Day 47: Tel Aviv again..

It's been 47 days already. Time does fly. I wish I could too. It's been a wonderful, busy and a full Sunday. As all my days supposed to be. :p

Woke up quite early, couldn't sleep well though from involuntarily planning my Sunday. I hate it when my mind does that to me. And since I planned even my breakfast the night before in my sleep, I had a very quick breakfast, packed my stuff and got a ride with a student shuttle coming back from the primary school here, on his way to Ramla. Faiz, that's his name, had to take me to Lod since the trains from Ramla don't work. It was interesting to witness him transitioning himself and his car from a school shuttle to shared ride service. He picks up people whenever they stop the car, and pay 6 Shekels for the ride. The train was packed probably because it was early in the morning. People are rude while getting on and off the train or the bus. It's really getting to me. Drivers are nice though. Anyway, I went straight to my hostel first, Hayarkon 48. I simply loved it. It's BY the water, as in the Mediterranean. Here's how the view from my room, excuse me, my balcony was:

The interview was at 1 and Tel-Aviv is not a big city but I rather be early and wander around Friends of the Earth ME then being late. I settled in and hit the road in about an hour. Allenby Road that goes all the way down to Hayarkon Street (one street away fro the sea) has LOTS of photo shops where they actually develop pictures. There are antique camera and historical pictures shops as well. And an old printing house with an old Jewish printer (a pressman) with long, white beard and round eye glasses, and his young son. The cam shop was closed and I didn't have enough time to check out the old photo store but from what I saw briefly, there were b&w pictures of first and second wave aliah, or the land with its Jews and Arabs in general. I'll go there again for sure. It's a very central location so it took me about 15 minutes to get to the offices of Friends of the Earth Middle East across from the old bus station, which is now an abandoned, spooky-looking cite. I walked around the neighborhood for a while and I realized the place being occupied mostly by black Jews (or perhaps also black immigrants). There was a pedestrian market area where, you know, cars were not allowed. Gambling seemed to be in full swing. I don't actually know what this game is called in English, or in Turkish, but 10-15 steps away from each other, these guys were doing tricks with three cups turned upside down with something inside one of them, he mixes them with hoky poky... Well, you get the idea. 

Moving on. The interview was quite good; we only had an hour but we got to talk a lot about what they do, the general environmental crisis in the region, whether the benefits of envr. protection is quantifiable, the Ministry of Environment in Israel and the water authorities from both sides (Israel and Palestine), new Good Water Neighbor projects, the impact of cross-border cooperations on the conflict, why the governments fail to cooperate in solving the pollution problem, the restrictions on the Palestinian Water Sector, the responsibility of Israel, PA and PWA, partnering with PA, Water privatization in Israel, previous works with Turkey... I'm now in the process of transcribing the interview which once I'm done I'll put it on here. On collaborating with Turkey, I'm surprised to hear they had worked in the past with TEMA, Turkey's biggest environmentalist foundation who used to be directed by my big uncle. Huh! Robert T. Cole, the Secretary-General of the the Int. Advisory Committee of the FOEME was with us, all the way from DC -no, not for me- I guess I'll be contacting him once I go back to the States. A very nice gentleman. During our talk Mr. Bromberg told me about the newest Good Water Neighbors project they implemented this month between East and West Jerusalem. On Feb 10, I'll be joining them for a visit to the sites included in the project. Isn't that amazing? I'm starting to work on the proposal to the Int. Media Center at UM about  a "cities" version of Jerusalem, possibly including this particular project between two communities in conflict. The Good Water Neighbor is very impressive and proved to have tangible results, great success stories and to me an important step for a peace in the future. It won several awards, national and international, has been duplicated by many similar projects around the world including Bosnia. It's worth even skimming through: 

http://foeme.org/www/?module=projects&project_id=32

After the interview I met Pablo Utin, the Israeli film scholar I met in Miami. Had a very pleasant walk from the old bus station to Dizengoff Center, taking Rothchild Ave all the way up to King George. This whole area looks just like Istanbul. How weird. I was starving when I met Pablo after 2pm so he took to this place where they make the best falafels I've ever had so far! Actually I had something called sabich, apparently originally from Iraq. It's pita bread with tahini, falafel, roasted eggplants and eggs! To die for! And it's only 12 shekels! It's always best to dine with a local. We talked a lot about his projects, the academia in Israel, his plans for moving to Miami, and collaborating for a Moving Image Lab Israel section in Neve Shalom, in which we may screen Ajami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajami_(film)) followed by a discussion. Apparently, despite the blooming film sector in the county, film, among many others, is not the best area to be specialized in, in Israel. Not many film schools in the country, as in a film department at a university. There are college-like institutions here, but they're not actually universities. There's so little room for new faculty, and those who already have the positions, are holding on to them for their life, even though some are way past the retirement age. Not fair, but that's the situation. Plus, you don't get paid well so you  basically travel the country to teach at several universities. Traveling professors. Interesting idea. 

After this great lunch, Pablo took me to his hairdresser. I needed a haircut. On the way, we passed by the Rabin Square, where Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in 1995. There are metal markings fixed on the pavement, representing where Rabin, his assassin and many bodyguards were standing at the time of the shooting. Very creepy and sad crime scene this was. It feels so odd when you realize the arm's length distance between the shooter and Rabin. Here's how it looks like and a blurry shot of the incident:

Took this photo and the caption from somebody else's blog post: "The circle closest to you is where Yitzhak Rabin was standing when he was murdered.  The one directly behind it, looking forward, is where the assassin stood.  ALL the other circles are security people's positions."

The hairdresser was, as Pablo says, a typical Israeli hairdresser. Two guys, in a little store, very hospitable and talkative. Got a cute hair cut me thinks, Nikita style. ;) We had a nice chat, part of which involved me asking him what he thought about the mandatory military service in Israel. This is one of the many -and the recent- discussions me and Sean have been having almost every day. I say it doesn't have to be mandatory, he says it does. Well, we decided on me asking as many Israelis as possible what they think. So the hairdresser was my first sample. He said he's fine with the mandatory service but the fact that it's 3 years is a waste of money. He thinks only those who volunteer should do it for 3 years, the rest should be fine with a 6 to 8 months of it. That way you still have an active army ready to defend, and all people have military training -that is thought to be more necessary than being involved in collaborative works with the "other." Aaaanyway. I think I'll be meeting Pablo again soon. It was a nice chat.

I had to rush to the hostel to change real fast and get ready for my first GAGA class at Suzanne Dellal Center. Met some people at the hostel, from the States. Mostly birthright-ers. Anyways, I took a cab. Shame on me, but I couldn't risk being late for the class, and I had to make sure I could be able to pay for one class rather than a full month. The first time I was here I didn't pass though the first building into the main courtyard. So pretty at night. As I was afraid, though, they wanted me to pay the whole month. I would have, but it was too expensive for a commitment I may not be able to keep. But I must have looked enthusiastic and disappointed enough that the girl let me pay for two classes only, for now. I'm sure I can make it to another class. There were almost, maybe more than, 20 people of all ages. I was one of the two new students and the instructor woman pulled us aside before she started it. I was told we were going to be given instructions while paying for it so I was expecting it. I was NOT expecting the one-line instruction though: "Do not stop until the end of the class, but you can slow down if you like." I have good feelings about the class already. It took me couple of minutes to get used to letting my body do whatever it needs to do among so many people. Then it was all okay, so much fun, liberating indeed, joyful and certainly a good work out. Even though I have no one to compare her with, I think that the instructor did a very good job. I have a feeling that most of her instructions were spontaneous. It was as if tonight's concept was fireballs. The commands ranged from "your feet have no bones, they're so soft, you can bend them however you like!", " the floor is so hot!", "no, actually it's your feet! They have tiny fireballs in them", "oops, the balls are behind your knees now, both on the left, both on the right", "in the pelvis", "in your rib cage", "finger tips", "hips", "shake your body", "earthquake in your body", "shake and earthquake at the same time", "shoulder blades want to get away from your body", "knees together with a giant fireball in your belly"... See, lots of fireballs, but so good, so good. This kept on and on for an hour and a half, always moving, adding more commands on top of others. After such a great and exciting work-out, I had to walk back to the hostel and enjoy the sea breeze. Well, actually it was the wind, something between wind and a storm. Plus the drizzling rain, around 8:30pm. It wasn't cold though, it was as if the wind was playing with you, strong but careful, you just have to go with the flow! Three kids on the same bike singing some Hebrew song out loud passed me by, made me happy. Got yogurt and fruit on the way. Went straight up to my room to rest my body and get some good sleep before waking up 6am in the morning. Have to be at work around 9am. Such a nice and busy day.

Day 40-46: A weekly report

Sunday to Saturday (today)

This has been a busy week, working on the EU report, conference report, and my FOTEME interview. There were many workshops: mental health professionals, high school kids, facilitators, environmentalists...  Thursday I finally got a chance to talk to the Israeli guy who was on the Israeli ship that sailed right after the Mavi Marmara incident. It was a very short conversation for he had to go back to the workshop but I found out that he was  actually the captain of the ship. We are going to talk about it soon, Thursday probably, when they have a facilitators workshop again.

Last Tuesday Timo, Julia and I visited Joseph Emanuel at the hospital. It was very nice, Joseph asked me lots of questions this time; about my education, what I want to do, and of course, gossips from the village. We stayed there for an hour and then left Joseph to rest. It was chilly in Jerusalem, but nice nevertheless. This could have been a very pretty city, not necessarily glamorous or pompous but plain beautiful, well cared for. Unlike it is now. Some neighborhoods, mostly where the bars and antique shops -and the touristic parts of the old city- are neat and well-kept. I don't understand why the city doesn't restore the old historical buildings of the town and allow so many ugly, structures recently built in the middle of the city or worst around the border that look so unpleasing to the eye and threating to eat the grace out of the city. Cleanliness is another thing. Mostly religious population and the city administration don't seem to care weather they throw their garbage on the street or into a trash can. This situation though makes me want to explore more of this city. And I will.

Didn't train efficient enough this past week except for yesterday when I finally had a chance to train in the sports hall. For more than 2 hours! I was quite surprised when I walked in later in the evening yesterday and saw the stall bars, climbing ropes and several gymnastic mats! What's also amazing is that the floor is not slippery nor too smooth to make it uncomfortable for capoeira training. It was a little scary  going there after dark though. The hall is on the way to the School for Peace, an area where nobody goes after 6 or so. The entrance is from a very narrow alley where there's little light and numerous opportunities to rob someone. I guess I was nervous because somebody tried to break into our offices at the School the other night. The door has a very thick and weird lock but I managed to unlock it (and lock it again after I was done, of course.) The rest is a satisfying training session. Friday we also had a lecture for the environmentalists participating in the workshop. It was given by an Israeli sociology professor from Jerusalem on environmentalist justice. The lecture was in Hebrew but some of the slides were in English and Nava translated some of the highlights of the lecture's first 30 mins. It was interesting enough for me to look further into the subject and incorporate the topic into my 1-hour meeting with Gidon Bromberg this coming Sunday. Considering today is Saturday, I have to be quick. Also, I decided to stay in Neve Shalom tonight and get a very early morning train to Tel Aviv (or a ride from Neve Shalom if I'm lucky). It makes no sense to spend money on a room for Saturday. Already booked my private room with shared bathroom facilities at Hayarkon 48 Hostel in central Tel Aviv this time, a minute walk to the beach!!! (http://www.hayarkon48.com/index.asp?id=1) Weeeeeeeeeee! Sunday will be busy, starting with Bromberg meeting, then a coffee with Pablo Utin, then perhaps meet some other friends and spend time at the beach, and THEN gaga class at Suzanne Dellal followed by a capoeira class in Old Jaffa! Sunday night I'll be sleeping like a baby, yeah.

Day 36-37-38-39: Summaries of the first month

18-22 Jan, 2011

The first three days will be the easiest summaries ever. Because nothing happened in particular. Friday and Saturday, however, were quite busy with the Conference at the School for Peace. The whole thing was in Hebrew so I'll be lying if I say that it was amazing, that I learned a lot. Soon, if not today, I might be able to give more details on the content once I put my hands on the transcription. I can tell you this much though, this "Moving from Protest to Continuous Activism: Building Power for Struggles" conference had some intense panels. Intense, as in, passionate. Again, passionate clearly doesn't mean that the panelists said anything enlightening or new. I filmed the panels, photographed the discussion sessions and breaks. Friday program was from 3pm till 10pm. My day at work started 9am in the morning, obviously. Shabat still doesn't apply to my life. It does only when I want to travel.

I am more curious about the first panel on Friday. A lot of names flew around, names like Shalid, Sharon, Arafat, Abbas, Hamas... The main idea was to review the situation pulling important points from history. And I am genuinely interested in hearing many different (or way too similar) opinions about taken-for-granted "facts" for both sides, details of all sizes, personal stories, new approaches to history and political developments...

Friday and Saturday were nothing but the conference. Saturday evening I had a nice training session, my shoulder still hurts but getting stronger, I can feel it. I cleaned the whole courtyard again. Timo's girlfriend Julia came. She trains capoeira in Germany, so perhaps we train together at some point.

A bad news: one of the kittens, the orange one is gone missing. It's been more than a week now. I'm afraid he's not coming back.

That said, a very important benefit I got from this weekend is a tripod. Howard lent me the tripod they have over at the PR office. He said I could use it whenever I want. It's going to be very useful, no doubt, while filming myself training. We'll see about that tonight.

Day 35: Sunnnnnnnday

 Spent my entire day (almost) working on the Tel Aviv posts. Seriously. I had some school stuff as well but  that's what I really worked on today. I was still very tired. Going home, eating and sleeping were all I could think of. Then I saw the kitchen. A mess. I'm mad, but I'm hoping it'll all be taken care of by tomorrow. Peace.

Day 34: Still in Tel-Aviv :)

A confession: it wasn't the most comfortable night I ever had. But I was too tired from walking all day, thighs were burning, so sleeping made me feel good. Washing my face with cold water, even better. It looks pretty, sunny, warm. I packed my stuff and started to say good bye to people but Rafi thought I could not leave without tasting the tahini, Israeli nutella and the grape pectin on toasted bread. All right. Two slices of toasted bread with tahini and pectin, some nice morning chat, and I'm off to the old city again. Promised Rafi I'll be back soon. Here's how Tel Aviv looks like from the old Jaffo:

After a day, I feel like I can find my way anywhere in Tel Aviv. Weird. I was walking inside the old city when I saw this store, sitting in it an old woman, making clay owls. I bought some gifts to people and a giant cup for myself. All ceramic works are beautiful but too expensive. It's a compilation of local women artists. It took me a while to get out of there not only because the woman was taking her time, enjoying every moment of wrapping the gifts, but I also wanted see pretty much everything. I was going to take some pictures but didn't bother asking her. Wandering inside city, I took some pictures, such as some insignificantly curious doors:

Then of course I went to the light house as I planned:

One of the other two pictures above is the famous Jaffa Mosque by the sea. It looks very pretty, very close to the light house. Well, it actually looks like one. The second one is the Mediterranean Sea from the old city. Doesn't do any justice to the real beauty I know but that's the best I could do for now. I also visited the light house model maker's workshop but it was closed. Today is Saturday so not everybody is working. I hung around the port a little bit more, enjoyed my tea by the water. It's such a cozy day, and the old Jaffa is hosting a lot more people than yesterday. I just didn't want to leave but it was almost noon and I was getting hungry. I started walking back to the clock tower and took some pictures on the way. Even got a shot of a newly wed couple posing for their wedding photographer by the mosque:

After the old city, today's tour includes Suzanne Dellal Center and getting details on the gaga classes! Followed by strolling around the Rothchild Road. It's a famous road in Tel Aviv. But first I need to fill my belly. There was a cafe I saw yesterday by the clock tower that I wanted to try out. So I went in, ordered some nice lebane sandwich and coffee. I've been having problems with ordering coffee here. Whenever I say coffee, they either think I want instant coffee, aka nescafe, or cappuccino. You have to be specific that you want brewed coffee, coming from a coffee machine. So then they offer espresso or filter coffee. Or Americano, which is basically espresso shots with hot water. Viva Gelateria.  Anyway. The waitress gave me a very good description on how to get to Dellal Center. (By the way, it started raining again, then it stopped, again.) She also recommended the coast road, said it is very nice. Indeed it was! It started drizzling on my way to the sea but still...

Across from the parking lot, by the sea, there's this grassy area. I saw a pair of white pants, going upside down, as in going into hand stands. I needed to make sure so I got closer and looked carefully. I saw two berimbaus! Four capoeiristas playing capoeira by the sea. How better can my day get than this? Carefully but shamelessly I run to them and from outside of roda, I started clapping and singing along. The berimbau player gives me a sign to come closer and join in. I filmed a game but then it started raining quite heavily so we had to run to find shelter. Later on we met, they're from Grupo Muzenza and Cordao de Ouro. Got all the info needed for classes in Jerusalem and Bet Sheva. I'm going to have to find rides for both. No more hitchhiking unless it's the only way. You'll know why soon. With bliss and a silly smile on my face I went to Dellal Center. This time I have a very detailed Tel Aviv map in my hand. I am the perfect tourist, drew routes on the map, following the lines with my finger tip, aware of my north, south, east and west. The Center is on Shabazi Street. Haven't seen Rothchild yet but I bet this will be my favorite. It's very subtle and elegant. It's not pretentious at all, some may not even like it. But not me, I love it. Very green with small cute cafes, small houses... The two pictures below is from Shabazi and dedicated to kadima-lovers:

I wanted to have something in one of the cafes but probably because it was Saturday, they were all filled with people. They could be actually be people who are here to see the show at the Dellal Center. The Center, by the way, is bigger than I imagined it to be. It's apparently the Chinese new year, spring time celebrations are on. And there's a show about it. I would have loved to see it but aside from it being very expensive, it's full house. Well, I'm only here for the gaga courses (speaking of which, check it out here:

http://www.batsheva.co.il/en/Gaga.aspx) This Batsheva Dance Company is organizing the classes.There was no one to talk to, then I walked in to the cafe area, found out that one of the waitresses is actually taking gaga classes. She gave me the class schedule. I'll be there at the end of this month. Yes. 

I enjoyed Shabazi a little more and headed to the Rothchild. Or I thought I did. I saw a very cute cafe called Cafe 12 and decided that I just want a cup of coffee, read my book and doodle on my journal. The cafe has a winter garden overlooking the street. My lovely waitress with red ribbons behind her knees served me filter coffee and water. I was really tired. But had to leave after about an hour to walk around more and then catch the 5PM bus from Ramla to Neve Shalom. Walking around with my map, I must have looked confused at some point that an Israeli girl and a guy asked me if I needed help. I told them I'm trying to figure out the best way to get to Hashalom Train Station in about half an hour. They said they're driving that way and could give me ride now. I thought, what the heck Rothchild, I'll see you next time, I got a ride now. That's how I met Galit and Aviram. :) Galit is studying jazz music (she's a vocalist) and Aviram graduated from piano. According to what Galit told me, he's a great musiciain. We talked a lot, and it was quite fun. I'm glad I met them. We'll be hanging out soon I hope. They dropped me off at Hashalom.

And Hashalom is closed. As in, trains are not working. I love shabat. It's the perfect blue sky, skyscrapers, and me. And the high way. No one to ask how on earth I could go to the central bus station that was way south of where I was at that very moment. Had to walk around at least 30 mins to find a fellow human being who led me to the shared cab stop. I took one, it was again the Africans and Asians, and myself. There's a very sharp contrast between the financial district that I was at and this refugee neighborhood we passed right after. I tried filming the way from the cab but it's a very poor footage. The Central Bus Station is depressing and looked very neglected. Felt uncomfortable waiting an hour for my bus, which apparently would only take me to Ariel. I have to take another bus from there to Latrun junction where I thought Timo and a friend of his from the village were going to pick me up. Anyway, I met this really nice Korean guy, a photography student who was traveling in Turkey, and then in Jordan, followed by Israel. His next stop after here is Egypt. What a route! Taejoong and I had a very nice chat about Korean history, cinema, Turkish politics and photography. He is super nice, and I'm not saying that just because he said I look like how they depict Cleopatra in Korea, and that he hasn't "seen a girl in Turkey as beautiful as" I was, or that he hoped he would "meet a Korean girl as beautiful, as smart and as balanced as I am. :) We were sitting right behind the bus driver, a man in his late 50s. I told him to drop me off at Ariel and he told me to ask him again in 20 minutes. So I did. By the way, he's listening to Charles Aznavur, and singing along with him. He's got good voice! But when I reminded him of Ariel, he scolded me and said I was 5 mins early! What the heck is wrong with these bus drivers? AND he dropped me off at the wrong stop. In the middle of no where! I found 3 Nepalese women who showed me the way to another bus stop where I waited for at least an hour for a bus to take me to Latrun junction. During that time I met a very nice Israeli lady and we talked about pets! Yeah, I was freezing and what do you talk  about when you're freezing? Of course, pets. After she left I had a nice chat with an IDF soldier who just finished his duty with a Taglit birth right tour from Chicago. He said it was the best time he had since he joined the army. We were getting into details when my bus arrived. In 15 mins I was at the Latrun junction, walking towards the Neve Shalom sign. Timo said he couldn't find anyone to come and pick me up from there so I had to either walk (impossible) or wait for someone from the village to take that turn and give me ride. So I waited. Ibrahim with his son drove by and gave me a ride to the volunteer house. Other than this whole trip back to the village, it was a wonderful experience. No more hitchhiking "to" the village though. I need a better strategy.

Day 33: I'm in Tel-Aviv!

I left my laptop in the village so I'm not going to pretend that I didn't and had it with me in Tel Aviv. I have lots of pictures and footage so I'll share some of them here. Here we go.

Friday, Jan.14th

Woke up relaxed and lazy. I was supposed to leave earlier than 10 but still I did a pretty good prep work for my trip. With a pack of veggie noodles, two shirts, money and my cameras, I was at the village square waiting for a car to take me to Ramla train station or even better to Tel Aviv. It's a warm and pretty day. I'm determined to do this today. I won't be back here until late Saturday. Alas, I waited at least for an hour for a car and finally got a ride for Ramla station. The train was comfy and I was confident that I wouldn't be missing my stop, since the ticket seller told me Tel Aviv is the last stop. We passed 3 stops that include Tel Aviv in their names. Then there was no Tel Aviv. I missed it! It was just two stops but still, I had to take another train from Herziyya back to Tel Aviv. Took a bus that would take me to Old Jaffa. The goal is to to find the two hostels and book a room in one of them. For that I needed to know where to get off at. This gentleman said he'd tell me, so I was standing in front of the door in the middle, watching the road. Suddenly the bus driver SCREAMED at the microphone! I think it was about me because everyone in the bus looked at me. Pretty embarrassing and yet funny situation. Apparently I wasn't supposed to stand that close to the door. Anyway, after passing by a neighborhood where I saw mostly African blacks and Asians, I got off at Florentine Street. Looks like an artsy fartsy place, lots of young people that look like students to me, wandering around, enjoying the sun, riding their low-seat bikes. Makes sense, it's shabat. I saw this cute little open air cafe called the Kabina at the beginning of Florentine:

I asked the two girls working there the way to Florentine Hostel. A guy sitting at the bar said he knew where it was and he could take me there after finishing his coffee. So I ordered some coffee for myself, started chatting with Guy [(that's the name of the guy, get it? :) ] and Yael, one of the coffee girls. Introducing myself is something I've been doing by heart. Yael was excited to find out I'm from Turkey. Her parents are apparently from Turkey too, Sephardic Jews. She even speaks a little bit of Turkish! Gave me her number, I might actually crush on her couch next time. After a while me and Guy left for Florentine Hostel. On the way we talked a little bit. Nice guy. (Huh! This is going to be funny.) He's studying sound engineering, working at a restaurant on the weekends. His family is Jewish but when I asked him what he was, he said he didn't know what he was. Doesn't like talking about politics. Came from a small town, a moshav to be more specific. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshav) I don't know him, and this is merely based on my first impression of him but he stroke me as someone who is keen on communicating people almost to the point of pushing yourself into it, and yet he may not be actually enjoying it? Maybe that's because I felt some kind of a tension in his behavior when he said he doesn't like talking about politics that they're too complex to talk about while walking around. Anyway, I'm probably wrong. What do I know about people?

Finally Florentine Hostel. (http://florentinehostel.com/) Much cheaper than the Old Jaffa Hotel I've been wanting to stay in. And when I saw the street and he building of this one, I had a strong urge to pay more but stay at a nicer place. Then again, I just needed a place to sleep, unnecessary to pay twice as much. Two stories up, there's the reception area with the kitchen, the cute terrace, bathrooms and dorms. Girls dorm has two bunk beds and a single bed. I got one of the top beds (being tiny has some advantages in this world of hostels). Paid 66 Shekels, was told by Rafi the owner to come back around 7 to check in. He didn't want to do it at that moment. He's in his late 30s, looked way too sleepy and hangover to function, I can tell from the green arm band he's wearing that he was at a club last night.  Guy said he didn't have to go to work until 5, so he can accompany me to Jaffa and have lunch with me. It's only a 10-minute walk from the hostel, and I carefully memorized the way since I had to come back by myself after dark. Seeing the old clock tower I realized we arrived at the old city. It's famous. I wanted to have lunch first and thought a local would know a good place to go. We had lunch at this place called "Dr. Shakshuka." Very delicious, very. Check out the website for pictures, I really like the place: http://drshaksuka.rest-e.co.il/  After lunch Guy left for work and I started my Old Jaffa tour!

Leisurely I walked up the David Raziel Road, checking out some side streets and houses. Some, like this one above, have entrance doors with no walls around it. I found this interesting. I don't know if this door was actually what's left from the previous building there:

It's getting dark and I really want to see the sea, the Mediterranean. Entering the old port / old city from Mazal Shor Street. I now have an Old Jaffa map but it stayed in my backpack for a while; I like getting lost, making instinctual choices, trying to get a sense of this old labyrinth. Several narrow pathways, with pinkish cobble stones and stone buildings. 

Soon you realize that most of these houses are actually art galleries, handicraft shops and art collectors.   Most shops are closed, it's shabat shalom. It's as if I'm the only person here. I like the feeling. I'm in Alaaddin's story. Heh! Well, this whole art gallery thing may become irritating after a while. Too refine, too pretentious, too invasive. I would have liked it more if they were given to local craftspeople, by local I mean both Jews and Arabs. The old folk. Not the "100 Shekels for a ceramic hamsa just because I made it" fiddle faddle. Anyway, the blue, ceramic street signs inside the old city (more so the gallery area) were named after zodiac signs. Here are some examples for you:

I finally made it to the port right before it got dark. The old historical Jaffa Port. Here's a google image search for you, just so know what I'm talking about: http://www.google.com.tr/images?q=Jaffa+port&hl=tr&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=8hIzTbDEOoaZOun6xLUC&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBAQ_AUoAQ&biw=807&bih=607

The sea makes me feel cozy. I stood there for quite a while, looking straight into the sea, all romantic. Tried to think about things, but I couldn't do anything other than staring at the sea and thinking about the sea. And it relaxed me. Duh! Some old guys were fishing, they had flashlights on their foreheads. Old Jaffa is magnificent under the moon and the street lights. Walking along the port, I came to an area that looks like a shipyard. That's when I heard some classical music coming from a dimly lit workshop. First I saw the model light houses in the display window. Then I saw a man, sanding a white light house  made out of chalk-like material. I asked him if I could come in and look around. He smiled and kindly said yes. There were antic lamps and light houses in this super cool, and personal workshop. I really wanted to take pictures but couldn't even dare to ask and disturb him. Thought I could come the next day and take some pictures then. But as soon as I got out, I just couldn't resist any longer and took this. Walked back to the port, gazed at the people biking. I WANT A BIKE! *deep sighs* I caught sight of a small sign that says "To the Old Jaffa." It's a different entrance/exit, so I took it. An interesting jewelry store it leads to. Huh! They're using silver, gold and clay. I like the hamsas, too expensive though.While I was looking at the colorful hamsas, a Russian couple walked in. They had a debate with the girls in the shop about calling the necklaces goldfilled or goldfil. Very fun to watch. We got out together and talked about. They're Russian American, living in Jersey, have a boy studying at Boston University. The guy is proud of being a Jew. Arie and Irene.

It's almost 7PM. I thought it's best to go back to the hostel, get some good sleep and start Saturday early. I started walking back to the Clock Tower. Have I told you about the Napoleon statues all around the old city, pointing at some important landmarks related to his siege back in 1799? The statues are shorter than me, but then again, maybe so would the real Napoleon. On the way, I stopped by a pastry shop where a Palestinian man sells knafa. This is, as far as I know, Ottoman. And it's one of my favorites, despite the fact that it's too sweet for my taste. But I wanted to try a half of what they normally serve. They also have Turkish delight and baklava. Not as interesting as knafa, or rather kunefe. When they found out I was Turkish, I got the knafa for free. Sweet! The guy's younger assistant asked me if I like Polat Alemdar. This is the idiot character in the "Valley of Wolves", that Turkish film (and TV show) that had irritating scenes about Israel. I kindly said I hate him, and then tried to explain why I hate him. Then the store owner said something about how the Jews should also leave the Old Jaffa to the Arabs for during the war people had to leave but never given the permit to come back. But I was way to tired to discuss Erdogan government and the stuff about Old Jaffa now, so I left as soon as I finished my kunefe. I thanked them for their kindness and started walking back to the hostel. I saw, but didn't hear, the thunder. It started raining like crazy 5 minutes after I started reading my book at the terrace. We had a tent canvas above us so it was all right. I could only read couple of pages; the hostel is full, lots of fun people to talk to. And I do talk a lot. First it was me and this guy called Ben. He's from Boston, didn't study anything, traveling a lot, got family here, came to Haifa for a wedding. Nope, he doesn't know Ido, nor ever trained capoeira. Then a hematologist girl from Russia joined us. She's from St. Petersburg, came here for 2 weeks. Can't remember her name though. Then Matt came, a Canadian history student studying in Leeds, UK. On vacation after his finals. Greg is a Scottish traveler, didn't get much of his story. I finished the night talking to Anne, a French massage therapist who wants to move to Israel. She's not Jewish, but her "guts" told her this is where she should be. It's been 15 years she hasn't lived in France. Practicing m. therapy with trauma patients and victims of violence. Lived in Argentina and Malta, and just came to Israel last week. She talks very passionately about massage therapy and her "target group" but she hasn't found enough sponsorship yet. I told her that getting in touch with the relevant departments at the universities might help but I'm really not sure if it does.  It's interesting though. I climbed up to my bed around 1AM, already thinking about tomorrow. I checked the weather online, it's not rainy tomorrow.

Day 32: Small notes

It's the 32. day of this blog, but it's actually the 30th day of me in Israel. So 30 days ago last month, yeah.

Here's how my day was today, in real small notes:

Breakfast, yummm

Kittens, mad and irreversibly spoiled

Coffee, what I needed

School, bee house

Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam & Turkey relations, getting all interesting 

Tayyip, inconsiderate, idiotic and insane

Some other interesting google reader readings, some books

Turkey's Israel Ambassador, not here since June 

But Turkey's Israel "chargé d'affairs", sweet and interested

Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam kumpanya en route!

Capoeira training, with Adan

Grocery shopping, fun chat and shopping with Timo, 

Flight-phobia

Delicious oh, oh spaghetti-oh, tummy ache, and sleep. This is Israel today. Huh!

Day 31:

Today I woke up around 7, after a good night sleep. Then stretched a little, and conducted my usual routine of feeding the kittens, packing my breakfast and lunch. It seemed to be a regular day in NSWAS, while I was reading my lovely book at the courtyard, enjoying the sun shine, but nope, Halim came with a woman from the Comm department. He was holding a tray of Arabic coffee. Nice nice. He said we could start talking about promoting NSWAS in Turkey, Istanbul. Wonderful news! I can't wait to start working on it.

We had a meeting and talked about what could be done. Obviously universities and their related departments, Jewish community, Ministry of Foreign Affair, Turkish Embassy in Israel are good places to start with. It is more important, at this point, to introduce the village first. So I will try to arrange meetings, talks, even lectures at schools, foundations and perhaps mosques and synagogues. I need to talk to several people while working on my first e-mail, have to come up with an operation plan. Joseph is certainly one of them. We thought seeing Howard is also important and I was going to when we walked into my office! we had a very nice talk and a productive meeting. He thinks it'll be good if I join one of the tours that Rita organizes. It's a village tour. I've been here since exactly a month now, but I'm sure there are lots of things I don't know about here. There's group from the States coming on the 24th. I'll be joining them. She also said she could arrange a VIP tour for any officials we might be able to invite. Of course this means we need the media. Duh!

While talking to Rita, I met another person with whom I was very curious about: Anne Lemeignen. Father Bruno Hussar's wife. He's the founder of the village, remember? A petite (shorter than me) woman with white short hair, big blue eyes. I was leaning over a piece of paper, trying to read something when Anne almost pushed her nose/face between my face and the paper, trying to get my attention, or simply making fun of me. I like it. I might have disappointed her for not knowing French but she liked the way I told her the directions in French, so she thinks I'm talented and can easily learn French. (Yeah, she's French.) We'll see about that. She gave me her mobile, I'll call her soon and make up an appointment to talk about, well, anything she can tell me about the village, and her life. I'm excited.

Day 29-30: Nothing - J'salem, first round

I didn't post anything yesterday because nothing really happened yesterday. It was cold, but sunny, I get home from work and trained well, and had a good night sleep for today.

Today I went to Jerusalem, to visit Jerusalem. Also to visit Joseph Emmanuel. He was a very close friend of (Father) Bruno Hussar, the founder of the village. Well, actually Joseph is one of the founders too. I 'googled' his name but all I could find out was that he was the director of the Israel Interfaith Committee in the 80s and received several peace prizes. Now he is at this state hospital in Jerusalem, he lives there, goes into dialysis. I think he's still married and his wife visits him frequently. Timo has been in Neve Shalom for almost 6 months and ever since  he's been visiting Joseph once a week. Those who know me also knows how much I hate being in a hospital. And this one does not necessarily fancied my taste. I think I'm going to be a very grumpy old woman when it comes to cleanliness one day. Or just the opposite. What do I know?

So we went to the common room of the pension (hospital) he resides in. Most elder patients were on wheel chair, looking real weak, and some of them seemed to be in their own respective world, or just pretending to be there, I can't be sure. And I don't want to feel inconsiderate to even comment on their state of being old, ill and seemingly lonely. And maybe I should be ashamed to admit that I just wanted to get out of there and run as fast as I could. Maybe it's because it was a hospital, and didn't look as clean as a hospital should. Yeah, probably why, because I never felt this way when I'm around elder people.

Anyway, we picked a table closer to the corridor that Joseph was supposed to come out of. Timo said he had a walker. I saw an old man with thick glasses on very slowly walking our way. He looked sweet and taking his time. I felt like the time has slowed down as well, as in everything around me was in slow motion, life was awkwardly not in a hurry. Fully digesting every moment that passed. Too poetic and cheesy perhaps. Joseph wanted to sit somewhere closer to the garden, made me happy so we switched tables. He has a lovely smile, and he does smile a lot. A very curious man, he likes hearing our stories, remembering them the following week and getting updates. Timo says this is like a mind gymnastic for him, recalling all information about us, asking for more... I can see Timo and Joseph really like each other's company. Timo's boss, the gardener, is also a good friend of Joseph and it is him who arranges these visits to Joseph. So this first meeting was pretty much an observation for me, of Timo and Joseph, joking about things and laughing and getting along pretty well. They're both sad that Timo's leaving in 3 weeks. Joseph thinks he didn't stay long enough in Israel and he should stay more, make his grad school applications from here. No need to go back to Germany this early.

He looked at me, Joseph, and asked what my story was. "Coming from Turkey" is always a good conversation starter here. Like when this guy and gal gave us a ride to the Latrun junction on our way to J'salem. Apparently he wrote a book on Armenian genocide, an information he delightfully shared with me once he found out where I was from. We didn't have time to go into details but apparently the book is in English. We'll see if I see them again and have him talk more about this. Back to Mr. Emmanuel. Joseph didn't give me any vibes of sarcasm when he smiled at me for being Turkish. He expressed his sadness that Turkey and Israel had very good relations until recently. Well I always like to separate the governments and the people they allegedly represent, something I'm academically and personally looking into. This whole experience, if I act smart and productive enough will be very helpful and enlightening? Again, we'll see. The rest of the conversation was mostly Joseph asking Timo about the village, how the work goes, his studies... We stayed there for an hour and then went to the old city. On the way to the central bus station, we passed a very ultra orthodox neighborhood. Everybody was in black or dark browns and grays (with white shirts inside), peyoth ringlets, wide brimmed hats and beards, tightly wrapped heads, long dark skirts and dark boots, plus a cloudy day with no sun shine, made me feel not just self-conscious but also in a fantasy story, like in a different realm. I don't know how best to describe my sense of existence at that moment.

When we get to the old city it was already dark. On the way there, the Jaffa Street was actually quiet good-looking. And it looks like Istanbul, how's that?! Although I must say most of the old buildings look  like they could use some restoration, or simply some paint job. Also I wasn't expecting the streets to be this dirty, as in unused garbage bins in the city. Overall though, I like that street with antique stores, bars, restaurants... We wanted to grab a bite before actually going in to the old city. So we went to East Jerusalem section where they sell falafels. Timo took us to his favorite falafel buffet. It was, yes, delicious, but I really don't think I'll be able to do that again. Unless, the nice fella making the falafel sandwich decides to put on gloves while he's grasping the falafel and the pita bread. :O I was  actually going to suggest him to do so but I just couldn't probably because that "self-consciousness" kicked in real hard. Anyhow, the guy won't be getting away with it next time, IF I decide to eat falafel from that buffet ever again.

So we finished our sandwiches, and passed through the double security check to the Western Wall. It's a very small area, I always pictured it as a bigger wall, or wider. The wall is separated in two areas, for girls and boys, and for the sake of being consistent with how they interpret the religion or perhaps how the religion really is, the area that was reserved for women is smaller than men. Sorry. I can't help it. The bazaar side reminded me of the old city in Sa'naa, Yemen. AND a little bit of the grand baazar in Istanbul. We left the Western Wall pretty fast and wanted to walk around the outer wall. We climbed up the hill to see the Arab sector and the West Bank. It's quite impressive actually. You see this wall, behind it can be the capital of another country that you recently were in war with. It's an impressive scenery when it's dark and all the lights are on, including the green minaret lights. I'd like to see this day time, and will come back here surely, with my camera this time. Maybe next week BEFORE visiting Joseph.
The gate that was fired on from the inside by the Israelis and from outside by the Jordanians (if I'm not mistaken) was still full of bullet holes. Towards the end of the wall you can see some Jewish grave stones in between the stone bricks that constitute the wall. I'm not sure who put them there, but I know that they're most likely the grave stones that were stolen by the Jordanians to be used as cobblestones.

There was a green area, nice looking, at the Armenian section of the old city. I'd like to hang out there. Next time. Then what happened? Then we walked back to the central bus station to take the bus back to Latrun junction. Our friend from Neve Shalom was waiting for us to drive us back to the village. Very tired, very exhausted, I worked a little, finished my pretzels with lebane and hummus, then read some of the testimonies from the Breaking the Silence booklet. After that, a quite nice tunnel filled with memories and wishes.

Day 28: Shall we fast-forward a little bit?

Today two good things happened, other than my school-routine:

1: It got warmer and I had a very pleasant sun bath at the courtyard while reading my book with Nammur.

2: Tonight I went to a Menino Bom, Cordao de Ouro kids class. Instrutor Voador, aka Amos, is very good with kids and he seems like a talented capoeirista. I really like the cocorinha-meia-lua-de-frente play tag approach. Apparently he teaches adult classes in Modi'in every Tuesday but only for an hour and a half! There must be a mistake, I must have misunderstood. To find out whether it is the case, I'll surely visit his classes. However, my first two targets are the Cordao de Ouro group in Jerusalem (I hope they have mixed gender classes :S), and Ginga Escola. Here the classes are taught by a person called Instrutor Soneka in Tel Aviv. I'd like to try both and then figure out a schedule and rides.

Other than that, I have a nasty shoulder pain from yesterday's hand stand training. Waiting for my fridge to "generate" some ice cubes for me. Also today I felt, somewhat, sick. Planning to sleep early tonight, and rest.

Day 27: Kismet

 This is where I sometimes go and read:

Do you see the tiny bench on the bottom left corner of the picture? That's where I sit. And from there, here is what the view is like, to my left:

And to my right:

                             

"Never in my whole life have I felt as far from human perfection as now, and never has there been in me as strong and deep a desire to begin deliberate work to perfect myself towards the great ideal of moral improvement." 

Zvi Schatz, 1913. 

This is what he wrote in his diary. He was a "chalutzim" [which means the olim who went into agricultural work in the 1900s, in what was then the land of Palestine. "In modern Hebrew, chalutz connotes above all service to an abstract idea, to a political movement, and to the community." (Elon, p.112)] Probably not in this intensity, but this is how I feel about myself and my life, lately, or maybe for quite a while. I remember myself, thinking about my life couple of years before moving to the States. But it was certainly after my news documentary reporter experience. I knew I had to leave. So I did. And by the end of my first year at UM, I was almost sure what I really want to dedicate my academic work to. And it's not just antimilitarism, anti-nationalism, anti-war, documentary cinema, cinema, sociology, history and finally the whole world; it was not just one of them but a several different junctions where two or more converge. But it wasn't just academic doodling I wanted to do; and  still I want to know, I want to see, explore, meet people, learn, and during or after every exploration, contribute something to the immensity of works (written down or physically achieved), hopefully nothing so cumbersome. 

Reconsidering all that and more about productivity, made me go back to a chapter I have read in Amos Elon's "The Israelis, founders and sons" book. It's the same chapter that the above quote from Schatz comes from. Almost half way into the book, Elon talks about the second aliyah wave and what labor meant to them. I'd like to share some parts here:

"In some of the pioneers of the second wave, physical labor assumed an almost transcendental meaning; it afforded most of the psychological satisfactions commonly supplied by religion. The word avoda in Hebrew means both labor and worship. Labor was worshiped. The harder it was, in terms of pure exertion -and at times it led to total exhaustion- the more it was held up as a means to realize one's true self." Delirium, feeling satisfied and so happy after cleaning up, after running, after capoeira, after swimming, after squishing your food, planting seeds, working the soil. Feeling productive, being part of that productivity and the product. 

Elon also introduced me to Aaron David Gordon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._D._Gordon). An interesting and inspiring person who was referred to as the prophet of the religion of labor despite the fact that he refused any kind of an association of that sort. The wikipedia page on him, although not so elaborate, seems like a good way to get encouraged to read more about Gordon. In Elon's book we find out that "at the age of forty-seven, a weak and ailing man with a flowing white beard, he became a manual laborer in the fields of Palestine... His teaching was a curious amalgam of cabalistic mysticism, populist agarianism, Zionism, and socialism, in that order of importance. He preached that only through physical labor could a man be redeemed. He called upon his fellow pioneers to become 'zealots of labor.' This was their only cure as men; as Jews they must not live by their wits but by their sweat. Gordon slaved by day in the fields. At nigh he would join the young workers in dancing the hora." (p115.)

"Gordon was a pacifist. He had a profound horror of all bloodshed, of force, and of all government. There were no racial or militaristic features whatsoever in his teachings. In the tradition of of Tolstoy and of the Hebrew prophets he did not believe in state power or politics, but in ethical action by the individual."

"Israel Giladi refused to wear shoes and walked barefoot as a matter of principle. His feet were covered with scratches and nasty wounds but he insisted stubbornly and said "Our feet must get used to the soil of the Land."

Why kismet? Oh, because I couldn't go to Tel Aviv today, as was planned. Why? Kismet. Well actually no, it's because of the scarcity of public transportation during Shabat. It's cool and all but I wish they had non-Jew drivers, for instance, for people who really don't mind taking advantage of the buses on a weekend! Anyway, it also started raining and I decided to ask Halim for a day off, on Thursday perhaps.

But this week will be nicely busy. Here's how:

Tomorrow: Capoeira with Adan and Halim,

Tuesday: Jerusalem with Timo

Thursday or Friday: Tel Aviv

Sounds good.

Day 26: I don't like the cold

...weather-wise. The whole week was nice and warm, so I though it'd be nice and warm on Saturday as well. But now it's quite chilly outside. I'm worried about the cats who became unbelievably shameless, impudent that they scratch me and try to climb up my pants whenever I get out. Although I find it cute, I now see that I made them this way. It is my fault, yes. I most certainly spoiled them.

So IF it doesn't rain tomorrow, I want to go to Tel Aviv. Jerusalem has to wait until it gets a little bit warmer, because that city is way too windy for me to go there when we're expecting rain already. A car would have made things so easier for me but I'm excited about staying at a hostel in the old city of Yafo or Jaffa.

It was very busy today at the school. The same group of facilitators came for a 3-day workshop. That means I'm going to have to get the presentation ready tomorrow morning, but after 9:30AM, I'm determined to, at least, try going to Tel Aviv. One of the future-facilitators told me they're going to meet every Thursday from now on. So I hope I get to talk to this guy who was in the flotilla sent after the Mavi Marmara incident. Just curious. Didn't get a chance to talk to Halim about our short discussion yesterday either. He was very busy with his lecture. But when we do, I think it'll also expand our other discussion about taking sides and being biased.

Day 23-24-25: My research is taking shape, I suppose?

I know I said I meant to write every day but when there is no significant progress or anything important to tell you other than my usual routine, it makes me feel like this whole blog/journal thing is becoming too mundane, as if I'm just writing for the sake of writing. And that's not the case. Anyway, from my 23rd day until today, I spent most of my time at school, working on bunch of things, including reports, the FGHA's website, looking for some job openings in the States, reading my book about the U.S. Middle East Policy...
Yesterday though, I had a wonderful training session. My core is still so sore, including my butts. I like it when the butts feel sore. It was after everybody left, the outside was dark and kind of chilly, I finally found a nice pair of speakers. Then I started training.

How nice! Mestre Barrao's singing Preto Velho. How much I missed hearing the berimbau on the speakers, laud and clear. I put the volume to the highest, worked on my kicks, and especially the RDA, Mestre Chuvisco's voice in my ear continuously saying "Higher kick, Cigarra!" I miss my group. And it felt so wonderful, my walk back home under the stars in this beautiful peninsula.

Too poetic? WELL, I FELT POETIC THAT NIGHT, ALL RIGHT?!

Moving on to today. We had very cool guests from a Dutch NGO that operates in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They're also doing encounter workshops with Israeli and Palestinian youth. This is not so different than our programs here. But apparently their workshops are at least for 10 days where the youth  get to enjoy sports (mostly team sports) activities together during free time. Like sailing... (How about some capoeira for the minds and the souls, right? Yeah, I'll talk to them.)

I'm becoming more and more curious about the quantity and the quality of these encounter workshops, ngos on almost every street corner in Israel and Palestinian cities (I don't know about Gaza.) Is there any progress? What do they do? How do they do it? If there isn't any significant progress, why is that? Roughly.

We talked about several different issues, on being a foreigner and being involved in these youth encounters? What is the initial reaction or during the workshops, of the people to the fact that they are foreigners, with no considerable link to the land, nor any of the people? Apparently they haven't had any serious issues pertaining to their identity. Some groups may actually find it relieving. I think one of the biggest challenges that they might be facing is the language barrier. All participants are supposed to express themselves in English. So recruitment is another issue, related to that. Halim said, being able to speak English is not the indicator of having something valuable to add or having the will to contribute to a social change. Sofi, one of the Dutch people, said that in the past they had participants from Holland, Belgium as well, among their Israeli-Palestinian bunch. Also an Ethiopian Jew, and a Dutch Eritrean. I would like to talk to them about these interesting additions and how they affect the whole concept and the outcomes of the workshops.

We also talked about concepts like oppressor, oppressed (passive) as opposed to obedient (active) who can become disobedient. And the responsibility of the oppressed to free the oppressor as well. I need to read more on this one.

Also talked about the Jewish identity an the Palestinian identity and how these may clash in almost all the workshops. The stages of an encounter study. Again roughly it seems to follow a route where first both sides "attack" each other with several accusations. Both groups feel like their identity is falling apart. Then comes the demoralization, thinking how impossible it is to understand each other and solve this problem. Than in most cases, out of hopelessness comes hope, dialogue, cooperation, empathy, will to do something together to change the current situation. Israeli group deals with the fact of being oppressors and how they take responsibility for that while Palestinians challenge themselves with the brutal facts about the suicide attacks, violence and how they should take responsibility for that as well. Tough.

I have so many examples I can share here and I have a feeling that what I have said above is not representative enough of the issues we touched upon. But one of the things that actually me and Halim had discussed at the meeting will be a serious topic for me. Although I won't be talking about it here now. Not now. Because I need to talk to him about it first. I need to make sure I understood him correctly and if so or if not I'm going to need him to explain it to me again. So that we can continue the discussion and I can share it with you here. Otherwise, I wouldn't want to say anything that he actually didn't mean. I think it's a delicate subject. Curious? HAH!

We had a fun grocery shopping tonight. ILOVEDRIVINGINISRAEL! That looks like a fine sticker to me. It's me and Timo and his friend from Germany, Svivo, I think? I'm very very bad with names. He's a nice guy though, working with children with mental disability in Cologne. He makes good food (vegetarian) and he cleans the kitchen thoroughly each time he cooks. He even takes care of the leftovers, puts them back in the fridge, all finely covered and whatnot! Very rare in my experience. Anyway, I made some pasta for all of us, now I'm in my room, getting ready to sleep.

Another good news is that I set up an appointment with Gidon Bromberg of the Friends of the Earth Middle East, thanks to my professor back in Miami. I have to be fully ready for this interview. Also I will be visiting this Dutch group in their offices and it'd be great if I can film the interview. Oh yes.

Day 22: Being productive is sometimes exhausting, gah!

Or it might be due to the fact that I went to bed late last night, like around 1. Not good. But then I was determined to finish the Hebron posts, which I did. But in the mean time I worked on some stuff for the SFP as well. Some sort of report on the Jewish and Palestinian women journalists workshop. Then I read my book on the American Middle East policy in the 80s in the courtyard. It was sunny and warm today.

Then Yael told me about Dulce Pontes coming to Tel Aviv this month. Alas, tickets are mad expensive. No way I can afford it. We decided to wait for our favorite Mariza, a Portuguese fado singer. I saw her in Carlos Saura's wonderful documentary Fados for the first time, in Miami. She made me cry, well, the whole film made me cry. Borrowed a Mariza album from Yael to mae a copy for myself.

Also, I should check if Yasmin Levy is around. Wouldn't be great to see her live in Israel? Yes, it would. :)

Day 21: It's getting complicated...

Not my days in Israel. They couldn't have been better (that's a lie but I'm certainly enjoying my time here!). I'm talking about my Hebron entry, or rather my Hebron essay. :S There are so many details and the more I look into one, I come up with more. And I absolutely don't want to get stuck in one issue or one region this long. But the more I try my best to carefully avoid writing erroneous things or unthoughtful opinions, avoiding a fierce language, the longer it takes. How do you reach the truth about Hebron by visiting the city just for a day and listening to one source only? It is very important for me to elaborate on the important points and some insights, and to cross check everything as best as I can, research more, talk to other people if and when possible. So I'm glad that I filmed most of the trip. What I did was, I checked the time codes of each footage and ordered them chronologically. This certainly facilitated the frustrating obsession of mine, of trying to remember EVERYTHING. The videos in this order helped me to fill in the gaps between footage and in a different dimension, relive the whole experience, in so far as I am able. So this is why I'm quoting Isaac, our tour guide verbatim. I think this is important. Also I'm looking up online to find mostly newspaper articles or news stories to back up his words or to express my confusions. And yet I'm still not sure if this is enough and if by doing that I'm merely complicating the whole thing?

There are many stories, small stories like the one in Hebron. But dynamics are different and small details of each story make huge differences for me. Both sides on this land had suffered so much, before and after the state of Israel. Before and after PLO and Hamas. So many people whose sole purpose is to continue their lives as humanely as possible, wish to be left alone in peace, all these people are being wasted away in the middle of this nonsense wrangle, controversy, rivalry, this your prophet my prophet, my land, oh no I was here first, the history has showed... blah blah blah. While is easy to ask what it is that they cannot share, keeping track of these knots over knots is becoming a harder task for even academics, the knots are reshaping the Middle East and I can't seem to understand the pattern. There is nothing rational but the cries of people in Palestine and Israel who condemn racism and inequality, and who know so well that they can live together.

Why am I here? Why did I come here in the first place? What do I want to see, long to see, expect or curious to see here? To know, to claim? Claim my own responsibility. Is it too crazy to say that I want to be responsible of the world as a whole? I should elaborate on that this week.

So, nothing different than my previous days happened today. So instead of repeating myself, I decided to type some thoughts I have been writing down in my Israel journal. Briefly though, I finalized the report for the Nablus organization. A report on 3 Palestinian kids they provided medical help for. This is the same organization whose website I'm editing. While working on the report today, I needed to double check with Halim about the spellings of some names and  medical terms. He laughed at me and my care for accuracy, for being meticulous, I think. He said, "You're so americanized, you do your work like an American," whatever the heck that means. Not sure if he was appreciating my carefulness or just teasing me. But it's a strange comment, coming from someone who only knew me for less than a month, has no idea about my "before-americanized" period, if there is such thing. I asked him why he said that, based on what. He didn't say, or rather perhaps he couldn't say, the words escaped him. I don't really worry about it at all, nor I am pissed at him. It's just, I found the comment peculiar, interesting. Halim is a good man, sensitive, passionate, and he puts his heart into everything he does for the school, and for peace he obstinately believes in. What is academic caution or attention to me, looks like something American here perhaps? Not sure why. Anyway. It was a beautiful day. Meeting the director of the sports center this week, finally. It seems like I can use the space whenever I want as long as I know where the school teacher is who has the keys to the center in her possession. I'm ready to be her best friend. :p

Day 20: Clean

Clean because 20 is a simple number, not thorny like 17 or 16, or 7. January 1st is my 20th day here in Israel. And the whole day was as simple as a 20. I had to open the school and start the workshop that started last Friday. Today was the last day. I'm glad I said yes to this responsibility for it allowed me to wor on some stuff, lots of writing and reading. Then training. And it was raining. Also I moved into my new room, much nicer than the first one, with a working a/c unit, with a much better bathroom. The cats are fed,  the courtyard is broomed, Hebron entry is yet to be finalized. I missed a lot of people last night and today. But felt happy and thankful for having them. Tomorrow is work day. Wishing myself and everyone a productive, healthy and active year, full of love.