ramallah or bust

a long break

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:01:00 +0000

i want to thank everyone again who kept in touch here and supported me on this trip. i wish i had more internet access in palestine to update you, but as you've probably noticed, even 24/7 access like i have here doesn't necessarily mean more posting! i did start school again almost as soon as i got back and have been pretty busy with that ever since-- i'm working on my undergrad thesis which will be due in may. i do hope to post some stories from the summer here, and i will continue to use this blog for trips to the middle east in the future.

so no need to check back often. to most of you this blog is not our only communication, so by other means, please keep in touch!

philly update

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:24:00 +0000

a little busy with the housing situation. we've got a truck reserved for wednesday to move but i hope i'll have to cancel it! so i'm waiting to hear back from potential roommates and the landlord. i'd appreciate prayers. i know God has a plan for where i'll be sleeping in a week, so just pray that i'll trust that more fully. but while you're at it, please pray that i can stay here because i'd really love not to move!

coming up in the next few weeks are photos of:

the cities of ramallah and beitlehem
church of the nativity and church of the holy sepulcher

and stories of:

my airport/border experiences
the many languages i'm trying to learn

and since it'll be a week or two before i get back to the blog, enjoy new photos of my little nephew, dante, ever-growing in size and cuteness, from their vacation to lake tahoe.

jet lagged, but back

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:11:00 +0000

returned late friday night. my very delayed flight from heathrow got in around 11pm and my bags seemed to be last to come out. no customs problems, but then i still had a drive from jfk to philly. alex came over (at 2 in the morning!) and we stayed up talking on my front stoop for several hours. slept a little, went to alex's birthday breakfast bash in the morning then slept a good chunk of the day.

still waking up in the middle of the nights with no interest in going back to sleep, but when have i ever really had a sleep schedule?? (family, roommates, and studiomates need not chime in..)

give me a buzz if you haven't already. apologies for slowness in getting back in touch.

somethings i should've but didn't expect when returning to philly:

humidity ... BLEH!!!!!!!!! i'm now soooo glad i wasn't here all summer with 100-degree weather with this mugginess. yuck.

lack of basic necessities ... my roommates moved out just before i got back, so the apartment has no couches, dining table or chairs, silverware, drinking glasses, or kitchen & bath towels. yay for cooking and eating spanish rice standing up with chopsticks.

snail mail ... a few papercuts from opening my bazillions of bills, credit card offers, and student loan consolidation offers ("act before july 1st!")

coffee ... the american kind is unpalatable by comparison.

nudity ... americans really display much too much of their bodies in daily street clothing. sure i've been in a culture where knees are racy, but come on, i don't need to see your upper thighs, and your neckline should be somewhere near your neck, shouldn't it?

on my way back

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:46:00 +0000

yep it's been 8 and a half weeks here and i'll be on my way to tel-aviv early friday morning.

i'll let you know how it goes with israeli security. i can't wait to tell those stories. i'm saving them for when i'm safe in the states.

some things i'll be looking forward to that come to mind, other than family and friends, are air conditioning, water pressure, ice, english, non-smokers, american toilets, traffic lights and street signs, noise ordinances, anonymity, and mobility.

some things i'll miss, other than family and friends, are the hills and olive trees, the daily fresh picked fruit, the cool breezes, arabic, zeit u zaatar, kids riding donkeys on the street, the song of the summer, palestinian hospitality, stone architecture, and the poetry!

heh. each of these is a story i can tell if you ask me when i get back :)

recipe!

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 07:44:00 +0000

what's one of the yummiest things i've eaten here? i took careful note of everything sitti did to make this so i can share with you the recipe. enjoy!

cusa mahshi & waraq diwali
(stuffed squash and rolled grape leaves)
ingredients:
4 cups of short grain rice
~25 small light green or yellow squash
6 cloves of garlic
a handful of fresh parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon yellow curry
1 small onion
1/2 pound ground meat
[lamb is used here, but beef or turkey is also ok, or this ingredient can be skipped to make it veggie]
fresh grape leaves

instructions:

put the rice to soak in a large mixing bowl while you do the following: remove the tops and core the squash, mince the garlic, parsley, and onion. drain the rice. and add half of the garlic to the rice, along with the parsley, onion, oil, meat (raw), spice, and 1 tsp sugar (i dunno why the sugar, i'm just being honest, here) ;)

stuff the mixture into each squash, about 3/4 full, or leaving an inch of space at the top.

