Today I received the photos you see below. They were taken recently at the wall that is being built to separate Israel from Palestine. The relative location was near the city center of Bethlehem. Research tells me that the wall is referred to as the Wall of Separation but I don't know if that is what both sides call it or not.





The girl in the picture is Sima, from Palestine. Sima is one of five exchange students in my classes last spring at Lawrence County High School. The other females were from South Korea, Bahrain, and Thailand along with one boy from Venezuela. In previous years I have had others from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Brazil. It never fails that I learn much more from them than they do from me.

I constantly asked these students questions and always have altered my opinions of their countries after meeting and getting to know them. Sima talked occasionally about the weeks that would go by where they could not sleep in their homes but would go to shelters each night because of the bombings from Israel. I never knew that.

Sima would also talk about getting ready for school in the mornings and as they walked to school they would see an Israeli roadblock ahead so they would just turn around and go back home instead of trying to talk their way through. I never knew that, either. I remember the sadness when she talked of this and then I looked around the room at her classmates and I knew what they were thinking. Most of them would gladly go home using the smallest excuse, either real or imagined. The value of education seems greater for those who have to sacrifice the most to achieve it.

Sima also mentioned that she couldn't send a letter home because there is no mail service in Palestine. Instead, she would send her letters to a relative in Israel and she would carry them into Palestine and deliver them while also picking up return mail to send to Sima.

I remember the look of homesickness on Sima's face when she learned that it had snowed in Palestine.

I regret not finding out more about the exchange students I have taught in the past and wish now that I had made more of an effort to keep in touch with them. I will keep in touch with Sima and will continue to learn more than I taught. I'm sure when she receives the link to this blog she will email me and let me know where I have erred. Won't you, Sima? :)

I am most grateful to Sima for remembering her promise. When I received the picture I realized that it meant a lot more to me than I had imagined. Hopefully our paths will cross again some day soon.