Nabi Ilyas

After a few weeks of funerals and weddings in the village, and our holidays, we renewed our activity with the children in Nabi Ilyas, to everyone’s satisfaction.

After too long an interruption, due to many reasons, we resumed teaching English.

Marci and Brenda drove last Friday to congratulate Samah on her engagement.  She’s the wonderful young woman who also helps in class.

We arranged that same morning to resume our activity, hoping to return to the weekly routine at least until Ramadan begins.

The beginning wasn’t easy.  The location where classes are held was closed, and neither Samah nor ‘Abed had the key when we arrived.  And then Jalil, the secretary of the municipality, showed up, opened the door and asked us to let him know in advance when we’re coming, beginning next week,.

Marci’s pupils arrived enthusiastically and class began.  Then Brenda’s pupils arrived and an additional class started.

Ro’i’s two pupils apparently didn’t know he was coming and Brenda suggested seeing whether three other boys know how to read English.  They did.  Even the littlest.

Ro’i was forced to shift gears, “improvise.”  Brenda saved him with a folder of drawings, pictures and cards which allowed him to work on the difference between singular and plural, and present, past and future tenses of verbs.  It was a lot of fun.  ‘Abed, a student in business school and an artist, was there and helped translate and explain.

Brenda and Marci’s lessons also went very well – Brenda with the great group of girls who love to be with her.  Marci worked with her group and again didn’t disappoint them when she brought sparkly stickers for all.

At the end of class, Samah invited the three of us to her home for a short visit.  Her mother and two of her brothers welcomed us.  Samah has ten brothers and sisters.  One sister lives in Jordan; she hasn’t seen her in four years.

On our way back from Nabi Ilyas we were delayed more than usual and were inspected a number of times; those in Brenda’s car were made to get out and it underwent a strange inspection with some kind of robotic camera.  Only then were they allowed to proceed.