niqab

niqab
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

I took this picture a few days ago in East Jerusalem. It is another city there - you can see the mountain of garbage behind this woman. Parts of the city are glittering and glorious and parts are squalid and run-down. Even the roads are haphazard and unsafe. I saw this woman standing on a corner in her niqab and a ten minutes later when we turned around she was stilling standing in that same spot. Waiting for someone, maybe? Waiting for something? In Arabic class our teacher taught us a saying that means basically never - "Tomorrow, in Apricot season." Because apricot season is so fleeting. In apricot season, I'll know what this woman is thinking in her niqab on this hot corner of East Jerusalem.