Surreal Day

So, I woke up this morning and there were a million people out on the street and probably close to 15 cars all parked outside my house. Across the street there was a bait shahar (the trational bedoin tents) set up and people already visiting. It turns out, one of my neighbors died last night (not someone I knew... but I'm guessing he was important in the village) and, in keeping with tradition, visiting and gathering takes place almost immediatly. They set up the tent last night and people started visiting and continued first thing this morning. In addition, when I got back from work today, there are even more cars (I would venture about 30), some of my landlords family came all the way from Tafila to pay respects. It is like the whole village turned out! I really wanted to take a picture (as it is so surreal) but I figured that would be a bit disrespectful so I had to subtlely take pictures through my screened window (which aren't great, but which I'll post as soon as I can).
In other notes, it is interesting how people come to learn lessons... and how things all seem to make sense when one little bit of information is added. In addition to this neighbor dying, our village also had a little boy (I think they said he was 9) die of cancer last night. I had never met him, as he was pretty much living in Amman being treated at the cancer center. But, as I'm walking home today with a co-worker I ran into a little girl who had been to my summer camp. She and her brother were two of our most difficult kids... and I really struggled to like them. Well, as we pass by and I say hello to her my co-worker leans over and whispers that it was her brother who died of cancer. Well, looking back, I have to wonder how a child's behavior may tend to go towards misbehaving and attention seeking when (I would imagine) the majority of the attention at home is going towards a child with a terminal illness. It really hit me today that you never know where someone is coming from and it is even harder with the language barriers. Maybe next time I'll practice a little more patience and compassion when I don't know the situation.