Wanderings through the West Bank

        Partially by chance a series of opportunities arose for me to travel to several places within the West Bank.  To be honest, it has taken me a little while to write this blog entry because although it was an amazing experience, not every aspect was the most uplifting and to say the least - it really tested my optimism for this torn land....

Wandering the streets of the Nablus old city

Our first visit was to Nablus, a bustling old city in northern Palestine. Luckily we met a few people on the bus ride there - including one Palestinian boy that lived in Jerusalem and was more than happy to play tour guide for the day:)  This was especially helpful considering travel during Ramadan takes a bit more local knowledge and preparation. ( I will share more about Ramadan  in another post)

The random assortment of traveling friends for the day:)

Market Spices

Transferring chickens through the market

Nablus Soap Factory

    The highlight of Nablus was getting a tour of one of their famous soap factories. In the 19th century, the tradition of olive oil soap-making evolved from a practice maintained by the Palestinian grandmother into a fully fledged industry and art.  Even though the industry has expanded, the factories in Nablus still maintain their traditional formulas and process.  Without modern mechanisms, one bar of soap can take months to make!  First the ingredients (olive oil, water & a sodium compound) are mixed in a large vat over low heat for 3-5 days.  Then the mixture is poured over the large floor space where soon after casts are laid down to cut the soap- Next,  each individual bar is stamped with a seal of the factory.  After this the artistry really shows as they stack the soap bars into geometric hollow towers, leaving just enough space between them to allow for proper drying.  This method of drying is the 'tried and true', and they say it has the perfect balance between height, width and airflow. The amazing part is not only in the structural beauty of these towers - but the fact that they remain standing for up to a few months before they are dismantled and the soap skillfully wrapped.

This man was incredibly fast at wrapping the soap - it would only take a few seconds to wrap one soap and he could wrap thousands in one day!

     Before the Intifada in 2001, Nablus had around 30 traditional soap factories.  Unfortunately due to the occupation and the numerous checkpoints and borders, it has become extremely difficult for the Nablus factories to export their soap and today there are only 3 remaining factories.

Creating the pillars of soap to dry~

The Freedom Theatre

      Next stop in the West Bank was Jenin, home of the Freedom Theatre.  It was an extra five hours of travel time to spend one hour at the Freedom Theatre and it was worth every second.  Like many refugee camps in the West Bank it has been there long enough to be established, and it could easily be confused with just another dilapidated town.  But when you look closer you see the grim picture; that the 15,000 people are surrounded by barbed wire and an electric fence and that well over half of the population are children or young adults with  80-90% unemployment.

    The Freedom Theatre's story was first heard by many people earlier this year as the murder of the theatre's director Juliano Mer-Khamis shocked the world.  Juliano was an amazing individual that believed culture, art and a child's ability to be free and dream would bring about the liberation of the people.  His legacy continues as volunteers maintain the theatre.

During our visit we were able to sit down with some of the passionate staff and take a tour of the theatre.  The place was in good condition even though just a week before the Israeli Army raided the theatre - breaking windows and arresting three of its members under unknown charges.  The theatre and it's members continue to be harassed by the military, even the day that we were there they  received a phone call that some of their members had been detained at a checkpoint.  Their reaction was systematic - showing their familiarity with the conditions.  They were the ones telling us not to worry - that they would find a way to beat the system..... there was so much underlying hurt in their eyes but you could tell that their hope would prevail.  Their strong will is something I will never forget.

       The theatre's classes and workshops create a unique platform for expression and use art/drama therapy to help children cope with post-traumatic stress.  The most important aspect of the theatre is that it allows people to dream beyond the world of hate and struggle that they have always known.  Where the life of the girls is 'moving from their father's home to their husband's kitchen' and for the boys the life of a martyr.

