Singapore!

After spending the weekend in Hong Kong, I flew over to Singapore where I spent a week taking in the sites, culture and people. I had a fabulous experience in Singapore, the people, food, and scenery was extraordinary. The people of Singapore are comprised of three main ethnicities: Chinese, Indian and Malay. The business language is English (British), which everyone speaks with an accent and has been jokingly referred to as “Singlish”. The reason people have an accent is due to the fact they do speak their native tongue at home and only speak English to communicate with other nationalities or in the workplace.

The three words I would use to describe my Singapore experience are food, shopping and cleanliness.

I had no problems finding Halal places to eat since there are many Malay cuisines which observe the Halal dietary restriction. I had a chance to eat Korean BBQ, Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goring, the latter two dishes are Indonesian/Malay. At the site where I was working, I even ate roti at lunch, something that people avoid at workplaces in North America.

The people of Singapore love to shop. It is an industrialized country and people work extremely hard for their living, sometimes too hard, according to the local taxi drivers. You can usually get a pulse of a nation through its taxi drivers.

Singapore is an extremely clean country; a common perception of Singapore in the West. Spitting and chewing gum is banned in public. In-fact, you cannot buy gum in the country unless you need it for medical reasons. A fruit called Durian is banned in public due to its extreme smell.

Singapore is an expensive place to live. The majority (80%) of the people live in flats, only the elite can afford houses. Foreign cars are almost 2-3 times the price found in North America and the government does not allow cars older than 10 years on the road.

Other places of note that I visited was the Night Safari, Singapore Harbour (Clark quay), and Little India (it really felt like India). I did not take my usual number of pictures since I spent most of my time with colleagues from work, but I was still able to sneak in a few. You can check them out here.

Hong Kong!

I had a chance to visit one of the most unique places in the world a few weeks ago… Hong Kong! If I had three words to describe my Hong Kong experience, I would use: skyline, shopping, and efficiency.

Hong Kong is considered the “Manhattan” of Asia because of its numerous high rise buildings and skillful hard-working group of citizens. The skyline is spectacular, especially at night when the buildings light up the sky with neon lights. In-fact, 4 of the 15 tallest skyscrapers exist in Hong Kong. The population of Hong Kong is just under seven million in an area of 1092 square KM, close to the size of New York city (786 sq km). The limited land capacity and large population has caused the government to build on mountains and ocean water.

Hong Kong is a free port with goods from across the world that are not subject to export taxes. This makes it an ideal place for shopping, especially with a strong Canadian dollar. The moment that you exit out of the airport, you are greeted with flyers about shopping in Hong Kong. I spent an entire day shopping, moving from shop to shop in one of the most efficient subways in the world. The people in Hong Kong do not like to wait for anything – 2 minute wait for a subway is 2 minutes too long. Even the escalators move extremely fast compared to the usual speed in North America. Paying for items with cash will get you an annoyed look from the merchant because with a swipe of the Octopus card (prepaid cash card supported by almost all vendors) you will be quickly on your way.

Hong Kong is a unique place in the world and wish I had spent more time, however, in this short time period I still took my share of pictures.

Why Canadians hate Toronto?

I spent the last two weeks in Western Canada where I got a chance to visit Banff, the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia, and finally Vancouver. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and unfortunately many Canadians are unaware of the natural beauty in our own country.

The people in Western Canada are proud Canadians. In fact, I found they show their patriotism more openly than Canadians in Toronto. I am not saying that Torontorians are not proud Canadians, it’s the massive diversity in Toronto which reduces the amount of open patriotism.

One common theme among Western Canadians is the hatred for Torontorians. A perception exists among Westerners that Torontorians are arrogant and don’t respect other cities in Canada, although Quebec is the exception since the Quebecois feel inferior to all Canadians ;-) The anger stems from the fact that the majority of the high paying jobs are in Toronto, scheduling of television shows do not take into account the time difference, and the major sports league with the exception of hockey are in Toronto. Western Canadians cheer for their local hockey teams and cheer against Toronto. There was a general happiness when the Toronto Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs this year, although Torontorians cheer for other Canadian teams.

As a fellow Torontorian, I did not take this hatred to heart because I do think there is some truth to the arrogance perception. However, if you ask someone outside Canada to name a city in Canada, you know that Toronto would be at the top of the list … so sometimes you have to call it how it is. Like it or not, we are the main economical city in this country, but the question is for how long … hello Alberta.

