We all formed a chain to move the rocks from one end of the road to the other. Each time Ashraf handed Karin a rock he would turn to both of us to expand our vocabulary. One rock was “Ahlan” the next one was “WaSahlan”.* Five or six rocks would be enough to form a complete sentence. By the end of the morning, he was telling us what each rock was shaped like, one was shaped like Farkha, the other was shaped like Filistin,** the next was shaped like his friend Ibrahim.

*Ahlan WaSahlan is a common greeting.