Let the adventure begin!

So on December 28 I once again found myself leaving my friends and family for the great unknown of freedom and adventure or to be more accurate to be a nanny in Australian bush. Many of you may or may not know that though I travel a bit I always panic when it comes time to start a new adventure. The first summer I went to work at summer camp in MA I about had a panic attack on the way to the airport, the day I said good bye to my family for Benin I cried on my Grammy's lap, lol. I guess it's a sign that I'm growing up and have more confidence in myself that this time around there was none of that. Yes, I was sad to leave my family and a bit worried about what might happen to them while I was gone. However, overall I was ready to strike out on my latest undertaking.



I didn't want to suffer a 20 some hour plane ride from Chicago to Brisbane, so instead I decided to break up the trip a bit as well as have some fun along the way. When Patrick and I did our Middle East adventure we traveled with some really cool people, one of which was a girl named Lu. Lu was from San Francisco and traveling with her cousin Xenia. California, as you can imagine, is the US gateway to Australia with most of the flights going out of LA. With this in mind I decided to spend two days in SF with Lu on my way to Brisbane.




Here is a Lu and I waiting to go on one of the SF trolleys.




Two days was not near enough time to spend in San Francisco. Day one was spent with Lu and her cousin Amy and Amy's boyfriend Pierre. Lu, a Berkley graduate, had us go up and tour the campus for the day. This worked out great because Weihow, my Peace Corps post-mate lives in Berkley now and we were able to meet up and hang out together.

Random shot of Berkeley campus.

Lu and I on campusJust moments before taking this picture, that furry squirrel was climbing up Pierre's pant leg. Talk about domesticated.

For lunch we went to the Chinese Ghetto which is basically a courtyard like area that has about 10 Asian restaurants. Pierre and I had to go to the bathroom. There is one bathroom in this area that all the restaurants share. You have to get a key for this grated door and walk down a bit of a corridor, which I took a picture of. Looks all nice and clean doesn't it, especially considering how many people share this area. The smell is enough to knock you on your butt.

After lunch and a walk around town we stopped for some gelato. Yum! Best part is that they allow you to test as many flavors as you want. Who needs to buy anything, lol. I think I ended up getting a scoop of pistachio and one of cranberry.

It was time for Weihow and I to part ways. :(

Day two started off meeting some of Lu's old work colleagues. We met for dim sum, which is kinda like Chinese finger foods. Very yummy. After wards we went to this park area where I was able to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Having an interest in the 1960's since high school I remembered that Haight/Ashbury street was a mecca at one time for hippies. Lu and I made our way over to this part of town mostly because I was interested in what it had become of it since the days of flower power.

Random street.

Can't go to SF and not ride a trolley.

Ghirardeli is chocolate that you most likely have seen in your grocery store. In SF it is also a restaurant that makes among other things hot fudge sundaes. Lu and and I swung in and split a sundae on our way out of the city. It was fantastic but so rich that we couldn't finish it all. Kind of a shame too considering the amount of time we waited for it. Never have I been in a restaurant that is so packed with people and running on sheer chaos.

Can you give a little bit?

To All My Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays

As many of you know, I am currently living in the city of Nablus, which is located in the West Bank or Palestine. I am volunteering with an organization called Project Hope as an English teacher. Though I am sad not to be with all of you during this holiday season, I cannot begin to express to you how happy and fulfilled I am with my current project. Since the moment of my arrival I have been made to feel welcome, as if just my presence here is a gift that they couldn't wait to receive. Friends, colleagues and strangers alike have invited me into their lives through their shy smiles, kind words, helpful advice and never ending cups of tea. Every day I am humbled a little more as I witness the grace, dignity and integrity that these people show as they meet the difficulties they face in their every day lives. I am continually being motivated to try a little harder, be a little better and give a little more. I am proud to be tied to such an organization as Project Hope; an organization that works to create a positive change in their community by empowering their youth and giving them a creative outlet to help deal with living in an area constantly in conflict.

Unfortunately, like everything else in life, changing a community, changing someone’s life comes with a price tag, which is why I am sending you this today. Project Hope runs on a tight budget made of up international aid, private donations, and contributions made by us volunteers. To keep their doors open and to try to meet the ever-increasing demands of their community, Project Hope is forever searching for additional funding.

Children deserve to be able to grow up in a secure environment with hope for the future, not in fear and desolation. Yet, too often, the later is the reality for the children and young adults of Palestine. The cycle of violence that they are a part of has no chance of breaking, unless someone steps in and offers an alternative. That is what we are doing here. In helping to give them a sense of hope for the future, we are helping to break this never-ending cycle of violence. These children and young adults are the future leaders of Palestine and we can help determine just what kind of leaders they will be.

