My daughter "Farah" is in the 9th grade, she studies in the ROSARY SISTERS SCHOOL in the southern side of Gaza city.
The school was built in 1995 by the support of the French government and it runs by a group of nuns. The students are a mixture of Muslims and Christians; this also goes for the teachers as well, there is not a problem what so ever between them at all.
The people there deal with each other in sincere and friendly manners, or we can say they live in harmony.From both religions, "Farah" has many friends that she always calls and talks to over the phone or visits and invites them to our house.
In her spare time "Farah" is interested in Computer and learning languages such as English, French and German, she is happy at what she does. She always talks to me about her dreams and that she wants to study Dentistry in Germany or Switzerland or France when she is graduated from high school.
When the war started, "Farah" was in school and she told me that when she heard the hard explosions nearby her school "the class room was full of smoke and I couldn't see any of my friends, I thought it was the Resurrection day and we are being judged now, a second later I heard the windows and the glass shatters to splinters upon us, the we took coverage under the seats, moments later the headmistress ran toward us and told us to go and hide in the underground shelter, I left my bag in the class room and ran away along with everybody else to the shelter. In the shelter we were all crying with fear, I tried to call my I couldn't. An hour later the airstrike stopped.
During this time the headmistress was trying to call the buses and cars and asked the drivers to come to the school and take the students to their homes and I saw many parents came to look for their children".
We were all anxiously waiting for "Farah" to come, then the bus that was carrying "Farah" stopped in front of the house and we all hurried toward "Farah" to check her and make sure she is ok, we were hugging her and checking her over and over again, you can obviously see the shock and fear by look on her face, finally she clam down and told us about what she saw on her way back from school " in the way back I saw some dead bodies laying on the side of the road, also a police station that is completely destroyed, I saw lots of big holes on the roads that we came through".
The shock came down hard on "Farah" when the strike started again at night and the days that followed after, she was in total horror and pain in her joints, we tried hopelessly to calm her down but sometimes it works and sometimes it won't. While she is clam she tried to contact her friends via the internet because the communications was paralyzed and hard to get connected.
One day during the war we gathered around to discuss our life matters, the war and peace, suddenly "Farah" said "I wish I would to sleep and then wake up to find myself in a different country where I don't know anyone and no one knows me, I am sick of war and I don't want to die" then I told her "what about the Dentistry study in the future?" I was trying to encourage her; she replied "because of the war, all of my dreams and hopes became fear and nightmares" When the war stopped, "Farah" asked me if the strike is going to start back again? she was really worried and not sure of the war stopped, she stayed in the house and did not join us when we set in our front yard.
When "Farah" went back to school I was worried about her so much and we spent the time me and her mother waiting restlessly until she came back, you can indicate the depression by looking at her face, then she started to tell us about how much was damage that she saw on her way to school and about her friend "Nermeen" when she wished her a Merry Christmas her friend replied "We went to church and the people were dressed in black in mourning of their loved one that the war took them away forever", also told us about some of her friends that they left Gaza strip and the destructions that affected her school.
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