Happy Palestinian Mother's Day

School Saturday was a hectic chaos because everyone was up in arms about the Mother's day show that the kids have been practicing for (for months) and today was finally the day they'd be able to light up the stage with the poems and songs and skits that they had learned.  Parents started spilling in around 12 and the mass confusion of which class goes into the auditorium at which time, which classes don't, where the teachers are supposed to be, who they have to take in, if there was a recess or not, which building certain classes needed to be in, all of that was a hodgepodge of confusion and almost a calamity.  I felt like a headless chicken running around; first taking my class to another building where supposedly all lower grades would have to stay until their cue to come in would be announced, then being told that that information was wrong and i had to shift my class, then being told that all of that was wrong and there was a new schedule, and then at some point realizing that i was inside of a classroom with only half of my class, and i had absolutely no idea where the other half had gone.

by the end of the day i was a mess and I used all of Sunday to decompress and detox from Friday (by doing absolutely nothing but writing, sleeping and finally praying) and I had completely wiped out "mother's day" from my mind.

Until this morning.

One of my student beaming in smiles handed over a red carnation to me and said "Happy Mother's Day!", and then another student followed, giving me a small red rose.
Can a teacher ask for a more wonderful way to be greeted?  lol I don't think so.  Not only was I touched by the flower, the gesture and her smile, but I had to stop for a few seconds to actually think of what that gesture meant. Almost all of the female teachers in the school got flowers from various students, each walked into the teacher's room with a couple of red or pink carnations at least.  One of the biggest things I had to get used to in the school system, here outside of the States, is the level of endearment and physical affection that teachers and students mutually show each other.  Not a day goes by now that I don't get attacked with hugs (at least once a day, some of those hugs are killer ones, like the ones that actually hurt physically), and each class period is infused with hugs, but strict reprimanding, lots and lots and lots of yelling, but loving as well, and of course teaching  :)   ...kind of like the relationship one has with their parents, with their mothers. 
And so it makes sense for teachers to also get Mother's Day gifts, don't you think? We don't do that in the States, someone should really suggest that one.
I've never been on the receiving end of a Mother's Day gift, and so today getting those flowers certainly meant a lot, .now I suddenly feel like I went from unmarried and single to having 60 children.
Cheers and happy mother's day to everyone!


(after Friday, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a lot of things and being stuck in a mental warp. i got some nice nuggets of wisdom from my roommate who told me it was ok to be overwhelmed by everything that is going on around me, but it's not so great to internalize everything.  life goes on, and you have to do the little things that make life go on (like stop watching the news obsessively and go grade some papers, make dinner, watch a movie and read a book and go to bed).  I kept on thinking about the 2 teenagers that were shot dead by Israeli officers on Saturday in Nablus and 2 more on Sunday, feeling frozen by the amount of violence and inhumane deaths that this place has endured and is continuing to endure.  However, there's things one can change, and there's things one can't.  I know I will not be able to refrain myself from being opinionated about the political situation here but I also realize that feeling immobile doesn't help anyone and getting caught up in that would unjustly turn me blind to seeing the daily beauties of life here, living and working in Palestine.  And that is something that I definitely would like friends back home to get a glimpse of, Palestine beyond the violence)