Beit Anan, Ramallah,Karam, M. and Shaher

Before I get into the details of this day of my trip, let me just say that I feel immensely happy here. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something very life-giving and uplifting about driving through the hills of Palestine that Israel has not gotten hold of. Life is not easy here, but it's precisely the difficulties that make small pleasures worth so much more. I've noticed this about people here. The slightest new freedom or small pleasure that most people take for granted, is a cause for happiness; and it's contagious to people like me..who ordinarily take too much for granted. I want to come here to live when my daughter goes to college.

Well, I finally got a memory card for my camera. Got up bright and early, answered emails, made calls, etc. I ran errands for some relatives, picked up my cousin Karam and went to Ramallah where I was supposed to meet up with M. and head to Beit Anan. We arrived a bit early; so, Karam and I walked around el Bireh a bit, bought some fatayer [spinach for me, cheese for her] for breakfast and waited. M. arrived and we headed out to see what has been done so far on location.

I love M., by the way. Every time I come here, I get to meet wonderful people like him and H. - something else lifting my spirits on this trip.
The road to Beit Anan is, as we say in Arabic, ma2sa! It rips your car to shreds. But, in my state of mind, I enjoyed the drive. Plus, what do I care, I have a rental and i'm sure as heck paying enough.

When we got to Beit Anan, as I feared, the holes had not been marked, nor was anyone working at the site as we expected. However, they had cleared the ground. That's good. The engineer arrived and I employed my best powers of persuasion to get them to start immediately. They agreed...but it started to rain pretty heavily. Actually, it was a hail storm. So, it'll be tomorrow...we're told.
M., Karam, and I headed back and I, once again, took in the landscape with such relish that I got us lost. But we figured it out [THEY figured it out] and made it back to Ramallah. I called Esperansa to meet us there so I could give back her camera [she let me borrow it yesterday since mine was useless without a memory card]. We went to a restaurant and waited there, but something came up and she couldn't come. M. and I enjoyed a sheesha and coffee, Karam some healthy fresh juice. Really great fun!
PLUS, my friend Shaher called to see if I happened to be in Ramallah because he was here from Jenin and it worked out great that he was able to join us! We made plans to meet on Friday in Nablus so we can go together to Jenin. I'm hoping to pick up a young woman named Sol from the Balata camp so she can come with us.
Sol is a very special person. She is a passionate advocate of human rights and feels particularly drawn to the Palestinian cause, enough that she decided to leave her hometown in Madison, Wisconsin and head to Palestine without really knowing anyone or Arabic. I haven't met her yet, but we've spoken on the phone. I'm looking forward to finally seeing her and I hope to introduce her to some people in Jenin, as she wants to work there as well. [See! I told you this place is full of amazingly wonderful people]
So, Karam and i dropped M. off at his house and we stopped at the same restaurant where we had breakfast, for a falafel sandwich on the way home.
Tomorrow is another busy day. I'm off to Hebron, then to Bethlehem. I need to figure out a way to get a special piece of digging equipment to Beit Anan. [fingers crossed!]