A Change of Plans

Today was my last day with the students and it was sweet, sad, and infuriating. This sums up my emotional experience with the school. It seems that the woes of the world are predicated on misunderstandings due to intentions being lost in translation and people's ideas of how things should go. I think about a method of conflict resolution I heard about that states first you empathize, then be in the present moment, and lastly practice others way of thinking to attain a common goal. All of these ideas become irrelevant when one student stands in front of another to interrupt them while the first student is attempting to recite their lesson. When the class is having a rare moment applying themselves to the work, a staff member comes in to make some announcement and the focus is lost. The seeds of the problems of the world are within each of us. I struggle to control my impatience and disgust with the situation. Tomorrow I will accompany the classes to the amusement park. It should be great fun with no books to attend to. 

I will be traveling to Rafah after all for the Gaza sit in. After resigning myself to spending time in Suli until my July 12th flight to the Catholic Worker Farm outside of London, I received encouragement from my husband to try this trip into Egypt. I will blog from there, describing what is happening with the international efforts to break the blockade of food and medicine to a refugee camp under assault. One of my older students who speaks English fairly well asked why am I going to Egypt as it is an Arab country. I tried to explain that the world has Arabs, Kurds, Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, and we are all brothers and sisters. Even my boss here sees no reason to help the Palestinians. My heart aches over how people cannot see how the suffering of any member affects the health of us all. Al Jazeera is documenting how the Holy Land is being ethnically cleansed for the Jewish state. The people on the land who keep goats seem to be paying no attention to the "notices" being sent out saying where they live is Jewish land.

The streets have been noisy for the last three nights with honking horns, screaming men, and sirens; this is the beginning of the campaign season prior to the July 23rd election. The two rival parties drive around in BMWS, Cadillacs, and SUVs sporting posters and flags. I have very little information about what the issues are. Everyone is hoping things don't turn out the way it has gone in Iran next door. 

I am nervous about my next 2 weeks and recite the Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star prayer, petitioning for protection for the wanderer below, little me thrown on life's surge.