take fresh grape leaves, cut the stems and boil in batches until they soften and turn from green to a yellowish or olive color (about 2 minutes). [if you don't have access to fresh grape leaves, you can buy the california kind in the jar, no need to boil]
drain the leaves and allow them to cool.

put 3-4 layers of leaves at the bottom of a large pot (alternatively, you can put sliced raw potato or tomato. it doesn't really matter, just something to keep the cusa from touching the bottom of the pot). layer the stuffed squash in the pot.

using the remainder of the rice mixture, working one at a time, place a leaf, shiny side down with the stem closer to you. put one tablespoon of the mixture in the center, close to the stem. roll (like a burrito), folding the sides in. be careful not to roll too tight- the rice will expand. the wetness of the leaf should hold itself together. layer on top of the cusa in the pot. repeat until the mixture is used up.

take the remaining garlic and fry in olive oil. top off the pot with the extra leaves, sprinkle the garlic and the other tsp sugar on the top and fill the pot halfway with water. put a plate upside down on top before you cover the pan to keep the waraq from floating.

cover and boil on medium to high heat for half an hour, then simmer for another half an hour, or until the rice is ready. serve hot!

update

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:09:00 +0000

it's been a bit tough to update as i've actually made some friends i've spent some more time with. the folks in the program are a mix, but many of them are doing some kind of graduate study here. social and political history, comparative literature, anthropology, etc. two are documentary-making, and two others are photographers. and they come from all over! america, canada, france, germany, japan (yeah!).

and i've finally made it out to al-quds (jerusalem) and beitlehem, which has been long in coming.
i haven't blogged about it yet, but one challenge since i've been here has been the lack of mobility i have as a grandaughter. dad says there's really nothing i can do except let her know i'm ok and come back before sundown. since then i only recently mustered up the courage to do it, knowing that she would be uncomfortable.
trying to put myself in her shoes- she's lived with this occupation for decades now, and she is looking after my safety. unfortunately, she was also keeping me from seeing more of this, our beautiful country!
and i forgot my usb cable today so i can't upload the photos. but i actually forgot to take many photos there.

class is dragging a bit. many of the students, myself included, are getting pretty tired of six hours a day of class. and the language doesn't get any easier! also, the regional dialects don't make it easy!

i met a really neat woman- the cousin of a friend who is half deir-dibwani (like me) and half brazilian. she grew up in the bronx and went to nyu and columbia u for public admin and she's working here in ramallah. speaking with her was like looking in the mirror. it was so amazing to find someone to understand me as much as she did.

these could all be entries in and of themselves, but my (essentially) 5pm curfew does keep me from typing more. (and some of the keys on this keyboard have to be slammed in order to work, so sorry for any typos). of course i have a lot of other thoughts to share and plan to do so in the weeks following my return (so keep checking). just trying to use my valueable internet time here to update those worried for my life ;)

how many shekels?

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:12:00 +0000

well, i'm coming down to the last few weeks here and unfortunately, it's pretty tight!
if you take a look at the fundraising meter on the sidebar on the right, you'll see that i'm still short of my goal, which was a very conservative estimate.
like any other trip, there have been unexpected expenses, and as you may know, the dollar's not doing so well, so i'm getting fewer shekels to the dollar. meanwhile, the apartment stuff in philly adds another hurdle!

but i've been quite amazed at the generousity of you - family, friends, and even strangers - in helping me get here. i couldn't have done it without you! whether you're a new reader or have given already consider a donation to help get me through these last weeks without significant debt when i get back to the states. thanks!

my philly apartment

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:51:00 +0000

ok. sorry this post isn't about palestine, but it's been on my mind a lot lately so i thought i'd share:

the apartment in philly i've been renting with two wonderful roommates has a new owner who decided to raise the rent by 28% to renew our lease on 1 sept.
(now, this landlord has been less than helpful since they bought the building in the spring. they've been doing construction in the other apartments making lots of noise and leaving the lobby and stairway messy and dirty. they've shut off the water at least four times without notice for at least an hour each time. Once, one of my roommates was in the shower when it happened.)

