We all miss the Gaza we grew up in; anyone who says they don’t is a liar. We miss the sandy streets, Kazem’s ice cream, the Capital Mall and its crowds, the Omar Al-Mukhtar stores, and the Shuja’iya market.
We miss the Al-Shifa parking lot, where we caught our transportation. We miss Abu Al-Saud’s knafeh, one of our favorite desserts. We miss the smell of spices and the oils and perfumes in Zawiya Market.
We miss Universities Street, the symbol of Al-Azhar, and the mural of Al-Khitiyar Abu Ammar on the street walls. We miss the logo of Al-Saraya and the mint sellers. We miss Laylat Al-Qadr in the Al-Omari Mosque.
We miss the sea, the port, and the smell of fish at seven in the morning. We miss Gaza Corniche, which was full of good feelings and happy people.
We miss the metro and all it offers, and the Gaza restaurants we once complained about.
We miss the air of the north. We miss its cheap prices for the goods that were always available in quality and quantity. We miss our peace of mind. Gaza, we miss seeing your sky empty of warplanes.
Here are three more things that I miss a lot:
UNWRA Summer Fun Weeks
I had a great experience in July 2023, during the Summer Fun Weeks, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). These holiday weeks were intended to improve students’ English. It also aimed to provide vital psychosocial support by offering the children a secure and nurturing environment.
Our site consisted of four corners: Outdoor Activities, Drama and Theater, Art and Crafts, and Soft Skills. This last corner focused on how to interact with people and how to use body language and facial expressions in a positive way to convey your feelings to others.
I was chosen to be a facilitator for Soft Skills at Al-Bureij Camp, and I was lucky to work with a great team. I helped my students in public speaking and techniques to convince their audience regarding a specific topic.
It was a good adventure for me and I had fun with these children. The most exciting part was at the end of each week, when we got to create a day of celebration. We opened with songs and painted our faces with bright colors. All my students came to me to draw on their faces. They loved the shapes I made, like flowers and heart chains and especially the Palestinian flag.
A Palestinian wedding
My husband’s family had a wedding planned for September 2023, and we had to prepare ourselves for those amazing days. We had waited for this happy event for a very long time.
The Palestinian custom is to hold wedding events over four days. On the first day, the bride and her family host a henna party, a quintessential event in a Palestinian wedding reserved solely for the women. Henna is sometimes incorporated into the bridal shower. All the women gather and sing traditional Arabic songs that express joy, love, and celebration. The henna night allows the women to bond together as they make the henna paste, spread it out on a tray adorned with flowers, and then scoop it up to pipe onto the hands of the bride.
On the second day, the groom hosts a party for his friends to say good-bye to his single life; this event is called sahra. Also on the same day, there is a similar party for the groom’s mother.
During these events, we do our best to showcase our Palestinian traditional meals, dresses, and songs. We make ka’ak and ma’amoul as a dessert for the guests; it is served with coffee and other drinks. All the women wear their thoub, or traditional dress, to symbolize our heritage and the region of Palestine where we are from. Nowadays, many women wear the dresses passed down to them from their mothers or grandmothers, which can come in many designs and colors; however the most traditional and popular embroidery is in the color red.
The nights are full of zaghareet, a loud celebratory sound the women make that is an iconic part of any traditional Arab wedding. It’s created by touching the tongue either to the sides of the mouth or the teeth in a very fast motion, and it is usually done at wedding celebrations after singing or chanting, to congratulate the bride and groom.
The last day is the party for both the bride and the groom, and it has three traditions. The first is for the groom to have a public shaving, either the night before or on the morning of the wedding. Many times, a close friend or a family member will do the shaving, representing the close connection they have with the groom. This is the male equivalent of a henna night, where the groom is celebrated and prepared to look his best for the big celebration.
Once the shaving is complete and the groom is ready, everyone participates in the zaffa, or wedding march. The groom and his family go to pick up the bride from her home with an entire zaffa team who play music, sing, and dance to kick off celebrations on the big day. This will continue once they arrive at the wedding venue, where they provide a grand entrance for the couple and excite the guests.
The evening is filled with singing and with energetic Arab dancing known as dabke, where guests stand in a line holding hands while walking around the dance floor and kicking their legs into the air. A special dabke band plays for the dancers.
The family wedding I attended in September was glorious. The ceremony took place in a hall that was decorated with the most beautiful and bright colors and filled with many guests. When the groom entered the hall, birds were released that flew above his head. The bride was the queen of that night. Her dress was full of sparkles like a princess’s gown, and everyone loved it.
Everything was perfect just as it was planned to be. Everyone left the celebration with a big smile and hoping for a happy life for the beautiful couple.
Teaching English
My first experience as an English teacher was at Al-Amal School at the north end of Al-Nuseirat camp, called Al-Amal City. I was excited about this job and my first visit to this new place.
Al-Amal City is full of very large buildings. It has one elementary school, one mosque, and one kindergarten. It’s on the beach and it was gorgeous. The weather in September was amazing, too. I never saw a city like this before in the Gaza Strip.
I chose to teach fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The students were so kind and beautiful. The other teachers and the principal of this school were very kind to me, too.
But my time at Al-Amal School left very harsh memories in my heart, because I got to teach there for only one month before the war came. Al-Amal City was the first place that was targeted by the Israeli planes. They killed Yousef, the student I loved for his smile. They also killed so many other students, but Yousif’s death made me cry a lot.
Yousif was a beautiful boy with a great smile; he was in fifth grade and was super active. Each morning at school, his smile was a new hope to me.
His mother was also a great person with a very soft soul. She died with Yousif in the second week of the war.
After 100 days they destroyed the whole city along with the school. They didn’t leave any memories for us.
I love Gaza so much
I miss those days. I’m a person who has passion for discovering more and to visit new sites and to make happy memories in the process. I love Gaza so much and can’t imagine living away from my homeland.
But look at us now! We entered a new summer with famine, killing and destruction.
