Family visit, friends, and moving to Amsterdam

My sister and her family.

Wow, it was a while ago since my last entry. So much have happened. The biggest thing first: we are moving to Amsterdam! Femke got a new very interesting job at AWEPA, and will be starting there the 2nd of June. So we are packing up here in Jerusalem. In fact, our last day here will be next Saturday, the 17th of May. Femke will fly directly to Amsterdam while I will go to Slovenia for two weeks of work first, and then fly to Amsterdam from there.
It is going to be so exciting to live in Amsterdam! At first, we will stay at Femke’s parents place and with friends, while looking for an apartment.

What else? My sister (Camilla), her husband Bobbo and their two kids, Veronica and Martin, are visiting us here in Jerusalem. It feels great to have them here and to be able to show them our life here, before we are moving. Lots of walking in the old city of Jerusalem, nice food and excursions to Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. Right now, they are in Eilat for some snorkeling and relaxing, but tonight they will come back here, to continue to the airport and then fly home to Sweden.

Otherwise, we have been very social lately, trying to see all our friends here before leaving. The day before yesterday we met Anna, Cham & Paz, Brian and a few others for drinks and food at the Legacy Hotel. The night before that, I had a drink with Ric. And yesterday, we drove to Ramallah to go out together with Yara. We ended up at Sangria’s and then Stones and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

The other night, Mary, a Dutch friend of Femke’s family, came by to visit us during a holiday in Jerusalem. It’s always nice when friends from around the world comes to say hello.

This weekend, we are planning to go to the Med and the beach, and then next week, we have a little farewell party and then we´re off!

Bush, school and tomatoes

I have been busy this week, so not been able to update earlier. Sorry for that.
Here, everything is affected by the US President George Bush’s visit. Streets are closed off all over Jerusalem, and also in Ramallah. For many people, it is close to impossible to go to their work, including several of our own colleagues at ANERA. Luckily, we can walk to the office and many other places, so we are OK.

Yesterday, I was down in the Jordan Valley, in a little village called Al Auj’a, where ANERA is building a new school. I took some photos, and enjoyed the much warmer climate that the Jordan Valley is blessed with (summertime is of course not that pleasant there). Here in Jerusalem, it was 6°C this morning. Brrr. And raining. To make things worse, our warm water heater broke down two days ago, the same day as we ran out of gas for our general heater (unfortunately, we have no central heating, it is not so common here). But the electrician came by yesterday morning, as did the gas guy, so now everything is working again.

Monday, I was up in the Tulkarem area in the northern part of the West Bank to take photos of the first harvest of cherry tomatoes in green houses that were sponsored by ANERA. The project trains farmers to produce higher quality vegetables for export, and also helps with green houses. It is always nice to visit successful projects and see the joy of people involved. Often, there are not so many reasons for happiness for them otherwise. When leaving Tulkarem, I passed a several kilometer long line of cars and truck that were stuck at a closed checkpoint. Even if the checkpoint would open immediately (it did not look very probably) it would take them many hours to pass. I, on the other hand, being a foreigner working for an American NGO, could overtake them all and just pass the checkpoint. This is how things work here, sadly.

Building a new school in Al Auj'a

Harvesting the first cherry tomatoes

Tulkarem, a lost car and Mr Arafat

A long workday is nearing its end. We (Anders joined me) started 07.40 from Jerusalem. In Ramallah, we met up with Naser, ANERA’s agronomist and headed north to Tulkarem. Here, ANERA is supporting farmers with green houses, and help them to produce higher quality vegetables for export. I was there to take photos of the farmers and their new green houses.

In Jerusalem, the sun was shining from a blue sky, but in Tulkarem, heaven opened for the first serious rain this winter. We became muddy but all the farmers smiled happily – water is a scarce and valuable commodity in this part of the world.

Farmer Essam Masarwi tending his tomato plants
in one of the green houses provided by ANERA

The members of the local farmer's cooperative listen
attentively to an expert brought in by our program.
We drank yet another cup of coffee.

Late afternoon, we were back in Ramallah. We parked the car downtown and took a little stroll. Anders plays backgammon just like me, so we stopped at a simple yet nice café for a glass of tea with fresh mint and a few games. Nice!

Backgammon and tea in Ramallah

When we walked back to the car again, it was not there. Blimey! Was it stolen? We were in the middle of Ramallah, it was pouring down, and getting dark. What to do? I spotted a few Palestinian police officers in the vicinity and approached them, explaining that my car gone missing.
“What brand and color?”
“A white Isuzu)”
“Ah. We took it away, you are not allowed to park here”

It turns out that lawless Ramallah turned into something very much less lawless overnight, and the cops were towing away droves of cars from the streets. For years, you just parked where you found some space, but lately, it seems that they have been painting the curb stones red&white or black&white to signal where you can park or not. Big surprise for all of us!

Now, it should be said that I have always found the Palestinian police very reasonable. After explaining my situation and that I am working for an aid organization, that I have parked here for the last year, just like everybody else, that I saw no sign forbidding parking and that there was a lot of cars already parked there (and implicating that I am a somewhat stupid but nonetheless kind and good-hearted foreigner) they arranged a lift to the car disposal place, and wrote me a recommendation letter in Arabic. When we came there, I got a warm feeling inside, seeing our car again. I once again told my story for the three policemen in charge and gave them the letter. Ten minutes later we shook hands and drove away, no fine, just smiles ☺

I have been at Yassir Arafat’s grave inside the president compound (the Muqatta) several times, but then they were still building the mausoleum. Now it is ready and we went there to have a look. It is a surprisingly stylish and impressing setup in white stone and strict minimalistic style. If you are in town anyway, don’t miss it.

The mausoleum in the Muqatta.
Yassir Arafat is the one in the middle.

Back in Jerusalem, we picked up Femke at the office and then had smoked salmon and Swedish gravad lax-sauce for dinner, together with dill-boiled potatoes and some boiled egg.
After that, Femke and me worked with a report for two hours while Anders took a nap in the sofa.
Unfortunately, Femke is still working. We wee planning to go to our local Russian jazz bar for a Czech beer, but I don’t know if we still have the energy for it…