Stream of Consciousness Observations

**(at least in the Bethlehem area, I dont know about beyond) No one wears seatbelts unless they "have to" by Israeli military order. This means that as soon as we enter an area near a checkpoint or where the IDF patrols, everyone puts on his/her seatbelt. The minute we leave that area, the seatbelt are immediately unclicked. It's a small gesture of resistance. I'm all for that but I've gotta say, my life's been in danger more than once due to this form of resistance. Ah well, what's resistance without some threat of danger? :) Hish and Philip had a great experience where their taxi driver, in a newer car with the alarm that reminds you to put on your seatbelt found the man was so adamant about refusing to wear a seatbelt that he prefered the CONSTANT BEEPING of the alarm to putting on his seatbelt. That means 8-12 hours a day of "beep... beep... beep... beep... beep..." Amazing.

**Half of the time the things asked of us at checkpoints (which I should remind all are NOT just between the West Bank and Israel/'48/historical Palestine but also simply between sections of the West Bank for no reason other than control of the entire occupied territories) are clearly only for show to make sure we know who is in charge. "Open this door" and then they don't even end up looking in. or "Where are you from?" when they have a passport in front of them. Or randomly disallowing some people to come through on a given day for no apparent reason.

**The boy who walked us through the old city of Nablus and took us through the martyrs graveyard. He's an ambulance driver. When we passed on grave, he said "This is my cousin". He'd been driving the ambulence that night during the 2nd Intifada and was called to a scene. The victim died on the way to the hospital. Only after reaching the hospital did he realize it was his cousin. His eyes become misty. We keep walking and he quickly changes the subject to ask me if I like football...

**Watch "Bili'in Habibati", a film by Israeli filmmaker and activist, Shai Pollack. It shows in detail the ignorance and detachment of many soldiers and the humanity as well as both the strength and helplessness of the people of Bili'in Camp while protesting the construction of the Wall through their land. Shai did incredible work with this film and has done much to try to further the case for human rights in Palestine and to change the minds of his fellow Israeli compatriots. Watching this movie with a group of Palestinian students from areas including Jenin, Nablus, Abu Dis and Hebron made me also realize that while I'm still shocked by seeing these images they are not--these are somewhat commonplace to those who have grown up with such violence.

Mostly from an email to my friends... probably pretty redundant...

Keef halkum y'all?

It's been a while but I wanted to give a mini update...

Some of you have asked what i do here... Basically, I'm part of a program called Palestinian Summer Celebration (corny, i know) but it's part of the Siraj Center ( www.sirajcenter.org if you're interested...)

We take intensive Arabic in the morning and then I go to my volunteer job at the Beit Jala Public Library (Beit Jala is a town next to Bethlehem). There, with one other staff member (from the town) I've organized a summer camp for kids with 40 kids aged 3 to 14 (yes I KNOW!) and do things like arts & crafts, games, trips to the park, etc. Luckily they were very receptive to me teaching bboying/bgirling (breakdancing) to the kids so that's been a lot of fun. I just have fun with the little kids doing what i guess I'd call "breakercise" (a shout out to the "jazzercise" I took as a 6 year old where we dance to "Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!!" clearly, this guided me through my formative years...!) But I also have a core group of the older kids who are incredible and just lapping it up. We're doing a performance and then exhibition battle on Thursday. I can't wait!

After the library (4 hours a day) I head off to either a lecture on various topics, or to a documentary screening, or a debkeh class (traditional dance), or a cooking class, or just a bar-b-que with the gang. Other times I help out at the Rapproachment Center with the newscasts for a local news station (proof-reading the english newscast or, today, actually reading the english version!!) Wow. I'm famous. Who knew? "This is live from occupied Bethlehem with Heidi Rosbe and Ghassan Bannoura reporting" Amazing. "Gooooooood Morning Palestine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" For a transcript of the newscast visit: http://www.imemc.org/article/49489

Evenings are basically spent like this:
"Ya Heidi, Eat more Makluba [insert here mensef, or mashi, or falafel, or shawarma, or ...]! You must eat! You"
"La, shukran, I'm really very full"
"Buss heidi... you are not eating enough? Do you not like it? Here, you can have more [insert any food]!"
"Really, I'm stuffed, but thank you"
"Heidi Heidi! Really there's enough to go around... don't be shy... eat more... here let me fill your plate"
"No no... really..."
[later]
"no!!!!!!!!!!!!! my stomach hurts! Please no more food!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Anyway, I'm safe and happy and eating well--Which of course is the most important after all.

