Last Night Here

We leave for the States tomorrow. It's been a good visit, but we are ready to be home. We packed our bags and had our last big dinner together. Our driver comes to pick us up at 6 am in the morning, even though our flight isn't until right before noon; the Israelis tend to stop Palestinians at a checkpoint on the way and search bags, so we need to make sure we have enough time to make our flight. Plus, our driver needs to get to work. I'm not looking forward to such an early start, but the sooner we get on the road, the sooner we are home.

Abe's feeling somewhat better, at least when it comes to his stomach. He's been tired, but the heat without a/c tends to make one sleepy. I'm exhausted. Adam has been having such trouble sleeping this past week or so; he tosses and is so restless, so I'm thinking his teeth are bothering him. Plus, it's been stuffy at night, so he's a sweaty mess and that can't be comfortable. I've been reading a book on sleep training and will break down and do it when we get back home and get over the jet lag (and after Michelle's wedding). I hope to be sleeping better... oops, I mean, I'm hoping Adam sleeps better soon.

We were supposed to go to Jerusalem today to see some sites and get some presents. Jimi's great-grandmother, who visited us the other day, had plans to spend some time with him; poor Jimi was not looking forward to it since he didn't know her very well when she lived in America and he wasn't sure what to do with an old lady all day. So, Abe's mom told her a fib and said that we had plans for later, so we needed him back in a few hours. Things got interesting when later when she brought him back and Abe's dad and uncle, who didn't know about the lie, argued with my mother in law that we did not have plans later....lol.

Abe's bad gut made the difficult trip to Jerusalem not worth it, so tried to find gifts in town, without much luck (sorry, guys!). We went walking to try a new cafe and to take some final pictures. It's so beautiful here and the pictures don't do it justice. I also had the constant feeling that I didn't want to take pictures in front of the people of the city; for some reason, maybe because I'm so obviously a foreingner with my fair features and huge camera around my neck, it felt somewhat disrespectful and voyeuristic to be shooting pictures while people are just going about their business. So, a lot of my shots were taken on the sly and I doing "artistic shots" seemed suddenly silly. I'll leave those for home.

So, we are looking forward to coming home, but not to the loooong flight. Much like Khalil and the kids, it will be a 24 hour process to get home, with the driving time, checkpoint and layovers. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again! Manal has been coming to the house to water the garden and says that it's huge. We are excited to see Roxy again, too.

Until next time, this time from the States.