November 8, 2001

Fellow school teachers coming over for a visit.

After school, the teachers (at least some of the female ones) came over for their scheduled visit. They do this periodically, going to see teachers with new babies or new houses or things like this. It only took a year for us to get on the invite list.

We seemed to pass the cleaning test, and the hosting ritual (i.e. first bring everyone a glass of juice or cola; then bring the snacks - sunflower seeds are popular; then after a while, bring the coffee and sweets). As usual, some of the teachers helped out with that part, by helping prepare coffee and bring in trays of things, and take out trays of things.

But the hit of the visit was showing the documentary on Zababdeh - watching people's reactions as they recognized friends and their (usually deceased) parents and grandparents was tremendous. They all clamored for copies, so we were glad to point them towards the Baladiyye and the new project. They didn't embrace it like we hoped (preferring the idea of us making copies for them), but we'll see...

An elegant Palestinian embroidered scarf.

One other benefit of these visits is that the visited teacher gets a gift. Elizabeth received a beautiful Palestinian embroidered shawl (she promised Marthame that he can wear it sometimes).