Like all teenagers, 14 year old Saja Ajarma, is concerned about how other people perceive her. Specifically the western world…She wants people to understand that she, like all of her friends, are normal kids – with the same past times, dreams and interests, as other youth living outside of the West Bank. That is why she prepared this story about a particularly average day in her life.
SAJA AJARMA: Hello, I’m Saja. I live here in the refugee camp. Today, I’m going to show you what my life is like.
[Sound of an alarm clock]
I wake up every morning at 7am. I have a shower, wash my hair, then I have to get dressed in my school uniform. It’s green and white – it’s pretty ugly. I don’t like it.
Then, as a Muslim, it’s time to pray. I pray five times a day. And before I pray, I must be clean. I have to wet my hands, hair, feet and wash my face. The first prayer of the day is called, ‘Fajr’.
Then I join my family for breakfast. Every morning, my mother prepares bread, cheese, egg, hoummos, tomato and tea. Here in Palestine, we make tea with fresh herbs like mint and sage. I like my tea with mint.
After breakfast, I walk to school. I have to be there at 8am. My school is only a five minute walk away.
When I get there, I meet my friends. My favourite class is English. My teacher’s name’s Kefah. We have seven different subjects each day: maths, science, Arabic, geography or history, English, religion and art. At 1.30pm the bell rings and school is finished for the day. I leave straight away and walk back home to my family.
My father and my two sisters and one brother are all at home to eat lunch – which is our biggest meal of the day. My mother is a really good cook. She makes lots of different traditional dishes but my favourite is ‘Melouhea” it is made from a green vegetable of same name, similar to spinach and my mum makes it with chicken and rice.
After lunch I pray. Then, I do my homework and watch TV. My favourite show comes from Turkey. It’s called ‘The Flower’s Tear’… [laughs in response to sound of the television] I love this.
Then, I like to play computer games until dinner, which is around 7pm. I love MSN Messenger and chatting to friends – but my parents don’t let me use this at home. I watch TV with my family and pray and then I go to bed. That’s it.
Like all teenagers, 14 year old Saja Ajarma, is concerned about how other people perceive her. Specifically the western world…She wants people to understand that she, like all of her friends, are normal kids – with the same past times, dreams and interests, as other youth living outside of the West Bank. That is why she prepared this story about a particularly average day in her life.