Funny story.
I think I almost caused the third Intifada today by way of a skirt malfunction :)
So one of my bosses, the Palestinian co-CEO of IPCRI, is a well known guy. So well known, that he managed to get us a tour of the temple mount. "well that's not so hard" you say, "anyone can get into the temple mount if you wait in line." Yes but unless you are Muslim you are not supposed to be able to get into the al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. My boss, he is good, he got us in. So today the girls and I tried our best to imitate the women we see on the street everyday. We covered our arms, wore ankle-length skirts, and donned scarves. Let me tell you have new found respect for the women who wear the hijab. It is hard to get a piece of material to cover all of your hair without it falling off every 2 seconds!
It was great fun getting ready, pics to follow soon.
So we head off to meet the rest of the IPCRI gang for our tour, we're late due to the bus and the checkpoint. We end up running through the old city to get to the Lion's Gate, dodging tourists the whole way. Finally we get there and the tour begins. We've been inside for about 3 minutes and are heading up the stairs, looking at the majestic Dome of the Rock. I feel a tug on my skirt, realize I've stepped on the hem, shift my foot and keep going. Then time did that weird slowing down while simultaneously speeding up thing as I felt the material of the skirt start to slide down my legs. Aaaaack!
Of all of the places to bare my bright blue panties, this is not the one I would pick. It's only one of the holiest places in the world. I mean, hell, I'm wearing a scarf. Images of me standing there in a hijab but without any bottoms flit through my mind. PANIC!
I managed to grab the material and did that odd shimmy that girls have perfected over the centuries for adjusting clothing while not revealing anything.
I realize that the tie for the wrap-around skirt had broken off, I pulled a Macgyver and on we went to enter the building held to be the site of the creation of Adam, the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, and the place from which Muhammad rose to heaven.
So you see, while I may not have single handedly created peace, I have single-handedly stopped the third Intifada that would have been started by a rude American baring her bottom to the world on top of the Temple Mount. You're Welcome.
(Dedicated to Tamara Sartania, my muse.)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Sinai
Hi all, just a quick post for now.
I know that I said in the last post that I would update the next day. ha. by that i meant the next week. no more false promises!
At any rate there is a lot to say still from the weeks between Jericho and now. I'm still trying to sort through the day trips that I took to Nablus and Hebron. I feel like I have so much to say and yet I can't get it out quite yet. So hopefully next time I'll be able to get to that.
For now I'll tell you about the fabulous weekend that I just spent in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Dana (my roommate) and I headed out before the crack of dawn (didn't think it was possible for me to actually wake up that early) on Friday. Seriously, we left the house at 5:45am. The weather at that time of day is wonderful, the sun was just rising. Everything was in pastels. I learned that there is actually fog here in Bethlehem in the early morning hours. Who knew?!
We headed up to the checkpoint by 6:10. When I spoke with our taxi driver the night before he assured me that there wouldn't be too many people there at that time bc/ it was a Friday (ie. non work day in Israel). We learned really quickly that he was wrong about that one. Or if he was right then i'm not sure that I want to see the checkpoint on a normal day. We walked up to the pedestrian line and were confronted by a line of about 200 people. All men. They took one look at us and immediately moved to the side "Fadle, Fadle" they murmured. "please, after you." We murmured our thanks in reply and started up the line. There are a few things about this culture that continue to amaze me. The closeness of the families, the complete openness to complete strangers, their immediate willingness to go out of their way to help you, and the respect with which they treat women. Oh sure they stare at us western girls, but it's more like curiosity. Like you're something very different and new.
At any rate one of the ways that they show this is by letting the women go straight to the head of the line. At first Dana and I were worried that they were doing it bc/ we are foreigners. I felt a little dirty with every man that I passed. Yet every time that we came to a stop they would move aside with that same hand gesture and "Fadle, Fadle." We eventually reached the front and were very relieved to see about ten other women standing there. However, this was where the order ended. We were at the first turnstile, this is the one to let you through the wall and the soldiers were keeping a tight watch. the turnstile was locked until they were ready for the next group and the second that it was opened the madness began. I held Dana's hand and pulled her to the front of the masses. I've learned a little bit about the complete lack of lines on both sides of the border here. You have to stick out your elbows and just go. (except that even within this the chilvalry continued, when we got to the turnstile there were some men who stood aside to let us go then went back to the pushing.) we got to the other side and people started to run for the next building. they knew that there was another line to reach on the inside. We followed the masses and ended up at the one open line. 100 people, 3-4 different xray machines and only one was open. everyone was pushing up to be in the exact same square inch of space. I became very familiar with those surrounding me.
I don't know how they do it day in and day out. I was sweating, anxious about time, tired, claustrophobic and this was only my first time to experience the checkpoint at rush hour. Around me there were people pushing, some fighting, some laughing. and again when the line finally began to move (after 7 minutes of standing still without anyone going through) the men next to me pointed to the metal railing meant to keep everyone in a snaking line and I understood that I was to skip to the head of the line again. After a few false starts of people going through the turnstile then having to come back we eventually got through to the other side. did the xray, flashed the passport and we were off! only 30 minutes later than we were supposed to be! yes we missed our bus! of course. meh, we wandered around the bus station/mall, were v. pleased to find a pharmacy with goods not to be found on the other side of the wall, had coffee, real fake coffee, then hopped the next bus to Eilat (the town on the point at the bottom of Israel).
there was really amazing scenery the whole way down, the desert is really beautiful in a desolate kind of way. We got to eilat, hopped in a cab to the border, paid our exit tax, got our stamps and were off to our home for the next two days.
Sinai itself, at least the part that we saw, is basically made up of two and a half parts. one part majestic mountains, completely rock, almost no sign of life. just rocks and clear blue sky. (it only rains once a year there). one half part flat beach rocky or sandy as the case may be, i say half because this really is a tiny strip of flat in comparison to the expanse of mountains. one part blue blue sea. across the sea (Gulf of Aqaba for you map people) you can see Jordan and Saudi Arabia (yes I can honestly say that I have seen the coast of Saudi Arabia, while wearing a bikini no less)
Sinai really is amazing to see. I have NO idea how people were able to live and survive there for so many centuries. really. there are still bedouin in the area but they've been largely pushed out by the resorts, few of which are owned or run by bedouin. The entire area is under massive development there are new buildings the whole way down. We only went 45 minutes down the coast but the development never stopped. We were lucky though to end up in a semi-secluded area in a camp that was v. basic in a luxurious sense. There was electricity at certain times in the day, and running water for showers. There was a central hut used as restaurant and general hang out area. And that was all she wrote. It was amazing.
Dana and I decided to splurge and stay in the luxury huts, they came complete with wooden walls (not reed) our own "shadow place" (as advertised on the website), tile floors, and a fan that ran whenever there was electricity. All of this for the bargain price of $13 a night. ha!
Because of the bus delay we arrived in the heat of the day, hungry and sweaty so did the only logical thing: immediately donned swim suits and headed for shade. As you may or may not know it gets to be about 45 degrees centigrade in Sinai in July. I'll give you a minute to do the math (plus 32 times 9/5ths or something like that) it was about 113 degrees. yes the shade was our friend! actually, you may think that I'm nuts but it didn't feel that hot at all. the sea was cool, to the point that you did the little-mincing-steps-and-hold-your-hands-out-of-the-water-for-as-long-as-possible-while-doing-the-suck-your-breath-in-in-quick-gasps-because-it-really-will-make-the-water-seem-warmer dance. so between the sea and the shade it was just about perfect. (well that and the cazillion bottles of water that we all drank each day.
We spent the weekend sitting, eating, reading, eating, playing cards, eating, snorkeling, playing cards, talking, eating, swimming. It was perfect. We did get up the energy to go for a sunrise hike on Saturday with our new friend Hussein. It was really amazing and just the right thing to do. He took us through a meandering Wadi that circled around and ended up at a huge sand dune. Yes there was hiking involved but mostly it was scrambling then walking then scrambling some more to get up the mountain. It was the most climbing that I've done in a good month and I can proudly say that my stemming technique was flawless, unnecessary but flawless! After the hike we got back to camp in time to see Khalid setting up to make the Pitas for the day. He invited us to join and we jumped to, pulling, rolling, flattening, and watching with great surprise as the dough circles puffed up. If you've ever wandered (like me) how they cleverly put that pocket into the bread then I have the answer: i still don't know but there's puffing involved!
