“If you had one wish in the world what would it be?”
Luma Mufleh’s grandmother used to ask her this when she was a child. Mufleh’s response was usually a new toy or soccer cleats. Then she would ask the same of her grandmother. “Her answer was always the same,” said Mufleh. “’I wish everyone in the world would have clean drinking water.’”
Speaking in the third annual Sara Wattles Perry ’77 Lecture, Mufleh told the story of her privileged childhood growing up in Amman, Jordan; hitting rock bottom twice after her parents cut her off financially; and how a wrong turn led to the first private school in America dedicated to the education of refugee children.
“I made a wrong turn.”
On what seemed like a normal day in Clarkston, Georgia, Mufleh made a wrong turn and encountered five boys playing soccer in a parking lot. She watched them and remembered the pickup games she had played with her brothers in Jordan.
All across campus, groups of students were busy Wednesday morning signing cards to people they did not know. “Happy Holidays,” they wrote, “Thank you for keeping us safe. Thank you for your service.”
This is the second time Williston Northampton has participated in the program. Last year, during an effort coordinated by Maddy Stern ’14 and Ben Wheeler ’14, students signed roughly 300 holiday cards for service members. This year, Stern and the junior class officers once again spearheaded the effort.
Chris Benfey described the pot as though it were an old friend. Made of red clay and with a type of glaze known as tobacco spit, the jug sat in his grandparent’s hallway next to the big, black telephone. At the top of the swooping handle was an indent where the potter had pressed his thumb like a signature.