my roommates' response, other than shock and disgust, is to move out. they simply can't afford the increase. my response, other than shock and disgust, has been to frantically check craigslist every moment i have on the internet, and to badger alex to help me find something (another apartment) or someone (new roomates).

if you know anything about me, you know i hate moving, but i've had to do it eight times in my five years in philly. and even though it's quite a rent hike, the room i live in would still be cheaper than most places in the area.
so i've put up a craigslist ad for new roommates. but the landlord has started showing the place, for an even bigger pricetag- a 66% increase from our current rent. my hope is that i could find two girls who could put down the deposit with me and that the landlord would take it for the original 28% increase). as you might imagine it's quite difficult to manage this while in palestine, with very limited access to the internet and phone calls being very expensive.

so if you or someone you know (who happens to be female, relatively tidy, and sane) is looking for a place in center city philadelphia, PLEASE let me know. ASAP.

condoleeza rice is here

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:54:00 +0000

my second class was cancelled today because so many of the students went into ramallah for the demonstration against rice and america's support of israel in the current offensive in lebanon and gaza.

this was much larger than the one from the last post. first people gathered in the city center, then paraded around the streets to rally more, then the whole crowd headed for the pa compound, but the pa soldiers did not allow the demonstrators to go any further than a certain intersection. that point is where things got a bit heated.
it was sad to see palestinians clash with palestinians. it seemed they had orders from president abu mazen.
it was also interesting to see the huge difference between the police, who even helped the demonstration, letting people use the loudspeakers from their trucks, and the army who even at one moment pointed their guns to the crowd.

geography lesson

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:32:00 +0000

it's come to my attention that many aren't sure exactly where i am and some don't even know where this region is (shame!). and so again, since people are worried, here's another 'i'm ok' post, this time with a bit of chart-reading!

so i'm in the ramallah area. our village is just east of the city, on the road to jericho.
here's a general map of Palestine/Israel from maps.com. click to enlarge.

here's a map of the west bank that shows my village! click for a larger, clearer picture

and here's bbc's map of the current crisis. click for details from bbc.

so, yes, i'm less than a hundred miles from some pretty major violence (although it takes several hours to actually travel that distance). but at the moment, this whole area is ok.
my arabic professor is from gaza and his family is still there except for his wife and kids with him. he hasn't seen them in six years. when his mother died he still wasn't allowed to enter. a couple weeks ago he said in arabic that the life in ramallah is 'kitkat' (yep, the candybar). of course he's comparing it to what his family is going through under attack in gaza.
i think it's true. ramallah is as bustling as always with buyers and sellers, commuters and businesspeople. there was a protest-esque gathering on monday in the city center. notice the hizb-allah flags and the guy on shoulders with a microphone

archeological tour

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:17:00 +0000

last weekend we got on a bus with a professor of archeology at birzeit u. we went to ariiha (jericho) and stopped at a few sites on the way.
i was surprised that we went through my village to get there (i thought there must be a better way than those winding streets). and even more surprised to stop in my village, up a hill, to visit the site of an ancient city- older than jerusalem- around 3000 bc. i forget the name but it sounded like 'tel-ai' (i'll ask). we also got to see khirbat almafjar, which i studied extensively in islamic art history with renata holod. it's a palace from the ummayyad dynasty/caliphate (8th c. ad) and the site of the infamous al-walid and his ..er... wine, women, and song. check out the mosaics.

for this and any other slideshow, hover over any photo to see the caption, and click to see the full size.

sitti's place

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:36:00 +0000

when my driver brought me into deir dibwan, our village, he called it the most beautiful village in the area. my friend fofo across the street says she's proud to say it's where she's from.
while i haven't been able to spend much time walking around the village, my daily drive all around it in the service taxi (looking to pick up that seventh person so we can go!) has brought me to see much of it.

and i must say, i agree with the others!

i thought i'd introduce you first to sitti's house. it's certainly small, nothing like the villas with balconies and grand staircases one finds nearby. but those families in the villas come over to my grandmas house to pick from her yellow plum tree and her grape vines. she's got only one flowering bush, everything else is useful and edible. the olives and almonds aren't ready yet, but when they are, i wouldn't be surprised if neighbors came in flocks to 'visit' and harvest :)

so here are some pics- and allow me to remind you that all of my photos are being snapped by my little camera phone.