We spent the rest of our weekend hanging out and playing cards with the guys who ran the place. It was a quiet weekend that left them with time on their hands which they happily filled with laughing at our attempts to learn arabic while beating us at various games. (well beating me at least, Dana did really well). The snorkeling was amazing as was the food, and when the time came to leave we were both very sad to go. So if you are ever in the region and in need of a little TLC I highly recommend that you stop by. Ignore the neigh sayers who claim that it's too hot and too far. Just go. You'll be thankful that you did!
okay time to bring this ramble to a close. I have to go wash my one long-sleeve shirt so that I can wear it tomorrow when we tour the temple mount (i think we'll even get inside of the mosque!). Alright all, miss you tons. write to me soon. More stories coming soon!
c
ps. pics of sinai are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/christiewren/Sinai
I know that I said in the last post that I would update the next day. ha. by that i meant the next week. no more false promises!
At any rate there is a lot to say still from the weeks between Jericho and now. I'm still trying to sort through the day trips that I took to Nablus and Hebron. I feel like I have so much to say and yet I can't get it out quite yet. So hopefully next time I'll be able to get to that.
For now I'll tell you about the fabulous weekend that I just spent in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Dana (my roommate) and I headed out before the crack of dawn (didn't think it was possible for me to actually wake up that early) on Friday. Seriously, we left the house at 5:45am. The weather at that time of day is wonderful, the sun was just rising. Everything was in pastels. I learned that there is actually fog here in Bethlehem in the early morning hours. Who knew?!
We headed up to the checkpoint by 6:10. When I spoke with our taxi driver the night before he assured me that there wouldn't be too many people there at that time bc/ it was a Friday (ie. non work day in Israel). We learned really quickly that he was wrong about that one. Or if he was right then i'm not sure that I want to see the checkpoint on a normal day. We walked up to the pedestrian line and were confronted by a line of about 200 people. All men. They took one look at us and immediately moved to the side "Fadle, Fadle" they murmured. "please, after you." We murmured our thanks in reply and started up the line. There are a few things about this culture that continue to amaze me. The closeness of the families, the complete openness to complete strangers, their immediate willingness to go out of their way to help you, and the respect with which they treat women. Oh sure they stare at us western girls, but it's more like curiosity. Like you're something very different and new.
At any rate one of the ways that they show this is by letting the women go straight to the head of the line. At first Dana and I were worried that they were doing it bc/ we are foreigners. I felt a little dirty with every man that I passed. Yet every time that we came to a stop they would move aside with that same hand gesture and "Fadle, Fadle." We eventually reached the front and were very relieved to see about ten other women standing there. However, this was where the order ended. We were at the first turnstile, this is the one to let you through the wall and the soldiers were keeping a tight watch. the turnstile was locked until they were ready for the next group and the second that it was opened the madness began. I held Dana's hand and pulled her to the front of the masses. I've learned a little bit about the complete lack of lines on both sides of the border here. You have to stick out your elbows and just go. (except that even within this the chilvalry continued, when we got to the turnstile there were some men who stood aside to let us go then went back to the pushing.) we got to the other side and people started to run for the next building. they knew that there was another line to reach on the inside. We followed the masses and ended up at the one open line. 100 people, 3-4 different xray machines and only one was open. everyone was pushing up to be in the exact same square inch of space. I became very familiar with those surrounding me.
I don't know how they do it day in and day out. I was sweating, anxious about time, tired, claustrophobic and this was only my first time to experience the checkpoint at rush hour. Around me there were people pushing, some fighting, some laughing. and again when the line finally began to move (after 7 minutes of standing still without anyone going through) the men next to me pointed to the metal railing meant to keep everyone in a snaking line and I understood that I was to skip to the head of the line again. After a few false starts of people going through the turnstile then having to come back we eventually got through to the other side. did the xray, flashed the passport and we were off! only 30 minutes later than we were supposed to be! yes we missed our bus! of course. meh, we wandered around the bus station/mall, were v. pleased to find a pharmacy with goods not to be found on the other side of the wall, had coffee, real fake coffee, then hopped the next bus to Eilat (the town on the point at the bottom of Israel).
there was really amazing scenery the whole way down, the desert is really beautiful in a desolate kind of way. We got to eilat, hopped in a cab to the border, paid our exit tax, got our stamps and were off to our home for the next two days.
Sinai itself, at least the part that we saw, is basically made up of two and a half parts. one part majestic mountains, completely rock, almost no sign of life. just rocks and clear blue sky. (it only rains once a year there). one half part flat beach rocky or sandy as the case may be, i say half because this really is a tiny strip of flat in comparison to the expanse of mountains. one part blue blue sea. across the sea (Gulf of Aqaba for you map people) you can see Jordan and Saudi Arabia (yes I can honestly say that I have seen the coast of Saudi Arabia, while wearing a bikini no less)
Sinai really is amazing to see. I have NO idea how people were able to live and survive there for so many centuries. really. there are still bedouin in the area but they've been largely pushed out by the resorts, few of which are owned or run by bedouin. The entire area is under massive development there are new buildings the whole way down. We only went 45 minutes down the coast but the development never stopped. We were lucky though to end up in a semi-secluded area in a camp that was v. basic in a luxurious sense. There was electricity at certain times in the day, and running water for showers. There was a central hut used as restaurant and general hang out area. And that was all she wrote. It was amazing.
Dana and I decided to splurge and stay in the luxury huts, they came complete with wooden walls (not reed) our own "shadow place" (as advertised on the website), tile floors, and a fan that ran whenever there was electricity. All of this for the bargain price of $13 a night. ha!
Because of the bus delay we arrived in the heat of the day, hungry and sweaty so did the only logical thing: immediately donned swim suits and headed for shade. As you may or may not know it gets to be about 45 degrees centigrade in Sinai in July. I'll give you a minute to do the math (plus 32 times 9/5ths or something like that) it was about 113 degrees. yes the shade was our friend! actually, you may think that I'm nuts but it didn't feel that hot at all. the sea was cool, to the point that you did the little-mincing-steps-and-hold-your-hands-out-of-the-water-for-as-long-as-possible-while-doing-the-suck-your-breath-in-in-quick-gasps-because-it-really-will-make-the-water-seem-warmer dance. so between the sea and the shade it was just about perfect. (well that and the cazillion bottles of water that we all drank each day.
We spent the weekend sitting, eating, reading, eating, playing cards, eating, snorkeling, playing cards, talking, eating, swimming. It was perfect. We did get up the energy to go for a sunrise hike on Saturday with our new friend Hussein. It was really amazing and just the right thing to do. He took us through a meandering Wadi that circled around and ended up at a huge sand dune. Yes there was hiking involved but mostly it was scrambling then walking then scrambling some more to get up the mountain. It was the most climbing that I've done in a good month and I can proudly say that my stemming technique was flawless, unnecessary but flawless! After the hike we got back to camp in time to see Khalid setting up to make the Pitas for the day. He invited us to join and we jumped to, pulling, rolling, flattening, and watching with great surprise as the dough circles puffed up. If you've ever wandered (like me) how they cleverly put that pocket into the bread then I have the answer: i still don't know but there's puffing involved!
We spent the rest of our weekend hanging out and playing cards with the guys who ran the place. It was a quiet weekend that left them with time on their hands which they happily filled with laughing at our attempts to learn arabic while beating us at various games. (well beating me at least, Dana did really well). The snorkeling was amazing as was the food, and when the time came to leave we were both very sad to go. So if you are ever in the region and in need of a little TLC I highly recommend that you stop by. Ignore the neigh sayers who claim that it's too hot and too far. Just go. You'll be thankful that you did!
okay time to bring this ramble to a close. I have to go wash my one long-sleeve shirt so that I can wear it tomorrow when we tour the temple mount (i think we'll even get inside of the mosque!). Alright all, miss you tons. write to me soon. More stories coming soon!
c
ps. pics of sinai are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/christiewren/Sinai
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Jericho
Oh my dear blog readers, how I have neglected you!