My seven wonders of the world

A global poll conducted by newwonder.com released its seven wonders of the world last week. Many of the sites chosen came as no surprise, such as the Great Wall of China and Taj Mahal. However, many famous sites were left off the list, such as the Eiffel tower in Paris, and the Acropolis in Greece. It is a very subjective poll and very difficult to get a consensus among any group of people, since we have our biases in taste and experience. Unfortunately, none of the Canadian sites were nominated as finalists for this poll, but this disappointment did not stop the CBC to conduct a poll of their seven wonders of Canada, which can be found here. The winner was The Sibley Peninsula, or the Sleeping Giant as it's known in Thunder Bay.

I believe it is hard to choose the seven wonders by looking at pictures, to appreciate the beauty of this world, you have to see it for yourself. I have had a unique opportunity to travel the world and have complied The Ozzies - top seven wonders of the world

Honourable mention

-Rocky mountains, Niagara Falls, and Empire state building

Top seven

7.	Petrona Twin Towers - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
6.	The CN tower - Toronto, Canada
5.	The Opera house - Sydney, Australia
4.	Eiffel tower - Paris, France
3.	Great wall of China - Beijing, China
2.	The Prophets mosque - Medina, Saudi Arabia
1.	The Kabah - Mecca, Saudi Arabia

History of the middle east

Flash presentation on the history of the Middle East.

Islam and science

As I waited in the airport lounge for my usual delayed Air Canada flight, I went over to the newspaper stand and tried to busy myself by staring through all the magazines in a store. The usual gossip and fashion tips filled most of the magazines that I saw, but one magazine headline grabbed my attention ... "Science and Islam in Conflict". This article was displayed in a scientific magazine called Discover. So, I decided to educate myself with this article and forgo my Hollywood fix, which I really don't care about anyways although it can be amusing.

The article talks about the relationship of Islam and science in three countries in the Middle East: Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. The Arab world has gone through many transitions, from socialism, nationalization, to a religious identity. The author attempts to associate scientific growth in the Arab world to the lack of piety among the citizens, often citing convenient examples and not exploring examples of success such as Malaysia, a strong Muslim government with a growing economy.

The biggest problem in the Arab world is the blame attributed towards the West rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. Muslim societies are close-minded, not open to new ideas, criticizing anything that resembles being "Western". In the article, the Egyptian scientist El-Najjer is quoted as saying:

“We are not behind because of Islam,” he says. “We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done to us.”

This type of thinking does nothing to help alleviate the suffering of the people and stunts growth by giving people excuses for their failures. Political instability and religion intolerance have been the key factors causing the lack of scientific growth within the Muslim world. The Muslim world was at one time the center of learning throughout the world, where many researchers would come and learn. However, many of the top people have migrated to countries with more educational support without people coming the other way.

The Arab/Muslim world needs to balance their religious views with science, allowing for innovation within the boundaries outlined in the Quran. Waheed Badawy, a chemistry professor at Cairo university summarizes this point nicely, he says:

Islam has no problems with science, Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. (For example) But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true. It’s written in the Koran.”

Tip of the week #2 Traffic strategies

Anyone who lives in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) must have some level of hatred for the traffic in our cities. Little has been done to improve our traffic infrastructure over the past twenty years even though the population has increased by hundred of thousands in this time span. News of accidents and traffic jam fills the radio airwaves daily. Last week, a fire at a metals plant in Brampton caused parts of highway 407 to be closed. This closure caused traffic chaos in Brampton as all the alternatives also became jammed with cars. I happened to be one of those unfortunately drivers stuck in traffic. My usual commute of 40 minutes turned into one and a half hour. I have come up with many theories that I will share while hopelessly sitting in traffic staring at the car in front of me.

Tip# 1 Take the hit of waiting in traffic rather than seeking alternatives

If you are stuck in traffic, it is probably better to wait it out rather than seek an alternate side street. Most people often believe that they are the only person that knows about a specific side street, but over time people figure out these alternate routes. It is better to wait it out on a highway or major street with many lanes rather than being stuck on a side street with one or two lanes. I know this fact first hand!

