A Day in the Life

Dear Friends,

It's difficult to even summarize my experiences this first week in Hebron, so I thought I'd give you a snapshot of one day. No day is the same and changes are the one constant.

So, a day in the life...

...the day began at 8:00 with the team gathered for a time of prayer and reflection on the attacks in Gaza, followed by our daily team meeting. The team meeting - which gives us time to review schedules, upcoming visitors, meetings, events, issues needing discussion/response, etc. is an important beginning to our day. This mornings meeting didnn't end until after 10:30 after several interruptions - one phone call from another peace organization with information about an upcoming brainstorming meeting, our land lord stopping in to collect the rent (and there is no just stopping by here, even if picking up money is the intent of a visit there is a drink offered and greetings and questions after health and family exchanged before one can even attempt to send someone on their way). Not long after the landlord left, there was someone else at the door, this time a local Palestinian woman who is starting up a women's center, who wanted to speak with one of our team members about some start up issues. A long discussion followed before we were able to resume and finally finish our meeting.

After the meeting, I headed out with a team mate to take care of the day's grocery shopping and running a few errands. The market was very full, the cobblestone very slippery and wet as vendors cleaned up spills and such. We were immediately surrounded by several boys with empty shopping carts who followed us for quite some time and who were very persistent in trying to get us to utilize their services. These boys try to earn a few shekels by carrying groceries for shoppers. I did not need them (only needing to pick up a few things) but it was quite some time before they moved off. So with the boys pressed around me, navigating wet streets and trying to aviod walking into a horse and cart or vendors pushing large carts of vegetables through the narrow lanes, I bought everything I needed as quickly as I could and headed home.

I came home to find a long time friend of CPT, A, whom we'd visited in his village the prior week, visiting the apt and asking about the proposed demolition of a settlement outpost in a village in the south Hebron hills, where our second CPT team in the region is located. We tentatively planned to go with him to the village and others in that area to photograph as much as we could pre-demolition. The Israeli settlers in this outpost, built it illegally, after first planting a virtual forest of pine trees to provide cover, and they are the most aggressive of settlers, poisoning fields where Palestinians bring sheep to graze, throwing stones or ambushing Palestinian school children who are forced to walk right along the edge of the pine trees on their way to school and attacking sheperds, among other things. The children are now provided a military escort to and from school - monitored by CPT - but the soldiers (being Israeli) often defer to the settlers.

During this conversation with our friend, A, one of my teammates came to find me as we were to head out on a street patrol. We usually try to do this earlier in the morning before it's too hot. We first stopped in a local shwarma house for a quick lunch of lamb shwarma before beginning our patrol. Street patrol is conducted once or twice a day (morning and late afternoon) whenever possible in order to monitor checkpoints, visit with people in other parts of the city and who we see on the streets, to learn about what problems are coming up or may need follow up. On this street patrol we stopped at the house of the principal of the girls school near our apt - she lives at the top of two very steep hills, where an Israeli settlement has established itself and now bumps up almost directly against her property. M, is an incredible woman, the mother of 11 children, the youngest who will graduate from high school next year and 6 of the 11 are currently studying in University. With her settlement so close to her house (and settlements are always guarded by soldiers) her family receives visits from the soldiers every few weeks. We had heard that there had been recent activity so over coffee she and one of her son's explained that settlers had come in the night, the night before, and stolen their well's motorized water pump. They heard the activity and came out and some soldiers showed up as well, but one of the soldier's told the settlers "we hate Arabs too" and waved him on as he loaded the pump into his trunk and drove off. The family had taken the license plate number and names of the soldiers and filed a police report, but when questioned by the police the soldier denied any knowledge of the event. It's unlikely the police will pursue the matter.

We left this home and finished our patrol shortly after 2:30 p.m. After a short break and a cold drink of water, I joined another of our teammates, accompanied by our neighbour and Arabic interpreter on a walk to visit another family in another part of the city to pay our respects to their new baby. The baby, a beautiful little boy, was all of four days old. While visiting with the young mother and her two older children, S, her husband came home from work and gave us an update on the medical clinic of which he is the director. Being a government funded project the employees had not been paid since the elections and his staff of 23 was now down to 11. Without funds he does not think he can stay open more than another month or two. Promises of funding from Europe and other countries have been made, but to my knowledge nothing has yet arrived in the Palestinian territories and this family is one of many who have gone without an income since the election.

We arrived home shortly after 6 p.m. and I took a short rest before cooking supper for the team. It had turned into a long day.

That is one day. With the recent events in Gaza, with over 24 Palestinians killed, 19 of which were civilians - and the culmination of an attack on Israeli forces on Sunday, there is a lot on our hearts and minds as we wait to see how Israel will respond as they plan their retaliation. We worry about the possible repercussions in the West Bank. The US president stated that Israel has every right to defend itself. But what about the Palestinians? What will become of the nine year old girl whose entire family was killed in front of her while picnicking on the beach when Israeli's missed their target? What will become of the Palestinian man whose pregnant wife was lost to another Israeli misfire? Things must change and the killing must stop.

I ask you to keep us and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in your thoughts and prayers as we wait to see what happens next.

Thank you for indulging me this lengthy narrative. Feel free to email me anytime! We may be getting high speed
(DSL) internet access at our apt which will make email much easier. Though I find this ironic - we don't have hot water or flush toilets, but high speed internet is now available in the old city.

Signing off for now with more to come.

Salaam,
Andrea