I couldn't even remember the last time that I posted something (the dates come in handy here)!
Needless to say the last two (ack! three) weeks have been busy. I was too lazy to post the first week, then too busy thereafter. I was put in charge of submitting a grant to the EU for 40,000 Euros. Was due in yesterday. My first grant ever. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience.
So how to begin? I'll start with the trip to Jericho I guess.
I headed to Jericho with 12 Bethlehemites, all friends of George number 2, and my fellow intern Amoreena. Three words to describe the trip you ask?
Jericho. Was. HOT.
So a little background for those of you who don't know the region. Jericho is both the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and, I believe, the lowest city at 250 meters below sea level. The second factor means that due to quirks of natural science which I don't understand, it is very hot. Actually that's an understatement. To properly explain please note that it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit when I was there.
For those of you who are procrastinating at work you can find the history of Jericho here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho (thanks wikipedia)
So we headed out on Friday morning at 9:30 and got to Jericho by 11. A few notes about the trip out there. The landscape is beautiful. It's mountainous desert. In the area by Bethlehem there were still towns dotting the tops of the hills and scattered trees and scrub bush. Soon though that faded away into purely rock/sand mountains. It became really hard to imagine how people have lived and survived in that arid land for millennia. We saw a few Bedouin camps (the Bedouin are a nomadic people who live in the Middle East). These days the Bedouin in Palestine have mostly given in their tents for shacks made of dilapidated wooden sides with corrugated tin or plastic tarp roofs. It really looks like a miserable existence although I've heard really wonderful things about the people themselves and their rich culture. A few minutes past one of the Bedouin areas, past a few more barren hills, I noticed trees again, on the top of the hill, surrounding a plethora of perfectly sculpted and matching white homes with red roofs. We had come upon one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the West Bank: Ma'ale Adumim. Keep in mind that we were a good 30/45min inside of the West Bank. In American terms that means nothing right? 30 minutes is really close. In a country as tiny as Israel and Palestine though 30 minutes is an eternity. This settlement is deep inside of the West Bank. And I've come to realize just how understated the term "settlement" is when describing the towns that have been established throughout the West Bank. Ma'ale Adumim seemed to go on forever. It may have been because we had to drive all the way around it but it seemed to cover three hills not just one. This is no settlement, this is a fully fledged city built deep inside of the West Bank. You really start to understand the people who say that peace is not possible when looking at that and realizing the permanence of those structures. (As a Fletcher alumn in Nablus recently said to me when discussing a new settlement being built outside of Nablus, "Either the Israeli government is extremely generous because it is building us pretty new homes for when they withdraw, or they really don't have any intention to ever withdraw." It's hard to argue with that.)
In addition to the mere size of the city, the contrast between the barren hills we'd been driving through and the landscaping of the settlement was startling. Keep in mind that we're in a country where water is a very precious resource, and here I was looking at palm trees and flowering bushes. We're not just talking inside of the settlement either (though there was plenty there) we're talking flowers covering the roundabout and palm trees lining the various roads that led up to the settlement. I don't even want to think about the amount of water that is used on a daily basis to keep those plants not only alive but flourishing.
So after this enlightening drive we arrived at Jericho in prime time to hit the pool. This is basically what we did for the next 30 hrs. After some convincing by George, Amoreena and I had decided to join everyone staying in the super swanky Intercontinental in Jericho. Let's just say it's the nicest (literally highest number of stars) hotel in the West Bank. We got a group rate and locals rate which left us paying somewhere in the vicinity of $67 for a room that should have cost us at least $120. niiiice. The place has two pools (with a water slide!), two pool-side restaurants, and on this particular night a pool party starting at 9 going til 3 DJ'ed by the fabulous DJ Cosmos. (yes that is the guy from the Bethlehem club). It was an all around good time. Lots of sun, sweating, and swimming.
I managed to drag Amoreena away for two hours the next morning to check out the tourist sites. Our friends all thought that we were crazy for going anywhere further than 10 feet from the pool but you know I couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't see something more than the hotel. So we headed up to Tel Es-Sultan which is the original city. Let me state that again, it is the site of The Original City. That's right, we're talking dating back to 9000 BCE. 9000! That's a really really really long time ago! I had read in my books that it isn't that exciting and they were kind of right. It looks a lot like this,
Mud and stones, then more mud and stones
Then more mud and stones
We happened to arrive at the same time as an American tour group so I tagged along behind to hear what the guide had to say. I learned this much: when booking a tour you should audition the tour guide before paying out the cash. I was soo glad that I wasn't stuck with that group. I've eavesdropped on all sorts of tour guides, most are pretty good. This guy, he was bad. Easily the most boring lecture I've ever had the pleasure of pretending to listen to. I stood there for a few minutes then looked over to see a security guard approaching Amoreena (she was wandering around). I went over to investigate and joined them just as he was leading her around the barrier clearly meant to keep people out and leading her down an Indiana Jones type staircase (very small stairs, no railing, 30 foot drop on the other side) to stand on the top of the Tower of Jericho (one of the wonders of the ancient world)! Of course he had come over because, hell when you're bored at work and two young(ish) girls show up what do you do? You go chat them up. Best way to do that? Take them on a "behind the scenes" tour of the site of course! We stood on the tower. He opened the grate in the middle to show us the oldest staircase in the world. In the world! He said to us "you can go down the stairs if you want but be careful of the snakes." Yeah. We didn't go down the stairs. The rest of the tour followed in the same vein. Him walking up to then right over the barriers and giving us the whole story behind different piles of mud and brick. Here's the original wall, here's a house, here's a kitchen—notice the blackened stones from years of cooking, here's the original spring the reason that people first started living here (the spring still puts out a startling amount of water each day). It was really cool in that—I'm baking my brains out in the sun, have drunk two liters of water but have sweated it all out, yet this is still really interesting—kind of way. So after our *free* guided tour thanks to Abed we headed off to the other main site: Hisham's Palace.
The palace is the hunting lodge (ha try palace) of an Ummayid Emperor built circa 740 CE. It comes complete with giant stone star (used to be a window) currently placed in the middle of a huge court area, old baths (you can see where the water wore down the stones), guest house with one of the best preserved mosaic floor in the region, sauna area (you can still picture it), and the emperor's personal mosque. There are stairs that start to go up and disappear into thin air five feet off the ground and giant stone pillars that you can imagine made for a gigantic building. It must've been quite impressive in its hey day. Today the area is impressive but more so I realized what it could be with a little more investment. I mean when I was walking by the baths I looked down to find a perfect mosaic at my feet. Just exposed by someone brushing off the 6 inches of sand that covered it. I moved a little more sand and realized that the entire area was probably a giant mosaic floor covered by sand. On the one hand the sand is probably the only reason that it was preserved; on the other hand there could be amazing finds underneath it all.
So after the touring and the sweating we returned to the pool for the rest of the day before heading back home. All in all a fantastic weekend.
Well I've run out of writing steam so I'll have to give you the rest of the updates tomorrow. (I promise I'll be better about writing, just took a quick break).
I've posted pics to my picasa site at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/christiewren/JerichoEtc
enjoy!
Hugs to you all! C
Ps. Oooh in case anyone is interested I'll be in Italy at the end of August and am looking for a travel partner, hit me up if you're interested!
I couldn't even remember the last time that I posted something (the dates come in handy here)!
Needless to say the last two (ack! three) weeks have been busy. I was too lazy to post the first week, then too busy thereafter. I was put in charge of submitting a grant to the EU for 40,000 Euros. Was due in yesterday. My first grant ever. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience.
So how to begin? I'll start with the trip to Jericho I guess.
I headed to Jericho with 12 Bethlehemites, all friends of George number 2, and my fellow intern Amoreena. Three words to describe the trip you ask?
Jericho. Was. HOT.
So a little background for those of you who don't know the region. Jericho is both the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and, I believe, the lowest city at 250 meters below sea level. The second factor means that due to quirks of natural science which I don't understand, it is very hot. Actually that's an understatement. To properly explain please note that it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit when I was there.
