Last week was my birthday and I turned 30. My birthday party had already been organized the week before, to combine it with another friend’s birthday. My friends had arranged a dj and we danced all night long in the Citadel, the local restaurant in the old city of Beit Sahour where we usually meet.

It has been really hectic for me in the past weeks. Both my housemates moved out and I started to realize that most of my contacts and friendships here do not have a long history and for that reason are usually a bit shallow. People come and go and you can’t really connect in that short time. And my Palestinian friends are wonderful and I love them a lot but they do not have the same background and reference. So I think I started to feel more and more disconnected and I miss my dear friends in Holland. It made me to decide to return back to Holland in July to spend the summer there and reflect on what I am going to do next. Though I am sure I will stay involved with Palestine and the Palestinians.

Besides my personal ‘crisis’ there is the current situation in Palestine, with the siege of Gaza, the phone calls from my friend Mohamed Omer who lives there and the worries, sadness and anger about how Israel manipulates the media and the world opinion about what they are actually doing there. There is much tension in the Westbank. Kids throwing stones at military jeeps or watch towers and then follows the tear gas and the rubber bullets. The attack on the Jewish orthodox school in Jerusalem on Thursday caused a lot of fear and therefore closures of checkpoints. Another attempt to arrest a Palestinian man in Bethlehem and the demolition of his house when they couldn’t catch him.

Last week Thursday we went to see a concert of the Palestinian rap group DAM. DAM consists of three Palestinians from an Arab village called Lod, which is inside Israel. Their lyrics often deal with the frustration of the occupation and the feeling of being second class in Israel. Palestinians who live in Israel face a lot of discrimination and have less opportunities and rights than Jewish Israelis. The concert was good and the atmosphere was great. But as the entrance fee was about 10 euros, it was only the middle and upper class that could attend…

This week I joined a trial for a youth training program in Beit Sahour. It is organized by the organisation Paidia International Development (www.pidev.org) They built a climbing tower on the edge of Beit Sahour with a lot of artificial grass around it, that will be the base for activities and games to teach children about communication, cooperation and leadership. Next week the first group of youth will come and start with the program and we joined the trial. It was a very nice and sunny day and even though it was artificial grass, we really enjoyed sitting and playing games on it! The games were really helpful in learning more about communication techniques and how to learn to work together as a group.

As I am giving workshops myself now for a Youth Participation Project, it was very interesting and I actually used some of the games for my own group!

The Youth Participation Project consist of three workshops in which youth learns both in theory and in practice about how to organize a project, which questions to ask, which steps to take and how to get organized, how to use your network etc. We talked about the obstacles that youth faces in organizing something and the main problems for them were money, lack of knowledge and experience and lack of network. So we started to think about solutions and how we can tackle these problems. They came up with many ideas and some of them we will implement next Friday. They organized a program in wich these three aspects will be ‘solved’. The program in the morning consists of a workshop about democratic decision making. For the afternoon they will invite representatives of different smaller organisations in Bethlehem to present themselves and to do some networking. Also they will bring some home made food and make a small benefit party in order to get some money. This way they will work on the knowledge, network and money issue!

And today is International Womens Day. This morning I joined a protest march in Bethlehem, organized by the different women groups. They had planned for a celebration with music, dabka dance and food, but because of the situation in Gaza they changed the schedule and we had a protest march and speeches near the Nativity Church, in front of the Peace Center. There were about 60 women, both muslims and christians and a handful of foreign women, like me.

Tonight in our Political Cafe we will have a talk by one of the organizers of this march. She works for the Women Media & Development Center. We will show two short documentary films made by women about women issues.

Women all around the world: unite!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471684@N07/sets/72157604072599879/

Last year in June two Palestinian boys, 15 years old, Ziad Mahfuth and Shehada Salah, were invited to come to Holland to speak about their experiences as child prisoners. They were invited by a Dutch organization called ‘Talliq’ that cooperates with Defense for Children International, section Palestine.

Since I have returned to Palestine I met both of the boys and I spent a day in Aroub refugee camp with Ziad and his family.

