So much to do!

Donna from Rebuilding Alliance suggested we apply for a grant for $100,000 for the Rural Women's Society, which supports women and children in the community, mostly by running the kindergarten and sewing cooperative. Haj Sami and I have been filling out the application together. I'm doing some guesswork on the long answers, but we need to review and translate and scan and e-mail the documents tomorrow.

Here's one of the answers Haj Sami gave me:
We need to put the children in the kindergarten because they play in the land and they play with bombs (landmines) and there are bullets and scorpions. When he comes to the kindergarten he will play in the playground.

We teach the children about the land, and how to be safe from the military training and the bombs.

We want to grow so we can help more women and more kids. We need a school bus (right now they have a minibus that they cram all the kids into). We need salaries for the teachers-right now they only $100 every month. It's not good. We need a good playground with a good shelter over the top, and a kitchen.

I didn't have time to pause while I was scribbling all that down, but I was thinking, wow. they've come a long way. The kindergarten, that place I stumble over to at 9am every morning and teach the ABC's and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in, that place is really amazing.

I'm also making a video of some of the projects that are happening around the village, wall-building, painting, mudding, farming, beautification and the like. If I could be a full-time video maker for Al Aqaba, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Though it involves a lot of sitting on my butt. And now that the apartment has internet, I can do a lot more sitting on my butt.

Haj Sami just came back to bring me a plate of knafeh. Alhamdulliah!