Leaving the river

     It's Wednesday afternoon.  I just finished a late lunch of a crabmeat and leftover roast salmon salad and a beer with Jean.  Now I'm "doing the drill," checking to see if I remember what Heather told me -  about posting on my blog with photos.  Can I do it?  I hope so.

From the deck, the river flows to the sea.

     I leave Boston late tonight on Turkish Airlines for Istanbul, then TelAviv, where my friend Khitam will meet me.  I'm connecting with Cotton Fite, a classmate from Williams, class of 1860, whom I knew  in passing but have gotten to know well since our fiftieth reunion, my first.  I heard he was interested in Palestine and had been making trips there.  We took a break from one of the celebratory - "What a great class!  How much can you give?" - dinners to talk for an hour or two and have since connected in Palestine and Maine.  One of these days I'll get to Chicago to visit Cotton and Diane in that vibrant city.  He and I will fly over together, spend some time together there, then connect again in Istanbul on the way home; I'm spending two weeks in Palestine, then flying to Istanbul for a few days.  Cotton and I are on the same flight from Istanbul to Boston, May 4.
     If I'm boring you, which I suspect is the case - I'm boring me! - skip the rest of this.  There won't be much more.  I have to do this test to make sure I can continue to blog from Palestine and Istanbul.
     I'll be working with Nasser, a middle school counselor I met and did some work with on my last visit.  I wrote about him then, a remarkable man who is doing very good work in a quiet way.  I'll work with him the first week I'm there, perhaps doing workshops with other teachers and counselors whom he has identified as people who want to improve Palestinian education, making it student centered.  I may also do some work with Khitam who is a creative arts therapist working with kids and teachers, primarily those doing early childhood education and with Abed, a friend from Bethlehem where he does extraordinary work with the community.  More on all of them while I'm there.
     The visit to Istanbul is a revisit.  I was last there in 1998 and visited often when I was living and teaching in Lebanon the decade after college.  The city is about four times the size it was then!
     I'll indicate on Facebook when I've posted a blog.  Those who aren't on Facebook and are interested, check every
couple of days.  If you get bored, stop checking!
     As Jackie Gleason used to say: "And away I go…"