For those of you who are procrastinating at work you can find the history of Jericho here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho (thanks wikipedia)
So we headed out on Friday morning at 9:30 and got to Jericho by 11. A few notes about the trip out there. The landscape is beautiful. It's mountainous desert. In the area by Bethlehem there were still towns dotting the tops of the hills and scattered trees and scrub bush. Soon though that faded away into purely rock/sand mountains. It became really hard to imagine how people have lived and survived in that arid land for millennia. We saw a few Bedouin camps (the Bedouin are a nomadic people who live in the Middle East). These days the Bedouin in Palestine have mostly given in their tents for shacks made of dilapidated wooden sides with corrugated tin or plastic tarp roofs. It really looks like a miserable existence although I've heard really wonderful things about the people themselves and their rich culture. A few minutes past one of the Bedouin areas, past a few more barren hills, I noticed trees again, on the top of the hill, surrounding a plethora of perfectly sculpted and matching white homes with red roofs. We had come upon one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the West Bank: Ma'ale Adumim. Keep in mind that we were a good 30/45min inside of the West Bank. In American terms that means nothing right? 30 minutes is really close. In a country as tiny as Israel and Palestine though 30 minutes is an eternity. This settlement is deep inside of the West Bank. And I've come to realize just how understated the term "settlement" is when describing the towns that have been established throughout the West Bank. Ma'ale Adumim seemed to go on forever. It may have been because we had to drive all the way around it but it seemed to cover three hills not just one. This is no settlement, this is a fully fledged city built deep inside of the West Bank. You really start to understand the people who say that peace is not possible when looking at that and realizing the permanence of those structures. (As a Fletcher alumn in Nablus recently said to me when discussing a new settlement being built outside of Nablus, "Either the Israeli government is extremely generous because it is building us pretty new homes for when they withdraw, or they really don't have any intention to ever withdraw." It's hard to argue with that.)
In addition to the mere size of the city, the contrast between the barren hills we'd been driving through and the landscaping of the settlement was startling. Keep in mind that we're in a country where water is a very precious resource, and here I was looking at palm trees and flowering bushes. We're not just talking inside of the settlement either (though there was plenty there) we're talking flowers covering the roundabout and palm trees lining the various roads that led up to the settlement. I don't even want to think about the amount of water that is used on a daily basis to keep those plants not only alive but flourishing.
So after this enlightening drive we arrived at Jericho in prime time to hit the pool. This is basically what we did for the next 30 hrs. After some convincing by George, Amoreena and I had decided to join everyone staying in the super swanky Intercontinental in Jericho. Let's just say it's the nicest (literally highest number of stars) hotel in the West Bank. We got a group rate and locals rate which left us paying somewhere in the vicinity of $67 for a room that should have cost us at least $120. niiiice. The place has two pools (with a water slide!), two pool-side restaurants, and on this particular night a pool party starting at 9 going til 3 DJ'ed by the fabulous DJ Cosmos. (yes that is the guy from the Bethlehem club). It was an all around good time. Lots of sun, sweating, and swimming.
I managed to drag Amoreena away for two hours the next morning to check out the tourist sites. Our friends all thought that we were crazy for going anywhere further than 10 feet from the pool but you know I couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't see something more than the hotel. So we headed up to Tel Es-Sultan which is the original city. Let me state that again, it is the site of The Original City. That's right, we're talking dating back to 9000 BCE. 9000! That's a really really really long time ago! I had read in my books that it isn't that exciting and they were kind of right. It looks a lot like this,
Mud and stones, then more mud and stones
Then more mud and stones
We happened to arrive at the same time as an American tour group so I tagged along behind to hear what the guide had to say. I learned this much: when booking a tour you should audition the tour guide before paying out the cash. I was soo glad that I wasn't stuck with that group. I've eavesdropped on all sorts of tour guides, most are pretty good. This guy, he was bad. Easily the most boring lecture I've ever had the pleasure of pretending to listen to. I stood there for a few minutes then looked over to see a security guard approaching Amoreena (she was wandering around). I went over to investigate and joined them just as he was leading her around the barrier clearly meant to keep people out and leading her down an Indiana Jones type staircase (very small stairs, no railing, 30 foot drop on the other side) to stand on the top of the Tower of Jericho (one of the wonders of the ancient world)! Of course he had come over because, hell when you're bored at work and two young(ish) girls show up what do you do? You go chat them up. Best way to do that? Take them on a "behind the scenes" tour of the site of course! We stood on the tower. He opened the grate in the middle to show us the oldest staircase in the world. In the world! He said to us "you can go down the stairs if you want but be careful of the snakes." Yeah. We didn't go down the stairs. The rest of the tour followed in the same vein. Him walking up to then right over the barriers and giving us the whole story behind different piles of mud and brick. Here's the original wall, here's a house, here's a kitchen—notice the blackened stones from years of cooking, here's the original spring the reason that people first started living here (the spring still puts out a startling amount of water each day). It was really cool in that—I'm baking my brains out in the sun, have drunk two liters of water but have sweated it all out, yet this is still really interesting—kind of way. So after our *free* guided tour thanks to Abed we headed off to the other main site: Hisham's Palace.
The palace is the hunting lodge (ha try palace) of an Ummayid Emperor built circa 740 CE. It comes complete with giant stone star (used to be a window) currently placed in the middle of a huge court area, old baths (you can see where the water wore down the stones), guest house with one of the best preserved mosaic floor in the region, sauna area (you can still picture it), and the emperor's personal mosque. There are stairs that start to go up and disappear into thin air five feet off the ground and giant stone pillars that you can imagine made for a gigantic building. It must've been quite impressive in its hey day. Today the area is impressive but more so I realized what it could be with a little more investment. I mean when I was walking by the baths I looked down to find a perfect mosaic at my feet. Just exposed by someone brushing off the 6 inches of sand that covered it. I moved a little more sand and realized that the entire area was probably a giant mosaic floor covered by sand. On the one hand the sand is probably the only reason that it was preserved; on the other hand there could be amazing finds underneath it all.
So after the touring and the sweating we returned to the pool for the rest of the day before heading back home. All in all a fantastic weekend.
Well I've run out of writing steam so I'll have to give you the rest of the updates tomorrow. (I promise I'll be better about writing, just took a quick break).
I've posted pics to my picasa site at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/christiewren/JerichoEtc
enjoy!
Hugs to you all! C
Ps. Oooh in case anyone is interested I'll be in Italy at the end of August and am looking for a travel partner, hit me up if you're interested!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Paradox
Paradox: a seeming contradiction that is true; see also: Palestine
There have been several times recently when I've been reminded of this word and more specifically the definition. There are many things in daily life here that seem to be inherent contradictions. One example: Today I was sitting on the bus heading into work when we passed the local UNRWA building (UN Relief and Works Agency, works with Palestinian refugees). They were handing out massive bags of flour to a boisterous queue of locals. In the next five feet I saw a group of Palestinian boys sitting around on the steps of the building laughing like they hadn't a care in the world. It brought back to mind the situation of many people here, in a sort of limbo between real life and refugee status that's been going on for the past 60 years.
When I started to tell people about my plans to come here this summer I always seemed to get the same question, followed swiftly by the same statement: "Is it safe? Don't get shot." It's a valid statement but at the same time not. I mean yes there is danger here but it's not what everyone thinks it is. If I wanted to I could go and be an international observer at the Bil'in protests, this is a local protest every Friday against the building of the wall in a Palestinian town near Ramallah. It always turns to stone throwing and tear gas and rubber bullets. I am tempted to go, to be there. My friend told me that the Israeli reaction is more subdued when there are internationals present so I'm tempted to go to help these people to have their protest. At the same time I don't want to just be a tool for either side and on top of that I know that if I go the likelihood that I will get gassed is pretty high. It's not fatal (most of the time) but it's also not safe. It's a choice that I will have to make for myself.
