At-Tuwani

And yet they stay

enero 19th, 2010
in:
I am continually inspired by the grim determination of the At-Tuwani villagers to nonviolently resist expulsion from their lands.  I found the pictures the link leads to very moving.  Always think about stuff like this when propagandists talk about Israel "making the desert bloom."  I am 100% certain that no one will ever be held accountable for this.

So much has been destroyed

enero 12th, 2010
in:

I'm just feeling kind of sad.  Drew Herbert has left the team; the agents who wanted to see my novel manuscript before I left the country have politely declined to represent it; I was out visiting friends in the Beqa'a yesterday who are barely making it financially; young kids in our neighborhood keep getting detained and blindfolded as "practice" for the soldiers;  and I can't see the situation here ending other any other way than sadly. 

Demolitions in Al-Bweireh on New Year's Eve

enero 1st, 2010
in:

Before I forget,  my younger colleagues working in Hebron and At-Tuwani want to start a movement that will call the last decade, "The Singles."

 

What did and did not suck this Christmas

diciembre 25th, 2009
in:

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.

diciembre 24th, 2009
in:

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.