December 2, 2002

Christmas decorations are beginning to fill the school.

Over the past couple weeks, Elizabeth's eleventh graders wrote short skits in English, imagining a dream, fantasy, or nightmare of their homeroom teacher. Today was the day to perform, and one of the groups surpassed all expectations. Covered in face paint and bearing a pitchfork, they enacted a nightmare, in which the devil and his wife (pictured at right) came for a visit. Their homeroom teacher came to the play and enjoyed his portrayal. It was a fun high point of teaching. Unfortunately, the other groups weren't as prepared, or shall we say, prepared at all. Such are the ups and downs of teaching.

Meanwhile, Marthame went up to the University today to speak with some friends there about a group of American college students that are coming in January. We are trying to put together a three-day program for them that will give them some exposure to the area and its issues. We expect to have them paired up with students from the University and youth from the village, a mixture of Muslim and Christian, to put them to work one day at the Melkite Convent (which needs far more than one day), another day with handicapped children in Jenin (10% of Palestinian society is now disabled), and another day to see the area's sites. We're looking forward to all the ducks being in a row for their visit.

Fr. Aktham returned; it's good to have him back.