Mother's Day!

Last Wednesday was Mother's Day here and it was quite the celebration! The day started, and continued, with flowers, flowers, flowers galore! All the students brought flowers for their favorite female teachers and throughout the day kids and teachers were constantly carrying flowers! Additionally people on the streets were carrying flowers home.

The school day began with the Kindergartners through the sixth grade all gathered in the church hall for the Mother's Day show! Every grade performed a song, skit or poem about how awesome Mom's are in English or in Arabic. It was very sweet! Weirdly, none of the children's parents were invited... I have no idea why. The performance took a particularly exciting turn when a pigeon revealed that it was in the church hall sitting on a very high window! Quite exciting!

It was an especially exciting morning for the Kindergartners because after their breakfast, we gathered them up in pairs and took them over to the main school building for yet more Mother's Day celebrations! The model company club at our school was selling its products for sale. There were Mother's Day candles, tee-shirts and embroidered goods. The teachers, staff and students alike flocked to the tables to purchase gifts for their loved ones.

It was fun for me to see which of the kindergartners have siblings in the older grades. Since the Kindergarten is beneath the church hall, it is actually completely removed from the rest of the school so I had not ever seen which of the students are siblings to kindergartners.

After the sale the teachers and staff had a special breakfast in honor of Mother's Day. Tasty flat bread with thyme and olive oil accompanied by lots of veggies and juice! All the female teachers, myself included, got a little sampler set of scents: vanilla, aloe vera and citrus. Quite nice!


Even my Arabic lesson was Mother's Day themed! I learned all about Eid ilom (Mother's Day)! I learned about the popular Mother's Day song, "sit ilhabiyeb ya habeeba".

You can watch it sung by Arab Idol contestants on this video.

The words of the first verse are:
"Sit ilhabiyeb ya habeeba
ya aghrla min rohe w damee
ya hanieena w kullik teeba
yarabe, haleekee ya ommee"

Which means:
"My dear Mother, you are the most beloved person in my life
You are more precious than my soul and my blood
You are loving and full of goodness
May God keep you my Mother"

Aww! Needless to say Mother's are very beloved here as well as back home! Happy (slightly belated) Palestinian Mother's Day to my Mom!!! I love you!