As one of my new friends explained the other night when I asked him why he didn't make use of his Honduran passport to leave; he said life is really dangerous in Honduras, kidnappings are rife. In contrast he said that "life in Palestine is inconvenient not dangerous." He was referring to the checkpoints, road blocks, lack of opportunity and things to do, difficulty of travel, and for many the complete inability to get into Israel for jobs, travel, religious sites, etc. I never thought before coming here that Honduras would be considered more dangerous than Palestine. I was completely wrong. Life here goes on. They live and work, get together with family and friends, go to school, shop, cook, and eat, do chores, go to the pool, celebrate and mourn just like people all over the world. The only difference is that there is always the knowledge in the back of your mind that it's all done under occupation. There are daily reminders of this mixed in with the minutiae. It's the Hebrew writing on every food product, the glimpses you get of the wall at random times, the knowledge that you can't really go to far, and for me the reminders that while I want my friends to join me on my travels to new places many of them can not.
For me it's almost easy at times to completely forget the conflict. It's both everywhere and mundane at the same time. I walk to the checkpoint or take a bus and I know what to do and where to go. I just do it. It's part of what you have to do. It's easy for me, flash that magic blue passport and move along. Easy. Well, easy until you look up and realize that while you're waiting your turn you're staring down the barrel of an M-16. I've never had a gun pointed at me before. Even though I knew there was next to no chance that it would actually be used on me it was extremely unnerving. That small circle leading to darkness, that can kill, instantaneously. Then I showed them my passport and got back on the bus. A seeming contradiction that is true.
There have been several times recently when I've been reminded of this word and more specifically the definition. There are many things in daily life here that seem to be inherent contradictions. One example: Today I was sitting on the bus heading into work when we passed the local UNRWA building (UN Relief and Works Agency, works with Palestinian refugees). They were handing out massive bags of flour to a boisterous queue of locals. In the next five feet I saw a group of Palestinian boys sitting around on the steps of the building laughing like they hadn't a care in the world. It brought back to mind the situation of many people here, in a sort of limbo between real life and refugee status that's been going on for the past 60 years.
When I started to tell people about my plans to come here this summer I always seemed to get the same question, followed swiftly by the same statement: "Is it safe? Don't get shot." It's a valid statement but at the same time not. I mean yes there is danger here but it's not what everyone thinks it is. If I wanted to I could go and be an international observer at the Bil'in protests, this is a local protest every Friday against the building of the wall in a Palestinian town near Ramallah. It always turns to stone throwing and tear gas and rubber bullets. I am tempted to go, to be there. My friend told me that the Israeli reaction is more subdued when there are internationals present so I'm tempted to go to help these people to have their protest. At the same time I don't want to just be a tool for either side and on top of that I know that if I go the likelihood that I will get gassed is pretty high. It's not fatal (most of the time) but it's also not safe. It's a choice that I will have to make for myself.
As one of my new friends explained the other night when I asked him why he didn't make use of his Honduran passport to leave; he said life is really dangerous in Honduras, kidnappings are rife. In contrast he said that "life in Palestine is inconvenient not dangerous." He was referring to the checkpoints, road blocks, lack of opportunity and things to do, difficulty of travel, and for many the complete inability to get into Israel for jobs, travel, religious sites, etc. I never thought before coming here that Honduras would be considered more dangerous than Palestine. I was completely wrong. Life here goes on. They live and work, get together with family and friends, go to school, shop, cook, and eat, do chores, go to the pool, celebrate and mourn just like people all over the world. The only difference is that there is always the knowledge in the back of your mind that it's all done under occupation. There are daily reminders of this mixed in with the minutiae. It's the Hebrew writing on every food product, the glimpses you get of the wall at random times, the knowledge that you can't really go to far, and for me the reminders that while I want my friends to join me on my travels to new places many of them can not.
For me it's almost easy at times to completely forget the conflict. It's both everywhere and mundane at the same time. I walk to the checkpoint or take a bus and I know what to do and where to go. I just do it. It's part of what you have to do. It's easy for me, flash that magic blue passport and move along. Easy. Well, easy until you look up and realize that while you're waiting your turn you're staring down the barrel of an M-16. I've never had a gun pointed at me before. Even though I knew there was next to no chance that it would actually be used on me it was extremely unnerving. That small circle leading to darkness, that can kill, instantaneously. Then I showed them my passport and got back on the bus. A seeming contradiction that is true.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Belated Update!
Wow so I knew that it had been a while since I posted but I hadn't realized how long! I'm falling down on my duty! It gets to a point where there is so much to say that I don't know where to begin so I put it off for another day, then I do it again, ahh procrastination.
So where to begin?
I think I'll start with a link to my picasa page because the process of putting pictures up on this blog is ridiculously long and tedious, really someone should fix that, get on it techie friends!
So here's the link to my picasa page I'm halfway through uploading pics, will have to finish that tomorrow so check back for more. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/christiewren/MorePicsFromIsrael
So as you'll see in the album I've taken a few day trips. We went to the Mount of Olives one day, really interesting to see the city from a different angle. At one point we were walking along the road then got this view of the Old City and all of West Jerusalem beyond it, really incredible to see. It makes you realize just how much the city has grown. Apparently Jerusalem was entirely contained within the city walls until the late 1800s. That's an incredible amount of growth, a lot of that is also from post '67 and the "reunification" or "occupation" depending on which side you're on.
There's still a lot of building going on, seems like there's a crane in every direction.
On another day trip we went with my shop-keeper friend Majdi to the Shepherds' field in Beit Sahour (the town right next to Bethlehem) this is supposedly the place where the angel (Gabriel?) came down to announce Jesus' arrival into the world to a bunch of Shepherds. They've build a church into this big cave in the side of the hill. Even if it isn't the actual cave or if the appearance never happened, it was still really cool to be in this space, the roof blackened by hundreds and thousands of years worth of fires and realize how many people had used this place for refuge while their flocks grazed. We wandered around on the hill for a while, it's pockmarked with caves and holes. And yes, down below, we did spot a shepherd and his flock, still grazing there a few hundred meters away from a tractor plowing a field.
Another day we headed up to Tel Aviv for the afternoon. Not much to report there except for sun, sand, beach, ahhhhh! Lovely!
This weekend I decided that it was time to get away on my own. I've been spending a lot of time with my roommate and fellow intern. We've been going out a lot, almost every night and I knew that it was time for a break. I needed to re-center myself and re-discover why I'm here—to see everything and learn as much as possible. So I headed up to Haifa to spend the night. Takes about 2 hours on the bus so I stayed over in a hostel at the bottom of town.
By bottom, I literally mean bottom. The city is built on a hill right next to the ocean. The further up the hill you go, the swankier the homes and hotels. So as I'm a student I was most definitely on the flat ground! I spent the first day just wandering around the Arab part of town then the German Colony. Haifa is known for being one of the few places where Jewish and Arab Israelis live and work in the same place in a mostly peaceful existence. I got there on Friday afternoon so of course most places were closed, hence the sojourn through the Arab part of town. It was nice just to get a little lost in the meandering streets. I find myself drawn to the Arab part of town in Jerusalem too and I think it's because I can at least pretend that I understand the signs. Not speaking or reading Hebrew can be exhausting at times even though English abounds. It's just different to not be able to read signs or say small things in the native tongue.
I treated myself to a swanky dinner that night. Me, my book, a vodka tonic and the best hommus I've had yet in my life. Really. It was goooood. Probably helps to go to the nicer part of town. I'm not saying it's the best (that's an issue of hot debate here, everyone claims to make the best) I'm just saying that it's the best I've had so far.
The next day I met a couple of girls in the hostel and toured around with them for the day. One of the central draws of Haifa is the center of the Bahai faith. Bahai is a relatively new religion based on similar tenets to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You'll have to look into it more yourself, I'm not really clear on it all.
This looks like a decent source: http://www.bahai.com/
At any rate we walked up to the bottom of the gardens (see my picasa pics) and were able to get into the bottom tier. You can only see the whole thing if you go with a tour, and I of course had not planned far enough ahead to book a tour. We then decided to walk up the hill to see it from the top where you can again go down one tier. This involved walking uphill for something like 2 hours. Up some stairs, along a road, search for the next set of stairs, go up the wrong ones, go back down, look for the stairs, go up the stairs. Rinse and repeat. I think I went through 3 bottles of water. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was hot. I mean HOT. High school peeps, you know what Houston's like in early June? Yeah that was what I was walking through, weee!
So we walked, we saw the top. It's amazing, well worth it. Then there was the view over the gardens down the hill, to the sea. Haifa is really a beautiful city. I could live there, I've picked out my house already. It's at the top of the hill bordering on the Bahai gardens, yeah it probably only costs a few mil. I can do it on my NGO salary I swear!
