Show must go on

It IS fun to stay at the YMCA, cause hips don't lie. Before starting the next sentence with oops we did it again you should know that I am talking about the dancing classes. We moved from the exotic rhytms of Salsa to the more funky moves of Jive. This time the group was much larger as norwegians from a lutheran group wanted to join.


Unfortunately there were twice as many girls as there were boys, so we had to make two girl teams.

While waiting for "our men" the girls practiced the moves.





Practise makes perfect

Unfortunately the show cannot go on. As our co-worker has to go back to his country the position as a dancing teacher stands open. Anyone?

TAYBEH BEER FESTVIAL

This weekend the taybeh beer festival took place in taybeh village close to Ramallah. We went on saturday, and even though i don't like beer I really enjoed myself.


Entering taybeh festival


There were a lot of people gathered in quite a small area, and both internationals and locals were present.


A little girl


There was also a little marked where one could purchase and thus support local producers of olive oil, cookies (I heart), craftmanship and other things. I wanted to buy something but I got lost in the crowd, and later distracted from the dancing and singing on stage.


The two blondies. And yes, it was pretty cold up there in this montanious village.


There was a palestinian hip hop(??) group at the festival and they rapped for us in palestinian arabic. I could get falestin (Palestine) but not much more. The group consisted of some cool guys with hip hop clothes and a laidback style...YO!!!




There were also several folkore dancers, namely depke-dancers. I was very fascinated by these dances, adn I will try to learn some while I am here.




One group that performed was with men only, and two little boys. they couldn't be more than 5 years, and they were so sweet. One of them really knew how to dance while the other one tried so hard but couldn't follow...hehe.


I was looking at the pictures from my mobile the other day, and I found one of the first pictures taken here. It was taken in the car that took us from Tel Aviv to Betlehem.


As I might have mentioned we have been working with a calendar here at the office. I have written short texts about different problems Palestinian farmers have to overcome, and one of these problems is the continous fights with jewish settlers. On the West Banc there are today many israeli jewish settlements built up illegally according to UN and the rest of the international society This is still an ongoing and illegal process where more and more settlements are being put up on palestinian territory. Many of them are built on or next to palestinian farmer's land, and this has obviously created conflicts with harrasement and violence. To illustrate these conflicts I asked a NGO working in Hebron to send me some photos, if they had, from confrontations between settlers and farmers.

They replied, and sent me really good pictures.

A palestinian farmer and his son in confrontation with an armed settler.

Uprooted olive trees. This for me is SUCH a tragic waste of nature resources. Not only is it illegal, it is also pointless. Instead of stealing the beautiful roses in my enemy's garden I cut them down and let them dry out. It doesn't necesarily have to do with my political convictions; being a nature enthusiast I really hate this type of actions.

A jewish settler going for a run in Hebron.

This is quite a symbolic picture. While the palestinian farmer is pointing to his land, the jewish settler is pointing up towards heaven. Around him are israeli soldiers. I don't know for sure what happened here, but for me it could be like the jewish settler is trying to justify his actions by referring to God, and the right God gave him to rule this land, his promised land. The Palestinian farmer is pointing towards his land that has most likely been destroyed or robbed for harvest.