Thursday,
July 4th was the last day at the summer camp. Arla, Mary E., Wendy,
Jon J., and Seth received "a million 'I love you' notes".
Mary's hair was filled with "flowers and barrettes and jewelry
- it was really amazing". The kids were "really sweet"
– they just showered them with adulation!-being grinned
at by several of her admirers! Mary was completely won over by
the kids - she can hardly do anything but gush about how "massively
adorable" they are! Mary's favorite was a fierce, sparky
7-year old girl "future Amazon warrior, but about as big
as your knee", who used huge gestures, rolled her eyes outrageously
when she thought kids were missing the point, banging with the
flat of her hand on the table, and so on!
Their
host, whose name is pronounced "Deep", has a plan to
help sponsor the education of the brightest kids in the village
- with the idea that only by education will the kids in the village
have any chance to negotiate a better future for themselves and
their families. He is convinced that the only thing that will
help Palestinians is education - to find their greatest skills,
skills that can help both individual families and villages, but
of course the (desired) country as a whole. The village is very
provincial, and this would be an important step to helping some
of the kids reach beyond its traditional sphere.
On the
last day of school the kids had gotten (enough of) the hang of
the patterns that it was "less like a prison riot".
Of course there are still constant interruptions - one little
boy came into the kitchen area where Mary and Wendy were working,
and asked for a pencil. They then have to determine if he was
sent by his teacher, or not - if not, a rumor of free pencils
will quickly spread, and a hundred other kids will immediately
arrive asking for pencils as well!
Several
people have arrived as replacements for those in Mary's group
who will not be staying. Cathy and Jim from the Bay Area are among
them! Additionally, there are some women from Michigan, and very
quiet young guy, also from Michigan.
As mentioned
in previous updates, the Israelis had been occupying the village
since February (when the checkpoints were closed). Apparently
the Israelis only left two days before Mary's group of ISM'ers
got there. It must have been such an amazing treat for the village
to shift from the stern and barking soldiers, to having strangers
like Mary, Wendy, Arla, Jon and Seth in the village! They love
Jon's long dreadlocks - it will be a miracle if he comes back
with any hair left from their constant pulling. And Mary has found
the perfect kid-crowd control device - she just pulls on her eyebrow
ring a bit, and they all back up nervously!
