Love Birds and Burnt Apple Pie

Hello everyone! I hope everything has been going well for you since I wrote last. Life is good here. First of all, an update on the hot water situation. Now we have hot water, but it’s either burning hot so that you can’t touch it or freezing cold; no in between. The water saga continues… So, along the same lines as the clown lesson, the highlight of this week is that we bought two birds for the house. Well, first we bought one bird that we named Batzi (because is Bavaria, Germany everyone names their birds Batzi, kind of like Fluffy for a cat I think) but Batzi was really sad because she was alone. We tried to put a mirror up behind her cage to trick her into thinking that she had a twin, but she wouldn’t have it. She just looked at us as if to say, “What kind of a stupid bird do you think I am?” So we bought Binti who is fat and blue whereas Batzi is green and skinny. They love each other and now Batzi is happy. The first night they were together Batzi followed Binti around the cage doing whatever Binti was doing like a groupie. So, overall, the bird experience has been very entertaining. Plus it helps Ina and I practice our Arabic because we’re not intimidated at all to speak to them in Arabic and since they grew up on the streets of downtown Nablus, we know they understand us.
Other than that fun, my classes have been going well. I read The Giving Tree with a couple of my classes and there wasn’t as much discussion as I had hoped, but I think the kids liked the story. I didn’t have the book with the good illustrations, just a printed text from the internet, so I had them draw the tree in all the stages of the book, which was pretty fun. I love that story. I made my adult class do short skits in front of each other today and they’re just as bad as kids; making fun of each other when they mispronounce a word. Ahh, boys will be boys. I’ve been invited to dinner by almost every student I have, so I think during the time I’m here, if I go to student’s houses for dinner 3 times a week, maybe I’ll get to everyone before I leave. It’s nice and I practice speaking Arabic, but I’m afraid some of the invitations are so that the guy’s mom can meet me and approve or disapprove of the possible marriage. It’s too bad 20 is the prime marrying age here. And an American passport is a commodity.
Along those lines, I got a little frustrated today walking in the street. I dress very conservatively here with just my hands, my head and my neck showing, but I still can’t walk down the street in peace. It’s not so bad, and most days it’s easy to ignore, but sometimes it’s too much. Also, there is one local volunteer here who was walking with me, and told me that I should wear a scarf around my neck because people in the street will wonder why he’s walking with a woman dressed like I am. I told him that I do my part to dress modestly, but that half of the responsibility is on the men in the street to act politely to me and that if he has a problem with women who aren’t wearing hijab, he shouldn’t walk with me. He didn’t say anything else, and even though I feel like I was in the right, it’s hard to dismiss his comment because he’s so well-meaning and nice. My mind was on what I was going to talk about with my class and if I had time to stop for a falafel, but after he said that, I couldn’t think of anything but how everyone was looking at me in the streets. It’s a really bad feeling to have, but it just took a little time at home, away from the streets and my class of men and some good music to get my spirits up again. No worries.
Hokay, a little about the political situation here before I finish up. The whole Hamas-Fatah fighting hasn’t had much of an impact on me here, except that one of my classes was cancelled because there was an ordered strike to try to promote unity. Many people got kidnapped in Nablus from Fatha, but most people were ashamed that Palestinians were fighting Palestinians. Hopefully the new peace agreement from Mecca will reach down to the people. Also, the excavation underneath the Al-Aqsa mosque is a big issue here. The mosque is the second holiest site for Muslims and before Mecca, they faced Jerusalem to pray. If it collapses because of this digging underneath it, there will be a huge reaction. The second Intifada started because Sharon visited the mosque in an act of defiance or something, so they know that it’s a sensitive issue. We were very gung-ho about preventing a possible nuclear war in Iraq, and it seems pretty obvious that making sure the mosque isn’t harmed would prevent another war, so I don’t know why we’re allowing Israel to toy with such a hot issue. I think a good way to fight the war on terror is to eliminate reasons for terrorists to terrorize. If we (as the Western world) could try to be more neutral in this conflict, first of all the Palestinians would have some hope that it would be resolved because there are people on their side, so they might not be as desperate as to use violence. And secondly, the argument that the West is trying take over the Arabs and wipe them out would loose validity so there wouldn’t be as much reason to fight. Everyone says this is a conflict without a solution, and maybe I’m simplifying things too much, but right now I think that if the West, especially the US, could look at the situation neutrally, as we might do with other conflicts in the world, a solution would be more accessible than it is now.
Whew, sorry, this was a long one. Hokay, in conclusion, I ask you all to take a hot – but not scalding hot – shower for me, eat a bowl of plain Cheerios – I can’t find them here! – and try, in whatever way you can, to mold the US into more of a benevolent big brother than a trouble maker/supporter. Haha, sorry, I know that’s a lot to ask and maybe impossible, but do the first two and try for the last. In turn, I’m sending all of you the picture of today’s sunset reflected on the white stone buildings making the whole city pink and yesterday’s attempt at an apple pie in a portable electric oven, which actually didn’t turn out all that bad. I love you all more than iced tea with sweet and low and sausage mcmuffins with egg! (Grandpa better be reading thisJ)
Love, Lisa