On Safety

Before coming here to Palestine this summer, I'd had my doubts... Fighting had broken out just between Hamas and Fatah a couple of weeks before and everything seemed so intensified when watching western media and friends kept warning me to cancel my trip. I remember speaking with George a few days before I was to leave and he kept assuring me that everything was safe and that I would get to Bethlehem and see that life was going on as normal. This could not have been more true. People here go to work, play with their children, go to bar-b-ques, have parties, attend weddings. The violence currently ravaging Gaza feels as far away as America. Farther really. Intense violence has ripped apart families here in the past and the scars are visible everywhere. However, I have absolutely zero regrets on my decision to come here and only wish I were staying the entire summer... I definitely feel both that the area of Bethlehem is safe and that the program (and the family I am living with) have my safety and my best interests in mind. I'm actually already planning out how to come back next summer...
Does that cover it, George? :)

My Palestinian Bgirls & Bboys...

In the summer camp in which I volunteer here environs Bethlehem (Beit Jala Library) I've been lucky enough to be able to teach bboying/bgirling (breakdance) to the youth there... For the little kids (age 3-10) it mostly consists of stepping here and there, jumping around, clapping, dropping to the floor and then doing some shuffles, or something that seems to be similar. But they love it. And I love seeing them rock out to The Mexican and You Got Soul.

Now the older group: Natasha (14), Noura (12), Alfred (11), Nader (14), Khader (14), Nadia (17) and Bakir (13) [**I might have the ages wrong!!] is really rocking out. They are more dedcated than most older friends of mine who bboy/bgirl... They want to break ALL THE TIME. We sessioned for about 3 hours yesterday and I only ended it because I had to get to the Siraj Center for a class. They've pretty much all got 6-step, 4-step, cee-cee's, grapevine, and kick-outs. They're shakier on top-rocks but are doing pretty damn gooood considering this is the end of their second week as bboys and bgirls... Natasha actually has this one top that evolved out of another one I was teaching and I think she's got somethin' on Floor Phantom--completely his rocking style. They've got some sweet drops and they're into making up variations. Basically these kids got mad style. We're working on a routine to "This or That" for a performance next week during which we'll also either have a cipher or a battle and then maybe have them teach some audience members.

I NEED TO COME BACK HERE NEXT SUMMER. Any bboys or bgirls interested in coming with, hit me up!! They'd actually asked if I'd bring Fifo (since they saw a clip of him on youtube--the one battling Bounce, who they loved too). It's hilarious, everyday this one girl asks, "Can you bring Fifo next year??" Fifo: doubt you're reading this but if so, ya up for it?? ;)

Damn, this kids really want to know it ALL and I feel like I'm abandoning them by leaving after next week...

Daily Life for me here...

Beit Sahour. House of Joseph & Jumana Awad. Alarm goes off between 7 and 7:30. Drag myself out of bed. Breakfast with Jumana and Jessi (the 2 month old) consisting of nescafe, pita bread with cheese (arabic or provolone), meat, and sometimes eggs, sometimes pastries or oatmeat or "cornflakes" which seems to mean cereal because usually the "cornflakes" are some form of coco krispees.

Off to catch a service (2.5 sheklels.... "shekleen wa nus") or walk (40 min) to Jama'a Beit Lahem (Bethlehem University). Two hours of intensive spoken Arabic with Ustaz-na Sami (our Professor Sami). Lunch at the little restaurant outside the gates of the University, usually falafel, sometimes schnitzel. Almost always a Kinder chocolate thanks to my new British friends.