Recently Ziad was arrested again, for the fourth time, and he was injured by the soldiers who arrested him. He was released on the 9th day after his arrest. We invited Ziad to come and tell us about his experiences. Ziad came to Beit Sahour where ten people of ten different countries have listened to his story and now they will write about him as an example of the many child prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Ziad was born in 1991 in Aroub refugee camp, near Hebron city. The life in Aroub camp is very difficult. The houses are very small, built closely together, leaving no space for children to play in the small alleys. There are no trees, parks, playgrounds, just a school, run by the United Nations, with an open square where the kids usually play football. Every night the Israeli soldiers invade the camp and harass or arrest people. Young boys often express their frustration by throwing stones at the soldiers in their jeeps and tanks.

Many children have been arrested for throwing stones. Ziad was arrested for the first time when he was 13 years old. They kept him for 2 weeks and interrogated him, but as he did not confess that he threw stones, they released him without charges. In that same year, 2004, he was arrested another time for throwing stones and released after 3 days.

In 2005 he was not only charged with stone throwing but also with throwing a Molotov cocktail.

Ziad: ‘They came in the middle of the night and surrounded the house with about 20 soldiers. They took me from my bed in my pyamas and threw me outside on the street in the rain where they kept me for about 10 minutes. Then I was brought to the investigation center in Etzion where they kept me in a small room of 1mxb2 for seven days, without interrogation. I couldn’t stretch my legs and I had to sleep in sitting position. They gave me bread with butter once a day and one glass of water. I could use the toilet only once in two days.’

After this week of solitary confinement he was interrogated and charged with throwing seven stones and two Molotov cocktails. Ziad denied doing these things and they started beating him. The investigator then told him that they had all the proof ready to show that he did throw the stones and Molotov cocktails so he’d better sign the papers so that he would be released soon. He was so tired and scared that he signed a paper that was completely written in Hebrew, a language that he doesnx92t understand. Later he found out that he signed that he would go back to the prison until the trial, so they didn’t let him go home.

All this time he couldn’t see a lawyer. The only time he saw a lawyer was in the court, but the court case was all in Hebrew, so he didn’t understand anything and it lasted only five minutes.

He was sentenced to seven months and he spent the rest of his time in two different prisons. He was not allowed to send letters. He could receive visits from his parents once in two weeks. Most of the time in prison he spent in the cell where a teacher came to teach Arabic and mathematics to the young prisoners. Before he was released he also had to pay a fine of 500 shekels.

A few weeks ago he was arrested again in the middle of the night. The soldiers made him undress on the street and they handcuffed him. A soldier asked him for his name and Ziad replied that the soldier could read his name in his I.D. card. The soldier was not satisfied with this answer and he hit him on his chest with his machinegun. The soldier broke his rib and until this day Ziad is coughing up blood.

They told him that he was throwing stones, but he denied this and then they told him he has to pay 2000 shekels, otherwise they will keep him for 2 months. Because he was coughing blood he decided to call his family to ask them to bring the money, so that he could leave and see a doctor outside of the prison. The family has had to borrow money from different relatives in order to pay the sum and nobody knows why Ziad has had to pay this money.

In the last two weeks, since his release, the soldiers have come to his house three times to ask about him, but he was never at home. He doesn’t know what they want from him.

Ziad wants to leave the country. He asked for our help. We told him that it will be very difficult and that there are no guarantees that he will be able to build up a better life elsewhere. We tried to make him understand that it is very important not to leave, but to find a way to improve his life here and to help building towards a free and justice solution for Palestine.

We decided to help him with that, by giving him financial support so that he can continue his school and we want to involve him in some of our projects and help him to learn English. Next week we will go and visit him and his family in Aroub with a group of internationals.

If you want to help Ziad with some financial support, please contact me by email for more details.

See also: www.talliq.nl

The olive planting program has started and I joined the first two planting days.

The group consists of a few individuals and a group of American presbyterians who came as an organized group. They are staying in a hotel in Beit Sahour and besides plating olive trees they visit local organizations and make trips to see the cities of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron and Ramallah.

