another first
my next-door neighbors (really, my family here - i eat with them, watch tv with them, do my laundry in their house) have six children. the oldest is 22, followed by 20, 17, 15, 12 and 5.
sarah, who is 15, has a heart of gold. when i arrived, she quickly decided that no one in the family was allowed to speak with me in english, even though they all can, and yet is always the first to offer a reassuring word or two in my language when she notices my eyes beginning to tear up because i'm so overwhelmed that i can barely say hello. she speaks slowly so that i can understand, and offered me nescafe every morning during ramadan, even though she knew she couldn't touch it herself for another eight hours.
i've had a lot of "firsts" over the past fourteen days, and i'll call tonight my first experience with the emotional strain that the situation here inflicts upon people. sarah spent her summer at seeds of peace in maine with high school students from palestine, israel, jordan, egypt and the united states. i believe (though i don't know for sure) that jimmy carter founded the summer camp to bring students together in an effort to bring together future "leaders in the peace process". whether or not the camp meets this lofty goal is irrelevent for now; what it does do is bring people together and forge friendships that last long after the last day of camp.
tonight sarah was chatting online with an israeli friend from seeds of peace, whom i assume lives in jerusalem. the two girls reminded me of my little sister, chatting back and forth rapidly about their lives in unintelligable abbreviations and dancing smiley faces and smooching lips. her friend suggested that they meet up, and asked if sarah could come to jerusalem.
palestinians need a special permit to go to jerusalem, and though sarah's father's position would probably help her to obtain such a permit, the process is long, tedious, and inaccessible to most palestinians. instead, sarah suggested that her friend come to bethlehem and visit her home - she even offered to have a car pick her friend up at the checkpoint so that she wouldn't have to be alone on the palestinian side.
israeli citizens are legally forbidden to travel inside the west bank. while decisions at checkpoints tend to be arbitrary and the law is not consistently enforced, a sixteen year old girl will almost definitely not be allowed to visit here. so sarah and her friend won't get to see each other unless the laws change or unless they both leave the country.
and they only live 20 minutes apart.
sarah, who is 15, has a heart of gold. when i arrived, she quickly decided that no one in the family was allowed to speak with me in english, even though they all can, and yet is always the first to offer a reassuring word or two in my language when she notices my eyes beginning to tear up because i'm so overwhelmed that i can barely say hello. she speaks slowly so that i can understand, and offered me nescafe every morning during ramadan, even though she knew she couldn't touch it herself for another eight hours.
i've had a lot of "firsts" over the past fourteen days, and i'll call tonight my first experience with the emotional strain that the situation here inflicts upon people. sarah spent her summer at seeds of peace in maine with high school students from palestine, israel, jordan, egypt and the united states. i believe (though i don't know for sure) that jimmy carter founded the summer camp to bring students together in an effort to bring together future "leaders in the peace process". whether or not the camp meets this lofty goal is irrelevent for now; what it does do is bring people together and forge friendships that last long after the last day of camp.
tonight sarah was chatting online with an israeli friend from seeds of peace, whom i assume lives in jerusalem. the two girls reminded me of my little sister, chatting back and forth rapidly about their lives in unintelligable abbreviations and dancing smiley faces and smooching lips. her friend suggested that they meet up, and asked if sarah could come to jerusalem.
palestinians need a special permit to go to jerusalem, and though sarah's father's position would probably help her to obtain such a permit, the process is long, tedious, and inaccessible to most palestinians. instead, sarah suggested that her friend come to bethlehem and visit her home - she even offered to have a car pick her friend up at the checkpoint so that she wouldn't have to be alone on the palestinian side.
israeli citizens are legally forbidden to travel inside the west bank. while decisions at checkpoints tend to be arbitrary and the law is not consistently enforced, a sixteen year old girl will almost definitely not be allowed to visit here. so sarah and her friend won't get to see each other unless the laws change or unless they both leave the country.
and they only live 20 minutes apart.
posted by kate at 3:48 PM
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