From Darkness to Light

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Saturday, January 12, 2012 – From Darkness to Light

Saturday morning, all wrapped in a cloud of fog.  Bare trees like inky skeletons silhouetted against the gray mist.  A few lonely bird calls pierced the unearthly quiet.  The somber setting made me wonder what dark secrets were hiding out there.  Perhaps my thoughts were influenced by the fact that I was getting ready for a visit to the Holocaust Museum.  I would be accompanying a group of over thirty AHS students, all of whom are affiliated with STAND, the student-led anti-genocide group that I co-sponsored during my last year and a half of teaching.   Every year, several members of our STAND chapter participate in an internship program at the museum.  Part of their program consists of training to become guides.  Six of them would serve as our guides today. 

I am so incredibly proud of these AHS students.  Coming from all backgrounds, all ethnic groups and all religions, they share a commitment to understanding the lessons of past genocides and working to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.  For many of them, this was their first visit to the Holocaust Museum.  We toured the permanent exhibit for approximately two hours and then debriefed with a member of the museum staff.  As expected, it was a sobering experience.  The museum does a superlative job of relating all aspects of the Holocaust.  However, I wish that the text accompanying many of the displays could be more accessible to visitors with limited English skills. 

The sky was lightening when we departed from the museum, and I made a resolution:  I am launching a new project, to develop an ELLs (English Language Learners) guide to the Holocaust Museum. 

The afternoon brightened considerably when my friend Ola, an AHS colleague, came for a visit with her husband and their nephew.  Ola brought along some delicious Egyptian-style delicacies whose names I unfortunately don’t recall.  There were flat leek-stuffed pastries, larger pastries bulging with chicken and spices, plain ring-shaped tea biscuits studded with black seeds of some kind, cardamom flavored cookies, and an interesting dessert made of shredded wheat, pistachio nuts, and a sugary syrup.  For them, it was a late lunch, while the festive meal served as an early dinner for Elliott and me. 

with Hady and Ola

with Mohamed, Hady and Ola

 

I was hoping to see the sun again on Sunday, but instead, it turned out to be Glumday, an entire day of heavy fog that never lifted.  In fact, it got thicker and thicker as the day went on although the temperatures stayed relatively mild, in the mid-50s.  We must have imported this weather from the Pacific Northwest.  Since it wasn’t really a day for outdoor activities, Elliott and I used our time to continue working on the downstairs bathroom.  Today, in role reversal, he acted as my assistant, handing me the necessary tools as I hung curtain rods.  We’re nearing completion on the first bathroom and we’re almost ready to embark on phase two of bathroom renovation – transforming the 1960s Pepto-Bismol pink bathroom on the main level into something with a more contemporary feel.