'Isla, Far'ata

 

 

We met N., who last year had coordinated the Friday English classes for children.  She explained we can’t yet use the kindergarten for the activities.  We arranged to meet again at the home of a family who last year made their spacious home available for activities with the children, and to determine whether they would continue to do so this year.

 

The meeting with N. was delightful.  Despite poverty and the many problems she has to deal with, the young woman is very cheerful and her energy is very impressive.

Before Ramadan she invited us to ‘Azzun ‘Atma, where she was born, to begin a program there too, with female students and village women, with the help of her mother.  Now we learn we’ll all have to wait at least two months, until the mother recovers from an operation.

 

We haven’t been here for about a year, since the war last summer.  At the time we were told, delicately, that “we’ll continue working with you when the children in Gaza can also return to school.”  Recently R., the coordinator of the women’s club, contacted us and invited us to visit and to renew the activities with women in the village. Our meeting was, as always, warm and emotional.

She suggested we resume teaching Hebrew and handicrafts that can be sold, or leading the women in physical exercise.  We promised to investigate the possibilities. We learned from R. that the husband of H., one of the women in the group, had recently died.  Together we went to visit her. 

 

H. is one of the unusual women we’ve met in the villages.  She’s a quiet leader who has a very good influence on her surroundings.  She’s educated; as a child, after the 1948 war, she and her family went to Kuwait, where she went to school.  Like many Palestinian families, hers was forced to leave the country during the first Iraq war, and after some years as refugees in Jordan she returned with her family to her husband’s family in Far’ata.  Over time she taught herself Hebrew from books.  She speaks and reads well, and our conversation flows.  She also enjoys translating and helping us communicate with the other women in the group.  The meeting also gave us an opportunity to practice our Arabic. 

 

While we talked, the family’s daughters showed us the embroidery and jewelry they create, uniquely designed and extremely well-made.  As usual, we talked about difficulties marketing them.  Nirit spoke about the possibility of selling them on the internet.  They were very excited, and she and Galya will help the women develop the idea.

 

At the end of our visit we left with R. to look at Havvat Gil’ad.  We hadn’t been here for a few months and were sorry to see that new buildings had been added, with red-tiled roofs, overlooking Far’ata to the south and Qaddum to the west.