Day 5: shabat shalom

December, 17 Friday

Well, my Friday morning would have been the same as yesterday and the day before, had I not been to the School for Peace at 9AM this morning. I was a lazy-face so I couldn't wake up at 7am. At 8, I only had time to get dressed, prepare my breakfast and lunch, and leave. Even though it was shabat, and the schools were closed, SFP was open. Though most people left before noon, Yael and her guests stayed until 3pm.

It was a lecture/discussion session for mental health specialists and I joined them in the first lecture, given by a woman named Hanah. It was all in Hebrew but thanks to Yael's outstanding simultaneous translation, I have a pretty good idea what the lecture was about! I even took some notes. Hanah gave a talk on group therapy in trauma societies, fight or flight, blindly following a leader, the need for a leader, the phenomenon of dependency, common enemies, pairings, societies under distress, cultural narcissism,  egocentric and sociocentric, narcissism and socialism, oedipus and sphinx, past and future, finite and infinite, establishment and mystic, so and so forth. I've learned new things and refreshed my knowledge from a slightly different standpoint. And I took pictures of the participants. I didn't join them for the following sessions because it would have been brutal to expect Yael to keep translating the whole thing, and besides she was going to lead the discussions, I suppose. So it was not practical either. I had stuff to work on anyway, and Nammur to take care of.

I left before 3 to be able to enjoy Ahlan Cafe and do some reading. Dalal was having a cup of tea with her son Kerim. She invited me to their table. I think Arif was reorganizing the store. She said it was a very busy day so she needed some rest. But she brought me a cup of mint tea. Fresh mint! It was so good. She said I could pick fresh mint across from the School for Peace. I don't think she finds it clever of me to pay for mint tea when I could easily make my own. She's right! I so wanted to take a picture of how she organized the tea tray for me. I guess I have the tendency to share every single thing I experience and see here with people I love. But I resisted the urge to do so. It would have looked too silly. Maybe when there's less people around me, I'll do it.

I had a very nice chat with Kerim. He recently graduated from high school. Very clever guy. He wants to go to college but he hasn't decided what he wants to study yet. So he's taking his time. He lives with a friend in Tel Aviv and visits his parents here in Neve Shalom couple of days a week and help them with the store and cafe. He says he's not in a hurry to go to college. Nobody's forcing him and his parents are very supportive of his decisions. He feels very lucky. I agree. He spent 6 months in Germany to improve his German. He read a lot, and in that sense he considers himself studying. Then of course I asked him if he trains. He says he runs, plays soccer, and he tries to work-out every now and then. He used to play judo. That's when I got into the subject I have been planning to. Guess what? Capoeira. :) He knows it, and he would be happy to try it. In fact there was a guy last year who came to the village to promote capoeira. He doesn't know what happened to him or the courses he wanted to offer. Anyway, more people walked in so Kerim had to leave me to help his parents. That allowed me to read a little, and   doodle on my journal. It got a little chilly so I went back home, fed the kittens. It's impossible to satisfy those tiny devils! Plus side, they're not afraid of me anymore. It's good.

It's Saturday tomorrow. I may try to go to Tel Aviv. Since it's shabat until 6, I might have to hitch hike for a ride. Timou told me not to use the universal thumb sign for it means you're offering sex! He told me to stick out my index and middle finger and point at the ground to stop the cars. That means you just need a ride. I googled it. I don't think it's as bad as he says but I guess he's right about pointing the ground.   http://hitchwiki.org/en/index.php?title=Israel