Day 4: socializing more

December 16, Thursday

We're getting closer having an up-to-date English blog. And now it is my first Thursday. Woke up at 8AM, as usual, and it was sunny and warm. Well, as usual. Today I decided to train in the terrace. Though super dirty, me and the ever-hungry cats had fun training. Speaking of cats, I have to share this video with you. They're unbelievably cute while sleeping.

Anyway. After training, I shot a small video of the volunteer house and the courtyard (yes, the one I cleaned) before I head out for the school. Here it is. The video ends in my humble room.

The SFP looks very busy today. Apparently Yael has a meeting with a group of people. I started working on the Turkish brochure. That's when I heard Halim calling my name from the front yard. I love it when people call each other in this manner here. As I guessed, Halim and the girl team were enjoying the sun and drinking Arabic coffee. I would have called it Turkish coffee but this does taste different. It's made from Arabic coffee :) And it does not smell nor taste like my friend Samer's Jordanian coffee. I like it. No ginseng. :p So the conversation sounded fun, but since most of it was in Hebrew and Arabic, I did not particularly understand what the deal was. Though I must say I enjoyed it, and as silly as it may sound, most of the times I find myself carefully staring at people when they talk (Hebrew and Arabic) as if I will begin to understand them, all of a sudden, just like that. And it's fun! I was distracted by the lovely Israeli lady who takes care of the building. She can't speak English, at all. But we have our own means of communication. She tapped on my shoulder and then pulled me inside the adjoining building. The radio was on, playing a tune I know from Turkey. She pointed at the radio and said "Turkish!" It IS indeed an old Turkish folk song, a very joyous one! It's called "zeytinyagli yiyemem", roughly means "can't eat nothing with olive oil". I said roughly. :p It's sung in Hebrew. She was so happy, wanted me to dance and sing with her. So I did. When I went out back to the front yard, they were talking about the Jordan trip today. There's an encounter workshop that they do almost every month there. It's probably too late for me to squeeze in but Halim said that maybe I could join them next month. Thrilled!

Hungry for lunch. I can't wait to spend my shekels at Ahlan. :p Well, not really, but it's so worth it. Arif was making postcards out of colorful carton papers at the far end corner of the garden. Meticulously he was cutting olive tree branches and gluing them on the silhouette of a dove. One of his cats, the one whose tail was eaten by jackals, was lying behind him, safe and lazy. In the background, of course, we hear Bashir's ud and the fountain located in the middle of the garden. To Arif, Bashir is one of the few musicians you can listen to for hours and days, and weeks. I have to agree with him. I am oddly influenced by this man's tranquility. I mean Arif. I caught him by surprise and he kindly invited me to his table. I like this a lot, I am from the village after all, they don't have to treat me like a guest! I must have thought that this was my golden opportunity, so I started talking, asking questions, to get to know him better. He lived in San Francisco for 7 years, studied engineering. I'm not quite sure but probably both for a BA and an MA degree. Soon he realizes that this is not what he wants. He moves to England, First Birmingham, then Covent Garden. For a PhD degree in Peace Studies. After his first year, he can't find a scholarship that would support him at the age of 40 something. So he has to quit and come back to... Israel, I suppose. He says he wasn't so keen on being an academician anyway. Well, then I told him my story. He carefully listened. Later on I said, "OK, I am hungry now." He wanted me to tell him just like that. Whenever you're hungry, you tell me, and we'll fix something for you. We went to the kitchen for my lebane sandwich and Za'atar bread. And of course olives. We talked about how his mother used to make lebane cheese, by putting freshly made yogurt into cotton bags to drain it and make lebane out of what remains inside the bag. That's how my grandmother used to make lebane too. Only we don't call it lebane, but that's beside the point. After our delightful chat, I went back to my office.

Halim is already gone, to Jordan. It's mostly me and Yael. I tried to activate the pre-paid sim-card that Halim gave me. But apparently he has to call the customer service. That means no phone until Sunday. At some point, while nobody was around, I took advantage of the "seclusion" and played some capoeira, by myself. How I missed training capoeira and playing in the roda!!! I wish there was a capoeira school near by. I miss Mandingueiros. Speaking of capoeira, I now have another potential young capoeira student. After Halim's son Adan, now Fatin's daughter Marva said she's interested as well. I'm so excited and a little worried. Worried that I may not be able to be a good teacher for kids. I guess, we'll see.

I went back home around 4. Timou said we are finally scheduled to get the village's car and do the groceries. I'm happy, and stomach will be happy the rest of the week. Around 6:30PM, when it was DARK, we took the car and the credit card we were going to use for food shopping, and left the village. Guess who was driving? I was sort of nervous, but excited. The car was automatic, to my disappointment. However, I took the high way to, I think, Ma'alot. I was driving towards Jerusalem. It was such a fantastic experience, imagine driving amongst the road signs that say Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Mini Israel and so on. Anyway, the market was packed, probably because it's shabat tomorrow. While looking for feta cheese and getting frustrated by the unreadable price tags, a kind Israeli man gave me a cheese tour and helped me pick the best feta+goat cheese of the store. AND it wasn't too expensive. I couldn't find za'atar which made me really sad. I was dreaming of having my own za'atar bread with olive oil. Next week we're going to try another grocery store.

On our way back, Timou and I talked about the big shopping mall that Hamas had built last year, in Gazza. He says they used the free construction material sent from Israel to build the place. It's absurd to say that the economy was bloomed, people had jobs thanks to the mall when those materials could have been used for many other urgent constructions or infrastructure needs of the city. That's not the point. The point is how do we see this act, from an ethical standpoint. It is known that in the past Hamas sold the items that were sent to Gaza as part of humanitarian aid, to the Palestinians in the black market. The fact that they now have a shopping mall in Gaza doesn't mean that there's no economic hardship there, that the poverty is just like anywhere else, no big deal. This would be an unfair yet mediocre comment. It is clear to me that neither Hamas nor Abbas government have the capability and the heart to be the spokesperson of what the Palestinians have been going through.

Tomorrow I'm going to join a lecture that will be held in the School for Peace. It's part of a long session of discussions from 9AM to 3PM. I may not be able to train tomorrow morning. So as I sleep, why don't you enjoy this video of me and Nammur meowing.