The Party

Muhammed, brother #1

Lael "tangoing" with Khaled,  brother #2

Ahmad & Khitam, dancing

Amira, # 4

Ahmad & Khitam arriving

  The party's not over; it has started.  The party, that is, of Ahmad and Khitam's life together.  Actually, it started a while ago, but it officially started last night with a party of over 100 at a local restaurant overlooking the Acca bay of the Mediterranean.  As you can see, they were a handsome couple.
   What's a Palestinian celebration like?  There was a Palestinian combo playing oud, keyboard, dirbeke (the hand drum essential in Middle Eastern music; I have no idea how to spell it), and an instrument like an oversized tambourine.  When Khitam and Ahmad arrived, most guests were there.  The combo played, everyone lined up to form a path for them to enter between.  Everyone clapped with the music.  Khitam and Ahmad greeted people the was Obama does in Congress after a major speech to both houses.

Fish dish

   On the tables are a Palestinian mezza: hummus, baba ghanouj, tabouli, an arugala salad, fatoush (a salad with crisp Arabic bread croutons), shrimp, and a dish or two I've forgotten.  There is also wine, soda, water, and lots of Arabic bread.  This is followed, later, by a main course of either a whole fish, grilled fresh from the sea, or chicken.

Umar, brother #4

   Most of the people there were family.  All five brothers made it and three of the six sisters.  One was with a son in the hospital and two others didn't come.  The five men - Muhammad, Khalid, Yousef, Umar and Wahib - all had their families there.  The families of the three sisters who were there - Moheba, Amira and Zada - were also present.  Invite them to the Theater Project and we have half a house!
   For the rest of the evening, it was eating, dancing, greeting family members and friends and talking.  Limited by faulty Arabic,  any extended conversation I had was in English, and there were lots of English speakers there.
   The music was Arabic music, the dancing mostly Arabic in style, which meant neither ballroom nor boogie down.  Women and men danced with each other and in groups.  You might start with a partner and then move to another partner then into a group.

Khitam dancing

Sometimes it was hard to tell who you were dancing with and it didn't matter.  The movement is a combination of belly dancing, sinuous hand gestures, and very loose hips.  As when I tried learning some Latin American moves, I had trouble contacting different parts of my body to get them to move in concert with each other with any sense of rhythm, and as with my Arabic, people were more than tolerant.

Yousef, brother #3

   In the beginnning,when Khitam danced, people clapped, rhythmically.  Later, there were a couple of specific dances that were for the women, although some men eventually joined the circle.  This dance only happened a couple of times.  The most exciting dance to me was the one when Khitam danced with each of her brothers.  If you've been following the blog, you know that Yousef, the third brother who spent fifteen years in an Israeli prison and the night before we met him had been detained with others in a bus for two and a half hours at an Israeli check point, looked serious and not happy in a photo I think I posted with Khitam.  Look at him at the party in the "brothers dance.

Zada, sister #6

   There was magic in this dance.  There was one time when Khalid, brother #2, was dancing with Khitam.  He "got emotional," began to cry, and Yousef came over to cut in.  Khalid didn't want him to cut in and Yousef looked angry and then stood back and watched.  Later he cut in.  Khitam explained this morning that Khalid often gets emotional and Yousef worries about him. so he tried to cut in so Khalid wouldn't cry.  Khitam, not Khalid, told him to wait and Yousef responded, "No.  He'll get upset."  Khitam told him to wait, so he did.  "When Yousef sees Khalid upset, he gets upset, and he doesn't want to do that," Khitam said.  How easily we misunderstand what we see!

Suraya, Khitam's niece, and Ali, her husbandAdd caption

Moheba, sister #2 & Khitam

   The hospitality offered visitors "from away," as we say in Maine, was warm and sometimes playful.  Lael, who met Khitam in Jerusalem on a visit five or six years ago, was "tangoed" around the room by Khalid.  Several people said to me: "Oh, you're Al.  Khitam's has told us..."  Claudia, who lives in California but met Khitam in Jerusalem long before I knew her, knew several of the people there and was welcomed as an old friend.  And if it was people who had no idea who any of us was, they were just as warm.

A few words for Khitam & Ahmad

   I said to someone: "A lot of these people are family, aren't they," rhetorically, and she responded that they were.  "Big family," I said.  "Oh," she replied, "this is just brothers and sisters and their families.  If we had the rest here..."  This morning we talked about how
   Time to go.  I'm afraid I'll lose this blog if I don't post it now.  More later, if you're not bored with this...or even if you are.