More Nazareth & Ramallah

Nazareth 26th September 2006
As usual I woke up, ate something and went to the office to continue writing my stormy report. So, between thinking and typing, and deleting and retyping, the lunch time arrived and with it I went with Iyad to get some food donation for the Ramadan nights and store it in the distribution place. It was very hot outside, and although it was not too much stuff, it was enough to make me sweat a bit more. In conversation, we decided that I would be going to Ramallah this weekend to get to know a bit more about Palestine and to talk to a Brazilian TV reporter that wants to know a bit more abut LIFE and its work in Palestine. The rest of the afternoon I continued typing in front of the computer and Heymath, the owner of the building cafeteria invited me to join him and some friends to smoke arghella in a very nice cafe called Casa Palestina. Among arghella puffs and sips of red wine we talked a lot about the Palestinian problematic, about the similitude of the southern European and Arab cultures and about one thousand other different things.
It was a very nice evening, wonderful place and nice people. Hope I can repeat it again soon.

Nazareth 27th September 2006
It was another writing day, so as usual I ran to the office still sleepy. Had to be on time today once I am keeping Haymath's keys and had to open the office at 9:00.
It was a hard writing day because I had to put in words all the feelings and emotions about some keys moments from my WB trip and although I just managed to write a page by the end of the day, I was quite tired. Eating the Hummus at around 10 am was not a good idea either (although it was delicious) because it made me more sleepy and slow.
At 13:00 I went to the Basilica to wait for Ana and guide her to the office so she and Iyad could speak a little bit. In the end she didn’t show up because I got to know later that day, she didn’t see my note.
Went back to the office and tried to write the rest of the afternoon. Made a break at 17.00 and went to the Basilica for some minutes. I didn’t even eat before 18:00; it was such a strong Hummus! Stayed until 19.00 in the office and went back home, where Ana later met me and dragged me to Alreda. We were talking a bit more about our projects and got to know each other a bit better. After that I showed her the Casa Palestina, where we smoked arghella and went home by 1.30 am.
It was a long, hard day and I was glad I finally could go to sleep. The next day I will have to wrap up some stuff and prepare my things to leave to Ramallah.

Nazareth 28th September 2006
Day started early again and I continued updating my diary. It's very time and brain consuming to write about this strong emotional experiences… so I spent all the morning writing until I went to Mary's Well to pick up Ana, so that she could meet Iyad. I was for half an hour in the sun waiting…it was so hot! It was a relief to get back to the air conditioned and write again, at least for the next minutes, before the brain starts asking for more coffee in order to work.
Wrote the whole afternoon as usual, visited the Basilica, went to the internet café and headed home. Had to prepare my stuff to depart in the next morning and went to bed early after talking to Suheer (the woman that would pick me up the next morning) because I would have to wake up at 6 am.

