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Nazareth, 15th September 2006
Woke up early and the day was getting warm… went to the office, checked my emails, turned my MSN on and had a glance on the headlines. Soon after, I went with Haytham for a tour in Nazareth. We started in the old historical part of the city. So we went to the main street, passed by the Annunciation Church and walked until Mary's Well. There we went up towards the Old Market. Narrow streets full of story and funny old houses that are dangerous by night. Once arrived there we went down through the market, full of people and many many shopping tents, passed by the Annunciation Church again and arrived to our starting point in the main street. Then we walked in the other direction until the limit of the city and went all the way up until the top of the hill. It was very hot by this time so we decided to go back to the office. The tour was made! Once in the office, I went to the ground floor and had my lunch: a kebab, juice and espresso.
In the afternoon I went with Iyad to take care of some stuff. We visited the place where hundreds of scientific books are kept until they are distributed across several Palestinian universities, picked up 3 huge bags full of new T-shirts with the LIFE logo and talked a lot about the planning of my next week. I was to be going to Nabulus for one week accompanying the food distribution team and write a report about it. For that I had to photograph and film both the distribution as well as the interviews to be made to around 15 Palestinian families. This is a very important task and it will take a lot of time and concentration from me because this material is to be used in fund raising initiatives.
After this we went back to the office and spent the next hours updating my report, since I have to write a daily detailed report of my experiences here. In the end of the afternoon I decided to go again through the city and sat in Bayat, a nice café near Mary's Well having a beer and writing my diary. One hour later I went home, wrote some more, had a shower and I was on my way out to Conte (internet café) when Ferrid (my landlord) and his family "caught" me and invited me to have dinner with them. Well, I couldn’t refuse so I went up to the third floor of my building and had dinner with him, his wife and his kids (3 daughters and 1 son). We talked watched television and then he invited me to join him to have a drink with his friends in some local café. I acceded and joined… had two glasses of Akran (50% alcoholic drink made in Rammallah) and went to pay a visit to the internet café. I finished my night in Alreda (a very nice café near the Annunciation Church (A.C.) where I met one of the waiters that gave me some nice tips about Nazareth.
Nazareth, 16th September 2006
Woke up at 13:00 feeling sick…I have a cold…and so I didn’t go to the office at 10:00 as expected. Anyway, had a shower, ate some fruit and headed to the office in the hope somebody would be there. As it is Saturday, by the time I arrived nobody was there. Had my typical lunch at the cafeteria and decided to discover the non-touristic Nazareth. So I headed to the Old market and soon I got lost in the narrow street labyrinth that is the old part of the town. It is nice to notice in some nice details of the houses and architecture of some buildings that date to some hundreds, maybe even more, of years…it was nice to imagine that one day, Jesus and its disciples were going through the same streets I am going now… one feels like part of it, part of history… then I entered again in the A.C. where finally I could see in more detail the cave where the supposed annunciation occurred, which disappointed me a bit I have to confess. Looks pretty much more spectacular from a greater distance, it's like an altar made for tourist photos…
After that decided to get lost again in the old market and started climbing the hill through the maze of narrow streets. Went all the way up under a blazing sun and saw a lot of cats and not much of people. All the streets look so similar and so different at the same time… it's amazing. Each street, each alley tells its own story. Once on the top I sat down a bit to recover my breath, admired the beautiful city of Nazareth from the top and went down again. Visited the Ortodox Church of Annunciation (which has the water spring that feeds Mary's Well) and although it is much more modest than the impressive C.A., I found it much more full of meaning and feelings. The rest of that afternoon I spent in Alreda writing in pieces of paper and drinking home made lemonade.
Went home shortly afterwards to play Capoeira and eat something. And as usual after that I went to the internet café and headed to Alreda again. That night was pretty nice because I ended up having a very nice conversation with Mohammed (the waiter of Alreda I met the night before) while smoking Argheella (sheesha) in a café near Mary's Well.
