Nawal and The Purple Flower Trees

by Marilyn Robinson in Jenin Refugee Camp

May 13, 2002

* Appeared at the www.PalestineChronicle.com on 5/14/02

Leaving Jenin was heartbreaking.  Families I had stayed with kept hugging and kissing me, pleading with me not to go. "Stay", they would say, "you are my second mamma", said Nawal, a strikingly beautiful, young Palestinian woman of 19 who had become my adopted daughter almost immediately when I first met her.

She was one of the many volunteers who worked at the Medical Relief Center in Jenin Refugee Camp.  She lived in the camp.  She had so little but would have freely given me everything she had.  We shared many moments together.  

Walking down the scarred, potholed streets of Jenin and the camp, past leftover memories of buildings some as children's centers, hospital additions in progress before the Israeli military destroyed it, homes of her friends with gaping holes in their walls appearing as giant mouths wailing in silence, holes from rocket bombs, missiles, gunshot holes and holes from shrapnel endlessly scar the fence walls to their homes and their doors.  Walls open to the street, once sitting rooms of homes, still bear the framed family pictures of the families who still must live there since there is no where else to go.  

They stand at their doorways and bid you welcome.  They offer you tea or arabic coffee already prepared as though they have been magically waiting for your arrival.  They thank you over and over again for coming, for being there, for being witness to their stories and to witness the wanton, barbaric damage to their homes and land.  They say, "please tell America what happened here.  Tell them we are not terrorists.  Tell them we want to live in peace but Israel, Sharon and Bush will not let us".  Their convictions stand.  They stand the
test of time.  They will not relent on the truth and its convictions.  Live free or die is marked in spray paint on one of the walls still standing in the camp -- the motto on the New Hampshire license plate I well remember seeing when I lived there.  I recall how people in New Hampshire used to question what did it really mean.  The people of Jenin camp know what it means.  To live free or die is no question, it is a fact. A belief that stands and will remain standing on the walls of Jenin camp and in the hearts of the Palestinian people of Jenin camp and the West Bank.

The moment drew close. I was to leave at noon.  The plans had been made quickly.  I needed to say goodbye.  I had adopted Nawal, as I had so many.  But she was special.  At this moment she was very special, with her  dark, sad yet, loving eyes boring deep into my soul. I held her hand and said, it must be so difficult to make a friend and then, they leave.  She said no one had been like me.  I had adopted her.  Not any of her friends had two mothers like she did.  She was lucky.  The stars had shined on her when I came into her life.

She said, she would not forget me.  She handed me a small photo I will treasure the rest of my life.  We had seen the horrors left from the invasion yet, she remembers my delight as I marveled at the trees with the light purple flowers.  She tells me she will remember how I danced in the street of the purple flower trees, singing "You Are My Sunshine to her."  I get into the taxi with the others ready for our journey and I turn and look for her.  She is standing there smiling as she had done much of the time I was with her.  I blow a kiss to her.  She returns one to me.  A bond has passed between us.  Nawal and the purple flower trees will remain waiting for my return....
 

* Marilyn Robinson is one of three members of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace who have joined internationals in solidarity with Palestinians nonviolently resisting Israel's illegal military occupation.  More on their trip at: www.ccmep.org/palestine.html