Nazareth --> Ramallah 29th September 2006
Woke up at 6 am and had a quick shower while preparing some Arabic coffee to keep me awake. At 6.30 Suheer called me to check whether I was awake, which I was. At 6.50 I was in the meeting point, in front of the pharmacy near my house. At 7:00 she arrived and we headed to the headquarters of YMCA, where an Arab Christian organization (Sybell? name it right here) is located. There was a bus waiting to take me and fourteen more girls to Ramallah. Apparently a paradise for any man, but a piece of heel as well when some of them started singingJ.
The trip was very fast and smooth. We didn’t have any problem; even in the checkpoints they never checked our ID's or passports. That was a relief and it was funny to see how the soldiers present a clear dichotomy in their way of thinking and acting. I am sure if it was one girl and fourteen guys in the bus we would have had a lot of problems!
Before heading to Ramallah we stopped in a small village nearby, Jifna, where our Hostel was located. We dropped our stuff, had breakfast and got to know that another group of young people whom we were supposed to meet that morning couldn’t do it. So we hanged around in the Hostel until lunchtime and ate at a local restaurant. The restaurant was very modest but had a very nice fresh shadowy terrace full of fans blowing. Everybody was so hungry and tired by this time because of the trip and the heat, so we hanged quite a while there. It was very nice because I got to know a lot of these people during this lunch. All of the people here, both the people in the group and in the village are Christians Arabs and besides the fact that they are Christians I don’t see major differences between them and the Muslim Arabs. Exactly the same people, the same culture with different religious believes. Although some of the girls told me that sometimes it is hard for some Christians to live here because they are the smaller minority and a lot of them emigrate to some European or North American country.
After this we left to a bus tour across Ramallah. We passed by the University, the Parliament, the place where Yasser Arafat was "living" during his domiciliary prison, the main square with lions scattered around a roundabout and some main shopping streets. We headed then to one of the main churches which host one of the biggest Christian communities in Ramallah and we heard a History Professor in Bethlehem University talk about the Christian history and important spots in the surroundings of Ramallah. We had dinner there afterwards (pizza: not very traditional but it was good for a change) and interacted with the young people of the local Christian group. One of the girls I met came from Los Angeles a couple of years ago and she was talking about the adaptation problems to the West Bank reality and different type of life and culture. We then headed to the Theatre where we saw a nice play, performed by some theatre students of the local university. The play was a satire that focused on the problems of the current reality in the West Bank and although I didn’t get a thing of what they were talking (the plays was of course in Arabic) I think I got the message out of it because all kinds of art have a universal language.
After this long day I was feeling really tired, and by the time the theater play was over (around 22:00) I just wanted to go home. I realized by then that I was wrong and that we were going to one of the very famous Ramallah roof top Cafes. So the driver drove us to the center of the city and we entered an old building, went up the stairs and reached the café. I would never have guesses that in that old building such a nice café could be hidden. It had a very clean, neat and modern look. There was a flag of Portugal side by side with the Palestinian one (the waiter explained me that it was a remain from a Portuguese friend of them during the World Cup) in the inner part of the café and outside there was a nice terrace where we all sat, drunk something and smoked argheelle for the next couple of hours.
Before leaving this place, two of the girls asked me if I wanted to continue the night with them and some more people from Ramallah. I thought it will be a nice chance to get to know more about the city and about its other side of life, so I accepted the invitation. We then separated from the main group, which went to the hostel in the bus and we went by car looking for other open club to continue the night. We passed by three nice places, but unfortunately they were all closing or completely empty, so the guys decided to show me the fancy area of Ramallah. They made me a tour around the rich neighborhood and it was really surprising to see that there could be so many, nice, big and luxurious houses in a city facing so many problems…
On our way out of the rich quarter, my final incident in the West Bank: right at the entrance of a roundabout, we got stopped by an armored Israeli army jeep. They ordered us to stop and started inspecting our car, maneuvering a spotlight from the interior of their jeep. Everybody was kind of nervous and feeling bad because they “putted me” in this situation…they were feeling responsible in case something bad happened… and it was incredible but I didn’t feel nervous at all, although one can notice a huge, odd feeling growing of being helpless and at the hands of somebody else will and mood… it is outrageous! Anyway, I raised my hands slowly so that they could see them and after 1 minute passing the light from left to right and from right to left in our vehicle they made us a sign to return back. We were free to go again, so we reversed and used another way to get out from that quarter… this ruined the spirit and the rest of night, so we headed to Jifna. It was better to go to sleep and although this kind of situations are not very desirable I was really happy that it happened to me, because the things that one feels in these situations are priceless!