Woke up early and the day was getting warm… went to the office, checked my emails, turned my MSN on and had a glance on the headlines. Soon after, I went with Haytham for a tour in Nazareth. We started in the old historical part of the city. So we went to the main street, passed by the Annunciation Church and walked until Mary's Well. There we went up towards the Old Market. Narrow streets full of story and funny old houses that are dangerous by night. Once arrived there we went down through the market, full of people and many many shopping tents, passed by the Annunciation Church again and arrived to our starting point in the main street. Then we walked in the other direction until the limit of the city and went all the way up until the top of the hill. It was very hot by this time so we decided to go back to the office. The tour was made! Once in the office, I went to the ground floor and had my lunch: a kebab, juice and espresso.
In the afternoon I went with Iyad to take care of some stuff. We visited the place where hundreds of scientific books are kept until they are distributed across several Palestinian universities, picked up 3 huge bags full of new T-shirts with the LIFE logo and talked a lot about the planning of my next week. I was to be going to Nabulus for one week accompanying the food distribution team and write a report about it. For that I had to photograph and film both the distribution as well as the interviews to be made to around 15 Palestinian families. This is a very important task and it will take a lot of time and concentration from me because this material is to be used in fund raising initiatives.
After this we went back to the office and spent the next hours updating my report, since I have to write a daily detailed report of my experiences here. In the end of the afternoon I decided to go again through the city and sat in Bayat, a nice café near Mary's Well having a beer and writing my diary. One hour later I went home, wrote some more, had a shower and I was on my way out to Conte (internet café) when Ferrid (my landlord) and his family "caught" me and invited me to have dinner with them. Well, I couldn’t refuse so I went up to the third floor of my building and had dinner with him, his wife and his kids (3 daughters and 1 son). We talked watched television and then he invited me to join him to have a drink with his friends in some local café. I acceded and joined… had two glasses of Akran (50% alcoholic drink made in Rammallah) and went to pay a visit to the internet café. I finished my night in Alreda (a very nice café near the Annunciation Church (A.C.) where I met one of the waiters that gave me some nice tips about Nazareth.
Nazareth, 16th September 2006
Woke up at 13:00 feeling sick…I have a cold…and so I didn’t go to the office at 10:00 as expected. Anyway, had a shower, ate some fruit and headed to the office in the hope somebody would be there. As it is Saturday, by the time I arrived nobody was there. Had my typical lunch at the cafeteria and decided to discover the non-touristic Nazareth. So I headed to the Old market and soon I got lost in the narrow street labyrinth that is the old part of the town. It is nice to notice in some nice details of the houses and architecture of some buildings that date to some hundreds, maybe even more, of years…it was nice to imagine that one day, Jesus and its disciples were going through the same streets I am going now… one feels like part of it, part of history… then I entered again in the A.C. where finally I could see in more detail the cave where the supposed annunciation occurred, which disappointed me a bit I have to confess. Looks pretty much more spectacular from a greater distance, it's like an altar made for tourist photos…
After that decided to get lost again in the old market and started climbing the hill through the maze of narrow streets. Went all the way up under a blazing sun and saw a lot of cats and not much of people. All the streets look so similar and so different at the same time… it's amazing. Each street, each alley tells its own story. Once on the top I sat down a bit to recover my breath, admired the beautiful city of Nazareth from the top and went down again. Visited the Ortodox Church of Annunciation (which has the water spring that feeds Mary's Well) and although it is much more modest than the impressive C.A., I found it much more full of meaning and feelings. The rest of that afternoon I spent in Alreda writing in pieces of paper and drinking home made lemonade.
Went home shortly afterwards to play Capoeira and eat something. And as usual after that I went to the internet café and headed to Alreda again. That night was pretty nice because I ended up having a very nice conversation with Mohammed (the waiter of Alreda I met the night before) while smoking Argheella (sheesha) in a café near Mary's Well.
posted by Luis Saraiva at 2:50 PM
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