July 2005

The Israeli Defense Forces. Many in our group have talked about the need to be sympathetic and understanding to the soldiers. These are kids. Little boys. Little 18 year old boys and girls who are walking around, and feel the power of their M-16s slung over their shoulders. So, there is a certain amount of [...]

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I have a black tongue. I’d really rather not, but when you are popping Pepto-Bismol (they actually have a pretty cool site - it’s very pink) caplets every day, sometimes 4 caplets/day to keep yourself from having too many ‘problems’ - you have to deal with a black tongue. My stomach is telling me to [...]

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After finally getting through the checkpoint, both groups rendezvoused at the An-Najah National University (Old Campus) in Nablus. An-Najah is the 2nd largest university in the West Bank, and about 16,000 students attend school there on one of their two campuses. We were met by some of the students and they gave us a tour [...]

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I feel conflicted in writing this post – part of me thinks that it’s okay, while the other part of me is kind of sick that I feel this way. So, what’s the confession you ask?
I am Western…
…and I like that.
I have loved traveling for around the past 6 weeks. I have met some amazing [...]

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…there was a host-son named Adam whose host-mom gave him a sandwich and two plums in a sack for lunch one day. Adam was grateful, but forgot about the sandwich and plums, which just happened to be in his backpack. Adam had a roommate named Andy, and Adam & Andy had already had some problems [...]

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Yesterday, we decided we wanted to go to Nablus. Simple enough, right? Not in the occupied West Bank. But thanks to my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Katie’s knowledge of the Muslim commentators of Aristotle, we were golden. Let me explain.
We started off the day leaving Beit Sahour at 7am with our driver, but as [...]

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Just a quick note for all of you out there. I don’t know if anyone ran across any news of there being some shooting in Nablus early this morning. Someone just mentioned that to us when we got home today from Nablus, but everything seemed fine (as “fine” as things can be in Nablus). We [...]

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The Wall. What does one call it? A separation barrier? An apartheid wall?
There are some who don’t like the word apartheid, while even the Archbishop Desmond Tutu has compared what is happening in the Middle East to what happened in South Africa:
“In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They [...]

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We stood in the front of the non-violent demonstration against the continuing construction of the separation barrier known as The Wall. Various Israeli peace groups, internationals and Palestinians joined in the chants against the occupation and presence of Israeli soldiers on occupied land. And then the stones came.
At first it was just a few – [...]

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