So it was a good full day, I came back that night, sweaty and tired, freshened up and turned around to go back out to Cosmos. It's become a regular thing now. It's nice to go out in tank tops and know that it's normal. Although I still feel scandalous doing it, and even in my tank top I'm normally wearing more clothing than the other girls at the club. Weird!
So that's a quick update on all that's happened over the past week or so. Keep an eye out for more. I have some random thoughts I've been wanting to share. Hugs to you all!
c
So where to begin?
I think I'll start with a link to my picasa page because the process of putting pictures up on this blog is ridiculously long and tedious, really someone should fix that, get on it techie friends!
So here's the link to my picasa page I'm halfway through uploading pics, will have to finish that tomorrow so check back for more. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/christiewren/MorePicsFromIsrael
So as you'll see in the album I've taken a few day trips. We went to the Mount of Olives one day, really interesting to see the city from a different angle. At one point we were walking along the road then got this view of the Old City and all of West Jerusalem beyond it, really incredible to see. It makes you realize just how much the city has grown. Apparently Jerusalem was entirely contained within the city walls until the late 1800s. That's an incredible amount of growth, a lot of that is also from post '67 and the "reunification" or "occupation" depending on which side you're on.
There's still a lot of building going on, seems like there's a crane in every direction.
On another day trip we went with my shop-keeper friend Majdi to the Shepherds' field in Beit Sahour (the town right next to Bethlehem) this is supposedly the place where the angel (Gabriel?) came down to announce Jesus' arrival into the world to a bunch of Shepherds. They've build a church into this big cave in the side of the hill. Even if it isn't the actual cave or if the appearance never happened, it was still really cool to be in this space, the roof blackened by hundreds and thousands of years worth of fires and realize how many people had used this place for refuge while their flocks grazed. We wandered around on the hill for a while, it's pockmarked with caves and holes. And yes, down below, we did spot a shepherd and his flock, still grazing there a few hundred meters away from a tractor plowing a field.
Another day we headed up to Tel Aviv for the afternoon. Not much to report there except for sun, sand, beach, ahhhhh! Lovely!
This weekend I decided that it was time to get away on my own. I've been spending a lot of time with my roommate and fellow intern. We've been going out a lot, almost every night and I knew that it was time for a break. I needed to re-center myself and re-discover why I'm here—to see everything and learn as much as possible. So I headed up to Haifa to spend the night. Takes about 2 hours on the bus so I stayed over in a hostel at the bottom of town.
By bottom, I literally mean bottom. The city is built on a hill right next to the ocean. The further up the hill you go, the swankier the homes and hotels. So as I'm a student I was most definitely on the flat ground! I spent the first day just wandering around the Arab part of town then the German Colony. Haifa is known for being one of the few places where Jewish and Arab Israelis live and work in the same place in a mostly peaceful existence. I got there on Friday afternoon so of course most places were closed, hence the sojourn through the Arab part of town. It was nice just to get a little lost in the meandering streets. I find myself drawn to the Arab part of town in Jerusalem too and I think it's because I can at least pretend that I understand the signs. Not speaking or reading Hebrew can be exhausting at times even though English abounds. It's just different to not be able to read signs or say small things in the native tongue.
I treated myself to a swanky dinner that night. Me, my book, a vodka tonic and the best hommus I've had yet in my life. Really. It was goooood. Probably helps to go to the nicer part of town. I'm not saying it's the best (that's an issue of hot debate here, everyone claims to make the best) I'm just saying that it's the best I've had so far.
The next day I met a couple of girls in the hostel and toured around with them for the day. One of the central draws of Haifa is the center of the Bahai faith. Bahai is a relatively new religion based on similar tenets to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You'll have to look into it more yourself, I'm not really clear on it all.
This looks like a decent source: http://www.bahai.com/
At any rate we walked up to the bottom of the gardens (see my picasa pics) and were able to get into the bottom tier. You can only see the whole thing if you go with a tour, and I of course had not planned far enough ahead to book a tour. We then decided to walk up the hill to see it from the top where you can again go down one tier. This involved walking uphill for something like 2 hours. Up some stairs, along a road, search for the next set of stairs, go up the wrong ones, go back down, look for the stairs, go up the stairs. Rinse and repeat. I think I went through 3 bottles of water. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was hot. I mean HOT. High school peeps, you know what Houston's like in early June? Yeah that was what I was walking through, weee!
So we walked, we saw the top. It's amazing, well worth it. Then there was the view over the gardens down the hill, to the sea. Haifa is really a beautiful city. I could live there, I've picked out my house already. It's at the top of the hill bordering on the Bahai gardens, yeah it probably only costs a few mil. I can do it on my NGO salary I swear!
So it was a good full day, I came back that night, sweaty and tired, freshened up and turned around to go back out to Cosmos. It's become a regular thing now. It's nice to go out in tank tops and know that it's normal. Although I still feel scandalous doing it, and even in my tank top I'm normally wearing more clothing than the other girls at the club. Weird!
So that's a quick update on all that's happened over the past week or so. Keep an eye out for more. I have some random thoughts I've been wanting to share. Hugs to you all!
c
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Home Sweet Home
So I realized that I haven't invited you guys in to see my house yet. Take a look if you're interested!
Here we have the lovely living room, you may recognize the other house guests as my drinking buddies from an earlier picture. I don't know why but the landlady left these in the house, at least one per chair. Turns out they used to belong to the kids of the family (i.e. the kids who are now my age and older and have moved out). kind of sweet though. Please note that Mary is in on the fun too.
The living room continued. It's really quite a large place, was a bit creepy at first but now it's just home.
This is the one interesting bit of the kitchen, see that, that's a gas stove propped on top of another gas stove/oven. it's sort of like a really really nice camping stove. thing is the stove underneath, the one with the two ovens, yeah the whole point of that stove is to fill the gap in the counter so that the other stove doesn't fall to the ground.
This lovely piece of art adorns the door to the bathroom, you know just in case you couldn't figure out what that room was for. Actually it kind of makes me think of this drawing that resided in the downstairs bathroom in my house when I was growing up. It had a bunch of dogs all lined up waiting to use this one tree, and they all really really had to go. I think that was my dad's contribution to the interior decorating. I don't know how he ever got that past my mum.
And this ladies and gentlement is the result of pure genius: one broken shower handle holder + electric tape = perfect showers.
You know I make fun but really it's a nice place, I had no idea what to expect when I got here. As it is, i have a roof over my head, a place to cook, eat, and sleep, a nice land lady and hot water, well half the time anyway.
Here we have the lovely living room, you may recognize the other house guests as my drinking buddies from an earlier picture. I don't know why but the landlady left these in the house, at least one per chair. Turns out they used to belong to the kids of the family (i.e. the kids who are now my age and older and have moved out). kind of sweet though. Please note that Mary is in on the fun too.
The living room continued. It's really quite a large place, was a bit creepy at first but now it's just home.
This is the one interesting bit of the kitchen, see that, that's a gas stove propped on top of another gas stove/oven. it's sort of like a really really nice camping stove. thing is the stove underneath, the one with the two ovens, yeah the whole point of that stove is to fill the gap in the counter so that the other stove doesn't fall to the ground.
This lovely piece of art adorns the door to the bathroom, you know just in case you couldn't figure out what that room was for. Actually it kind of makes me think of this drawing that resided in the downstairs bathroom in my house when I was growing up. It had a bunch of dogs all lined up waiting to use this one tree, and they all really really had to go. I think that was my dad's contribution to the interior decorating. I don't know how he ever got that past my mum.
And this ladies and gentlement is the result of pure genius: one broken shower handle holder + electric tape = perfect showers.You know I make fun but really it's a nice place, I had no idea what to expect when I got here. As it is, i have a roof over my head, a place to cook, eat, and sleep, a nice land lady and hot water, well half the time anyway.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
More Pictures!
Alright let's give this another go with a fresh crop shall we?
So Jesus is everywhere, in my apartment. He's on the vanity in my room, on the walls in the living room, and he's definitely holding the Last Supper in the kitchen. I'm just glad that he's not baptizing anyone in the bathroom, I don't think I could handle that.
