

The Award


It is a beautiful peice of crystal with the name of the college and the university engraved on it. Ofcourse it was "crystal clear" before we handled it, but it remains beautiful 

The world longest escalator


The escalator leading to the globe at the CNN center is world longest freestanding escalator. it sis 8 stories high and 61 M long. I am sure Dubai is going to build a longer one pretty soon. 

A visit to the News Giant

While in Atlanta, we took the opportunity to visit the world leading news channel; CNN. It was an informative tour, you get to see the newsroom and see the news anchor doing the show live.
One intresting peice of reporting was going on at that time; it was about robot camel jockeis in UAE. See, we arabs always manage to be in news and at the heart of the action. 

International ambassador

The Emory University granted a Bahraini graduate a special award and named her Emory University International ambassador. Khulood Ebrahim who graduated with honor double majoring in Business administration/ information technology and Psychology was thrilled and excited to hear her name announced at the graduation ceremony as a recipient of the award. This award is given for the student who had the greatest contribution in bridging the gap between different cultures through extracurricular activities in the university. Khulood was the president of the Arab student club and the organizer of the yearly international festival. She had struggled several times with excess weight luggage to take traditional Bahraini items and books to the US for these activities. ( Also she struggled to get some of them from ministry of information!). I think she should be awarded Bahraini Ambassador because she was one, and an excellent one.

You Made Us Proud

Over the last 4 days I attended the graduation ceremony for Emory University in Atlanta. In particular the school of Business administration. My sister in law was graduating with BBA, so it was good excuse to take my family form the cold Alaska to the warm and rainy Atlanta. It took us 10hrs of flight time to make it! But it was worth it. The university was very impressive in every aspect and (quite expensive). There was another Bahraini student graduating from the BA school and guess what! BOTH of them graduated on the honor role with distinction. As that was not enough; their graduating class was ranked 5th on the US which was the highest rank achieved by this 161 year old school. The flag of Bahrain was displayed along with other nations from which the graduating students came. Watching them getting their degrees and being recognized for their achievement made us really, really Proud.
Good Job Kullood Ebrahim and Ali Al Rahma
I hope your achievements will be recognized back home

Flaying Lessons

Yesterday I spent the whole day giving lectures on a variety of topics in pediatric critical care. These lectures were given to the medivac team who transport patient to our hospital by air from all over Alaska. After the didactic session we all went to the airport for the the skill session. In the way to their hangar, the director of the medivac services said while pointing to the airplanes parked all around " do not these make you wanna fly them?"
My answer was ready " the last thing should a middle-eastern do in the US is to take flying lessons!"

Birds, birds and more birds


My son Hesham took this picture today on a field trip. It was pretty cool trip. It was on a cruse!
They went to see the wild life in Prince William Sound. He took beautiful pictures of the glaciars, and birds. He saw mountain goats and whales but these where not capture by his camera.
I don't remember going on any trip what so ever when I was in Jabalat Habshi (Jidhafs)intermediate school! 

Halibut Fishing


Fishing is one of the joys that makes Alaskan summer worth spending the long winter waiting for. It has not started yet. This is my catch from deep see fishing trip last summer. Halibut fishing can be exhausting as these fish do not give in without a fight. They swim/live close to the ground in the deep see. We were fishing at 160 Ft depth using 4 lb sinkers! once you catch it, you should allow it to run which adds another 20- 50 ft extra to the line you need to pull. It is a lot of hard work that you will definitly feel its pain for days to come. We were limited to 2 halibut per person, so we maxed out quite early in the trip and started catch and release. IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD to release tasty and expensive fish (average $12 per lb), but rules are rules, and you don't want the fishing police catch you! beside a fine of $250 you get your name in the local newpaper and may lose your fishing license. The finace of the trip worked out fine; I cought close to $400 worth of halibut and paid $150 for the guide and $20 tip for the deckhand. Actually it was a sweet deal and the fish is tasty.