December 4, 2001

The children of one of AAUJ’s American professors.

We got together with friends from the Arab-American University of Jenin tonight. It was a chance to bid farewell to two of our ex-pat number who are leaving (if there's a road out) in the next few days and heading back home to Germany. It was also a chance to celebrate before all the internationals take off next week for the holiday break. It's going to be awfully lonely around here while they're gone!

The guitars came out.

Christmas songs to raise our spirits.

Marthame and one of the professors brought out their guitars, and we sang into the night. These are some of the moments that keep us sane here. They also discussed their parting plans, since travel these days is a lot more complicated than previously. As such, they're going to leave together en masse to get to their various holiday destinations. They'll use the Germans' departure in a few days as a test run. All very sobering realities.

One of the families brought us back to the festivities with some Christmas music.