Sunday, March 4, 2012

Weekend Adventures


It is probably the most terrified I have been since being here.  As I watched the group of young men coming down the street towards me, all I could think to do was run, hoping I wouldn’t become there next target.   After all, they greatly outnumbered me. Plus, they were better armed, with more ammunition surrounding us just waiting to be gathered up.  I had already been hit several times, and camera in hand I was in no position to properly defend myself, so I turned and ran.

Some how I had found myself in the midst of the first snowball fight that the area had seen in a number of years.   (Oh, did you think I was in actual danger? Sorry about that, totally safe here!)
The snowball army!
Let me backtrack a bit here.  Wednesday night school was cancelled for Thursday because all the rain was flooding streets and making it challenging/unsafe to get places. So we all were pretty excited to have a snow, I mean rain, day.   We (Megan, LW and myself) woke up on Thursday morning to discover that because of all of the rain, the wells beneath our house were overflowing into LW’s bedroom.  So that got cleaned up but it was still raining and flooding into LW’s room and all we could do was try to manage it.  A couple of hours later, we lost electricity and with that we made the decision to go to our coordinators house and stay for the night. 

When we got up on Friday, we discovered that during the night the temperature had dropped and the rain from the previous night had turned into snow.  Now, not only was snow falling from the sky, but it was also sticking to the ground, blanketing everything in white. 
Looking out the kitchen window,
to see the first snow here in at least 4 years
It was pretty exciting for
everybody. 
Unfortunately, the snow that made everything so pretty was also making it near impossible for cars to get up the hill outside the house.  In traditional Palestinian fashion, rather than getting frustrated or angry, they people in the car made the best of the situation.  They parked their cars, the occupants got out, somebody turned on some music, and chaos broke out in the field next to the house as everybody began to pelt each other with snowballs.  Soon the neighborhood kids were outside.  Not wanting to miss out on any of the excitement, Megan, LW and I donned our shoes and jackets (mind you we had not come prepared for snow) and headed out to join in the fun.

Cars parked, snow balls flying
Growing up in Iowa, snow and snowball fights were a part of my childhood, but I must say, this was one of the most epic snowball fights I have ever participated in.  There was also the least amount of snowball etiquette, your face was fair game, but I suppose that is what happens when you don’t have snow often.   Laughter and dancing filled the air, and despite the fact that I was soaking wet and could not feel my fingers, I was having the time of my life.
Everybody was fair game. In all fairness she
she got them back pretty good.
At one point, we looked down the street to see the above “army” of young men coming towards us, stopping to throw snow at anybody who looked like a good target, or made the mistake of launching a snowball in their direction. 

Soon everybody was cold and tired, so the crowd dispersed back to their homes and cars.  It was a fantastic morning, and in some ways helped ease the pain of thinking that the next day we would be returning to a flooded home.  Yet, we returned home on Saturday afternoon to discover that our host mom and brother had been amazing and pumped the water out of the house and cleaned up our floor.  

Over the course of the weekend we heard from a variety of people how rare this is, not only the snow but also the amount of rain that we have had this year.  As frustrating as the rain can be, it is a huge blessing.  It a blessing that means full wells and water tanks, well watered fields which will hopefully mean good crops and harvest as well as well fed animals.  Plus this weekend, it also meant the great blessing of play and fun for those of us lucky enough to have snow!

ATTACK!!!!!


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