Head off to Babiskak to either walk or take another service (2 shekels) to Maqtaba Beit Jala (Beit Jala Public Library) for our summer camp (for kids age 3 to 14). There playing games, art projects, teaching bboying (breakdancing), etc from 12-4pm. Head off to walk back through Bethlehem and back to Beit Sahour and the Siraj Center for time to work on my video and then various evening activites: Debkeh (dance) class, documentaries, lectures my professors, swimming at the YMCA, etc... Usually George hollering out to his "habibis" (the English boys) to come play football (soccer), David nowhere to be found due to his dedication to his painting project at a local school, and me, grumbling about how my photos won't upload fast enough. I then chat with Ghassan of the Rapproachment Center about politics, music, video production (yes, i know i know nothing!!! ha ha), and how many times i have to have been shot at and imprisoned in order to earn the title of honorary Palestinian.

Dinner at the family home (or a BBQ with the group at George's home)... or BBQ with my family and their friends... or dinner at Grotto Restaurant... varied but ALWAYS pretty damn tasty. (Seriously, I'm getting obese... just kidding)... Chats with Joseph about politics, history, american pop culture... this man is a wealth of knowledge... and John (the 5 year old) asking his daily (or hourly) question of "Shu y'anni 'hamar-awash' fil inglese?" ("What's 'zebra' in English?")

Plop into bed barely able to get past one page of journaling, one page of reading or one song on my ipod...

That's the daily grind here at the Palestinian Summer Celebration. :) Hallas.

massdisempowerment

this was initially an email to a friend, but i think it deserves to be copied into my blog (sorry P for reusing the email...!)

Notes from Palestine:

wow, it's been a wild ride here... i hurt my foot pretty badly a week ago playing soccer (football) and it's still not great but have been teaching breaking to kids here as part of my volunteer work and that's amazing. they are so interested and dedicated. otherwise it's just been a lot of soaking up the culture and political situation and of course the food. i am truly loving it. i'm already planning to try to come back next summer (theoretically i'll be starting grad school of some kind the following september)... i'd love to come back and teach the group more breaking and also work on more promotion stuff for the organization.

visited jericho and the dead sea yesterday and ramallah today. all filled with great historical significance and immense beauty. it's been a lot of crossing ridiculous checkpoints and witnessing the incredible disrespect shown to grown men and women by 16 and 17 year old israeli defense force soldiers at these checkpoints. the baby-faced soldiers carry enormous guns and wield unnecessary power (whether or not someone may pass to get to their work or their family and exactly how much humiliation they have to put up with to get there) for their age and for what our morality deems acceptible. it's really upsetting. sometimes it's more overt --i've heard numerous stories of women being handed (in their ID cards as handed back after inspection) soldiers numbers and then being berated the next time they pass for not calling the man... and then, of course even more disturbingly, men --and women --being forced to strip with very little cover from the public eye in order to be searched (over and over again as they pass weekly or daily) at checkpoints. it's this undercover "violence" as one man put it... might not be overt but it ends up leaving these people with a sense of powerlessness and impotence that leads to violence mis-directed at friends, wives, children... and of course other israelis who are somewhat complicit of course, but not necessarily any more so that any of us americans are with respect to the situations in iraq, congo, nicaragua, to name a few. The whole power structure of palestine seems broken and i dont know how one could fix it. that being said, there is beauty everywhere and vibrant culture and happiness, and humans seem to make out of any situation. palestine is not a country filled only with slums and poverty and sadness. it is filled with fresh meat, a near-constant stream of weddings, music that makes old men shake their hips like shakira, and the quintesential "arab hospitality". there are of course millions of things to cite regarding the things that don't work well and and are not positive but that's found anywhere. i'm not meaning to idealize or idolize the region, but it's worth noting that people are not entirely without hope and certainly not without life.