Al Deira Gaza City

... and an inspiration for Bonnie and me.<br><br>I don't want to paint an unfair picture of life here. In fact, we've had a wonderful stay, and got to share in the warm, happy life within this family. We had a great time meeting Tzviah and Arie's kids, and their precious 6-month old grandson, Eytan, a Gerber baby if ever there was one. We've been treated so well, and felt at home I've had carte blanche access to the Internet, which you know is an addiction for me. The home ...

Today I leave Gaza. Our schedule has been so jam packed that I haven't had time to digest the past 6 days here. I head to northern Israel, Fureidis, tonight, then cross over to the West Bank on the 2nd or 3rd. I'll talk in more detail about Gaza and the comparison between all three regions then. So when I say our days are jam packed, I'm not exaggerating. We start between 8 and 9 a.m., congregating at Marna House, a hotel/conference hall. The ...

I have a bit of time to write tonight (I've only had time to write at night, after all of our planned activities. We usually get home around 9 or 10 at night, and after dinner and chatting with our host parents, I'm totally exhausted. But we're not meeting tomorrow morning until 9 so I can stay up a little later tonight:)<br><br>One of the women who entered with us, Salena, is a freelance journalist/blogger who is working on a grassroots project with Paul, a ...

To cap off an extremely long day of Gazan culture and discussion, and visits to demolished areas and tent camps (much more on these later. They deserve careful thought and attention, 2 things I'm lacking now), I and some other Americans went to a wedding reception with 2 of our Gazan group leaders. It was held in what appeared to be a fancy, two-floor function hall. We could hear the music pumping as we entered from the street, and despite stares from wedding ...

I don't have a lot of time (again); I will definitely write a much more detailed and coherent blog entry very, very soon. But in the meantime, I wanted to share the great news that I finally made it into Gaza! And it is blowing my mind, in the most positive way. I love everything about ...

shalom! in honor of actually getting my internet connection in my room to work, i will take a few minutes to update you on my travels thus far instead of working on my grand rounds project.... back in LA when kate and i would take trips to santa barbara, the easiest way to go was the 101. some of the scenery along the way was awesome, other parts not so. there's one particular part, i couldn't tell you where exactly other than to say it ...

(I know there have been no news for some time, but I kept writing down what happened and I will post it now. This may take some days, but at least it's news. Unfortunately, there won't be many pictures because the flashcard of the camera was deleted...) So, while some 40 km away there is a war going on, here everything is quiet. The news say that some rockets might reach the city, but no ...

... Israeli air strike, as I was told. So nothing bad happened to me, luckily. In Sderot, we stayed with Ofer, a guy Dina knew from the Kibbutz she grew up. He had some interesting stories to tell: his father worked for the Israeli government in a settlement in the Sinai many years ago. When Israel retreated from there, he had to take his son (2 years old back than) and everything he called home for the last 6 or seven years. He was the ...

... Keren is a professor at BGU and Yo'ad and Ha'dah are exactly Ronan and Mimi's ages.  We had a delicious feast of latkes and lots of other fried treats and the kids enjoyed lighting the Hanukkah candles on the menorah and getting their chocolate "gelt" coins. We also had a fun excursion to the Bedouin market on Christmas -- we went looking for camels and sheep, a la the first Christmas. And while we did see some ...

Wed 31 July 02 Evening. Got acquinted with Marie and Ully in the common room at the Faisel Hostel. In their mid twenties they were from France and Germany. They were looking for someones to share expenses on a taxi trip to Gaza. I was totally interested and we agreed on a clear equal split of expenses. Then we proceeded to get to know each other over a sheesha or hookah. I probably just don't have the talent to describe in words an incident that at the time was ...