Tip # 2 The right lane is the fastest lane …. in a traffic jam on the highway

The left most lane on a highway is typically the fastest lane and the right lane is usually the slowest lane. During a traffic jam most people try to switch into the left lane hoping it will be the quickest, but most often the right lane moves the quickest, especially since people will be exiting from the highway and the people switch out of the right lane due to the perception of it being slow.

Hint # 3 Listen to the traffic reports

This hint is the simplest of the three and yet people still do not listen to traffic reports. Checking the traffic report before you start your commute can be the difference between a traffic jam and a clear ride into work.

Traffic and living in a big city is inevitable, as bad as Toronto traffic can be, it is not the worst. Below are a list of the three most congested cities in the world:

1. Manila, Philippines
2. Cairo, Egypt
3. Lagos, Nigeria
   

Incroyable!

I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to travel to Paris, France for a conference (Yes, I am extremely lucky and blessed). It was a bit awkward viewing the sites of the city since Paris is known as a romantic city and visiting sights individually, for some reason, did not feel as romantic ;-)



As always, I like to examine random items of interest rather than focus on the touristy things, so below are my highlights:

• I had major language issues, my grade 9 French was insufficient. Communicating with someone where you don’t have a common language is funny, both parties end up speaking in their own language without progress.
• The subway doors do not open automatically; I found this out the hard way.
• Very diverse country, many people of African and Arab descent.
• Smoking is quite common indoors and difficult to cope with especially coming from a city where public smoking is banned.
• The listed price always includes taxes, and discounts are listed with negative signs, i.e. -20%.
  
• The basement and ground floors are not labeled as B and G respectively in buildings or hotels. The French use 0 for the ground level and -1 for the basement. See explanation here.
• The Swiss have their own check-in line when passing through immigration.

• The exit sign … why is the guy running?

• The public washrooms are typically not free, although the one below was free.

As always, you can check out my pictures here.

Email hoaxes

In the early days of email, the majority of personal emails that I received were forwards containing funny jokes, chain letters, and spam. These days, I don’t receive many hoaxes, but after reading this article on the top 25 Web hoaxes, I had a flashback on some that I have received over my email lifetime. Below are my favs:

• Forward this email and Bill Gates will give you money - example.
• Help a wealthy foreigner in Nigeria to transfer money - example.
• Your Hotmail account will close if you do not forward this to X amount of people - example.
  

The most common email hoax that you will find is a phishing attack, which is an email fraudulently claiming to be from a financial institution instructing you to click on a link for some reason (i.e. Keep your account open). The emails are well-crafted since they contain the official company header and email address. The email body contains a link to a URL from the financial institution, but if you hover over the link, you will notice that it is actually a URL to the spammer/hackers site. Most often curiosity takes over and people click those links, although I have never met anyone who admits to doing it until they call me to help them remove a virus from their computer ;-)

The most enjoyable jobs

Finding the "perfect" job is a challenge facing many people. It involves finding something you are passionate about. The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted a survey on the jobs people like and dislike. The full article can be found here.

LIKE

• Clergy—87 percent percent
• Firefighters—80 percent percent
• Physical therapists—78 percent percent
• Authors—74 percent
• Teachers—69 percent
• Education administrators—68 percent
• Psychologists—67 percent
• Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
• Operating engineers—64 percent

DISLIKE

• Laborers, except construction—21 percent
• Apparel clothing salespersons—24 percent
• Handpackers and packagers—24 percent
• Food preparers—24 percent
• Roofers—25 percent
• Cashiers—25 percent
• Furniture and home-furnishing salespersons—25 percent
• Waiters and servers—27 percent

My general observation is that the jobs on the LIKE list involve helping people or tasks which involve problem solving activities. Most people agree that they would like to work in a field where they are around people. The satisfaction of helping someone in their daily life leads to a happier experience. You will also notice that prestige jobs such as a doctor and lawyer were not at the top of the list. Unfortunately, the prestige jobs are the ones where you make the most money and not the ones people enjoy the most.

Tip of the week

The subject of the post implies a weekly stream of tips, I doubt this will be the case, given my recent record of posting, plus I needed a catchy subject for this post.