The main purpose of this olive planting program is to protect the farmers on their fields from  harrasment by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Secondly, people who join this program learn a lot about the situation in the Westbank and get to speak to the farmers and their families and show solidarity with them. And of course planting 300 olive trees is done a lot quicker with the help of 30 volunteers!

The members of the group are very nice and friendly people who have prepared very well for this trip. Most of them are older than 50 years, up to 75, and all of them are presbyterians (linked to the protestant church) For each tree that is planted, they have a small paper with a name of a person from their church or from their family who has donated money to sponsor an olive tree. The pieces of paper are added to the trees and for each tree somebody says a pr ayer of blessing for the tree and the farmer and his family.

They brought lots of presents for the Palestinian farmers to show their solidarity with the families.

It is so beautiful to see how these Americans are aware of the situation here and are willing to come out here and act in such a beautiful, peaceful and strong way.

A very moving moment was when they said a prayer in commemoration of the peace activist Rachel Corrie, who died in 2003 at the age of 23, when an Israeli bulldozer crushed her, in the Gaza strip. (www.rachelcorrie.org) The group realized that Rachel was from a Presbyterian family, just like their own daughters. She went to Gaza to support the Palestinians who are suffering on daily basis from the occupation and she went out to stop the bulldozers from destroying the house of a Palestinian family. She died, while fighting for a just cause.

The YMCA has planted olive trees in commemoration of Rachel Corrie and put her name on a plague in the field.

You can read more about the olive planting program and daily reports and photos on www.jai-pal.org

We all got sun tanned in the last days, as the weather has improved and the sun is shining! A few photos of mine are to be found on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kletschert/sets/72157601802976057/

After I wrote an email about the convoy to Gaza to my mailinglist, I received many positive replies from people who wanted to donate some money for a food package for a family in Gaza. So on Friday afternoon I went to a big local supermarket in Beit Sahour and I bought a good supply of rice, lentils, olive oil, tea, sugar, chocolate and fish and meat in tins.

On Saturday morning we had to carry all these goods through the Gilo checkpoint (a big terminal where all the stuff had to go through an x-ray machine). We were about 35 people leaving from Bethlehem to meet the rest of the people in Jerusalem where we got on the buses.

On a bigger carpark outside the city center we met with the private cars that were joining the convoy and we decorated the  buses and the cars. After a short briefing we left with about 250 people from Jerusalem.

The weather during the way to the Eretz crossing to Gaza was really terrible. Rain, rain and more rain and a lot of wind. We were all worried about the rally that was planned at the checkpoint.

Fortunately the weather changed as we came closer to Eretz and it stopped raining completely! We met with the cars from the other convoys that came from different directions, from Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheeva. It was amazing to see all these cars with posters urging to end the siege of Gaza.

We parked the cars near to Eretz and then people started bringing the food supplies, medicines, blankets, clothes and everything they brought to the truck that was supposed to take these supplies into Gaza.

There were about 1000 people, Israelis (both Jewish and Palestinians) and internationals. As we walked towards the Eretz crossing we were shouting slogans in both Hebrew, Arabic and English.

The checkpoint at Eretz is a huge terminal with lots of fences, barbed wire, walls and watch towers. We couldnxb4t see anything of what was going on on the other side. I phoned my friend Mohamed Omer who lives in Rafah. He was happy to hear that we were there with so many people and he invited us to come to the south and cross from the Egypt boarder, where the wall has fallen at certain places and there is a possibility to access.

The demonstration went on without problems, but the truck with food was not allowed to access Gaza at that time. According to some people from the organisation they would store the products and come back today to bring it again. They seemed positive about the chance to get it inside. Letxb4s hope so. But at least the people of Gaza know that many people all around the world did not forget them and are in solidarity with them.

As soon as we got back on the bus, it started raining again.

We came home just in time to attend a theatre play by Ashtar Theatre group in Bethlehem. A play about the identity and struggles in life of young Palestinians. There was a lot of humour, music, dance and traditions in the play and it cheered up our moods after this long and emotional day at Eretz crossing.