So the next few pics (this one included) are from a trip to the fabulous Cosmos, the only night club in the West Bank (according to our hosts). We managed to get into a private party on Friday which was fabulous bc/ it was a birthday and graduation party for this really cool Palestinian girl who had studied in the US, as had all of her friends. So there was much dancing and imbibing to be had. It was really easy to forget that we were actually in the West Bank, well except for the Arabic dance music and dancing, that took a little getting used to.
This pic is of Amoreena and her friend from back home Dan. chill kids, very chill kids.
Here we have Amoreena, George, and myself. George is the friend of the our landlady's son who lives upstairs, he's the one who managed to fanagle a way to get us into the private party. Again, chill kid. This meeting new people thing is working out pretty well.
Slightly odd picture of me looking really wierd trying to dance in the local fashion with this guy. It involves a lot of raised arms, hip shaking, and me making a complete fool of myself. In case you can't tell I'm red from laughing so hard.
Below we have some artsy pics of the club. I cannot take credit I had definitely handed the camera off to Dan at this point. (thanks Dan)
So Jesus is everywhere, in my apartment. He's on the vanity in my room, on the walls in the living room, and he's definitely holding the Last Supper in the kitchen. I'm just glad that he's not baptizing anyone in the bathroom, I don't think I could handle that.
So the next few pics (this one included) are from a trip to the fabulous Cosmos, the only night club in the West Bank (according to our hosts). We managed to get into a private party on Friday which was fabulous bc/ it was a birthday and graduation party for this really cool Palestinian girl who had studied in the US, as had all of her friends. So there was much dancing and imbibing to be had. It was really easy to forget that we were actually in the West Bank, well except for the Arabic dance music and dancing, that took a little getting used to.
This pic is of Amoreena and her friend from back home Dan. chill kids, very chill kids.
Here we have Amoreena, George, and myself. George is the friend of the our landlady's son who lives upstairs, he's the one who managed to fanagle a way to get us into the private party. Again, chill kid. This meeting new people thing is working out pretty well.
Slightly odd picture of me looking really wierd trying to dance in the local fashion with this guy. It involves a lot of raised arms, hip shaking, and me making a complete fool of myself. In case you can't tell I'm red from laughing so hard.
Below we have some artsy pics of the club. I cannot take credit I had definitely handed the camera off to Dan at this point. (thanks Dan)
See it's a regular club. These were taken at the end of the night once everyone had left. Apparently this place is PACKED on a Saturday night. Looks like I'll have to change my day off to Sunday to be able to check this place out (the weekend here is friday/saturday but I'm taking an extra day).
Oookay kids, that's it for now, I think I'll put up some of the touristy pics tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday!
What? It's only been a week? huh?
Sooo....it seems like I have enough material for about a month's worth of posting. How does that happen? I guess traveling is always good for that.
Okay, so much has happened since the last post.
I guess I should start with the official. As many of you know I'm working with a joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank while out here. I'll be doing research on building a Culture of Peace which is a kumbaya way of saying, how do we get these two societies to supposedly live next to each other and work with each other should a political agreement come into being? Within that very large subject area I'm focusing on the possibility of creating ministries of peace within the respective governments. what's out there (not much) and what's feasible given the political situations in both Israel and Palestine? big questions. It is going to be a lot of work but I'm ready, bring it on!
In addition to work, I moved into my apartment in Bethlehem (as you saw from the pictures of the checkpoint and wall). I'm really warming up to Bethlehem. It was a bit of an adjustment given that Jerusalem seemed so familiar due to the strong european and american influences. For me it has felt like Israel proper is like northern Italy/western europe and Bethlehem (so far the only part of the west bank that i've seen) is like southern Italy crossed with Trinidad & Tobago. It's dirtier, street cleaning simply does not exist and people don't seem to go out of their way to stop the litter. Where Jerusalem has bigger stores with everything in one place, Bethlehem has lots of little stores. To get food you go to the butcher, then the baker, then the mini mart, (you thought i'd say candle stick maker didn't you) then the produce market. All the food comes from Israel, everything has hebrew on it, most things have arabic and hebrew but not everything. Through the checkpoints and closed borders Israel has managed to make the West Bank (and Gaza) into a captive consumer base for its products. Handy that. The problem with this (besides the obvious) is that I don't speak a word of hebrew so anytime I go shopping I look for things with pictures on the label. This may get tricky. The store keepers are really nice though and through my pidgen arabic (ha right, i'm not even to that level) and their english skills (variable levels) I manage to muddle through.
The other thing that was immediately noticiable to me was the absence of women on the street after about 8:30pm. Seeing as I was working until 5 (getting home at 6) and mostly running errands afterwards, I didn't really see many women the first few days. That made me a little uncomfortable, though I'm normally with my fellow intern, Amoreena, so it's not too bad. Then again we are two white girls walking around in a Palestinian town. There are a few tourists around but they tend to move around by bus. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that I was uncomfortable at first and it's wearing off now. I've come to realize that while people definitely look, and sometimes try to talk to me/us, it's never menacing, simply kind of astonished that we're there and walking around. You know, or they're male and want to chat up the white girls. Meh, that happens all over the world.
Another thing that helped the situation was meeting some locals. We had a set back with one set of guys that we met (as i said there are no women around so it's almost impossible to meet them. Guys on the other hand are plentiful.) So with the first couple of guys we met it was quickly apparent that they had one thing in mind. Oh don't get worried it wasn't bad but one of the boys obviously thought he was a smooooth operator. Yeah, if you know me, then you know that that does not fly. ha. So they have been well and truly ditched. We then had a stroke of good luck when our land lady came down to meet us and brought her son and his friend as translators, both named George (remember we're in the Christian part of town). Anyway they are all really nice. The land lady doesn't speak a word of english and my arabic is truly terrible/non-existent so there's a lot of smiling, hand motions, laughing, and "George, come translate!" The son doesn't really speak english, though he definitely understands most of what's going on because he laughs at the jokes before us, particularly when they are directed against his friend. So we spent quite a bit of time with them over the weekend, got to see a bit more of Bethlehem and the local side of things. We've definitely had our fair share of hanging out in cafes drinking beer--yay christians--and smoking sheesha (aka: hooka, hubbly bubbly--hehe--and the local name Nargila). it's been good, oh and yes there are women at the cafes, very reassuring, i guess they just don't go walking around at night like their male counterparts.
In addition to the nightly cafe jaunts I've managed to befriend a local shop keeper, Majdi. He speaks excellent english and seems to know all of the internationals in town. He delights in connecting us to each other. On saturday he took us around the sights of bethlehem so I got to see the shepherd's field. If you ever went to Sunday school you would know this as the place where the angel visited the Shepherds in their field while watching sheep to tell them that the messiah was born. (think christmas carols). So whether or not this was the actual shepherd's field or not it was pretty cool. there are numerous caves on the hill including a really large one with a roof black from the smoke of thousands of fires over the past centuries, this is where the angel appeared to the shepherds according to the many christian churches. From there we headed to the Church of the Nativity which is actually an assortment of three churches built on the sight where it is believed that Jesus was born. Very interesting, also v. full of tourists.
So that's about it for the past week for now I think. there's always more gossip but i'll leave that for another time and place. For now i'm excited to get going with my research, to really settle into the apartment--yay laundry, and to start planning my weekend jaunts. I'm thinking Ramallah this weekend. Should be good! I hope that all is well with you guys, drop me a line and let me know what you're up to. Ta!
Okay, so much has happened since the last post.
I guess I should start with the official. As many of you know I'm working with a joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank while out here. I'll be doing research on building a Culture of Peace which is a kumbaya way of saying, how do we get these two societies to supposedly live next to each other and work with each other should a political agreement come into being? Within that very large subject area I'm focusing on the possibility of creating ministries of peace within the respective governments. what's out there (not much) and what's feasible given the political situations in both Israel and Palestine? big questions. It is going to be a lot of work but I'm ready, bring it on!
