New Friends

So before I left I had a friend forward me some of the local people that I should go visit while I was here. I finally got around to going yesterday. Three of my friends and I chose to go to a family that lives just up the way. We were all a little nervous about just going to some random house and meeting some locals. We also weren’t sure if we were going to be able to follow the directions to find their house. We found the house just fine. When we got there we sat in front of the little entrance to the community of houses for a couple minutes not really knowing what we were doing. Eventually we got brave enough to knock and announce ourselves. A lady poked her head out of the window and we told her we were looking for Nuha and Aya. She said “I’m Nuha” and Aya (her daughter) is here too. She pointed to the stairs and told us to just go up them to the front door. So we went and met them up there. They immediately welcomed us into their home before we really even had a chance to tell them who we were. We found out Aya was 13 years old, and she also had a brother that is 14, a sister that is 6, and a brother that is 4. I felt loved from the very first moment I met them. After being there for only about 10 minutes Nuha went and got us grapefruit juice. And we all just sat and chatted and got acquainted with one another. I was very impressed with their English, we had very little problems communicating. Aya told us that she loves learning English. Right away they got out photo albums to show us pictures of them with past BYU Jerusalem students, as well as other pictures of them. I felt like family even though I had only met this family 10 minutes before. Through the course of the conversation Nuha’s husband told us that he works at a restaurant. We talked to him about his job, and about the different food we had had since arriving in Jerusalem. After that conversation ­­Nuha went downstairs and got us pita, hummus, mushrooms, beans, and tomatoes to eat. It was so yummy!! And it was incredible to be in a Palestinian home, with a Palestinian family, eating Palestinian food. Nuha asked us how many Palestinian friends we had, and we told them they were our first. Both Nuha and Aya said “good!” in unison when told them that. After about an hour we had to leave because we had to be back before sundown. None of us wanted to leave though. It was raining when we left, and Aya was concerned that we were going to get wet. I told her that I had a hood on my jacket, and she proceeded to put my hood on my head for me. I barely even know her and her family, but I already love them! We were all walking on air on our way home and we couldn’t help but smile!