Not quite Christmas, not woman-munk

The days fly by here. The last seven days have been one continuous celebration of religious holidays. Eid Al-Adha, the sacrifice feast, last week. And now it's Christmas. Not that it feels like Christmas at all. But honestly, it doesn't really bother me.

Yesterday was our best day here so far. We started the day by going to observe Anabta checkpoint, situated between Tulkarem and Nablus. The Israeli soldiers there were rather friendly and open-minded, and behaving as well as the situation would allow. They admitted that the closure regime is detrimental to the Palestinian society, and didn't even object to us calling the West Bank occupied territory. We agreed that history is subject to interpretation, and in the case of Israel and Palestine, often biased in one way or the other. I know that some soldiers say these things to internationals to come across as more liberal than they actually are. Still, it was good to meet Israelis whose perspective wasn't too far from my own.

Watching Anabta from a distance

From business graduate to taxi driver
On our way home, we bumped into our favourite taxi driver Muawya. We had a coffee and talked about how he ended up being a taxi driver. Muawya has a degree in business from Jordan, but upon his return to Palestine he found it impossible to get a job. Jobs are scarce and the only way to get a good one is to know the right people. So he ended up driving his brother's taxi. Which, by the way, is only licenced to travel between his village and Tulkarem. But it is impossible to make a living from that, so Muawya drives everywhere hoping that the police don't catch him. One thing is certain though. When catching a ride with his taxi, there will always be a powerballad blasting from his stereo. So you'd better not suffer from a broken heart. He actually learnt most of his English from song lyrics. So thanks, Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton!

Meeting with two "terrorist" lecturers
Then we visited Khadoorie University and met Dr. Khalid Sweis. He's a soft spoken and pleasant man who, for some reason, thinks that I am some kind of linguistic genius. We agreed to hold English conversation classes with his students every week. I hope to learn something about what these young people think of the future. A future that to me seems rather bleak.

With the University President and Dr. Sweis, both self-declared "terrorists"

Feeling welcome in Shufa
In the afternoon, we went to Shufa - a village that is divided into two by a bypass road (roads only allowed for Israeli vehicles) and several roadblocks. The Palestinians living in upper Shufa have to walk a very long uphill road to get to the top half of the village as they are not able or allowed to drive here. The road can only be used by vehicles with Israeli licence plates that are driving to the Israeli settlement and army base just below the village. As a result, people from upper Shufa have swapped their cars for donkeys.

On our way to the upper part of the village, a family from lower Shufa invited us into their shack. They served us tea, oranges and cucumbers. There is no lack of hospitality here, even if people have very little to share. We couldn't really communicate, but it was a nice visit nevertheless. The family proudly showed us of their 50 dunums (about 50 squarekilometres) of land and their green house with cucumbers. During the winter, they can harvest the cucumbers two times a week (in the summer, every other day!).

Cucumber plants in lower Shufa

Then we walked, or rather ran, up the road to make it to our English conversation class in upper Shufa. I had an outdoor lesson with the girls of the village. We could see the Mediterranean Sea, only 15 km away. A sea that these young teens are unable to go to. It was strangely beautiful to look out on the settlement and military base in the dusk.

The road from lower to upper Shufa. You can see upper Shufa right at the top of the hill. The settlement and the military base are the buildings on the left. This picture was taken on a different, and more sunny, day.

Late night conversations
When we got back home, we had Christmas coffee with a few friends, among them our vivacious landlady Susu. She's quite a character, and apparently the craziest driver in Tulkarem.

After wrapping up our work, Guillaume (who speaks excellent French-English and invents words like "woman-munk") and I bonded over our daily frustrations. They must have been many, because by the time we went to bed it was past two in the morning. Which is the latest I've gone to bed since arriving in the Holy Land.

It was indeed a different Christmas Eve, but I fell asleep feeling content.