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kletschert/sets/72157601548902319/

article: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1201433012

The three weeks I spent in Holland were great and I really enjoyed the dark brown bread with cheese, the stroopwafels and the zuurkoolstamppot! I met most of my friends and spent good time with my family and it was wonderful to feel all the love and support that people gave me.

During my stay in Holland I have given several presentations about my personal experiences living in the Westbank and about the projects we are working on. The mainstream media gives us only a part of the news and unfortunately that is most of the times very negative and sad news, cause good news is not news that interests us so much. With my presentations I have tried to show people another side of the life in this region.

It is very nice to be back in Palestine, with my wonderful friends and my family here! My friends were waiting for me with nice food (stuffed potatoes with tahina from the oven!) and we immediately started watching the xb4Black Booksxb4 (an English comedy series that I brought from Holland). They loved it and we had a night full of laughter!

The first days passed quickly. There was lots of work to do for the Political Cafxe9 in the AIC and there were some new volunteers that we showed around Bethlehem and the refugee camps.

On Friday and Saturday I joined the coordinator of the YMCA Olive Tree Campaign to visit a group of farmers in Yatta and Beit Umar to help them planting new olive trees in their fields that are threatened to be confiscated for the expansion of nearby settlements. Israel claims that this land has been detained by the farmers and wants to confiscate it. The farmers simply didnxb4t have money to grow crops or plant trees or get water down that valley to use it. But it is their land and they have the papers that prove that they are the legal owners.

When we arrived to Yatta we were invited inside the house of one of the villagers where all the farmers had already gathered. The men were all sitting on mattresses on the floor, without shoes and most of them with the kufyia (the scarve in black and white or red and white that became well known in the west because of Yasser Arafat). This scarve is very useful, during hot weather it covers your head from the sun and in the winter it is a nice protection against the cold! I guess in the West it became a symbol of resistance or maybe even militancy but here it is a daily piece of cloths used by mainly farmers.

We spoke about the places where the farmers wanted to replant trees and about the practical details such as when and where to deliver the trees. The coordinator of the Olive Tree Campaign has bought most of the trees from Palestinian nurseries in the Westbank, with money that was donated by sponsors from the West. Everybody can sponsor one or more olive trees that will be planted in fields that are threatened by confiscation or in fields where olive trees have been uprooted and destroyed.

See for more information about the campaign:

http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=1

On Saturday we went to help the families to plant the 1600 olive trees that arrived with a big truck. There was also a group of Jewish peace activists who came to help the Palestinian farmers. And of course there were also seven military jeeps and Israeli police to tell us that we were planting on Stateland and that whatever we planted would be uprooted again. But there has not been any court verdict and the land belongs to the farmers since generations!

While I was chatting with some of the kids, an older lady approached me and tried to marry me to one of her sons! It was a funny conversation. In my broken Arabic I told her that she had wonderful sons but that I was not available, even though I am not married! We were laughing a lot together, holding hands and she was so lovely and old lady!

They offered us a great lunch, with freshly baked bread, humus, olives, tomatoes and lebnah.

The view of the valley is great and it would be such a sad thing to see this land being confiscated to enlarge the settlements that are surrounding this lovely valley, where the kids were running around, enjoying a day out in the sun!

It is cold, but nice.

Different atmosphere, different landscapes, different food, different people.
No roadblocks, no checkpoints, no wall, no soldiers, no settlements.

Being in Holland is a welcoming break from the life under occupation.
I am fully enjoying this trip. Cycling on flat roads, eating Dutch cheese on dark bread! Family, friends. It is very good to be here for a while.

But I am also happy to go back to Palestine after a few weeks! Back to where I feel at home.

In the coming weeks I will give couple of presentations in different social centers and political cafes in Holland. See the schedule below. Hopefully I will see many people there!

Leven in de door Israxebl bezette Palestijnse gebieden

Persoonlijkeervaringen van Kristel, docente en stadsgids uit Utrecht, die sindsoktober 2006 in de Westbank woont en werkt en net terug is uitBethlehem.

