These past few days at school have been the most interesting days of my life.
This Tuesday a year 9 student approached me. She told me that her new neighbor was a Palestinian in his 70s. His wife died in the war. She told me that she had showed him the poem 'Child or war' that I wrote for the poetry competition last year and was published in the school year book.
The Poem:

They call newborns 'bundles of joy'
Parents are all smiles and tears
Everyday buying a new toy
And growing up with no fear
A child is born in his country
Full of peace and love
A place with no boundary
Where no one gives you a shove
This place Palestinians don’t get
All they receive is kicks and screams
The world believes their pests
But nothing is as it seems
A newborn Palestinian is known to have no future
Everyday he struggles to survive
Each day filled with colors of torture
And Israelis in tanks careless as they drive
Childhood is what children enjoy
Palestinians fear toys to be decoys
Bombs going off all around
Next thing you know there is no sound
Palestinian children used as shields
To protect Israeli soldiers from bullets
Massacres and blood all over fields
And Israeli monsters firing with jets
Blind is what the world is today
Ignoring is what leaders do
Children forced to have nothing to say
But love for Palestine is what keeps us going
Now most people are born in their country BUT
Our country was born in us

He had asked her to thank me for the poem and said he was glad some people still care.

The next day I sent with the year 9 student a jar of sand which i collected while I was in Ramallah this summer for this man.
And today I received a letter from him.
The letter said:
Asalam alaikum Nama
My name is Hashim and I am 70 yr old Palestinian. Alhamdulilah I am proud of being one. thankyou so much for writting that beautiful poem. I love it a lot and I am thank Allah for making persons like you. Who even after the war are love their country. I lost my wife in the war and till today I miss her but it is ok beccause after 8 monthes I am going to meet her insha'allah. yes I am a cancer patient, and I only have 8 more months to live. so I cannot go Palestin in this time, but after looking at the soil u send me, and smelling it I feel like I am there in Palasteen. JazakAllahkhair for it. I never have any children so I want to pass on this my wife's necklace to you, we always thought we will give our daughter, but today I have no one but I would love to give this neclace to you. May Allah make peace for all palestinians and muslims Ameen.

With this letter he had stapled this beautiful necklace with the palestinian flag.
I plan to visit this man during the Eid and inshallah I will. Unfortunately he lives very far away but I still plan to try as hard as I can.
This story I shared with my English teacher Umm Ali and my arabic class during a talk about Heroism. He is my Hero.
He will forever be in my prayers.

I just thought I would share this story with you while its still fresh in my mind. Inshallah I'll write again after I visit him