On Friday, September 10th we went to the Makassed Islamic Hospital to comfort the patients. Before that we went to Father Ibrahim’s house to make some cards in order to offer them to the patients.

When we arrived at the hospital the doctor and a security guard accompanied us through the hospital. They spoke quite good English and helped us with translation many times.

In one of the rooms I went to there was 4 year-old-boy with his father. His name was Aoday.

Around six of us all entered at the same time and the little boy was afraid and started crying. So some people went out, but Christophe and I stayed with the little boy. We tried to comfort him.

The little boy was lying in his bed with some cards. So Christophe started building a house with the cards, but it fell down every time and we started laughing. The boy didn’t even smile, but in his eyes I could see that he understood why we were there – to have fun with him and comfort him. That was an important step.

He was still frightened and we didn’t know what to do. So I let him choose one of the many postcards I had brought from Paris. He chose the "Arc de triomphe" by night with fireworks. Then we offered him some coloured pencils. There was a cat on the pencil case that Christophe started mimicking and the boy smiled. I gave him some paper and we started drawing together. I drew the "Arc de triomphe" with all the fireworks around and he noticed that it was the same picture as on the postcard. That made him happy.

I wanted him to know my name so I wrote it down on a piece of paper in Arabic and pointed at myself while saying "Rafael". He understood and repeated after me.

We were just starting to create a relationship when the security guard told us to go to another room. It was really difficult to leave him and when we left the room I could see the happiness that had comforted him and at the same time sadness, because we were leaving him. I started to cry in the corridor. I would have liked to stay longer.

The security guard brought us to another floor, but all the rooms were full, so I decided to go back and see Aoday. Before coming in the room Christophe mimicked the cat again. Aoday recognised him. He was so happy that we were back and we were glad to stay longer. We continued to draw and I learned more Arabic words. After a while we had to leave the hospital, so we said goodbye to Aoday. I hope I can see him again someday.

I gave a postcard to the guard with my address for Aoday. One day he might write to me… Now I’m still trying to get his address to keep in touch. I hope that I’ll get it and I hope that Aoday is getting better. That was a great experience. I wish I could go back to Jerusalem right now to see him again. Well that’s all folks…

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