One of the highlights of our Christmas season was our visit to Al Shurooq school for blind children (run by Helen Shehadeh, who is an elder at St Andrew’s) in time for their Christmas party. Their party for all the School children was on the 29th and we joined 20 excited young children waiting for their visit from Santa. I haven’t seen him myself for quite some time, so I was as excited as the children!
They sang Christmas songs as they waited for him to arrive. I think they must have been told to sing loudly so Santa could hear them and know where to come – so they sang with gusto. And it was fascinating listening to them sings songs I knew in English, but which had a new vitality sung in Arabic. I thought ‘Jingle Bells’ sounded particularly beautiful.
When Santa arrived he came in the usual red and white outfit, but he was young and had been on a diet! And he had a false red nose! Not what I expected – but exactly what the children expected, I’m sure. He was really happy giving the children their presents – most of which were supplied by the school, from donations given by friends. Most of the presents were musical instruments – keyboards, guitars, etc. Anything that makes a noise!
I think it was one of the best Christmas parties I have ever been to. What made it exceptionally good was that Margaret and I also had the privilege of taking Mrs Darinka Gardiner-Scott through with us. Darinka is aged 93 and is very good friends with Helen Shehadeh. It was great to be involved in the reunion – Darinka has not been out to Bethlehem for a number of years, so this was her first visit to the new school. Darinka is the widow of Bill Gardiner-Scott who was minister (twice) at St Andrew’s , Jerusalem in the 1950’s and 1960’s. When I first met her she said, “We have so much in common.” She then explained that Bill trained in theology in Edinburgh (he came originally from Bo’ness) and was ordained as a minister two months before the Second World War broke out. Bill and Darinka had lived and worshipped in Leith (where I came from but a year ago – that was the thing in common) and had many fond memories of the community.
In the Al Shurooq Christmas newsletter, the editor remembers back to the 29th December the previous year when the brutality of the war in Gaza also had a direct impact on the life of the school: “…two of our children, Lara and her brother Ahmad were prevented from going home at the last minute, and they were obliged to stay at school during the whole period of their Christmas holidays. It was a dreadful situation. Although we were glad that they escaped the war, yet we are quite certain that they must have suffered immensely on the quiet.”
I remember Lara and Ahmad well. When Margaret and I first visited the school in April 2009, the children still had not had the opportunity to go home.
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