I am giving what I can to this cause that I so deeply believe in and I am asking that, if at all possible, you join me in giving. Help us give these young people a brighter future.

Before you make your decision, I hope that you will check out the Project Hope website and see for yourself the wonderful work in which we are involved. Any contribution you can give will make difference, as you will see on the website.

If after reading through the Project Hope website you decide that you would like to support this organization, I request that you contact me at jennmorgan82@gmail.com and I will inform you on the best way to make your donation. I also ask that you pass this letter on to anyone who believes that empowering the youth of today is the best way for safer, more peaceful tomorrow.

If you are unable to donate at this time, I understand. All I ask is that you keep this letter on hand so that in the future, if you have the means to donate you will not forget about us.

I would like to say once again, Happy Holidays; I miss you all so very much. I also want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I look forward to seeing you all when I come home in February. Also, in case you forgot check out "Ramblings from a Small Town Girl"
Love,

Jenn


PS I have attached a picture of myself with some of my students. I teach four classes a day of university age students and two classes to teenage girls who live in two of the near by refugee camps.

Nazareth part 2

So now that I've talked about the challenges of getting to Nazareth here's a bit of what I did once I got there. Our first stop was the the Basilica of the Annunciation. This church was built on the site many Christians believe to be where the archangel Gabriel come to Mary and told her that she would carry the Christ child. This is hardly the prettiest church in the West Bank, but it is the largest.



















To enter the church you must pass through a door that has been carved with images depicting the events of Jesus' life, starting with Gabriel coming to Mary, his baptism, crucifixion, and ultimately his resurrection.

On the walls that surround the outside of the walls as well as inside the church itself are murals of the holy family. Each mural has been donated by a different country. The one in which I am standing in front of came from the United States. The mural that is perhaps the most well known is the one donated by Japan. As you can see they have made Mary and child reflect their race, Asian, something that the west catches a lot of slack for.










































Here are some random picture from around the Basilica.





























































The church below was built on what is believed to the site of Joseph's carpentry workshop.

























Mary's Well is a modern public fountain in Nazareth built over a well that has been in public use since ancient times. It is fed by Mary's Spring, which runs under the altar of the nearby Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel. PS Mary's Well smells like pee.


This is St. Gabriel's Church, I wish I had taken a better picture of the outside of it. The Church of St. Gabriel is the Orthodox counterpart to the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation. According to Orthodox tradition, the Virgin Mary first received the news from Gabriel that she would bear the Savior while she was out fetching water. The Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel is therefore located over the spring that fed Mary's Well, the traditional place where Mary fetched water for her household.




































































And so we come to the end of my day in Nazareth. If you thought the story of me getting into Nazareth was stressful, you should hear about the story trying to get back into the West Bank. But I'll save that for another time. Here are some random pictures from around the city.

Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth.

We are all familiar with this man and what he did, but Nazareth, besides being an 80's rock band, what/where is it? According to the Gospel of Luke, Nazareth was the city where Joseph and Mary were living when the Angel Gabriel came and told them that she would have the Christ child. However, in the Gospel of Matthew Nazareth is where Mary and Joseph resettle after leaving their home in Bethlehem and running away to Egypt. And today, some modern day scholars debate its existence at all during the period of Jesus' life. What ever you personal beliefs may be, there is no denying the religious draw to this city. Pilgrims come year around to visit the more than 23 churches and monasteries this city holds.

Nazareth today is the largest city in the northern region of Israel, with a population of 65,000 people. The majority of them being Arab Israeli, with 31% of them being Christian and 69% percent being Muslim. For the most part these two religious groups get along, however, over the years their have been flare up in tension between them.

I knew I wanted to go to Nazareth while I was here. I mean I couldn't be this close and not go, that would be silly. So over the week of Thanksgiving myself and a couple fellow volunteers set out to do a day trip Nazareth. Nablus is 45 miles south of Nazareth, so in all reality it should only take someone an hour to get there. However, traveling in the West Bank is never that simple or straight forward. We knew we had to make it back to Nablus that same day so we decided to set out early because with the road block and check points you are never sure when you'll make it to your destination or if you will at all. So first we took a taxi to the city of Jenin which is halfway between us and Nazareth and very close to the Israeli/West Bank border. Once in Jenin we looked for a taxi to take us to Nazareth. We were unable to do so because as we found out taxi's are not allowed to cross the border. So instead we took a taxi to the boarder/check point where he dropped us. And thus began one of the most terrifying experiences I've had thus far.