Tip: Make sure you are on the correct line before you lineup

Before you join a long lineup, it never hurts to ask someone to make sure that you are in the correct line. Most people make the assumption that a long lineup probably ensures they are in the correct line. Furthermore, people usually join the first line they see and don't look for legitimite "butting" opportunities. No harm exists by asking someone in line or a service associate if they are in the correct line since your not doing anything while waiting.

A recent experience at the airport triggered this post. At the airport, I waited in line to get my boarding pass, only be told when I met the sales associate that I was at the wrong terminal. I argued with the associate to no avail. I should also note that it would have helped had I read my e-ticket to get the right terminal, but that is one too many tips for this post.

Kids are funny

I had the opportunity last week to present a short presentation on Islam to a group of cub scouts in Toronto. The average age for the cub scouts was 9. I observed the actions of the kids before the presentation and they acted like typical 9 year-old kids. They would make funny faces and run around for no reason. I became skeptical about the ability of these kids to comprehend my talk and ask intelligent questions. However, during the presentation, I was amazed by the attentiveness and interest shown by the kids. I captured some of the questions asked during my talk for your pleasure followed by my reply.

• After showing a picture of the pillars that are pelted during Hajj, a kid asks “What if you throw a rock and it hits someone else instead of the wall … are you sinned?”
• Answer. Nope. It’s like if I threw a ball to you but hit your friend, is it my fault? Kid answers … I guess not.
• Who invented Arabic?
• Answer. Umm… God
• I have a friend who is from Saudi Arabia.
• Answer. That is great!
• Why didn’t the people who traveled from Mecca to Medina use airplanes?
• Answer. They traveled on camels through the desert instead since no airplanes were invented yet. ... the kids responded with "oh ... vvoooww"
  
• Can you explain the problems in the Middle East between the Arabs and Jews.
• Answer. It’s complicated.

Here is a link to my presentation.

The reality of reality television

If you watch television on almost any weeknight, you will mostly likely come across one or more reality television shows. In-fact the highest rated television show right now is American Idol, which averages over 31 million viewers per episode. It seems these days, the major networks will produce any type of reality show in an effort to attract viewers. The latest craze is with game shows.

Two new game shows have attracted my attention, Deal or No Deal and Are You Smarter than Fifth Grader? I think these shows have reached a new low in reality television. Both shows have super perky, hyper, annoying contestants. In the show, Deal or No Deal, the whole concept of eliminating numbers to get the million dollar briefcase is based solely on luck and requires little intelligence. Even more annoying are the contestants family members trying to assist the contestant, I just wish they would shut up.

I cannot believe the lack of intelligence of the contestants on Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? One contestant was not sure what country neighbored the United States to the north (sigh). The most annoying part of the show are the contestants high-fiving the kids who help them answer the questions ... it just aint kool.

I remember the good old days of television, bring back the Fresh Prince of Bel-air, Growing Pains, Cosby Show, Family Feud, and Seinfeld. Those were good quality television shows ... ahh those were good times, I must be getting old ;-)

The office

One of my favorite all-time movies is the Office Space, a story about the day-to-day lives of office employees. Many issues common to office workplaces are discussed and explored. Recently, a comedic series called The Office staring Steve Carell, (who is brilliant in the show) also discusses the office politics of employees. My office environment is fairly tamed compared to the afore mentioned television show and movie, however, recently I came across an office-space like situation that I want to vent about.

Every office has printers that employees use to print documents. Most often employees abuse these resources. The frustrating part of this misuse is the impact on our environment. We waste so much paper on a daily basis. I have witnessed people printing most of their e-mails frequently. My biggest caveat is the printing of unnecessary colour documents. A single colour document can cost an average of $1.00 per paper. Last week, I went into the printer room to pickup my colour print job and had to wait till someone elses 30 slide PowerPoint presentation finished printing. After realizing the print job would take another 10 minutes, I left the printer room in disgust. I went back to my desk and started working again. This time, I struggled to get staples into my stapler ... arggg, just another day at work.

I could not find a "clean" The Office/Office space moment to relate to my blog post, sooooo here is a random video from The Office.