    I hope that someday in the future I can watch one of their productions  - from small pieces that I have seen you can tell that the productions represent something so much bigger.... truly a cultural revolution.  Here is the link to the theatre's website as well as a youtube video of their 'Animal Farm' production (if you have the time I highly recommend this one).

http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/thefreedomtheatre?blend=8&ob=5#p/u/13/N4JmD_gc0gQ

Operation Dove

The village of At-Tuwani

        From the far north in Jenin, the following day I joined a small group to the far south of the West Bank into a small village that wasn't even on the map, At-Tuwani. In a small nondescript home we sat down with the members of 'Operation Dove', a Spanish non-violent peace corps group.  Operation Dove's mission to reduce violence is a process requiring passion and patience.  First, they live and create a presence in conflicted areas, sharing the life of the victim. Then they work with the community in supporting non-violent acts.  Last but not least they aim to enhance the dialogue between the oppressed and the oppressor, working slowly towards a brighter future.

Looking over the fence into the settlement fields

    At-Tuwani is located in Area 'C' of the West Bank, which means that under the Oslo accords it is under full Israeli Occupation.  This translates into strict restrictions on all infrastructure and thus an invite for the building of Israeli settlement infrastructure (as Palestinians are forced to move to places where they can have a livelihood, the land 'opens up').  Next to the village there is a growing settlement and outpost full of Israeli nationalists and religious extremists. (The only real difference between an outpost and a settlement is that the settlements are legal under Israeli law & the outposts are not - however they both receive support from the military).  For the past decade the settlers have been silently moving their fences to obtain more land.  On top of this, many of the extremists have displayed violence towards the village shepherds through physical attacks as well as poisoning their animals. 

A broken land with the view of the forested outpost in the background

Keeping the goats close to home

     Another major problem for the village has been the constant harassment of the school children that must pass by the settlement to reach the humble school in At-Tuwani. Having internationals in the area such as those at Operation Dove to witness this cruelty has helped bring these things to the attention of the media and governments and now the children are escorted by the military on the way to school.

Members of Operation Dove point out the settlement fields and their ever expanding fenceline

The road that runs between the settlement and the outpost - the only way for most of the children in nearby villages to travel to and from school.

A picture is worth a million words and this one found hanging in the At-Tuwani 'museum' says it all.

Final thoughts~

  Each place and story held a complicated union between beauty & despair..... in the end these struggles in the 'holy land' seem so unfortunately ironic with each case fueling the perpetual circle of fear.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."  - Anne Frank

Petra ~ Jordan

In front of the Treasury in Petra

    One of the most remarkable places in Jordan and also holding the prestige of one of the wonders of the world (on many lists:), the ancient rose-red city of Petra truly does take your breath away. The massive and elaborate rock-cut architecture is even more impressive standing next to than it is on the big screen with Indiana Jones (parts of 'The Last Crusade' were filmed here). Although it has become a popular tourist destination, the ancient city still holds local charm and wonder - without the artificial feel of other popular sites.  With an early start to the day it was easy to beat the crowds and wander silently through the canyons and winding pathways as the sun began to paint the rock with shades of red.

The majestic Treasury

A peak through the Siq to the Treasury

    The Siq is a narrow gorge that serves as the main entrance to Petra.  Besides the natural geologic beauty of this area, I was also amazed by the extensive water conduit system that ran along the inside of the Siq into the ancient city.  Considering the harsh desert that surrounds Petra is was an amazing feat to create an artificial oasis through the water system and effectively build up Petra to flourish and be one of the most important cities for the spice and silk routes from Asia over 2,000 years ago!

The Siq

A channel of the water system

Transportation through the Siq

* this was the cheesiest tourist thing but they actually did stop us...

The tombs set the background for the travelers on camels

   Petra has served as a sanctuary since ancient times ~ with the Nabataeans staking claim in the third century BC. The great ancient city was supposedly abandoned after several earthquakes destroyed infrastructure around AD 555, leaving the caves and ancient architecture to become the homes of the local Bedouin.  Currently the majority of the Bedouin live just outside Petra in a community the government made to draw them out of the caves in the newly deemed 'World Heritage Site'.  Besides the traditional pastoral lifestyle - the Bedouins now serve as the guides, craftsmen and shopkeepers of Petra.