In addition to work, I moved into my apartment in Bethlehem (as you saw from the pictures of the checkpoint and wall). I'm really warming up to Bethlehem. It was a bit of an adjustment given that Jerusalem seemed so familiar due to the strong european and american influences. For me it has felt like Israel proper is like northern Italy/western europe and Bethlehem (so far the only part of the west bank that i've seen) is like southern Italy crossed with Trinidad & Tobago. It's dirtier, street cleaning simply does not exist and people don't seem to go out of their way to stop the litter. Where Jerusalem has bigger stores with everything in one place, Bethlehem has lots of little stores. To get food you go to the butcher, then the baker, then the mini mart, (you thought i'd say candle stick maker didn't you) then the produce market. All the food comes from Israel, everything has hebrew on it, most things have arabic and hebrew but not everything. Through the checkpoints and closed borders Israel has managed to make the West Bank (and Gaza) into a captive consumer base for its products. Handy that. The problem with this (besides the obvious) is that I don't speak a word of hebrew so anytime I go shopping I look for things with pictures on the label. This may get tricky. The store keepers are really nice though and through my pidgen arabic (ha right, i'm not even to that level) and their english skills (variable levels) I manage to muddle through.
The other thing that was immediately noticiable to me was the absence of women on the street after about 8:30pm. Seeing as I was working until 5 (getting home at 6) and mostly running errands afterwards, I didn't really see many women the first few days. That made me a little uncomfortable, though I'm normally with my fellow intern, Amoreena, so it's not too bad. Then again we are two white girls walking around in a Palestinian town. There are a few tourists around but they tend to move around by bus. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that I was uncomfortable at first and it's wearing off now. I've come to realize that while people definitely look, and sometimes try to talk to me/us, it's never menacing, simply kind of astonished that we're there and walking around. You know, or they're male and want to chat up the white girls. Meh, that happens all over the world.
Another thing that helped the situation was meeting some locals. We had a set back with one set of guys that we met (as i said there are no women around so it's almost impossible to meet them. Guys on the other hand are plentiful.) So with the first couple of guys we met it was quickly apparent that they had one thing in mind. Oh don't get worried it wasn't bad but one of the boys obviously thought he was a smooooth operator. Yeah, if you know me, then you know that that does not fly. ha. So they have been well and truly ditched. We then had a stroke of good luck when our land lady came down to meet us and brought her son and his friend as translators, both named George (remember we're in the Christian part of town). Anyway they are all really nice. The land lady doesn't speak a word of english and my arabic is truly terrible/non-existent so there's a lot of smiling, hand motions, laughing, and "George, come translate!" The son doesn't really speak english, though he definitely understands most of what's going on because he laughs at the jokes before us, particularly when they are directed against his friend. So we spent quite a bit of time with them over the weekend, got to see a bit more of Bethlehem and the local side of things. We've definitely had our fair share of hanging out in cafes drinking beer--yay christians--and smoking sheesha (aka: hooka, hubbly bubbly--hehe--and the local name Nargila). it's been good, oh and yes there are women at the cafes, very reassuring, i guess they just don't go walking around at night like their male counterparts.
In addition to the nightly cafe jaunts I've managed to befriend a local shop keeper, Majdi. He speaks excellent english and seems to know all of the internationals in town. He delights in connecting us to each other. On saturday he took us around the sights of bethlehem so I got to see the shepherd's field. If you ever went to Sunday school you would know this as the place where the angel visited the Shepherds in their field while watching sheep to tell them that the messiah was born. (think christmas carols). So whether or not this was the actual shepherd's field or not it was pretty cool. there are numerous caves on the hill including a really large one with a roof black from the smoke of thousands of fires over the past centuries, this is where the angel appeared to the shepherds according to the many christian churches. From there we headed to the Church of the Nativity which is actually an assortment of three churches built on the sight where it is believed that Jesus was born. Very interesting, also v. full of tourists.
So that's about it for the past week for now I think. there's always more gossip but i'll leave that for another time and place. For now i'm excited to get going with my research, to really settle into the apartment--yay laundry, and to start planning my weekend jaunts. I'm thinking Ramallah this weekend. Should be good! I hope that all is well with you guys, drop me a line and let me know what you're up to. Ta!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Technology escapes me
So I'm technologically inept, I can't figure out this picture thing just yet and it's almost 7 so I want to head through the checkpoint before it get's dark. here's a link to my picasa page. I added comments. will give you more stories later.
hugs to you all.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/christiewren/Israel?authkey=J9W8ITMDiSE
hugs to you all.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/christiewren/Israel?authkey=J9W8ITMDiSE
Ahlan wa Sahlan! Shalom!
Ahlan wa sahlan! Shalom! Ben Venuti! Okay I'll stop being a snob now...Welcome to my blog! So several of you (my friends and family) asked me to keep you up to date on what I do this summer while traveling in Israel and The West Bank (with a little bit of Italy thrown in for good measure). So here we go, my first venture to the Middle East and to the Blogoshpere all in one go, hold onto your hats everyone!A quick disclaimer. This blog is about my personal impressions of Israel and the West Bank. This is not meant to be a political blog though it may cross over at times. My intent is to share my experiences and thoughts. I hope that you enjoy it.
So here we are (see above) in my spacious airplane seat taking off...fast forward 21 hours, 1 layover in Rome--yum italian coffee, and 1 nesher ride (10 person taxi) later and we're in Jerusalem. Weee!
I happened to arrive on a Friday afternoon which can be quite tricky seem as everything shuts down for the Shabat (sabbath) on Friday evening. My first impression of Israel is that it's very European. The roads and road signs all remind me of europe and the toy cars help that impression too. One seemingly small thing that continues to stick out to me is that all the buildings are white. Every single one. In my brilliance I've decided that they're made from the rock around here (it's v. hilly and dry where I am and littered with white rocks that are sometimes piled into haphazard walls). The next thing that struck me was the sudden realization that we were driving through the West Bank and I'd barely noticed. We had slowed down for a checkpoint and just been waved through so I didn't even think about it until I realized that the highway was surrounded on both sides by a chainlink fence topped with barbed wire. I had known that some of the major highways cut through the West Bank between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem but it was odd to realize just how easy it is for Israeli's to cross the border.
A short while later (Israel is smaller than I'd thought) I reached my hostel, collapsed on the bed for a bit then rallied and set off for the Old City. Seem as it was about 6:30 on Friday evening by this point, there was next to no one on the streets. The people that I did see tended to be Orthodox Jews heading to the Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall) to start their Shabat celebrations. So for those of you who like me have never met or seen an Orthodox Jew the men tend to wear black suits with white shirts and the circular disk thing on their head (kippah or Yarmulke). The Hasidic sect wear long black jackets and big black hats, some look more western, felt hats with a brim, some look Russian to me, circular with black fur. It's not something i've ever come across before so it was really interesting. I was really cognizant to the fact that I was a western woman when standing next to them. I didn't want to offend them so i didn't take pictures, also it was Shabat so it's really not cool to take pictures.
So back to the Old City. The Old City is basically the original city, think Biblical times and much much earlier until about the 1800s. It's really amazing. It has these tiny tiny streets, the pavement stones are so worn that I had to concentrate to keep from slipping. I wanted to see the Western Wall especially seem as that was where everyone seemed to be heading. I followed different Orthodox men as they walked and ran to the wall to get there before sunset. Eventually I followed them through some twists and turns in the tiny streets and after passing through security ended up in the plaza by the Western Wall. I can't really describe it. There were people pouring in from all directions, hurrying down the stairs to find their friends and pray. But this wasn't a somber occasion. It was really joyous. The Hasidic Jews (with the big hats) were lined up along the left side of the wall, crushed in, rocking and praying. The Orthodox Jews (with the kippah) were dancing and singing. Well the men were doing this. the women of both sects were standing around in the back catching up and chatting. The whole plaza was filled and the noise was incredible. Laughing, praying, and singing. the singing was really really fun. it sounded like a football game (soccer to you yanks) in england. "oh le oh le oh le oh le...oh la oh la, oh le oh le oh le...oh la oooh la." the younger boys (teens and 20s) would put their arms around each other's shoulders and dance and every now and then lift someone up onto their shoulders and keep singing. I sat there for at least 40 minutes just soaking it all in. As someone who is not Jewish, is not even religious, I did not expect to be as moved as I was. It was really incredible.
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