Yesterday, Thursday, I went to work at the Palestine Wildlife Society in the morning at 8 until around 1 pm. It was the first time in a while because I have been travelling/at Tata Huda's university. Jiries picked me up from the PWLS and then a few minutes and sandwiches later we went to Il Zeituney, which is a resort with a huge pool open to the public for a small fee. Fortunately for us, there was no one else there except for the two guys that work there. This week has been sooo hot, the pool felt amazing.
We stayed at the pool until mid afternoon and then headed home in time for me to go to Shorok's birthday party and Jiries to go to an engagement party. Shorok is the daughter of Jiries' brother Isam, who lives upstairs, and her and I have become good friends in the few months that I have been here. About 6 or 7 of Shorok's girl friends from school came by and we had cake and soda outside. For a birthday present I gave Shorok a framed picture of me and her. After Shorok's friends left we went to Rawan's house (Shorok's older sister) which is in downtown Beit Sahour, about 5 minutes away by car, and socialized for an hour or so. We came back here and Shorok's other sister, Rusha, came over with her husband and kids. We had barbequed shrimp and fish for dinner, it was fantastic.
Today it was insanely hot- think at LEAST 107 during the day, and at LEAST 85 at night. This morning Jiries and I stopped by a clothing factory that is run by the DFLP, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a political organziation. This means that the factory is pretty much owned by the people instead of just the guy in charge, who in this case is someone that Jiries knows and the father of one of my friends here. He showed us around and gave me a couple free shirts that they normally export to a company in France. The factory mostly makes shirts for companies, like Jawal, the Palestinian version of Verizon Wireless. Most of the employees in the factory are graduates from a fashion institute in Beit Sahour. Right outside of the factory you can see the same Israeli settlement as you can from the PWLS balcony; except from the angle of the factory you can see new buildings being constructed. These new buildings literally embody one of the major obstacles to the peace process that must be addressed to make any sort of progress. It is a depressing sight.
After the factory Jiries and I went over to the University of Bethlehem to pay tuition for a couple of students attending the university this fall (thanks to the financial support of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme). We were outside for only a few minutes, in the car and then walking to and from the financial aid office, and even in that short amount of time the heat was unbearable. We did our fair share of complaining, then paused to consider how lucky we really are, keeping in mind people that can't afford air conditioning and others, like his brother Isam, who spend all day doing manual labor outside under the sun.
Because of the heat, Shorok and I sat in my nice air conditioned room and watched movies all afternoon. For dinner, Jiries made us what he always makes for David when he is in the US; a Russian meal consisting of lamb meat with dried figs soaked in honey. It was delicious!! After dinner Jiries, Shorok and I went to his sister Hanan's house for a while just to hang out. When we got back Jiries and I discovered a lizard in the house, and he somehow coaxed it out the window with a broom. Then we went to the roof of the apartment building and admired the night time view of Beit Sahour. The moral of all these stories: every day is an adventure. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter so Jiries and I are going to a beach in Israel!
(Even the lizards are looking for air conditioning)
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