The Israeli checkpoints look similar to prisons. The one pictured to the right isn't of the actual one I am talking about but of a different on that looks similar. They are built to control/monitor/prevent the movement of Palestinian people. There are more than 80 in the West Bank alone. Approaching the structure another volunteer and I decide to take some pictures. It is such a scary and horrible thing to see that we wanted to be able to show others so that they could get an idea of what is going on here. There are no signs that say you can't take pictures. There was a sign that showed a big gun and an x through but nothing about cameras. My friend took a picture without a problem. I tried but was having problems with my camera so no picture was actually taken. To enter this checkpoint, one by one you go through two metal revolving door type thing which ultimately leads you to this room where another a woman was sitting on another side of a wall from us. We couldn't get close to her window but had to stand several feet away as she shouted in her microphone for us to show her our passports. Familiar with the routine we all had our passports ready to present. The woman asked me about the picture I had taken. For some reason they had seen me, but not my friend. I was honest with her when she asked me about it. I said that I hadn't seen anything like this before and found it interesting and wanted to take a picture of it. And since there was no sign saying I couldn't I did. She yelled at me and said that there was in fact a sign. I told her I had seen the sign that said no guns but nothing about a camera and that I was sorry. Had I seen the no camera sign I wouldn't have taken the picture. She let us pass through another turn table kinda thing that she controlled. This led us into a room where you put your stuff to go through an x-ray machine to be scanned and a metal detector for us. We all went through no problems. However, they did make me, after my bag had already gone through, take my camera out and send it back through separately. At this point I became separated from my friends. After I collected all my stuff from being scanned I was led into another room by myself. This room had no window and two doors, the one I came in through and one in front of me. I tried to open the door in front of me but it was locked. I started to become nervous about what to do. Finally someone over the loud speaker yelled for me to go, followed by a loud buzz that indicated that the door was now unlocked. In the next room another loud voice told me to go and put my things in the next room and to come right back out. So in this room I went and left my bag and jacket. In the room I saw my friends stuff on the floor as well. Leaving that room I was led into another room where my friends were waiting. In this room we stood for probably 10-15 minutes waiting as I assume the soldiers went through our belongings.

I want to add that when I say I was led to this room or that, I wasn't actually led by some person. There is virtually no human interaction during this. The only time you hear someone is through a loud voice shouting at you over an intercom speaker or you see someone on the other side of the wall of which you are standing. You are led by the fact that they put you in a room and your only option when leaving is going to the one door that will become unlocked with the soldiers say so. It is much like cattle being led though the slaughter house.

We are told we can collect our stuff and went to leave but there was one more person to go through before we could make it to the other side. We give our passports to this woman in a toll booth looking room and we wait. She gives our passports to these men, nothing unusual. Next thing I know someone is asking, which one of you is the American. Being the only American it had to be me. So I was pulled away from others and was questioned for like 20 minutes. I kept telling myself what's the worst they can do to me. They can't physically hurt me like they can a Palestinian. But they can kick me out of the country. They can question me for as long as they want. And they can ban me from coming back into Israel for 5 years. I can't remember all the questions they asked, where are you coming from, how long have you been here, where did you spend the night, where did you come in this country, the questions went on and on. They even asked to look through all the pictures on my camera. I said of course but I wonder what would have happened had I said no. You could justify all the questions as necessary for security reasons however considering they x-ray all our stuff and then someone takes it into another room and goes through it again they know that we don't have anything on us. We are going to a holy city and there is nothing on us or about us that says that we are threat, except because we are coming from Palestine they can treat us this way.

So after 20 minutes of questions they let me go and called over my two friends, who were then questioned together and for not as long as myself. I wonder why I received the special treatment. So anyway, after the released my friends they took our passports for awhile and we were forced to just sit and wait. Finally someone came and gave them back to us and allowed up to pass through the checkpoint so that we could find a taxi to take us to Nazareth. In total we were at the checkpoint for close to an hour. The experience scared the crap out of me. My hands were shaking so bad during the questioning and even after wards. It was partly our own fault for not preparing for such a thing. A lot of us have had to be questioned at one point or another and we should have been more prepared for it. But it was my first time through it so I think that's why it was particularly nerve wracking. In some ways I'm glad it happened to me though because I've heard so much about how hard it is for Palestinians to move around, the terror and humiliation that they IDF put them through. These checkpoints make life here difficult if not impossible for them and now getting a bit of a taste of what they have to go through on a daily basis was probably a good thing.

Freedom. I was so happy to be on the other side of that checkpoint. Once on the other side we weren't really sure on how to continue on to Nazareth. There weren't any taxis outside waiting so we looked around for someone to ask. Thankfully was spotted someone who looked like they were waiting too and he informed us that were was a taxi waiting for more people to arrive before it left. With us there now we could all leave.