communication

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 18:24:00 +0000

i guess i shouldn't make any promises about updates.
a distant relative passed away and sitti and i went to visit the family to pay our respects. and so i haven't made it into the city this weekend. tomorrow i'll be on an archeological tour of jericho. i promise no photos, that way you'll be surprised when you get them :)

alex has finally figured out how to call my 'biliphone' (mobile) here. so any news could come to me through him if you wish. i heard a rumour about an internet cafe here in the village, but i'll believe it when i see it.

also slide.com, my trusty little partner for posting photos, seems to be down for construction many middle-of-the-nights, pacific time. heh.
anyway, coming soon... ;)

i'll be back

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:41:00 +0000

getting online is a bit difficult here. the university has a computer center, but it closes at 3. i have class 8-2, and i need lunch after 6 straight hours of class. then i have to be back in the village before the service taxis stop running there, and so far the only internet luck i've had there is the neighbor's 28.8 k dial up on an old laptop that crashes every 10 minutes or so. heh.

found a great internet cafe in ramallah for 3 shekels an hour (i'm there now). but i've still got to get back to the village lest i get stuck in this town.

got some photos & thoughts to share, but there's no time (internet time!).

i promise two slideshows and paragraphs by friday ;) (please don't stop visiting!)

i'll leave you with one ramallah photo i just had to snap:

read all about it

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:58:00 +0000

you may have heard the news about gaza. if you haven't, i recommend reading at least two sources from two different countries. try cnn, aljazeera, bbc, etc.
or type palestine or israel into google news.
last night bbc world was broadcasting a live feed on tv of the artillery guns firing. they've got some photos from the assault you can see here, and snips of what both sides are printing about it here.

there was also a bit of a scare here in the ramallah area. nearby, dozens of officials and ministers were captured last night.

since i've been asked by more than one, i'll just say here: i'm ok and ramallah is relatively ok. nothing like gaza.
pray for gaza.

sunny day in oxford

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:33:00 +0000

it's true! much sun. i came on a good day.

here are some of my [so-so phone-camera] pics and detlef's [awesome camera] pics from my layover.

arrived

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:59:00 +0000

2nd day at birzeit university. just got out of my arabic placement exam.
lots to talk about but little time on the internet!
next week when i get my id card i'll have more time.

i will blog soon about the ..er.. interesting experiences with 'security'.

thanks for your prayers. i'm safe and my clothes are now with me (yay! i don't have to wear the same thing for the fourth day in a row!)

i have lots of people here to take care of me. so no worries (ahem, mom/nana/rose) ;)
but again, thank you for your prayers.

visiting oxford

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:02:00 +0000

safe and sound in oxford, after a long immigration line at heathrow and a bus ride. i was happily greeted by my long lost friend, meredith.
quick email check & blog post, and we're off to meet detlef and get some exercise!

packing

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 05:04:00 +0000

i had almost forgotten that when you go back home/to the blad, everyone wants to send things over with you.
my aunt in nm gave me two large shopping bags full of things for her son and mother. dad slipped in about ten pounds of coffee and creamer (apparently they like the american stuff??)

in any case (no pun intended, hah!) stuff and things are beginning to be packed.

my uncle is preparing my ride to jfk on friday afternoon.

cute cousins

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 05:19:00 +0000

to see just how much work i need to do on my arabic, i went to my uncle's (dad's bro) house in ne philly tonight. actually, i came to see my aunt (dad's sis) and cousin who are passing through for three days on their way to california. i often forget how beautiful my dad's sisters are until each time i see them again.
showed them some photos of my baby nephew, and snapped these of my very adorable and very hyperactive cousins here in philly ;)

homemade hoummous

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 21:04:00 +0000

it started as a joke when i told esther i don't pay for hoummous because it's so cheap and easy to make... it continued as others have said they enjoy mine more than store-bought...
someone suggested i have a bake sale to raise money for the trip, and it ends now with the one week AND ONE WEEK ONLY...

