October 23, 2003

Sunset over the Latin Church of Zababdeh.

Everyone left us today: the Presbyterian group and our friend Andrea. And we were left with mountains of work to attack. The Jenin school bus tried to leave in the morning, but was held up at the checkpoint for four and a half hours. No intervention - whether through the military coordinating office, the Latin Patriarchate, the Italian nuns in Jenin - could get the bus through. The kids have missed tons of school this year, more than kids should be expected to bear. At 11:30, they turned around and headed home - too late to catch the taxis through the olive groves and on to school. Surprisingly, the incident was enough to be reported in the Palestinian Arabic-language "Al-Quds" daily newspaper.