An update

I have had some busy weeks, but now things are getting back to normal. I will try to summarize what I have been doing since I last wrote here.

Visit to Jericho
Two, three weeks ago Martha's father and his friend came to visit her here in Betlehem. I went with them one day when they decided to go to Jericho. Jericho is a city on the West Bank with mountains and fertile areas. It is also close to the famous dead sea and the mount of temptation. To be able to reach the mount of temptation you have to take the cable cars from the city to the mountain. It might be scary for those with fear of heights but it is definitly worth it.

From the balcony of the convent. Scaaary to look down


Martha and I wore shorts this day so we had to borrow a skirt and a pair of trousers from a local. I got the hip hop look wearing trousers size XL.


View from Mount of Temptation. As mentioned, Jericho is a fertile area, and while taking the cable cars you can see how green it really is compared to other areas in Palestine.


A looot of stairs




We also went to the dead sea. it was a sunny and nice day, and there were many tourists there from various countries. We even spotted Amish people.





Birgitte is floating


Martha is floating


Birgitte covered in mud


Jerusalem
I have been a couple of times to Jerusalem lately, and I really like this city. It is full of diversity, and there are so many beautiful places there. I can't ignore the political issues whenever I am there, but I have to say that it is nice to get away from everything and escape into Vest Jerusalem's western life style sometimes.

Even the street cats have a good life here... (Han satt liksom så nochalant med poten behagelig lent mot lyktestoplen...)


A friday afternoon we went to a park in Vest-Jerusalem to hang out and observe what people do. They were playing basketball, dancing folklore dances, playing and having bbq's or pique niques.



One of many Kippa-stores...


A man...


Runa at one of Vest Jerusalems cafees. The breakfast there was DELICIOUS!!!!


Joyce


My dream house. With a beautiful terasse. Here I will be drinking my cup of tea while listening to music and talking to Marthe(My friend from Bergen). Hvis hun klarer å komme seg hit da...



Olive Picking
The last 2 weeks we have been busy with a campaign called the olive picking program. A large group of internationals came to Bethlehem to help local farmers with the olive harvest, and to visit different organizations and places as to know about the situation here.







I also saw an almond tree for the first time in my life... I think....Offcourse I had to taste, and they tasted (the almonds) so good.



We went to Hebron one of the days to visit an organization that works with rehabilitation and renovation of old buildings in the old city of Hebron.Lots of houses and historical buldings have been deestroyed by Israeliens. There are also lots of settlements where israeli jews are living within the old city of Hebron, and many palestinians have moved away, or have lost their homes.
Here is one example of how bad the situation is:
A street in the old city where palestinians have put up a "fence" in order to prevent the trash and garbage the settlers are throwing in the streets or on the people.


We also had time to stop at a glass and ceramic factory just outside the city.



We went 4 days to pick olives, and it was nice to work with people from different countries.


Chilenian-palestinian Giselle




Having lunch at farmer's house






A blonde palestinian girl.....


......and her siblings


Obstacles along the way....(israeli soldiers not letting us through...)



We also went to Jerusalem for a guided tour around in the area...Unfortunately it was raining and cold...



Picking olives in beautiful areas.










I talked about Oush Grab and the demonstration there last time. The Israeli settlers had been there to mark the place as theirs. What we did was to show that the space is also used by us.


Covering zionist slogans...
We put a caterpillar on top of the hebrew letters...


or dancing people....


Or just by covering with white paint....



an example of what the settlers had left behind...
(Fra Kach)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kach_movement


It has been a hectic week, and we have seen and done so much. It is impossible to try to talk about everything. I will maybe write about it next time, but now I have given a very short summary about what we did, and about certain things as well...

Another great thing about these days is that I got a parcel!!! Heidi, who is currently in Bangladesh, sent me things from Bangladesh.

Sooo nice:) I loove the scarf:)