He got up and went to the bathroom at 4, then was up about 7:30. He told Carly “I’m gonna be a third cat at gramma and gramps’s.” When she didn’t understand ‘third’ he explained “You know, third: one, two, three.” He wanted to go outside and make a dirt concoction: “Can I make another combo cuz yesterday I hated my combo?”
They went outside for a bit, then came back in and Carly went up to get ready to go. I got him his vitamins and Cheerios and I realized there was most of a season of The Magic School Bus Rides Again that he hasn’t watched. So he watched one.
Watched a second and I took a shower. When I came down he was playing with Duplos and she was giving him challenges. He got a bit stressed out about our upcoming trip after that. He told me “Teach me something cool about Palestinians.” When I started to say something he said “Pffft. Boring. Not cool.”
We left before 10:30. Carly was driving. I asked August if he had any music requests for the radio and he said “Do that uncanny song. I love uncanny.” He meant the Conor Oberst song “A Little Uncanny”. He then asked “What’s uncanny mean?”
Drive went smoothly and we got to Sabeel. Parked in back and went up and found Omar in the office. Omar kept commenting on how August has changed since he last saw him. August was quiet that time, and now was talking up a storm by comparison.
First order of business was getting the rental car, since our car isn’t insured in the West Bank. I took over driving and Omar got in the passenger seat and directed us up north to the rental place. got the rental car, and he went with me and we led Carly back to Sabeel. We moved our luggage to the rental car and said goodbye our Skoda.
We first drove north and stopped at a pizza place where we got a pizza and some za’atar bread things. When we talked about what we were doing next, August was excited to hear that Omar was coming with us: “Are you going to our hotel room?” “Yeah!”
Omar went into tour guide mode and directed us up 443 and off an exit to a settlement, then through a small checkpoint that led us into Ramallah. We first drove through what used to be a bustling neighborhood, but is now cut off between the highway and the wall. There was a donkey hanging out there and not much else. We got out and took some photos, then hopped hack in the car and drove a bit north to a spot where 60-some houses were destroyed in an operation that was called Operation Aleppo.
We continued on, twisting and turning into Ramallah. He pointed out some of the older, traditional houses. We tried for the Mahmoud Darwish Museum. August was ready for the hotel and did not like that idea. The museum was closed though, and as I got back in the car I whipped the lollipop from Omri’s goodie bag and that cheered him up. He sucked on it until the hotel, then saved the rest for later.
The hotel was actually a guesthouse at a Christian center. An empty one, as it was just us and a volunteer, Simon, that were there. Omar helped check us in, then gave us some time to rest and settle in before dinner. He then sort of mysteriously disappeared to we knew not where. Carly rested in the room, and actually fell asleep, and I took August back down to the activity room we had seen. There were yog Amat’s and other things in there, and we made a big walking path, like in his activity classes with Sigal. We stood up three of the big squares and leaned them against each other and made a nest. He was then a baby birdie and I was getting him worms. He was then practicing flying “I practiced during the night…I’m putting padding down…Is that safe?”
We made a bigger nest against the piano and he used that for awhile, but then there was a shape on the floor, from old tape or something, that he said looked like an alien and he was scared of. We moved the nest and made an even bigger one with more and more of the big squares.
After more than an hour we went back up. Carly realized she hadn’t packed his pants, and some of the toiletries, but it ended up not being an issue as we never needed our sweatshirts. He “Hickory Dickory Dock”: to “My mouse went up the clock…” It had different verses for each number, and he seemed to remember it quite well. Must have been from meetings or music class at school. He kept going to ten = “no more please”.
Omar was going to get us around six, so we went out for a little walk. There was a cafe called Jasmine Cafe. Couple blocks away. We didn’t expect it to be open, due to Ramadan, but it was. On the walk there August was impressed by a little tree that he called the tiniest tree ever. He then found a yellow tube from a pipe on the side of the road that he really liked. I put it in the backpack for the cafe.
In the Jasmine Cafe we sat right in front of the waterfall feature. I had a sahlab, August had mint lemonade, and Carly had a coffee. August was singing the Jason Webley song I’ve sung to him forever for the first time: “We say, that the world isn’t dying…maybe she’s heavy with child…” He spotted the little chocolates that Carly and I got and he shared Carly’s. He said “I’m enjoying the aftertaste.” Apparently he had learned that from Carly.
On the way back he was doing funny math: “Omar plus cactus equals watering can.” “Nine plus a branch equals…”
We met Omar back at the guesthouse. He had gone to hang out at a friend’s house nearby. He got in the car and directed us east and south through Ramallah, to his house on the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem, technically on the Jerusalem side.
We met his wife, Heba, and daughter, Rada. August wasn’t sure of her t first, and he started sliding on his back in the living room and went into a space in the corner. He noticed that Rada was copying him and following him, and they were instantly best buddies. He said “Take a picture of us!”
We went outside onto the deck and spent most of the rest of the evening out there. Omar cooked chicken and veggies on the grill and August and Rada spent much of the time throwing a ball back and forth and laughing and laughing. Rada knew what she wanted, and even though she was a couple months short of 3, she led August around. If she wanted August to stand up and play ball she would grab him by the hand and pull him up and over to the ball.
August and Carly spotted a light in the sky and I used an app to tell it was Jupiter. They sprayed some pesticide over by the door where there were a bunch of bugs gathering and the two kids of course then wanted to hang out by the door. When dinner was ready we ate outside. They kept giving me more and more of the chicken, which was really good. Carly and I drank ouzo – I think it was from Lebanon. The kids drank some sort of juice, for a sippy cup. It was some Palestinian juice they only have part of the year.
August was pretending to spit at the sun, Venus, Mars, etc. Inside, they took Rada to a bath. The kids played with a toy together, then we got going. Omar got their car and he was going to lead us back to guesthouse. We managed to pull out into crowded Ramandan traffic and just managed a u-turn when the car died. And died again. Cars were honking. Some guys noticed and helped push us to the side. Carly said it it appeared they were telling the cars behind us to stop honking, as there was a problem. Omar had stopped and came back. Took us a few minutes to be sure, as the gas gauge design was awful – at empty or full the gauge pointed to both and was just a little longer in one direction. I had assumed the rental car was full when we got it, but we’d been driving this whole way on E.
August was stressed out. Running out of gas has been perhaps his worst fear this year. Omar went and came back with some gas. While he was gone, August fell asleep, about 10. Put in the gas and the car started. We drove on to the gas station and put in some more fuel, then did the drive back to the guesthouse. Went smoothly, but s
eemed to go on and on and on.
We got to the guesthouse and I carried him up and lay him on the third of four beds. We pushed the beds on either side together so that he’d be in the middle and we’d be on the sides.
Tiny tree:
With Rada:
Saved by Omar:
