December, 22nd 2010 Wednesday
December 22nd has started all sunny and warm, and pretty. Can't say I slept well, but overall I don't feel too tired. Took a hot shower and then trained on the terrace, with the cats. The kittens are getting used to being around me. I saw their secret spot over on the neighbor's roof top garden. Or rather, they let me saw it. After training, I packed some food for breakfast and lunch and went to school. Generally I worked on the materials for tomorrow's meeting. Had a nice chat with Zekeriya and Halim, sipping on the Arab coffee. The weather is so beautiful that you just don't want to stay inside.
Adan came in the afternoon and he wanted to play capoeira. I was just too busy and by the time I was ready, he was too sleepy! I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow. AND I still haven't started working on the library. That will also have to wait until tomorrow. In the following days, I'd like to give you some details about the UN project, but it's just too early right now. What made today different happened after I got back home to meet Timou to go shopping. Unexpected, random goodness feels much pleasant than a well-planned one. For instance...
I met Timou over at the volunteer house around 5, but there were some issues regarding us taking the village car and the money blah blah blah. We needed to talk to Raida, our coordinator to sort things out. We found out that she was going to be at this party, which happened to be a xmas party, and decided to go there. It was held at the Pluralistic Spiritual Center. Abdulsalam and some kids were getting the courtyard ready for the party. Timou and myself rushed in to help them. There was a very interesting.... thing there and Abdulsalam told me it was the ecological xmas tree. Hah! Looks superb! It's made out of plastic glasses, bottles, papers, cardboard and wire fence, I think? Here's what it looks like. Later on people started to show up, with many many many kids, and puppies and dogs! On the background there were xmas songs, in Arabic! As in, jingle bells in Arabic. That was something! I filmed a lot but not all of them are good, so I'll just share a few of them with you. I played with the kids, and the puppies but the food! Man, the food was priceless! There was a huge turkey, but for vegetarians like me they had the best cinnamon rice, Mediterranean salads, home made babaganush, cookies, cakes... you name it. Towards the end, Raida collected fresh lemon grass from the garden and made tea. Sooooo good. As you might imagine, people were cheerful, all smiling, happy, joking around, ignoring the cold. I've had some fun talks with people. Some christian Arab women were my favorite though. They thought I was 19.
I have to admit, I caught tears in my eyes as I was watching the people and the kids laughing and playing and offering food to each other. Kids playing pillow fight, talking in both languages... Is it really possible that one day they may grow up and hate each other? I wish not. I also don't think that it's fair to say this village is an exception, this peace can only be achieved in a small community, not in the whole country. I acknowledge how hard it can be, but certainly not impossible.
By the way, I made a very cool friend at the party. His name is Ramiz, the owner of the little puppy, Buddy. I believe he's around 10, with glasses, kind of skinny but his eyes are piercing you with smartness, also very cute. He's fluent in English. While I was filming the pup, he came up running and went, "What are you doing? Give me 5 Shekels." Apparently I wasn't supposed to film the dog, nor pet him. I was taken my surprise, but it took me a second to join the game. We started negotiating, and then, because he liked me, he reduced it to 3 Shekels. Our gave continued on until a friend of his came and literally lifted him up and took him away from the scene. We made jokes about this the rest of the night. His dad says Ramiz is going to be a very good businessman, I can't help but agree with him. Apparently we're neighbors, so we'll be seeing each other quite often. There's so much to tell about this night, but it's so hard to describe the joy. I'm going to try to select some footage of that night. Unfortunately they're not that good.
Tomorrow we have the meeting for the UN project at SFP. Speaking of which, I have a short video about the School for Peace.
Nammur gets upset when I call him a fatty, I think. Because he leaves the room immediately after! Go figure.
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