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The
annual Daoud Kuttab family newsletter
We finally did it.
Although it was only done in the summer, we finally got
all the
members of our family
in one photograph which you can see on the right (click on the
hyperlink or the photo to enlarge all photos).
Tamara, our oldest daughter joined us for a short vacation at the newly opened Marriott
Hotel on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. This came at the end of
her busy summer break before going back to the States to start her
freshman year at Bluftton College in Ohio. Her holiday was spent at
youth camps (both as counselor and camper) and working at our family
restaurant during our chef's month long vacation. Her siblings and
her friends also helped out. We can say that Tamara did a great job
showing a great sense of responsibility and commitment as well as
good public relations and marketing skills.
Tamara was not  the only
person traveling. Later in the summer of 2003
Salam joined her best friend Hoda Zureikat at the
wedding of her son Daniel in Florida. When she returned from the
States, Salam and Daoud went on a special four day vacation on the
Mediterranean shores of Limasol, Cyprus. If you compare the
two famil y pictures you can see the effects of the Atkins diet on Daoud who has lost more than 10 kilos since the photos on the Dead
Sea were taken.
While at the Dead Sea, Dina overcame her fear of
water and enjoyed
swimming with daddy at the Marriott’s pool. Now she feels more at
ease in her school swimming classes at Amman Academy. She is
now
in KG 1 and keeps bragging that she is the most clever student
of her class, a claim that her teacher seems to agree to by
nicknaming her "Little Miss Brainy.”
Tania now the
oldest daughter at home is starting to blossom as a beautiful,
although a little spoiled kid who en joys
shopping and getting dressed up. She is picking up a little where
her oldest sister Tamara left off, baking
chocolate chip cookies for church and school. Her short attempt at
playing volleyball didn’t succeed and now she wants to get into
playing the flute.
Bishara has been
growing in many ways, both physically and spiritually. The dye on
his hair during the summer has since gone and his hair color is back
to its original black. He is as tall
as
his dad, his foot size is
almost the same and has started to shave. His interest and abilities
in playing the guitar have caught t he
attention of youth leaders at both the
Baptist Church and Alliance, both of whom are giving him
opportunities to play music with other kids at the youth groups. His artistic
interests seem sharpest in his creative pursuits of film making. He
has used a small digital camera and his dad’s lap top (plus using
his family members as actors) to experiment by producing short
videos.)
Tamara continues to
be missed by all of us despite her regular appearances on MSN
messenger and with her numerous SMS messages using her newly
purchased cell phone. She seems to really enjoy college life with
her roommate Sarah Hodges
and her newly purchased guitar. So far her college
grades are acceptable and she has wasted no time or opportunity for
family events including a strong presence in the wedding of her
cousin Abe in California, thanksgiving and Christmas with her aunts,
uncle and grandparents in Philadelphia as well as the year end
Urbana Youth Convention at the University of Illinois.
Salam’s career at
the Arab Bank seems to be growing against her own preferences. Her
increasing responsibilities as the manager of the Human Resources development
department has meant that she has to spend long working days
 and
many weekends trapped within the four walls of the bank’s Shmeisani
headquarters. She did manage though to take some trips
with Daoud including a trip to Leipzig Germany, the Hague in Holland
and Austria’s Vienna where she met
the Austrian foreign minister.
Next stop in 2004 Korea, Shanghai in South east Asia. Salam did lose
her eye glasses this year which became useless after a lazik surgery
on her eyes.
 The trip to the
former East German city of Leipzig was in honor of the press prize
in which Daoud shared the first prize of the Leipzig Media Institute
for Press Freedom. Daoud’s travels between the media Institute in Ramallah and Amman were
intensified this year as he was working hard on the
Sesame
Stories production which
went to air in the fall of 2003. It is unclear how Daoud’s travel schedule will develop in 2004. Much will depend on
the possibility of his work in
AmmanNet expanding radically with the
possibility of a new FM radio station in Amman and Aqaba.
Daoud’s parents, also
spent the latter part of the summer with us. While in Amman, they all celebrated with
us
 God's protection of
Daoud's brother
Jonathan from the attack on the UN headquarters in
Baghdad. He had gone on a UN mission to survey the human rights situation and left
the building one day before it was blown up. Daoud's dad
really enjoyed being with grandchildren including his story telling
time with Dina and young George, newborn son of Daoud's youngest
brother Danny and Rania who
were on a summer visit to the Middle East.
This summer and
fall witnessed an interesting event with the special role that Daoud
had in arranging the visits by American movie star Richard Gere to
Palestine and Jordan. Daoud had a chance to meet
Queen Rania when he
organized the visit of Gere to her office. During the visit to
Jordan, Salam, Bishara and Tania (along with Jonathan and his kids)
had a chance to meet Gere in Amman and Jarash. |
