kathy_kern's blog

What did and did not suck this Christmas

December 25th, 2009
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Things that did and did not suck this Christmas.

 

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Homesickness. 

For some reason it was worse this year than last year.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s being around young people whose families had extensive Skype conversations with them, or the fact that when Michael called the connection wasn’t good today in Bethlehem, or maybe it’s not having children around.  I don’t know, but it sucked

 

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Christmas Eve in At-Tuwani.

December 24th, 2009
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It's only 7:30 here as I write, but I'm kind of ready for bed.  Kept waking up in the night because of a pain in my ankle, which I twisted a couple days ago.  We did morning school patrol, and then carried 8 kilos of turkey legs I cooked last night, a pressure cooker full of glazed carrots, bread, cookies--well anyway, it was a lot of stuff--to the Yatta taxis and found a driver who would take us all the way to Tuwani.  When we got there, Laura was frying eggplant for a really fabulous vegetarian lasagna.

 

Followup on Al-Bweireh

December 21st, 2009
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Here's the follow-up on what I posted yesterday.  I was out at Al-Bweireh today to hammer out details.  kk
AL-KHALIIL: Settlers attack schoolchildren in al-Bweireh neighborhood
21 December 2009

by Ryan Shiffer

Al-Bweireh

December 20th, 2009
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Our internet is up again, thanks to a new wireless router that probably would have been a lot lot cheaper in the U.S.

Our school patrol continues.  Today at the mosque checkpoint the Border police didn't open any bags, but it could be entirely different tomorrow.

 

School Days and a poem about Apartheid

December 15th, 2009
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I know it's been a long time since either Markie or I have written, but just when I see a block of time I can write, something comes up. Visitors drop in and today a squad of soldiers appeared on our roof. They had maps and it looked like they were a new squad trying to figure out where things were in the Old City. Markie will have pictures and video up, shortly, I hope. (Our internet is down, so I'm writing this in a word processing document).

 

LETTER TO ISRAELI POLICE THAT I WILL PROBABLY NEVER SEND, BECAUSE PALESTINIANS HAVE TO PUT UP WITH LOTS WORSE CRAP

December 9th, 2009
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OR

DUDES! WHAT'S WITH THE ATTITUDES?

Dear Israeli police officers in Hebron,

Breaking the Silence and grape leaves

December 4th, 2009
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At noon mosque patrol, a policeman asked if the work we did was political.  "We prefer to think of it as spiritual," I said.  "Well as long as you do not cause problems for soldiers or police."  "We try not to," I said.

First days back in Hebron

December 2nd, 2009
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Today was my first full day back in Hebron.  Even though I have worked here since 1995, it feels like I am on the team for the first time.  Our project support coordinator, Tarek Abuata, and members of the Palestine Team in Hebron and At-Tuwani have worked hard to transform the Al-Khalil (the Arabic name for Hebron) project into something new and into a healthier place to work.