Met fotox92s en film, persoonlijke verhalen en ervaringen.

Tevens informatie over het x91Eco Alternative Guesthousex92 in oprichting! (check alvast de website op: www.eag-palestine.org) 

Met boekentafel, informatie, Palestina merchandising en traditionele muziek!

Schema presentaties

30 december, Nijmegen, De Klinker, Van Broeckhuysenstraat 46,
15.00 uur (om 18.00 uur eten)

4 januari in Amsterdam in jongerencentrum Argan, Overtoom 141
18.00 uur

6 januari in Utrecht in cafxe9 Averechts, Lijsterstraat 49, 14.00 uur
(info middag en om 18.00 uur benefiet eten!)

10 januari in Utrecht in hostel Strowis, Boothstraat 8, 20.00 uur
(info avond met focus op guesthouse project)

11 januari in Den Bosch, Knoflook, Havendijk 3, 18.00 uur eten, 19.00 uur

12 januari in Leiden, De Linkse Kerk, Hooglandse Kerkgracht 4, 20.00 uur

Last weekend my Italian friend Lorenza and me went for a trip to Jenin. I had been there once before but only for a few hours. This time we spent the weekend there. We were a bit nervous about travelling through the checkpoints, as Lorenzaxb4s visa expired the day before. If they want to hassle you, they can make a big problem and even blacklist you so you cannot come back to Israel and Palestine. But on the way to go there, we had no problems.

In Jenin we stayed in the Freedom Theater, inside the refugee camp. We made friends with the volunteers who work there and we spent a nice evening with Mustafa and Tareq and some other guys in a restaurant in Jenin.

The Freedom Theater is run by Juliano Mer Khamis. His mother was married to a Palestinian. She became famous after her son made the film xb4Arnaxb4s childrenxb4 about her work in the Jenin refugee camp. She did a lot of artistic work and drama with the kids to help them in their difficult situation, to find distraction and another way of life. In 2002 the Stone Theatre, that was part of Arnaxb4s project, was destroyed during the Israeli invasion of the camp. The theatre has been rebuilt and nowadays there are daily activities, workshops, classes and performances in the Freedom Theatre. Lorenza and me did an interview with Juliano. He told us how he completely broke with his life in Israel and he only goes to visit his daughter in Haifa now and then. He lives in the Jenin refugee camp with his wife, who is from Finland. The life in Jenin refugee camp is not easy. The people in the camp suffer a lot. The mentality of the people is very conservative and most people are very religious. It happened more than once that one of the girls who had been taking drama classes was not allowed to perform in front of men. Many of the children are not allowed at all to attend the drama classes, as it is considered to be xb4haramxb4 (bad according to the religion).

But there are also success stories. We met with Mustafa, a 21 year old guy from Jenin, who studies in the American University in Jenin. He told us how he got involved with Hamas and started to become very religious, following their rules and orders. The visits to the Freedom Theatre and the different atmosphere there, made him think about how he wanted to struggle against the occupation. And now he is a volunteer for the Freedom Theatre, where he helps as an accountant. He speaks very well English and is a perfect host for internationals who visit the Theatre.

On Sunday we visited the American University and I met with Manar, a girl that I once met in Bethlehem. We exchanged phone numbers, wrote couple of emails and when I decided to go to Jenin I contacted her. She showed as around and we had lots of girls coming to talk with us about our life in Europe, our stay in Palestine and all kinds of things! They loved to be able to practice their English and they all invited us to their homes!

We went with Manar to her village, Zababde, which is a Christian village near to Jenin. It is small, only 5000 inhabitants. We walked around the village, saw the two main churches and had a great lunch with humus, fried eggs, fried potatoes, tahina salad, olive oil and zatar and lebenah !!

