My mind is reviewing the chores that await me in the -10 hours I have left in Virginia: exercise, shower, pray, eat, straighten my hair. It is also visually recalling my Palestine: baranda, shari3, Ramallah, 3akka, kazdira.
Palestine awaits me, and I long for it, and that is keeping me up.
I feel this trip will be different. Of course, each trip has its own charm and its own memories and scratches its own hatch marks on my life. But this one--the one that starts in 600 minutes or so--is escorted by a hint of charity and of change:
It may be the travel companion. She was also the travel companion on my first non-familial vacation. She and I know each other well and do well on trips together. We have similar spirits for adventure--she, slightly more risky than me; I, excited and anxious about following her lead. It's been a good complement, and over the years and the numerous trips, that gap has thinned. We are in tune. My last journey to Palestine began on the same night her journey in marriage began. That is a very revealing statement I realize as I read it again: My last journey to Palestine began on the same night her journey in marriage began. Yes, we are in tune. This trip has been talked about and dreamed about for years. It will be talked about and dreamed about for years to come I'm sure.
It may be the donations. On each of our separate trips, my fellow traveler and I have collected to give, and we'd each contribute to the other's efforts. Now, we'll combine them. She, the previously riskier of the two of us, has played Good Samaritan, traveling to those in need, and handing the needed to them. We hope to co-op this year. We've already united in the related stress of it all, fuming for being asked to relinquish items for the poor and replace them with U.S. paraphernalia for those who can easily afford it. A synced "uff" was released by us during our venting session on the phone. It was subsequently followed by a simultaneous "iza fee naseeb..." We are still in tune.
It surely includes the new friends I hope to finally meet in person, and introduce to her. Seeing friends is always a highlight but includes a twinge of hesitation. That hesitation is less about the ceremony of meeting face-to-face for the first time, which normally includes feelings of anxiety about whether the encounter will feel comfortable; it is more about the effort that is involved in arranging the meeting, which always includes feelings of anxiety about how the family will feel about the encounter taking place. Somehow, I always manage to make meetings happen. My risk-taking in this case has evolved over my years of travel to Palestine. This is my trip; this is her trip; and we are both intent on meeting friends. When an opportunity potentially becomes your only chance, you break through the hesitations and make it work. We both agree on that.
I know this trip will create its own memories and visual recollections that she and I will share and bring back to Virginia.
It's 3:52 a.m. now. The journey will begin in about 8.5 hours (510 minutes).
I wonder if she is sleeping soundly. I doubt it. I know how she is before she travels. It's similar to how I am. We are in tune.
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