My name is Ahmed and I am 8 years old. I am Palestinian and live in a Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. My family is Muslim. I have four brothers and three sisters. Our house has three rooms. My brothers and I sleep in one room. Two of my sisters share one room. My parents and baby sister have the third room. We sleep on thin mattresses on the floor. My brothers and I sleep in the living room. In the daytime, we use our mattresses to sit on. In the nighttime, the mattresses become our beds.
We go to school six days per week. Friday is our day off. I get up about six o’clock in the morning. This semester I go to afternoon school but the others wake me up because they go to morning school. After the winter break, I will go to morning school and it will be my turn to wake up my brothers. There are so many children living in Gaza that they have two sessions of schools. Some schools have three sessions! Some children go to school from 7 until 11. Others go from 12 until 4. What the children don’t have time to learn in school, they must study at home. My mama sits with him in the mornings to be sure that I’ve done my work for the day. Before I do my homework each morning, I take a bowl down the street to the nearest store that cooks humous and fu’ul. My family will eat humous and fu’ul and bread for breakfast. Humous is a bean dip paste and fu’ul is a type of bean that is served over it. It is served with hot, lemony pepper and is delicious!!! I also drink hot, sweet tea with my breakfast. After I have something healthy in his stomach I can think about my school work. I like to please my parents by doing well in school.
I live on a very crowded street in the middle of the camp. We don’t have a yard to play in and there are no parks nearby. My brothers and I play in the street near my home. My favorite game to play is soccer in the street. I have many, many aunts and uncles in the street, too. If I ever do anything wrong, they will tell my parents. There are so many children playing in our street that it is difficult for a car to drive. Of course, the people are more important than the cars, so the drivers have to wait !!
My family isn’t as religious as some, but I do go to the Mosque (like your church) on Fridays with my dad. I have to watch my father and the other men very closely to see exactly what I should do, how I should bow and when I should stand or sit. Only men go to the Mosques in Gaza. On Fridays, the imam (the Muslim preacher) preaches, It goes out into all the neighborhood over a loud speaker so the women can hear, too. The women are all at home cooking the Friday noon meal. I like Fridays because maybe my mom will cook meat or chicken for us to eat. We don’t eat meat every Friday but sometimes we do!! There is hardly any work in the city where I live. My father doesn’t work every day. He tries to find whatever kind of work is available. He wants to provide well for his family but it is difficult in a crowded place like Gaza. (It’s the second most crowded place in the world)
Even though we are poor, I am happy most of the time because my parents love me and try their best to take care of me. We don’t have much, but then none of my friends do either, so I don’t mind.
My name is Dina
Hi, my name is Dina and I live in a city near Jerusalem called Ramallah. My city is on a tall mountain. I get good exercise walking up and down the hills of my town. I am in the fifth grade. My father and my uncle own a store in the middle of Ramallah. They sell building supplies. The people of my town are both Muslim and Christian. My family is a Christian family. I have one sister and two brothers.
I go to a private Christian school not too far from my home. Each morning a small bus passes by my house and honks its horn. Three from my family get on the bus. My youngest brother is too small to go to school. He gets to stay home with my mother. After she gets us onto the bus, she cleans our house. Arab homes are very clean and orderly. She makes my father proud by keeping such a good house
Everyday she visits my grandmother who lives near-by, to be sure they have all that they need in their home for food. Sometimes they cook our lunch together. We usually eat a meal as soon as I get home from school. My father closes the store for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. He comes home and we eat together. We usually eat vegetables and rice. For dessert, we eat fruit. It is a really great treat to go to the local store and get ice cream. We usually eat ice cream in the summer to help us stay cool. In the wintertime, we drink a drink called sahleb. It is made from thickened milk, sugar and has little bits of nuts and coconut on top. It’s delicious and makes me feel warm inside.
We go to school five days per week. We have Friday and Sunday off. (Although my school is a Christian school, many of the students are Muslim. Friday is the day they pray.) I like school, but I have lots of homework to do every night.
I really like the summers best. My cousins live next door and we play together. The rest of the time I stay at home and help my mother. My older brother, George, gets to help my father at the store, but, of course, I’m a girl and can’t.
Ramallah is a beautiful city. I hope you can come to visit some time soon.
My Name is Hamoudi
My name is Hamoudi. I am Palestinian and I live in Amman, Jordan. I’m ten years old. My family is from a village on the Mediterranean Sea in what is now called Israel. It was a beautiful place, but my grandfather came here when he was young because of the war.
My grandmother also came to Jordan with her family. They got married here. My dad was born in the refugee camp, but later my grandparents moved to Amman. I have three sisters and one brother, Majid. I am the youngest and Majid is the oldest. He is a university student. We live in an apartment building. My grandparents live in the apartment next door with my uncle and his family.
My father is a taxi driver. He likes his job, but he has to work many hours. Most drivers work for a company, but my father bought his own car last year. Sometimes he lets me ride in it. My job at home is to help clean the car.
My family is Muslim. My father and grandfather go to the Mosque every morning before the sun comes up to pray. During Ramadan we fast. An old man goes down the street beating a drum to wake us up about 4 AM. We get up and eat. (I go back to bed, but my dad goes to the mosque and then comes home and reads the Qur’an until he starts work.) The adults don’t eat or drink anything else until the sun goes down. Majid and my older sisters fast, too. I tried to fast last year, but couldn’t make it until sundown. I hope I can do it this year. When the sun goes down, Mother has our Iftar meal ready. As soon as we hear the call from the mosque, we can start eating. I love Ramadan because every night we have our favorite dishes. My dad comes home early for Iftar and we have lots of fun together.
