Smiling

 We had the opportunity to serve at a local hospital just down the street from us (JC on left, Hospital on right). Since it is Palestinian I thought it was cool how they switched it from Red Cross to Red Crescent. They have about 9-10 births a day and I got to deliver food to mothers who just had their babies.

I don't know if we were much help with the language and cultural barriers, but I think we nailed down the human barrier by simply smiling. Katie, the other girl in the picture took Arabic at BYU allowing her to converse with the people and translate some things. She told me the Arabic culture values generosity above all things. I really could sense that as they were so friendly and giving toward us and the mothers. The woman in this picture is a crack-up. She and a few other ladies were dancing and joking and enjoying their day. The man could speak english and used to be a cook at the JC for 17 years.

lesson learned: A smile never has to be translated