Being Schooled
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2004
1
6
21
Trip End
Jan 17, 2005
Jericho,
Palestinian Territory
Friday, December 24, 2004
to their home, the pile of rubble. We could not refuse and made our way over. Their excitement for us to come visit their home was overwhelming. I am still unsure who exactly lives there, but there is a woman with her 6 children, 5 girls and a baby boy. They were obviously extremely poor, but just the happiest people I'd ever seen. The mother also had her two sisters over along with their children-so it was quite a wild room full of squealing girls
A typical day at the flat-playing dice and sheesha
! We took pictures, read their English books and played beauty salon while one of the girls showed off her gymnastics moves. It was so wonderful to spend time with this family, to see the different ways in which people live. They invited us for dinner, and it was very obvious that they had very little to offer...but they brought out everything they had. Here, regardless of your perception of how poor people may or may not be, you cannot refuse the hospitality that is offered. I tried to offer a tip to a taxi driver in the form of "keep the change" and he chased me down the street to give me my 1 shekel of change (about 25 cents).
Yesterday, we worked a normal day in the fields. This time it was cutting onions from their stalks or whatever they are called. It was much more relaxing than fighting giant squash plants! We ended work around 12 and returned to the flat to fight for a spot in the shower queue. At 3:00 we made our way to one of the two refugee camps here in Jericho. A bit of background: the refugee problem began in 1948 when Israeli troops began to kick the Palestinian people off of their land and destroying many villages
along the way. Roughly 62,000 people fled to Jericho where the camp was established. Again in 1967 another refugee flow was experienced with many fleeing into neighboring Jordan
Arafat graffiti in the refugee camp
. Today, the camp houses 6,000 refugees. It is interesting to walk through the camp, you see very nice homes built next to cardboard and mud shacks. The man explained that many still believe they will someday return to their homes on Israeli land, and thus they do not build nice homes. Those who do build, have accepted their fate to live in the camps. Unfortunately, many of these people do not have a home to return to...for example, Tel Aviv used to be a large Palestinian village and today would not come close to resembling what they once knew. The conditions in the camp as you can imagine are horrible...but again, the children followed us down the alleys with smiles on their faces and yelling out "What's your name" "Hello!" "How old are you!" They are just the cutest things. The other interesting thing was being in these poor conditions and just behind you on the hill are the beautifully lit Jewish settlements with lush gardens and swimming pools. I apologize as I do not have the exact stats with me, but it's something like although the Jewish settlers only make up about 10% of the population in the West Bank, they use upwards of 80% of the available water...much of it to fill their swimming pools and water their gardens. It is easy for some details to be exaggerated here, but this is not one of those-I have seen the settlement homes with their pools and lawns with my own eyes. Actually, in our flat we have experienced the limitations put on Palestinians in regards to water usage, our water is constantly being shut off each day
Cutting onions in the fields
. Luckily, they are very resourceful here and have found us alternative sources of water. Last night was really fun as one of our Palestinian volunteers took us to have some forbidden liquid: beer! As with any religion, there are varying levels of religiosity among Muslims. Generally, Muslims do not drink alcohol...but Fawas is not conservative and he took us to a place that serves beer on the sly. It was so much fun to have a few beers and some sheesha with all of the Italian volunteers-especially as one girl was
celebrating her 36th birthday, so it was a nice treat for her. Back at the flat, they threw a huge party for her with cake and music.
Today we met with an NGO that is here doing work, "Right to Play." It's just as it sounds, they implement sports and play programs for children to help increase physical and mental health and self-esteem. They are especially targeting the girls here to get involved. It was started by a Norweigen man who won Olympic medals in skiing. They have a program here in Jericho and one in Ramallah. It was very interesting to learn what they do. They are looking for long-term volunteers...hmmm, can I put off getting a
job any longer?
Drinking the forbidden brew in Jericho
! And now here I am at the internet café. The general plan as of now is to go play with the children at the other refugee camp in Jericho to see the program in action. Tomorrow we head out to Bethlehem for Christmas!!! Then on Saturday a few of us are trying to get to Ramallah to go see Arafat's grave and visit his old compound that was the center of so much fighting on television. But I'll continue to keep you all updated as often as I can.
My cultural observation for the day is in regards to prayer. I had this preconceived idea that everyone would drop down for prayer 5 times a day when the call to prayer was sung/chanted over the loudspeakers of the mosques. In fact, I have yet to see anyone pray...it's just that I've learned that people can pray as it fits their life and schedule. Thus, many maybe pray early in the morning and then at night-they kind of play 'catch up' and do the prayers all at once. Also, in regards to there not being
many women in the streets, I had thought it was a culture where women are hidden away at home and have no rights. To the contrary, I've learned that marriages here, the women have equal status as the men and that it is very much a teamwork situation, just as in the States. Also, it is not uncommon that the women truly wear the pants in the family and make the major household decisions! So while they may not be tromping around the streets like us crazy foreigners, this does not mean that they do not enjoy equal
rights as men. So that was my learning experience about that! I think how silly some of my ideas were before coming here, but I've found that they are valid and just glad that I can learn from it all.
