year 2 week 3 part 2

Year 2 week 3 part two
I am sitting in the little mini bus waiting for people to come so that we can leave.
I miss Safwan and of course want to see him but I have a lot to get done before leaving for Egypt on Wednesday. But I have to go to Nablus today because while I am gone Safwan will have his seventh birthday and it needs to be planned.
It is almost noon and honestly I could be sitting here for more than an hour, easily…
On the other hand it is rather nice not to have a bus schedule to always be trying to figure out. Here in the holyland there are always buses waiting to go. It is just a matter of waiting, which isn’t a bad thing to learn to do.

Finally enough people have arrived…

I don’t know why but recently in the past few months I have started getting car sick in taxi’s, cars, and buses. The ride back and forth to Nablus is the worse both on the way there and back I felt horrible!!!! By the time I got to Nablus, everything in my stomach was starting to come up! Lots and lots of deep breaths helped but they can only do so much.
It was so good to spend the afternoon with Safwan. His big thing these days is to of course watch Winnie the Pooh on my computer but also his new obsession is to go through my photos that I have on the computer and make judgments about my photos from the week. I think in a way it is his way of monitoring my week… but also he loves to look at pictures of himself from the previous months.
I guess it is the same way that kids love to look at photo albums of when they were babies. My computer is the closest thing Safwan has to a baby book…. Or even a photo album of his life.

After I had been there for a few hours Jess, Safwan’s teacher at his school, and Marah, who used to volunteer at the school. Came over and we set Safwan up with the movie in the little area that has designated as my bedroom… and we hid with sister maria in another room and planned his surprise party.
Safwan will turn 7 on the 13th of April. He has had birthday parties before but never one with other kids much less his friends. Last year people in the community had a party for him. They put announcements on the radio and in the newspapers saying that a little orphan with no parents (which he actually has, they have just abandoned him) was having a party and it begged the entire city to come and give him presents. I wasn’t there but I have heard a lot about it and how it turned into a horrible mad house. Plus there were no kids and everyone came to see the “freak show” that is the orphanage.
This year instead, Marah and her family have offered to host the party at their beautiful house and have a dozen kids from his class come and celebrate with him. Their goal is for the other kids (and parents) to see him as just another student from their school. The theme is Winnie the Pooh..
At Christmas I asked my ten year old nephew Nathanael who had heard a lot about Safwan, to pick a movie or two out of his collection for me to bring back to Safwan. I had told him all about the time I showed Safwan the Harry Potter movie and how Safwan had gone home and had nightmares for a week after. Nathanael could really relate to that. He spent a bit of time going through his movies and really thinking about what Safwan might like and which of his movies wouldn’t scare Safwan. I was touched how Nathanael (who is autistic) was able to go out of his self and really think about what Safwan would like or need. He chose to give Safwan, Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. In the end the Peter Pan movie was too scratched but Winnie the Pooh has been a huge hit.
Every week when I go to visit Safwan I am commanded to bring my computer so that he can watch Winnie the Pooh. In January when Safwan was in the hospital, he watched Winnie the Pooh everyday at least once if not twice.
The sisters don’t have a Tv at the house so Safwan hasn’t grown up watching movies like other people. Nimo, Pooh, and Sleeping beauty (and part of harry potter) might be the only movies he has ever seen.
Obviously Winnie the Pooh is going to be the theme of this surprise party.

After the meeting Sister Maria gave Marah a tour of the house which really impacted her. I guess most people have never been to a nursing home or around disabled people. I know I haven’t been to an actual institution before…
Sister Maria is really great when we bring new people over. She spends a lot of time in the room that has the “children”. The children they have are teens and young adults who are extremely mentally and physically disabled. Friday the children were really happy. It was sweet you could hear them “talking to each other” in their garbled babble. Some of them spent the day giggling. I have been there when that wasn’t the case.
For most people the first time there is sad… it was for me too of course.
But now, I think my two favorite places in Palestine are my house and garden AND Safwan’s house. They are so comfortable and peaceful. I am really able to let my anxiety with life melt away at each house.
The four of us; jess, marah, Safwan and I eventually went out to a new café in Nablus for coffee and juice before it was time for me to head back to Ramallah.
On the way home I stopped at the veggie stand and got a cucumber, tomato and avocado and made an amazingly yummy salad for dinner with some Palestinian olive oil that I had gotten a few days before.
The olive oil here is sooo good. Unlike anything we have in American grocery stores.
I really think olive oil here is like fine wine in America and Europe. People demand the best and the best is AMAZING…
I don’t know that I can ever go back to bad generic oil again.

I went to school today.. I hate Saturday school but it was okay today..
Now it is a beautiful foggy, rainy afternoon. I ran out in the rain to the kumquat tree in the garden and picked about a dozen of them. They were an amazing lunch. I love having a garden…
And now I am sitting on an exercise ball in my clean room, listening to Madonna and tying away a letter to you!!!! A perfect afternoon.

As soon as I finish this I am going to organize my sock drawer, junk drawer and start packing for Egypt.

Tomorrow I am off to Jerusalem walk in the procession for Palm Sunday…
Prepare ye the way of the Lord!