so much shittah today! shittah means winter. which means rain. i asked the service driver if there will be shums (sun) tomorrow. he said, "shittah bukra!" winter tomorrow!
so no hiking. i didn't really have time anyway. i stayed up late, slept in late, and had this long lunch with the mayor of tubas and all these guys in suits talking about investment in the governorate, and coffee and more lunch and tea and coffee, so now it's 5:15 and i'm just starting my work-evening.
there's a road that goes up to the mountain. if i hit the end of the road, i'd stop, as sad as that sounds. i was supposed to have a couchsurfer from turkey today, but she didn't have time to make it into the west bank. i was going to climb with her. maybe sadiq will climb with me. or just some local. i want to ask the soldier, jason, what he knows about the mine situation. both sides probably have valuable information. the roommate of my couchsurfing host in west jerusalem told me the mines in the jordan valley were left by jordanian forces. i really need to learn more about this.
so no worries, taqlaqish, as they say here. hakuna matata. just tell mom that i rode in a service from nablus to tubas in the rain, and she'll forget about the mines.
i just uploaded a video about the demolition orders.
so many questions right now. all i know is, this website, as basic and template-y as it is at the moment, feels like the most important thing i've done here. i'm enjoying it. as a process, making a website gives you all the joys and frustrations of learning a new language and interior decorating. i'm trying to take a lot of short-cuts (using the support forums and copy-pasting code) but i'm getting the basics down. this is something that will grow, and evolve, but more importantly it's something that will stay. i've never appreciated the internet more than i do now, in this place in the world.
ok, that's it for now. i might be in bethlehem this thursday, for a meeting about preventing demolitions, and i want to see dar al-kalima college, where greta steeber taught. they have an art program and it might be cool to connect with the students, see if they want to do any art projects up here. after that, who knows, but i'm going to to make up a brochure for al aqaba to put in the bulletin board at the lutheran church at jerusalem.
you know what's funny? i had coffee and strudel with fred and gloria at the austrian hospice (tell mom, we were looking at it but it was jam packed), which is this gorgeous building inside the old city near damascus gate. and we talked for a while about fred's experience at seminex, and he called over to another american gentleman at the next table, and said, "hey, morgan is the great-granddaughter of doc caemmerer!" and this guy responds, "oh yeah, he was my homiletics professor!" ayeee, that was cool. and the strudel was amazing. gloria pointed out that the europeans don't make it so sweet, like the americans. you can actually taste it. so if you guys come over here, we're going to eat some strudel.
i spent the next five hours at the Educational Bookshop, which gloria had recommended to me. it's a little palestinian bookstore with a little upstairs area for tables, and all the books and movies and maps are related to palestine. i wasn't surprised to hear people around me talking about activism and aid work. i spent five hours there, trying to learn how to code a logo into the website header. i ate my second sandwich with lox that day. a friend of mine from ramallah, alison, from seattle, walked in and joined the girls next to me. after sitting by them for an hour I'd gleaned that they were working on a project about the right of education in palestine, as it relates to restrictions on foreign visitors. there's so much work going on here. so much research, so many demonstrations. i still have this desire to make more personal content. there are so many foreigners here, and i'm sure many of them are blogging, but we're cranking out the same stories over and over. what would it take to build the right bridges and bring more attention to this place?
can you tell where i decided to turn your letter into a blog post?
alright, back to the site. gimme three days, three days...
love you,
mo
