December 1994

Dear Edan, Noam and Nicole,

How are you? Thank you for the letter. How old is Nicole? Please tell her hi for me. Would she write to me too? Is your test hard that you have to take to get into your school? Do you learn Arabic there? I know lots of Arabic words. No, I am not a Jew, I am a Muslim. We go to Israel sometimes to visit my family there. I like Israel but I don't like the war. We couldn't pass the gates.

Your friend,
Aysha

Dear Aysha,

Thank you for your letter. I want to tell you about the kibbutz. A kibbutz is a place where my mother was born and grew up. In a kibbutz there is a communal dining room. There is no school there. I didn't start to learn in school when I was still on the kibbutz. My brothers did. They learned at a regional kibbutz school at another kibbutz. On a kibbutz, the property belongs to everyone. The property is the things which are in the kibbutz and everyone uses them.

I will send you pictures. I want to tell you something about Midreshet Ben Gurion and the school where I learn. First of all, in the midrasha I have many friends and I like it here very much. It is beside a big wadi in the desert. I like to go and look at the wadi. At my school I have many friends also and we have 5 hours of learning each day except for Fridays when we have only 4 hours. The name of my teacher is Dina and I think she is very nice. I am in grade 2.

I want to tell you that last year I had a teacher named Liat. She was very nice also. Our principal is named Ilana.

Your friend,
Nicole

Dear Nicole,

Thank you for the picture. I like it. I like your butterfly and the bear a lot. I have 13 Barbies and I have even more but they are upstairs in the attic. I have Snow White the movie too.

We don't have any animals at home but my mom really wanted a dog. I am Muslim and we celebrate all the Muslim holidays but we also celebrate Christmas. We have Eid and that's when we pray hundreds of times. All ladies wear a scarf around their hair and they are not allowed to show their hair to anyone. ladies can show ladies their hair. We don't wear the scarf here unless we go praying but we will do it when we go to Israel.

We celebrate New Years the same way as everybody here does. We have Valentines Day too. I hope you learn English.