People's Reactions

Written on 04/06/2004, after signing a contract to teach for two years at the American International School of Gaza. (The building was reduced to rubble in January 2009, during Israel's offense/attack/demolition of the Gaza Strip.)

There’s nothing more priceless than people’s reactions:

“Does your mother know you’re going?”

“Are you f--- out of your mind?”

"Have you seen Not Without My Daughter?" ask's my dad's cousin.

“You’re going to give this family a heart attack,” says my aunt.

“You’re so selfish,” chimes in my sister.

The blank stares.

The clueless, "Oh that’s cool," because they don’t know what Gaza is. After a “in Israel…Palestine” then maybe it kind of registers, maybe.

“Anywhere but there,” says my dad. “Go to Cairo, go to Amman, go to Damascas, but don’t go there.” This is the same dad who dropped me off in a barrio of Caracas and refused to come in with me once he saw the place. I was upset and disappointed; he was going to get to meet church-goers I had been spending so much time with. When I got home that night, I asked him why he didn’t come in with me.

“Are you crazy? I would have come out and there wouldn’t have been a car there. And then if I called the police, they would have said it was my fault for having left it there.”

Years later, I related this to a friend—“So he leaves his daughter there, but he won’t leave his car there.”

So then I relay that to my dad.

His reply: “Mi hija es inteligente; ella se puede defender. El carro es bruto; no se puede defender.”

But Gaza completely freaks him out. He says of course they’ll be my best friends, 99% of them. "It’s just that 1% you have to be wary of."

“Well, isn’t it like that anywhere?”

“No. Anywhere else it’s like 1/10,000 but in Gaza it’s 1/100.”

But then they’re the people who know me, who really think it’s the coolest thing ever. Yes, their face registers concern, but they know this is right for me. Because they know me. I thought Texas would be awful, but surprisingly enough, when I went to my old high school yesterday, my former teachers and parents of my friends sincerely looked positive and happy for me.

Texas is so full of surprises.