This week flew by. I spent Monday and Friday at Tata Huda's university and the days in between at the Palestine Wildlife Society. I finalized the reports I've been working on at the PWLS for what seems like forever. An American guy named Sam from Washington State who works for the Palestine Monitor, a newspaper based in Ramallah that documents life under occupation, came by the office to talk about the environmental tragedy taking place in Palestine. I think we inundated him with information about birds more than anything. In light of recent events (the peace talks in D.C., Hamas' retaliation) we are taking it easy on traveling. The PWLS staff was going to go bird watching early this morning, but the settlers near the area we wanted to go to are really fired up, so we decided to postpone the trip. There has been extra activity at the Israeli military base near our house, lately at night they have had their lights off (they are usually on 24/7), and Jiries speculates means that they are doing something they don't want anyone to see- i.e., setting up a settlement outpost. We will see. The other day they threw a bunch of sound grenades into the surrounding area; all they do is make a massive BOOM but it scares the living daylights out of you.
We met with many of the people coming to the US for the Tree of Life Conference in November, including one Israeli girl and a Palestinian family. Jiries and I have been facilitating the visa application process, which is annoyingly difficult. We are having a hard time obtaining an visa for George Sa'adeh, the principal of Shepherd's Field Greek Orthodox School/Deputy mayor of Bethlehem, because supposedly his fingerprints are similar to someone who is really questionable. His visa application wasn't rejected, just put into the "further consideration" file. Either way, we need to purchase plane tickets asap and it is preferable to have the visas ready beforehand. The FCCOL is going to have to plead George's case in a letter to a Congressman or Homeland Security in order to expedite the process. George is the man who lost his daughter when the Israelis mistook his car for another and fired over 300 bullets at him and his family, then never apologized for it. He himself was hit by 9 bullets, and it is a miracle he and his wife and one daughter are still alive. If you want to hear their whole story, come to the conference in November. I will provide more information about it towards the end of September.
So, here is my week in pictures...
A soldier (on the right) and a hired private security guard (left in blue) search the car of a Palestinian at the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem:
The jeep in Jerusalem that had an Arab man handcuffed and blindfolded in it- I didn't make it back in time to get a picture before the doors closed:
View of Jaffa Street in Jerusalem from Sahar's balcony:
Sahar (young woman who refused to join the Israeli army and was sent to jail because of it- she will be speaking at the Tree of Life Conference in November):
Israeli military camp visible from the kitchen and dining room windows:
Smoke from sound grenades set off by the Israelis into our neighborhood for no apparent reason (they woke me up from my nap!):
Staff meeting at the PWLS, the people there are fantastic:
Greek Orthodox Church:
Ancient well top:
Jiries' brother Isam (who lives upstairs with his family) at work:
Mosque under construction down the road:
This is a zarb, an outdoor oven that is the old-fashion desert-style way of cooking meat. After putting the food inside, you close the front cover and stick it shut with mud- this deprives the meat inside of oxygen while it cooks and it comes out extremely delicious. The wood from inside the zarb remains reusable for other purposes even after the food is finished.
Jane and Tata Huda:
Kittens that come by most nights for dinner:
Dinner with the Sa'adeh family and Jane, who will all be speaking at this year's Tree of Life Conference:
The salad I made:
Visiting Halu Yousef's house (Tata Huda's brother):
Halu ("uncle" on your mother's side in Arabic) Yousef:
My boss (Imad Atrash) at the Palestine Wildlife Society recently attended the International Ornithology Congress in Brazil, where he was elected as one of the world's top 7 ornithologists. His mother recently had surgery (his mom is Tata Huda's sister) and so we went to visit her tonight- she lives with Imad and his family. These are banners congratulating him; Imad is the talk of the town since he is officially a scientist, or, as some people like to say, the Emperor of the Environment:
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