Looking down on the caves that used to be home to hundreds

   I didn't know what to expect from Petra, but I was definitely happy to see that the red-rose city was not just one strip of historic architecture, but rather an entire landscape of hidden caves, towering cliffs and humbling desert.  You could easily spend a few days exploring the surrounding area, but unfortunately we had to squeeze every last drop out of one full hot day.

The 'High Place of Sacrifice'

A view of the stadium and more caves

The natural beauty of the rock mixed with the man-made entrance

Looking down on the tombs carved into the side of the canyon walls (you really have to enlarge this one to see it)

A picturesque resting place

Our Petra Group- We met a fun couple from Belgium at the place we were staying

The Monastery

    One of the longest hikes and best rewards was to the Monastery of Petra. At close to 50m high it towers above you, and really makes you wonder how on earth they were able to carve out such a spectacular piece of architecture over 2,000 years ago.  The Monastery and it's backdrop seemed very surreal, like someone had sketched it onto the desert landscape.

View from above the Monastery

A view of the harsh yet stunning Jordan landscape

Bedouin women sweeping in front of her shop

Ancient temple area

    So I thought I would start out with Petra because it was the most spectacular and the most memorable part of Jordan....... but there was also the element of getting there in the first place.  First of all we had over five hours of travel by bus from Jerusalem to Aqaba - and once we arrived in Aqaba we were officially ready for the weekend.  We dropped our bags and went out to dinner - sampling some of Jordan's finest beer.  I ordered the Petra beer thinking it would be a nice micro-brew, little did I know that I was in for a stiff malt liquor in a tall can that looked oddly close to the Coors can.  Although seemingly worlds apart, 'a taste of the red-rose city' was not too much unlike 'a taste of the Rockies'.  After that strong start we ended up having a fun night out on the town full of darts, billiards and beer.  

The local cans:)

       The next morning was not as early as we had hoped - and once we stepped out of the door it was already extremely hot.  We did not exactly have a set plan so we decided it would be a good idea to go find some water to play in.  We had heard of Wadi Mujib nature reserve before and somehow had the idea that it was only a few hours north, so we hopped in a shared cab headed in that direction.  Our destination was a small town called Karak where we were supposed to find another ride to the nature reserve.  The further we went north, the less tourists there were which also equaled less people speaking English.  Although the people in our cab spoke limited English, we pointed out where we wanted to go on a map and they wrote down the remainder of our itinerary and destination in Arabic (for us to show people).  We wandered around a bit in Karak where we were dropped off - trying to tell people we wanted to go to Wadi Mujib and showing them the Arabic writing we were given.  People were extremely friendly and it seemed like everyone tried to get together to help us.  Soon we were on a small mini-bus headed for Wadi Mujib.  The mini-bus was initially full of people, but then after about 45 min we found that we were the only ones on the bus and it was no longer picking people up.  There was one bus driver, a fare collector and a friend up front and then Dan & I in the back surrounded by empty seats.  

      Not really having a clue where we were, we just kept on repeating Wadi Mujib and they repeated it back and smiled.  Before we knew it we had traversed down a steep and windy road and had arrived at a major dam..... the dam of Wadi Mujib.  After trying to use charades to show that I wanted to hike and go swimming at a nature reserve, it was pretty obvious that there had been some miscommunication.  We walked into the dam authority building to try and find someone who spoke English and ended up finding out that we were on the opposite side of where we wanted to be.  The miscommunication was because Wadi Mujib to them is the entire valley - whereas we wanted the Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve.  Our slightly lazy minds from the night before were not the most proactive that day and unfortunately we had relied on what our first ride had wrote in Arabic.... thinking that after pointing it out on a map it would be our easy ticket to successful travel.  So in the end we spent pretty much the whole day traveling - jumping from bus to taxi to bus, sweating from the extreme heat and playing charades to make up for our language barriers.  It was a bit frustrating and more costly than we had hoped - but it also held many good lessons and gave us a glimpse of the everyday life of the locals off the beaten track.  Their efforts to try and help were warm and always friendly - and I only wish we had more time in the country..... to get lost without counting the hours:) 

View of the reservoir at Wadi Mujib