February 13, 2002 — Mudeif Productions

Today should be Ash Wednesday. However, the churches in the village here have come to an agreement (unlike in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth): Christmas is celebrated on the Western calendar, while Easter is celebrated on the Eastern calendar. Since the dating of Easter is based on the moon, and since the Eastern calendar is thirteen days behind the Western, when the moon falls in between there's almost a month between the two Easters. So, we'll be celebrating Ash Wednesday on March 20 and Easter on May 5. We've got a while...

Tonight we also had another ex-pats gathering in town. It was to be a combination "Welcome" party for the newbies (four of them) as well as a Valentine's Day celebration. Unfortunately, all of the newbies decided to take advantage of the weekend and head out to Tel Aviv, so we had our Valentine's Day party anyway. Food, games, etc.

All of it was tempered by the fact that one of the families connected with the University is leaving tomorrow. He's got meetings in Taiwan and would be gone for a while, and they decided with the deteriorating political situation that they would send mom and the girls back to the States to re-enroll in school. It was a tough decision for them, and it's a blow to the rest of us. It's been great having their kids around - they even know how to play the ironically twisted "Settlers" board game. We said some tearful farewells and then split up the rest of their canned goods.