On Monday we left around half past nine with a service (mini bus) to Ramallah. Just before Nablus there seemed to be a flying checkpoint. We were a bit nervous because of Lorenzaxb4s expired visa. We waited and waited and waited… People started to get out from their cars and climb the hill beside us to see what was going on. We saw big military vehicles and lots of soldiers, but we couldnt figure out what was the reason for them to stop all the traffic and not let anybody pass. Later we found out that they thought they found a bomb on the junction and they stopped the traffic from all the sides!! We waited more than two hours!
Finally we reached Ramallah and after a quick lunch we continued to Bethlehem. But we got stuck again near the Kalandia checkpoint, cause there had just been a shooting at the checkpoint, a Palestinian was killed by the Israelis, and they closed all the roads! Another hour of waiting, not knowing what will happen. When they finally let the traffic go, the young soldier boys didnt know how to deal with the situation of many upset car drivers who all wanted to rush away! The traffic was crazy and we thought we would end up in a car crash! But we managed to reach the container checkpoint, between Ramallah and Bethlehem where we had to wait another hour in the qeue. Finally we reached our destination, after 7 hours of travel (that should have taken us only 3,5 hours!)

And you know what… this is what many Palestinians have to go through every single day, travelling inside the Westbank. They never know how long it will take them and if they will reach their destination.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kletschert/sets/72157601779303098/

The website is online and the guesthouse is already receiving guests!

We are still working on the renovations of the building and making it look more and more beautiful and alive! In the same time we have started the work we wanted to do, which is hosting guests, showing them life under occupation, helping them to voluntary work and contacts in the Westbank and helping them to do advocacy work back home!

Last week we had a couple of guests in their mid twenties, from different countries. There was Chris from the United States, Edwin and Sjoerd from the Netherlands, Susan from the UK and Brian from Ireland.

On Friday we organized an excursion in the Bethlehem district. We asked Abu Sari to come with his mini bus and we went to see the village of An Numan, which is completely surrounded by the wall. There is only one road that gives access to the village and there is a big checkpoint there. The asphalt road that passes by the village is a settler road, only for Jewish people who live in the settlements inside the Westbank. A lot of land has been confiscated from the Palestinians in order to build this road and to build a terminal. The terminal they are building is a trade terminal, to check the goods that will be transported from the Westbank towards the settlement of Har Homa and then to Israel. The village has only about 200 inhabitants, who are completely closed off from the surrounding area and cannot receive any visitors from outside. There are hardly any facilities or shops inside the village.

Then we went to see the situation with the construction of the wall and the building of settlements near to Artaz, where we also saw the beautiful convent of Artaz, a village known for its horticulture.

We continued our way and stopped at Solomonxb4s Pools. The three pools are each over 100 meters long and ten meters deep and have a combined capacity of nearly 300.000 cubic meters of water. They played a significant role in the water supply for Bethlehem and Jerusalem for centuries. These pools get water from four different springs. The present pools were probably constructed by Herod the great in connection with his improvements to the Jerusalem temple.
They are called Solomons pools cause they were the favourite recreation place for King Solomon.

The Palestinians have tried to make the Solomonxb4s Pool to become an attractive place for tourists. They have started to build a tourist resort, but during the second Intifada the Israelis have damaged much of the work and until now they do not allow for the building mateials to reach the place of work.

We finished our trip in Nahallin, a Palestinian village that suffers much from the settlers of the settlement Betar Illit. On Saturdays (a day off for the Jewish) the children of the settlers throw stones to the villagers. They climb up the viaduct and throw stones from there to cars that pass under the bridge. If the Palestinians try to stop these children, the Israeli soldiers interfere to protect the jewish children…

Also the sewage water from the settlement, that is built on a hill top, comes down from Betar Illit to the valley of Nahallin, where Palestinian families have seen how their lands have been completely damaged by the dirty sewage water.

After we arrived back to the guesthouse, we went with a group of ten volunteers to the piece of land that belongs to the Arab Women Union and we started to prepare a patch of land for growing some organic vegetables. We want to use these 10 dunums of land for ecological agricultural projects and environmental education projects. It was great to see everybody working hard and feeling so involved with this project.

