Reconnecting with Aliyah

on our way to mandarin with uncle mattie
Originally uploaded by it's all about the good love

When I first got back to Haifa, Aliyah was a little stand-offish around me. Negs and Victor would ask her to say hi to me, and she'd grin, look away and say, "No." But last week, the ice was finally broken and the two of us were like old pals again. A group of us went to hang out at a cafe one evening, and, after awhile, she asked her dad to trade places with me so she could sit next to me. When I left Haifa in January, she would call me "Uncavi", but her vocabulary has now developed further, and now I go by "Uncle Mattie". And at the end of the evening, she said, "Come, uncle Mattie, let's go home."