The West Bank

Day 9--

Day 9

Hello school food service

I was up early this morning and I ate breakfast with my friend's father, same as usual for breakfast with the exception of a hard boiled egg. We went out shopping in the morning to bring gifts for a visit we were going to make today. We are going to a farm in a village nearby Ramallah known as "Dura Al-qare'". We picked up a silver serving tray and a dish of a variety of sweets to bring them. It is customary when one visits somebody for the first time to bring gifts and treats such as these. While my friend had known the family for years, she had never visited their home and when I had mentioned wanting to see any kind of agricultural things, she asked her friend if she could bring me.

As we walked into the town to do our shopping there was a rally taking place celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the Uprising (Intifada). There were many news crews and photographers and the streets were packed with people. The boy scouts marched and paraded for the occasion in their uniforms and people were speaking to the crowd. As we finished our shopping, the celebration got over and people were once again milling about on the street normally. When we came back to the apartment, my friend's friend had arrived, she was to accompany us to the farm. She works at a school and hopefully we may be able to tour a school Wednesday (if time allows). We sat at the kitchen table and visited with her while drinking coffee and waiting to leave.

This time we have to go through the Surda checkpoint (this checkpoint is meant to prevent people from the villages of Ramallah from reaching the city). We took a taxi to a spot perhaps a mile from the checkpoint. From there we took a horse and carriage to bring us closer to the checkpoint where we had to walk again through the checkpoint to another taxi on the other side. The bad thing about this was that my friend's father has a hard time walking and this was worrisome for everyone. Once we reached the taxi and didn't have to walk any further I was relieved. This mile between the checkpoint and where the taxi dropped us off is separated with huge boulders preventing traffic flow either way. Again, it was a massive confusion of walking people, cars honking and this time horses with carriages moving through the crowds.

When we arrived we were greeted by the owners and invited inside. These were Moslims and inside was an older woman of about 80, she was dressed traditionally, her dress consisted of purple robe with silver embroidery, a belt of silver and of course a veil. When I extended my hand to greet her, she refused politely and it was explained later to me that she had just finished her prayers and it's forbidden for her to shake hands with a man at this time. After our introductions, we were invited to sit at the table and spread before us was a huge tray of roasted chicken… when I say huge…..I mean huge….I am talking almost 3 feet around, full of chicken for the eight of us. Also served was bulgur soup and a large round piece of bread with olive oil, onions, pine seeds and spices (this bread is known as "Tabun bread" and this meal is known as "Musakhan"). Also there was a salad of chopped cucumber, green pepper and tomatoes with parsley and mint flavoring. Everything was delicious, homemade and homegrown delicious (Zaki in Arabic meaning delicious). By the time I finished half the salad, half the soup and a piece of chicken I was beginning to get full. Our host scooped out more chicken and plopped it on my plate so I ate more and more and more getting fuller and fuller till I finally asked my friend if it would be taken wrong if I couldn't finish and there was no problem.

The host gave my friend's father a ride in the car while we walked to the top of a hill to a flat area where there was a freshwater spring. Our walk took us past a field where some children were played and all wanted their picture taken. This whole area is about as fertile ground as you could probably find in this region. There were rows of cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green onions and lots of squash. The beans had already been picked but I could see them in their rows all grown on sticks in a tripod or teepee shape trellis. There are many small plots perhaps 100 by 100 ft square. Each one of them cared for by a different family. Water is brought to the planted rows by means of a 3 inch pipe coming from a few different springs. The plastic irrigation pipe was laid in the original trenches carved in rock. We made our way up to the top of the hill and sat and had coffee and sweets while our host and I walked a little further to visit a Shepherd tending his livestock. He was a tall man his face weathered from the elements. He had a blue traditional robe with a white Kuffiah (headdress). He was tending about fifty goats and sheep of different variety, some long haired, some short haired, some big, some small. What he does is grazing his sheep in or around the valley letting them graze on the grass and nibble on the plants along the sides of the path. Occasionally one would climb a pretty much vertical cliff to reach some plants. One of my questions was: "Is there any food they get besides what they can graze as the area doesn't seem very suited to grazing animals?" His answer was yes, they do give them grains also.

The host showed me a very old spring from which the whole town used to take water. He explained that this was a popular place for the young people because it was the only place that they could meet. So, every family that had children was well supplied with water. Also a meeting place for older boys courting girls. The host had me take a drink from the spring water as they did since anyone can remember; the water was cool and tasty. (no pesticides or fertilizers to worry about here). The hillside is filled with old stone fencerows scattered here and there, some of them dating back hundreds of years. At the top of the hill is high power lines which run to a settlement and as I understand it anyone getting near that area stands a good chance of getting shot by the settlers. So basically that property even though it is yours is unusable. We walked back down to the house, sat and visited some more and had a delicious tea of sage and mint. It was dark out when the taxi arrived, we said our goodbye and were driven back to the checkpoint. The taxi couldn't go through the large boulders and the horse and carriages had stopped running (no doubt at sunset) so we had to walk that mile to the other end of the checkpoint… I helped my friend's father walk on the torn up road to the taxis waiting at the other end. Fortunately most of this walking was downhill. We arrived at the apartment finally, but my friend and her sister and I went out for ice cream again at Rukab's. We brought some back for my friend's parents. Just before typing this, I also started my friend's sister in oil painting, something she's been wanting to try for a while. There are still so many things I want to do but time is getting short. I want to look at their computer because it seems very slow. I still have some shopping to do. I want to record some Arabic television shows. I want to show them how to create web pages and play a few word games like Scrabble, Catchphrase and Pictionary.

Tomorrow Jaffa (hopefully), Wednesday a trip to Jerusalem and maybe a tour of a school, Thursday I am hoping to perhaps meet with a pen pal in Jerusalem then Friday will come too soon….. I am scheduled to leave 3:30 in the morning Saturday (Friday night). The bad thing is the Qalandia checkpoint closes at nine, so I would be waiting from 8:00 till 12:00. I guess it takes a few hours to go through security.

Salam

Day 10
The tenth day

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