I talked to my mom today, two things; she was mad I called my boss and anxiously awaiting the next blog. So under strict orders from her I am not to call work again and post a long update on the last few days. The blog I can do, work, I am not so sure.
Where to start…
Parks
The kids fill my days with joy and I wish I could spend more time with them. Even after the chocolate stains on my new white shirt, Fadi makes me smile. Qusai finally spoke to me a few days ago. I had been saying, “Hello and good morning, good evening and how are you,” for a very long time and he finally said “marhaba,” which means hello. I quickly learned how rambunctious little Quasi is, not so quiet after all. I ate breakfast with Nancy and the kids one morning and helped her put together some DVDs. Muhannan is a photographer and recently made a DVD about a Palestinian Dance Group.
Anyway, during our work Quasi was banging around in the kitchen and giving his little brother a hard time. Loud screams and fake bangs from Quasi’s toy gun as well as the sporadic cries of Fadi could be heard down the street. It is so comforting to be living in a new place far from home and know that children laugh and cry in the same language all over the world.
Though, I learned very quickly that play time for kids in Beit Sahour does not look like play time in America. On Friday we went to the park with the kids, and I experienced the most gut wrenching part of my stay. Well, besides the literal gut wrenching that happens from time to time. I am still not used to the hills or the food.
We were driving to the park and I learned that this was the only place in all of Beit Sahour that the kids could come to for play. Then I saw the soldiers on the hill by the road. Muhannan said they were protecting settlement lands, and my heart sank. For those that do not know, settlements are neighborhoods built by Israel for its people on Palestinian land. The old saying of, “a land without people for a people without land,” comes to mind when I think of settlements, because it still rings true today even after the big Israeli “land grab” of 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes. Muhannan said the name of the settlement was something like, Shitma. I am sure I am getting that wrong, but I wasn’t listening all that close, except to the beginning. So I made my opinion about settlements clear when I made the joke of saying, “Well that’s appropriate because they are Shit.” He understood completely, laughed and shook his head in agreement.
Wrecks
We went to Abu Dis which is a city by the separation wall, and has become a dangerous one. Abu Dis is in Section B, which is controlled by Israel and does not allow for Palestinian Police. Two things have come with that; drugs and a dual municipality of sorts where the Palestinians run the streets and in ways make their own laws while Israel does not enforce theirs. Just yesterday two drug related murders took place when Palestinian groups sought justice on their own.
As we drove down the “green line” (the boundary line between the years of 1948 and 1967) I saw the wall snake through the towns and cities separating families and wrecking the economy and spirits of a people, my heart sank once again. Two young boys with Arabic rap music blaring from their car drove up to a locked and rundown store front. When asked why they were closed, one of them cursed in Arabic and raised an angry fist to the wall. Even for those who do not speak Arabic his face and body language said it all; they closed because of the wall.
