October 16, 2001
Abuna Aktham is with the other priests of the Latin Patriarchate for spiritual training in Jordan, which means that Marthame has picked up his religion courses for the week. During break time, there are soccer matches held between the grades in a round-robin tournament. Today, 9th grade played 11th grade (which decimated the English Club - most of our members come from the two classes), with 9th grade winning. Mabrouk (congratulations).
We spent the afternoon visiting with one of the Muslim families of Zababdeh whose daughter teaches religion in the school to the Muslim children. Despite our less than perfect Arabic, we have had quite a few interesting conversations with her and her family. The hit of the visit was, of course, her one year-old nephew, who enjoys dancing with Grandpa.