Sansana (Meitar Crossing), South Hebron Hills

We left from Shoket junction in order to enter and leave through the Meitar crossing.  Very cloudy, almost raining.

We wanted to visit Fadl in Umm Faqra after not having been there for a long time, but he wasn’t available.

In al-Tuwani:  the children run around outside.  They tell us the strike is over, now there are just sanctions – that is, fewer hours of school.  Juma’a wasn’t home, and the kindergarten appeared empty and closed – because of the strike or the cold weather?

At the exit from the village, opposite us, on the road to Yatta there’s a barrier around which a pickup truck detours and continues on its way.

The kindergartens in Umm-el-Kheir and Hashem al-Darj are also closed today.  Huda, the kindergarten teacher, says very few children came and she sent them home.  Here it’s really high up, and colder, and maybe that’s the reason (Are children in the Palestinian Authority required to attend school?).

The kindergarten in Kafr Zif was operating; only some of the children arrived here also and they were all gathered together in one room – various ages – by Amal, the kindergarten teacher and her staff.  We saw an impressive and charming “performance”:  the children stood on the chairs and expressed in movement the content of the songs they sang, very happily and in complete control:  a song of peace and a song for mother (a small map hangs on the wall showing “Greater Palestine”).

Amal invites us to Mother’s Day celebrations on March 21.  The kindergarten is located in part of her home and opened at her initiative.  In the past we’d brought her materials and games.  She needs additional equipment of all kinds:  toys, crayons, gouache paints, poster board, blank paper… and she’ll also be glad to receive a photocopy machine and a DVD player.

On the way to Dahariyya – many barriers at village entrances; some had been dismantled by the villagers.

We didn’t come across any soldiers.