so far

My time in Israel began by being detained by Israeli customs. I think it was because I didn't have the address where I would be staying, but who knows--maybe it was because I was going to Palestine (although I can't imagine that other people don't do that), maybe I have a flag on my passport--I would not be at all surprised if I do now. I've traveled quite a bit and have never had trouble entering a country, and I probably didn't take it seriously enough. I didn't have any info printed out. It wasn't bad though. It was only a for a few hours and I just ha to sit outside customs, where there was even (flaky) free wifi. I was mostly amused, though I was a bit worried that I would never get my passport back, or that they would send me home. Luckily, they eventually decided to let me through, and I made it to Ramallah (with the help of several people who lent me their phones) to find a worried office.

I'm super excited about my organization, PSD. They're all about empowering members f the community (especially youth and women) and fund student-designed service-learning initiatives, as well as trainings in things like leadership, life skills and computer skills. They also run vocational training for women and provide microloans for them to start businesses. I'm working in the communications department, and basically, my job is to write and edit whatever needs to be in English. Last week, I spent a lot of time learning about the organization and what's going on right now, as well as editing a grant proposal and an activities report, as well as summarizing it for a newsletter. I also helped translate a lesson plan for an English class. Everyone in the office speaks much better English than I speak Arabic, but I can help make sure everything sounds right. The lesson plan was for 12 year olds, but it was full of chemistry terms that even I had to look up once I was told what they were in my own language.

Right now, I'm staying with Majd, who works for PSD. She's incredibly sweet and calls me her sister; she said, “only more so—since you're not from here, I have to take extra care of you.” She also speaks fluent English and is really helpful for my Arabic too.

This weekend, we went to visit Majd's family in Jenin, a city about an hour and a half north of Ramallah. Her family is wonderful. I should have perfected food pocketing strategies in Morocco. Except I wouldn't really want to pocket it because it is delicious. However, I've been told to kouli pretty much nonstop for a day and a half now and I feel like I'[m going to explode. I don't even know where to start in terms of highlights—there's been fresh pita and hummus, veggies and cheese, stuffed grape leaves, a creamy, lemony both over rice with stuffed zucchini, dates, baby cucumbers...

Exciting news: I can almost communicate in Arabic—well, in standard arabic (I'm still getting used to the dialect, and there are a lot of new words to learn, but everybody's nice about speaking formal arabic with me (and then they laugh at each other for speaking it)) But even so, it's pretty intimidating to be asked to explain what I think of politics or why I'm studying Arabic in Arabic.