Passover in Palestine

Traveling back and forth from Ramallah and other Palestinians territories into Jerusalem and Israeli territories is a challenge for me (though I have it much easier than Palestinians, and Israelis for that matter). Using public transportation in places I am unfamiliar with confuses me. Though I am used to and more comfortable knowing the layout of the streets and the land around me, I am able to adapt to not knowing as I make mistakes and get lost and then find my way again. Ramallah has been a confusing place to find my way around. There is one central roundabout, Al Manara, and the main streets spiral out from there. However there are no street names posted, and I just keep getting turned around. This morning I managed to walk to the center and then take the correct shared taxi to PMRS. Victory!

I am still getting used to leaving myself enough time to travel from Ramallah and into and then out of Jerusalem. The bus takes 40 min, the checkpoint can take anywhere from 15 min to over an hour, and then once in Jerusalem, I have preferred to walk to the central bus station. The buses out of the city stop running a few hours before Shabbat starts, which almost left me stranded this past Friday.

I have passed through many doorways and into very different worlds again this past week. I spent Seder night with the holy hippy Jews, my cousins' friends, who have a beautiful home ripe with blooming everything and the most beautiful seder set up, outside around fires and under a canopy of sweet smelling flora. There were about 30 of us there, and the seder went on into the morning. Most folks there were American-born transplants, some had served in the army. There was much singing, some very verbose young scholars-in-training, and towards the end of the night some discussion about freedom and the state of the Jewish people in Israel. As right wing as some of the folks were, there seemed to be a general consensus that something is not right with the Jews, we need to make changes. I sat and listened to the conversation and appreciated people's openness to at least discuss it. Agency and power were not mentioned of course. I spent the rest of my day and a half there relaxing, listening to people's stories, playing with my sweet cousins, and singing. I was also able to find a moment of privacy to take a quick dip in their pond/pool/mikvah which was so refreshing.

Afterward, I immediately jumped back into travel mode to make it back to Ramallah for a training on Wednesday morning. I went again to the auditing and finance ministry and this time gave most of the training on my own- on wounds and fractures, and transporting patients. Overall I think it went well, and the language barrier was a little easier since many of the folks there spoke English. I am trying to use my expressive facial gestures and body language to communicate a lot as well.