Chris and Susan left that night to fly back home. I called Mohamad to pick up Sjoerd and Edwin from Ramallah to show them around, the city, the tomb of Arafat etc. and to take them to his village A Tira. This way they got to see a lot more of the Westbank.
For Brian we arranged a voluntary job with the IMEMC (International Middle East Media Center)

And this what our guesthouse is all about. Connecting people. Facilitating their stay in Palestine. And working together on making the guesthouse and the land an inspiring and active place to be!!

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kletschert/sets/72157601802976057/

Last week started off with the celebration of a circumcision in the Hilo family! According to the customs the 7 months old Mohamad was circumcised and this had to be celebrated with the family. Mohamad himself didnxb4t really understand why we were all having a party and a barbecue, while he was suffering this terrible pain in this very small part of his body…

Not only the muslims circumsize their baby boys here, also the christian families do that. It is not only a religious tradition, but also a matter of hygiene. The doctor comes to the house and while the father holds the boy, the doctor quickly and skillfully removes the skin. Of course it is not very pleasant and when Mohamad started crying, his mother was suffering a lot too! But Mohamad was brave and his mother was proud of him!

Friday night we organized a mini pool contest at a friends house. He has a pool table at home and we made four teams and played two against two. My team mate Baha was very good and I wasnxb4t so bad myself, so we managed to win all the games and become the champions of the night!

Sunday Bahaxb4s mother wanted to go on strike. She needed a break from cleaning and cooking and she wanted to spend a day away from home. So we went together to do some shopping in Bethlehem where she bought me two beautiful sweaters and we bought some ingredients to make a pizza. I still had half a kilo of Gouda cheese that my mother brought me, so we did a wonderful pizza with a topping of Dutch cheese. It was the first time that she visited me in Beit Sahour and she was in a very good mood, very relaxed and she enjoyed spending the day with me. She told me much about her life and how her father wanted her to marry a cousin in Jordan, but she refused and fought for her own choice to marry her present husband, whom she had secretely loved for a few years! She has 8 children, seven sons and one daughter. The oldest son is mid thirty and lives in Belgium. The others are all still living in the house, three of them with their wifes. And there are two grandchildren now. The life has not been easy. Lots of worries about her sons, suffering from the occupation, from soldiers, sons in prison and a difficult economical situation. But she is a very strong woman and she always thinks of other people first before she thinks of herself. Today was maybe the first day in her life that she made a choice for herself. And I really enjoyed spending the day with her!

Tuesday I went to Aroub refugee camp near Hebron to visit Ziad, one of the two boys that were in Holland in June to speak about their experience as child prisoners. Ziad is only 16 years old and he has spent 7 months in the prison because he was accused of throwing stones and a molotov cocktail at soldiers. In his family three brothers have been to prison before and one of them is still in prison.

When Ziad was in Holland he was amazed by the space, the green landscape, the sea, the freedom to travel wherever you want,… Now he wants to come back to Holland. He doesnt see a future for himself in Palestine. And frankly speaking, i can completely understand that, seeing the situation in which the people live in that refugee camp. There is a big fence around the camp, the military is always present at the one and only entrance of the camp, the soldiers come inside the camp every night to make problems and there is nothing to do for the kids after they come home from school.

Thursday and Friday we worked with a great team of volunteers on the renovation of the guesthouse. Mohamad brought three other guys from Atira village and my friend Razan from Ramallah came to help us. So we were a mixture of Palestinians, internationals and on Friday we also had an Israeli friend of mine for a visit. She was part of a peace walk from Eilat to Bethlehem and had just arrived in Aida Refugee Camp. We all shared a diner together in the Citadel and it was very nice to see Mohamad and Rosana speaking (in Hebrew!) about their lifes and about efforts for peace.

We did a lot of work in the guesthouse and it has started to look really nice. I will soon add some photos of the guesthouse, but only after it is ready!

Our website is online since yesterday and you can read more about the project on: www.eag-palestine.org

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kletschert/sets/72157601548902319/

In Ramallah there is this fantastic traffic police man that was rewarded for the efforts he puts in his work! Look at the man in this video. He is amazing! One day I will go to Ramallah to dance with him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBJRpW-jSEI