***HOUMMOUS SALE***

Only in Philadelphia. Pickup at my apartment.
Choose from the following varieties or make a special order.

Classic ------------- garlic, lemon, peppercorn
Green Herb ------- parsley, dill, chive, marjoram
Roasted Red ------ sundried tomato and roasted red pepper
Baba ---------------- roasted eggplant
Cucumber Dill ---- um... cucumber and dill
Triple Onion ------ vidalia, scallion, chive
Kalamata olive --- you guessed it
Spicy --------------- cayenne, chile, cumin, cilantro, lime
Pesto --------------- basil, pine nut, parmesan

All varieties contain chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste), garlic, lemon, and salt.

8oz $3.00
16oz $5.00

Order form (copy the following and email to me)
Quantity:
Size: 8oz or 16oz
Variety:
Choose Pickup time:
Sunday 6/11 (1pm-3p)
Monday 6/12 (5:30pm-6:30p)
Wednesday 6/14 (5:30pm-6:30p)

getting ready to get on a plane tonight in abq. back in philly tomorrow morning.

riwaq

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:00:00 +0000

for the past seven or eight years, i've pretty much known what i've wanted to do in terms of college/career, minus a tangent here or there (engineering and music). a strong desire to create unique environments for inhabitation coupled with concerns for THE environment come together well in sustainable design (and hopefully will do so in my upcoming architecture/environmental studies combined senior thesis). but another vision, of ministry of community building, previously seemed to be a different life-direction possibility has recently begun to meld in my mind with the first into what you might say is a calling.

that may sound confusing (in which case i apologise), but it comes down to this: an organization in Palestine does almost exactly what i want to do, and in the place and among the people i'd like to do it. i discovered the website of Riwaq a little over a year ago. i immediately contacted them and tried to make plans for last summer that fell through. now that "i'm in" for this trip, i'll be joining them for a few hours a week (more if i don't raise the money for the birzeit program) as a volunteer, primarily working on site surveys.

if any of this sounds remotely interesting to you (it gives me chills! haha), visit their website.

tagging

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:21:00 +0000

thanks to friends (esther, you're the best) and friends-of-friends who believe in the cause and are coming in with support of money and word-spreading (and thanks jgrice for the heads up).

est put it this way:

If 5 people read this and put in $5 a piece, then tell 5 other people who also put in $5 a piece, it would only take 4 cycles to raise 90% of her trip costs, at no significant cost to any of the contributors. Moreover, if anyone puts in more than $5 or tells more than 5 people, obviously the whole thing gets accelerated.

sitti and other family

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 23:23:00 +0000

my sitti (grandma), mother of yabba (dad), still lives in deir dibwan, east of ramallah. that is where she raised my dad and her three other children. i first saw her there when i was a little girl during our first (and my only yet) trip overseas. at that time my grandfather was still alive. this was a really important trip, because it was the first time they saw their grandchildren, but especially for my grandfather who got to see his first son's first son (my brother) before he died just a few years later.

my parents never let us forget that trip. one of our favorite pastimes as children was to look through the 'auntie book'-- an album of photos of us and all of our relatives and friends in the village. my mom and yabba would ask me, "do you remember when you laid down for a nap under the tree with your yabba and he got up and you woke up wondering where he was?" and to my sister, "do you remember when we lost you and found you at your auntie's candy shop with your shoes off drinking tea?" heh. she was two when that happened.

and so the memories of palestine never left us.

my sitti later stayed with us in albuquerque for several months, but other than that time and some short visits, i have not seen her. i miss her and love her very much, and much of why i want to learn arabic is to be able to talk with her.

for several years now, i've wanted to go 'back home' (that's how many arabs refer their home countries). things never seemed to work out. money of course is one large obstacle, the political situation--never really stable-- is another. this time when i broached the subject with my parents, they were surprisingly supportive, and even excited. we prayed. mom was certain that it would be possible, that we could somehow pull it off. and God has opened the door for this long-awaited visit.

thanks

noreply@blogger.com (leila) — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 03:10:00 +0000

THANK YOU!!!

Thanks so much for your donation. It's generosity like yours that makes dreams happen-- I couldn't do it without you!

-Leila

PS- Check back soon-- as soon as I see your donation, I'll add your name to the Donors list on the site!