A few days ago, a crew from Palestine TV came to Al Aqaba. My friend Yuhki who works at Al-Najah University had told one of his friends from the station about my project and about Al Aqaba, so they set up a time to come and interview me and Haj Sami. When they arrived on Wednesday morning we started with the Guest House. They set up lights and cords and put a microphone on me, and a nice women named Dalal interviewed me about what the heck I was doing in a village like Al Aqaba. They worked in Ramallah, and hailed from cities. It was always a long explanation, why I was there, but I did my best. I was self-conscious about my hair and wondering if the camera really did add 10 pounds. I almost wanted my stomach bug back. Anyways, we finished up and one of the guys made tea in my kitchen, and Dalal invited me to her house in Ramallah to meet her three girls. She looked about my age. I really liked this crew. It would be fun to visit them in Ramallah.
They ended up staying for a few hours, getting all the information they could about Haj Sami and the village, then as Haj Sami and our two American guests and I were walking down to Tayasir to eat maqloubeh, some of the guys on the crew jumped out of their van and handed Haj Sami the camera so he could get footage from the point-of-view of his wheelchair. Then the van sped off and they joked, "ah well, we'll stay here with you." Then we caught up to the van, one guy got in, and the van lunged forward again, stranding the last guy. And the game continued for a few more minutes, making us all laugh as we watched this news team play cat-and-house. The sun was setting, the fields were green, and the wind was strong. I felt this was a moment I could lock away, that I would someday want to capture, even in retrospect. This is a beautiful place, a place that will never cease to make you smile.