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| World Traveler Sahar |
Last year when I arrived to my first period class, usually only minutes before the starting bell, one student always awaited me there in the hall. Sahar Farraj was one of two exchange students I had last year at Kapa'a High School, and she was always the first to come into my class, usually full of questions.
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| The mother picking grapes |
Sahar was very hard-working, and could write and speak in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. I asked her if she was Jewish or Muslim. She replied that she was neither--she was Druze. I had never heard of the Druze people, or the Druzim as you say in Israel. Upon researching them, I found that they were an Arab-descended people who practice a closed religion. They believe in a mix of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And since they believe in reincarnation, they think everyone had a chance to join their religion a thousand years ago, so there is no need to go accepting converts now.
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| Beautiful sisters, Shorok and Hala |
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| Sahar's sister and brother-in-law BBQ-ing |
Upon arriving in Israel I had the distinct pleasure to visit Sahar's family. I found them to be the warmest and most hospitable family I had ever stayed with. They showered me with gifts, including olives from their own tree, their own olive oil, olive soap, toiletries, Druze pita; they even held a barbecue in my honor at one of their religion's holy sites, the burial site of Yitro, Moses' father-in-law.
I found the Druze people highly educated, refined, and very inquisitive. Sahar's dad is a retired high school teacher; her mom, famous for her baking in the Arab village of Rama, in northern Israel. They invited me to live with them; which sadly I could not do, as I have things to do in Jerusalem and later in the Negev. But their food was amazing, and their hospitality legendary, so wistfully I look forward to staying again with this lovely, warm family on the heights of the little village of Rama. :) Saha! ;)
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| View from their rooftop in Rama |