Ramallah --> Nazareth 30th September 2006
The day started at 6.30 am for me since I slept in the ground of the Hostel living room in the top of two thin mattresses due to the high temperature that our rooms had… and because it was too early to do something and the television was broken, the only thing I could do was wait for the breakfast to be served. Finally at around 8 am, both the food and people started arriving at the breakfast room and I could finally eat. We were there until 9.30, hour at which we departed to Ramallah. Once there, we had one and a half hour to roam around the city and do some shopping. I felt a bit weird since everybody looks at me and right away identifies me as a foreigner and just wonders what the hell is another foreigner doing in Ramallah… although this happened in all places I visited, I still didn’t get used to it and think I never will. So, I visited the city center together with Suheer and entered a few shops in the main streets checking for some souvenirs. I had always had the feeling that things for me were overpriced, even though I decided to support the local economy and bought a few bracelets from a shop. After that was time to get into the bus and head to Taybeth.
Once there we visited the local church and the small Christian “Hostel” the local parish runs. It’s a building with the shape of a dove located in one of the hills of the town and it has a great view to the plain just in front of it. The restaurant is in the ground floor near a big fountain that creates a very fresh and refreshing atmosphere. He had lunch there and chatted a lot. Was nice to get to know something more about some of the persons with whom I was traveling. After lunch we visited a small ceramic factory where they make the “peace doves” which they export together with the peace candles and olive oil to hundreds of churches in the world. It is a project started by the local priest and the money is supposed to fund the parish and some of their initiatives… quite nice idea I have to say!
After that we visited the ruins of a millenary church… nothing special most of the people say, but I loved it, I just loved it…only some walls were still standing and a small part of the original mosaic floor was there… a place full of history and feelings…
From there we headed to the Taybeth beer factory where we had a guided visit through it and got the chance to taste it (although I did it before already). Then we met the founders and owners who told us about the difficulties they faced to create an alcoholic drink factory in a region that is mainly Muslim and that faces all the economic sanctions imposed by the US and UN.
From there we went again to the main church of the village and had a chat with some people from the parish. Soon after we departed from Taybeth in direction to Nazareth and had no problems at all in the checkpoint.
Once in Nazareth I decided that I would go to Alreda just to chill out a bit and maybe visit Casa Palestiniana to smoke some Arghelle. Once in Alreda, I ordered the home made lemonade prepared by Hannen and started writing some notes and thoughts. I invited Mohammed to smoke some arghelle, but he could answer me just in one hour, so I ordered one glass of red wine and just sat there writing and listening to Arabic music. After some time, Hannen offered me a dessert made of milk and flour… it seems that she hit the point, because I had stomach ache for the past two days and that was more or less the remedy that my mother used when I was a child. And in fact, it did work this time as well… it cured my stomach ache. In the meantime Mohammed disappeared with his boss somewhere and I decided to go home. Was a very long day for me and I have to admit that that night I really appreciated my bed.
Don’t know why (actually I do), but life in the West Bank is always very intense…

Nazareth 1st October 2006
The day started early with a phone call from Mohammed. He was asking if I wanted to join him and the Alreda staff and go to Haifa to the beach. I didn’t hesitate and said yes and half an hour later I was more than ready in the meeting point waiting for them. Soon after they came and off we go! The journey begins again… and I was so happy because I would be going to the beach just for chilling.
After an enjoyable trip composed by a mix of laughter and Arabic music we finally arrived at the Carmel beach in Haifa. It was marvelous… the sea was a mix of green with blue and the sand so thin and clear… I went directly to the water after setting up the table and preparing the barbeque. That was the advantage of going with the cook of Alreda. We had very nice traditional Arabic food. The rest of the afternoon we spent between smoking arghelle, swimming and talking. I played quite a lot of capoeira in the beach, what was very nice as well.
Unfortunately, was Kipur (a holy day for the Jews) so we have to leave the beach at around 15 o´clock. It is said that they stone people who are on the streets between 17 or 17:30 of that day and the next morning (correct me if I am wrong). And as we didn’t want to check whether this is true, we just headed to Nazareth again. As Nazareth is 100% Arab, we didn’t have this problem there, which was nice. I took the rest of the day to rest, write some notes about the past days and visited the Basilica. I got used to do it regularly and felt really good to thank God that everything was going ok until then.
Then I went home and had a shower to take the dry salt in my body. After that and as I promised to visit the Alreda crew, I rushed to Conte and quickly checked my emails and chatted with some friends and my family. On my way to Conte I had a surprise. I saw a girl with whom I went to Ramallah sitting in Tishreen and decided to go in just to say hi. Once there I met as well Rula and Marlen (the two girls with whom I got along better) and they “forced me” to join them for a drink. The drink prolonged itself and after that one we decided to have a cocktail in Dandana, the new place just across the street. We had a very nice time and stood there for almost two hours… and the Alreda crew was expecting me… so around 23.30 I decided to leave and say at least hi to them. They were not expecting me anymore and soon after I went home. The next day was working day!