The next Y2K

The US government decided in 2005 to change the beginning and end of daylight savings time. The following changes occurred:

• Previous start: first Sunday of April (1 Apr. 2007)
• New start: second Sunday of March (11 Mar. 2007)
• Previous end: last Sunday of October (28 Oct. 2007)
• New end: first Sunday of November (4 Nov. 2007)

Since the Canadian economy is heavily dependent upon the US economy, our government has also decided to follow suit on these changes. The rationale behind these changes is increased energy savings, due to greater sunlight during the day. I have discussed the rationale behind daylight savings time in a previous post.

These new start dates will catch most people and businesses by surprise. Especially, in the business world, many IT systems may have the incorrect date for three weeks.

This issue is similar to the computer problem encountered during the turn of the century, known as the Y2K bug. People were afraid that computer systems would not process dates correctly after January 1st, 2000. Fortunately, there were only minor issues reported. However, the business world at that time took advantage of the panic of consumers to cash-in. This time, there has not been much awareness made about the daylight savings time change and I expect there will be disruptions to many services. For those people who are responsible for IT systems, I recommend you take your vacation during the week of March 11th ;-).

Hockey night in Pittsburgh

I spent the last week in Pittsburgh, PA, a city situated at the crossing of three rivers (Allegheny River, Monongahela River, Ohio River), headquarters to Heinz corporation, and the hottest team in the NHL; Pittsburgh Penguins. The latter, which I was able to witness first-hand.

I took the advice of the hotel concierge to avoid purchasing tickets online and try to purchase them before the start of the game through scalpers instead. This strategy seemed to backfire as I did not see any scalpers. As I started my reluctant walk back to the hotel, I walked by a person trying to sell his ticket desperately. I purchased the ticket for a double-digit amount ($30 below the box-office price). I sat six rows from the ice. A seat that costs over $400 for a Toronto Maple Leafs game at the Air Canada center.

The game was full value for the ticket price, where the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago BlackHawks 5-4 in a shootout. The winning shootout goal was scored by Evgeni Malkin. The Pittsburgh Penguins are the most exciting team in the NHL, with talents such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury. They are reminiscent of the 1980 Edmonton Oilers, a team consisting of many talented players such as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jarri Kurri and Grant Fuhr. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but was able to take some photos with my cell-phone.



I would not mind going to see another game in Pittsburgh ... it is only a five and half hours drive from Toronto.

Technology overload

I remember in 1999 when I created my first email address. It was not something that I was pressured into doing, nor was it popular at the time. As years passed, everyone I know has created an email address or two and checks them frequently throughout the day. Email has become the preferred way of communication at school or work. It has become so prevalent that the good old fashion phone call or face-to-face meeting is becoming less popular. Obviously, phone calls and face-to-face meeting still have their place, but aren't we using email more than we should?

How many times have you exchanged an email with a group of people attempting to resolve an issue, where each person responds with a short comment? If someone had picked up the phone and called the person directly involved, the situation would be resolved quicker.

At work, I am usually surprised when I get a voicemail or if someone calls me because it happens so infrequently. I rarely check voicemail either, I wonder if I should create a more interesting voicemail message, probably something as funny as George's voicemail from Seinfeld.

George's Answering Machine: "Believe it or not, George, isn't at home, please leave a mes-saaage at the beep. I must be out or I'd pick up the pho-one. Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not hooome.

I wonder what would be George's out-of-office reply or vacation response, the email equivalent of voicemail.

The opportunity

If there was one word that I could use to describe my Hajj experience, it would be patience.

patience pat-ience noun

The capacity of enduring hardship or inconvenience without complaint.

In-fact, the Arabs even have a hand gesture to represent the word, which people in North America may confuse with the "how much you want" hand gesture.



The Hajj patience was a quality that I lacked. I would complain about many things. When the food is not on time, the bus arrives late, air conditioning is too high, or heating is not high enough. However, I quickly learned that if I wanted to complete Hajj that I would need to develop the Hajj patience. So, what is the Hajj patience? well, consider the following:

• In the apartments we stayed, the water would finish every two hours and the elevators did not work most of the time, so I always had to take the stairs to my 6th floor.
• The government buses that transported pilgrims from Jeddah to Mecca, and Mecca to Medina would take at least five times the time it normally takes.
• Our flight to and from Jeddah end-to-end took one day and a half.

I hope these incidents do not discourage one from going to Hajj because everyone will face trials. For each trail, you need the Hajj patience and understand the ultimate goal that you are there to do, which is completing the rituals of Hajj in a safe-manner.