One Two Three Four We Won't Take it Any More

So I've been thinking about this blog post for well over a week, ever since I went to the town of Ni'lin to witness/participate in their weekly demonstration against the wall Israel is building which is cutting through their land. The demonstrations are a symptom of a much larger cause which is this wall that Israel is building. You can't talk about one without the other yet the issue of the wall is so large that it would require a blog post all it's own. And so I have felt leery about writing about what I was up to at all because I knew that to simply discuss what I had done would not be enough. I felt like you needed to know not only what I was doing there, but why others were there. It's a daunting overwhelming task that I guess I will just try and dive into.

Ni'lin is a city in the West Bank about two hours south west from where I am living. Situated only a few kilometers away from the internationally recognized Green Line, Ni'lin has systematically lost more and more land to Israel and its ever expanding settlements. In total roughly 491 acres, 13% of their land, has been taken away from the Palestinian residents of Ni'lin for Israeli settlements since 1967, without receiving any form of compensation for their loss of property.

Then in 2002 Israel began construction on the separation barrier between itself and the West Bank, which is considered illegal by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. In 2007/2008 construction on the segment of barrier near Ni'lin began. Once/if finished this wall will take away an additional 625 acres, roughly 20% percent of their land.

Doesn't seem fair does it? The people of Ni'lin don't seem to think so which is why they have organized themselves into doing weekly demonstrations against Israel's actions. Every Friday between 50-150+ people (Palestinians, Israelis, Internationals) come together to tell/show Israel what they are doing is not okay and they will fight for what is theirs.

Upon hearing about what was going on here, both by Israel and Palestinians I decided that I wanted to see for myself what was what. Friday morning, myself along with four other volunteers headed out to Ni'lin. Because there were five of us in total we forced ourselves to squish into one taxi. It was totally Benin all over again. Four anyone who has done PC Benin, you know that four people in the back seat is totally doable, yet with three others who don't know what it means to pousser it can be a challenge. The taxi we hired to take us stopped about half way and put us in another taxi. He said it was because the other taxi was bigger but we think it was more likely he didn't want to take us all the way over there, but change taxis we did and after a rather uncomfortable trip we arrived in our destination.

The taxi let us off at the outskirts of Ni'lin leaving us to walk through the town to where we were all to gather. The streets were lined with paintings of the Palestinian flag and Arabic writing. Asking a fellow volunteer what some of the writing said, I wish I could remember the translation she gave me, but basically it was something along the lines of they will continue to resist, they will continue to struggle against what they consider the unfair occupation of their land. As I write this I don't want to give the impression that this was done in a threatening or violent way. It wasn't, I feel, written as a threat but more as encouragement for each other.

Prior to the demonstration we all gathered so that we could walk in an organized procession towards the wall. Which is where I will leave off and let my pictures do the talking.

Before the demonstration protesters come together to listen to a speaker and pray.

This video is of the beginning of the procession from where we gathered to walking to where the wall is being built.

This is a snap shot of the opening procession.

The procession ended at where the wall is being built.

This is where we walked to. From this angle all you can see is the chain link fence and not the wall that has already been built.

These are a few of who were waiting for us on the other side of the road.

This is left over tear gas canister from one of the previous demonstrations. They litter the ground here. Unfortunately, tear gas is not the only ammunition soldiers have been known to use on the demonstrators. Besides tear gas, soldiers have used rubber bullets, metal bullets covered in rubber and live ammunition. It would be easy for me to leave out that the there was a group of Palestinian youth throwing stones across the road at the soldiers. But I want to try and be as far and honest in what I share with all of you as possible. So yes, kids were chucking some rocks, nothing more. I would be greatly surprised if any of those rocks actually hit anyone. It never appeared to happen, but it is a possibility. So for the first hour or so of the demonstration nothing happened really. After we marched down to the fence and the people made their speech we all just kind of stood around. Well at least that's what it felt like to me, but I was kind of in the back. People closer to the front I am sure were saying things and there were the kids throwing stones. And then the tear gas started. It wasn't constant. It was more like a few here, a few there and then they'd pause for a bit and then just pummel the area with them. The tear gas was a horrible experience but what was more dangers was the fact that the ground was uneven and completely covered with loose uneven rocks so when you run away from the tear gas there is a very good chance you are going to hurt yourself, especially when you can't see due to the gas.

Some random photos from that day:

Upon leaving, someone left one of their signs on the wall itself.

This kid just seemed to be chillin'.


I thought this post was beautiful so I took a picture of it. I asked one of the other volunteers if she recognized it. She said no, but that the writing on it was about national independence.
The houses in the background belong to one of the settlements circling Ni'lin

A guy with a really large flag.

The flag kept making appearances in different areas of the field we were demonstrating in.

At the end of the demonstration a rainbow appeared in the sky. It's kinda light in this picture, but it's there. Maybe a sign of hope?
The area around Ni'lin is beautiful.