Friday, May 15, 2009

Funeral

Yesterday, I found out that one of the teachers from my school here lost her mother. She had been sick for a while in Jordan and wanted to come back to Palestine to die but, unfortunately, she passed away sooner than anyone expected. A few of the teachers went to the church to pay condolences, and I went along. It was strange walking into the almost empty church, a place of usual excitement and joy. While I have attended many weddings and engagements here, this was the first occassion of grief and mourning that I have experienced while in Palestine. I did not know what to do or what to say...even in English, I usually don't know what to say, but the language barrier made it a little more complicated. So I shook the hands of the men, and went over to the women's sections to greet them with kisses on the cheek. I felt out of place there and I almost felt guilty for interrupting their grieving session. But, as always, I was received warmly and was offered coffee, in true Palestinian style. A few people questioned who the foreigners were, but for the most part I was just included as part of the group. I learned the appropriate Arabic phrases to say, although I can only remember one "Alla yir hamha": "God rest her soul."
As I talked to the teacher, I found out that her mother's body is still in Amman, Jordan, and whether or not they could bring her body back for the funeral today depended on the Israeli soldiers. This made me so sad for the family...her mother's final wish was to be brought back to Palestine, but that all depended on the mood of the soldier that day.
Being in a community means celebrating joys and mourning losses with the people around you. I have been blessed with invitations to celebrate happy occassions and festivals, and now I have been allowed to also share in the sad moments as well. Even though I don't know what to say, I hope that being there is an indication of how much I love this community.

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