There was one moment in my trip that stood out for me. I was sitting at the harem in Mecca waiting for the prayer to start. I greeted an elderly man sitting next to me and started a conversation (conversation actually occurred in Urdu).

Ozair: Is this your first Hajj?
Elderly man: Yes
Ozair: Did you come with your family?
Elderly man: Nope, my kids could only afford to send me. I have been awaiting my chance to go for Hajj
Ozair: Why?
Elderly man: In Pakistan, pilgrims wishing to perform Hajj are put into a lottery system, where names are drawn to select the people who will go.
Ozair: Oh wow, so Allah has invited you to his house this year.
Elderly man: Yes (man started to cry)

At that moment, I realized that Hajj is not only a trial, but an opportunity to have the chance to pray at the most sacred place for Muslims. This man waited patiently his whole life for this opportunity, I was fortunate enough to go the first year that I made the intention. I just hope that all Muslims, around the world have the opportunity that I did.

Are you Canadian?

As of January 23rd, 2007, Canadians are now required to have a passport to travel to the United States and vice versa. Canadians have been rushing to the passport office to get their passports, some even getting them for the first time. Unfortunately, those first-timers have learned that due to an obscure provision in the Citizenship act that states, if you lived outside Canada on your 24th birthday between 1947 and 1977 and did not fill the right form, you lost your citizenship.

For the complete article, click here.

I hope these "Canadians" do not feel any less Canadian, but what does it really mean to be Canadian? Canadians really do not have a "got to eat meal" like other places around the world, unless you count Tim Hortons. I wonder not having a "got to eat meal" is substituted by having a collection of "got to eat meals" from around the world, due to our multiculturalism, which I believe is what makes Canada stand out from the rest of the countries. Anyways, not sure if any of what I wrote made sense, but there is something Canadian I will be enjoying tonight, which is the NHL All-star game. It will feature the best player in the game (arguments will be accepted), Mr. Sidney Crosby, let's hope he puts on a show.

An experience of a lifetime

By the grace of God, I just had the fortunate opportunity to perform the holy pilgrimage, also know as Hajj. Hajj is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and is the requirement of every healthy Muslim who can afford it. Unlike, some of the other trips that I have taken this year, Hajj is no vacation. It consists of a series of trials; from rituals, overwhelming crowds, to government complexities. However, there are no words that can describe the feeling of being able to pray in the sacred places (haraam) of Makkah and Medina and performing the pilgrimage.

Makkah is a situated on a valley between mountains. In the center of Makkah is the Kaabah, God’s house, where all Muslims around the world face for prayers. It is estimated that close to 1 million people can pray in this mosque. One of the largest challenges of the pilgrimage is dealing with the crowds. Makkah is a city that never sleeps, people roaming the streets at any time during the day, you can think of it as daytime New York City without subway systems.

This pilgrimage saw the largest crowd ever; most people estimate the attendance between 3-4 million. The majority of pilgrims are from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Turkey. There are usually 1.6 million visa’s issued to international visitors; however, many locals attend every year too. This year saw the most important day of Hajj – Arafat occurring on Friday (jumaah) – the holiest day of the week, and deemed even more sacred. It is also known as Hajj Akbar.

To give you an idea of how crowded it was during the pilgrimage, consider the following:

• I am doing tawaaf (circling of the kabaa) and it is time for prayer. However, it is physically impossible to pray because there are too many people that you cannot perform the actions of prayer.
• To get a spot to pray inside the haraam in Makkah, you need to arrive 1-2 hours in advance. For Jumaah, you need to arrive 3 hours early.

For each trial that you encounter during Hajj, there are those golden moments that you will never forget:

• A father and son are changing into their ihram (clothing to be wore during Hajj) and the son drops his ihram into a puddle of water. The father takes his son’s ihram and wears it, giving his dry ihram to his son.
• A blind man performing tawaaf
• A man walking to stone the pillars representing Satan with both his legs amputated.

Hajj is one of the mostrewarding and challenging experiences of my life. Now that I am home and have had a chance to reflect, I can fully appreciate the tasks that I completed and the gratefulness of being able to arrive back safely. It has been an uplifting spiritual experience and hope to continue this momentum for the rest of my life. I hope to give some further insight into my experience in upcoming posts.