A bus driver out of the ordinary
A bus driver who is loved by his passengers and who gives them fruit andsweets each day is not all that common. Then again, these passengers are not just anybody.
"I love my job", says Abu Jihad, with a sparkle in his eyes indicating hereally means it. Abu Jihad is the driver of the hospital bus which sixdays a week picks up children from the southern West Bank to bring them tothe Augusta Victoria hospital in East Jerusalem for dialysis and cancertreatment. Almost daily, lucky children on their way to the hospital aretreated to fruit and sweets from Abu Jihad's generous hands. The childrenreally appreciate the grandfather figure who welcomes them onboard.
"We’re lucky to have Abu Jihad. Him and Abu Ahmad are kind men", says Alaconvincingly. Ala is 15 years old, is in the tenth grade and hastraveled between Hebron and Jerusalem three times a week for almost fiveyears. He comes that often in order to clean his blood out because hiskidneys cannot do the job themselves. But there is no hospital on theWest Bank with facilities for dialysis. Therefore he has to go to AugustaVictoria.
"These are hard times", says Abu Ahmed, who comes with the bus every day.He’s responsible for making sure everyone's papers are in order. If theyare not, the children and their parents will not be able to pass thecheckpoints on the way to Jerusalem.
"We’ve experienced a few difficulties on the way to Jerusalem, but luckilywe are probably amongst those who get the best treatment on thecheckpoints", he says, and adds the importance of having EcumenicalAccompaniers traveling with them on the bus. When they are here, it isusually quicker through the checkpoints.
Alas' parents don’t come with him to the hospital anymore: "Mum’s having anew baby and dad is at work", he explains. "It doesn’t matter anyway,after five years it’s no big deal to travel alone". The biggest challengefor Ala is that all this going to Jerusalem means he can only go to schoolthree days a week, whereas the other children in his class go six days."But that’s really not a big problem, my teacher gives me extra classesand I work hard with my homework", Ala says. He had to. Ala has decided hewants to become a nurse, or perhaps a doctor, when he grows up. So heknows he better work hard with his school work.
