Wednesday, March 8
Today is International Women's Day. It's a public holiday, so we have no classes. And since our weekend is Thursday - Friday, it's a three-day weekend. The others who live in my house have all gone away for the weekend. Some went to Bethlehem and two went to Ramallah. I wanted to stay home and spend the time learning my way around. So, I had a lazy start to my day. (It's always hard to get up out of the nice warm bed.) I washed my hair. I have been eating cereal with milk for breakfast each morning, but for some reason, it makes me feel nauseous, so I didn't eat breakfast and thought I would go out and get something to eat. I ended up not leaving the house till 2:00. As I was walking down the street, I ran into Ahmed. He was on his way to our house to look at our toilet, which was clogged. When we got back to the house, he opened the floor drain and we could see there was toilet paper in it. Someone must have forgotten and put TP in the toilet. It's really hard to remember every time. Ahmed called a plumber. He will come tomorrow or Saturday. I showed Ahmed that our stove doesn't work and the power cord for the washer can't reach an outlet if the washer is connected to the sink. He said he had an extension cord at the office and he would give us the stove from the office. Then, he suggested calling Nick (another volunteer) and asking him to meet us at the office for tea. So, we went back there. Ahmed and I sat on the balcony while we were waiting for Nick. There were great views of Nablus.
You could see lemons growing on the trees from the balcony and I guess that gave Ahmed the idea to pick them and make lemonade. The three of us went down into the yard and Ahmed climbed over the gate because he didn't have the key. That gate looked awful (pointy things on top) and Nick and I tried to persuade him not to go. He picked a lot of lemons! Then we went inside to make lemonade. It turned out there wasn't a pitcher to make it in. Nick had to go back to his house to get a water bottle. (We had to pour the water out!) But the lemonade was delicious. Then we had a cup of tea. By this time, it was 4:00. I still hadn't eaten anything all day. Nick said he had just eaten before he came to the office.
Then we took a taxi back to my house (because the stove and gas container were too heavy to carry). The gas man came and hooked up a gas tank and took away the old one. Ahmed, Nick and I continued sitting at our place. We had a great conversation about Palestinian thinking versus Western thinking. They stayed till 6:30 PM. I still hadn't eaten anything all day! And it was dark out. I don't really have food in the house because the stove wasn't working. I went out and, fortunately, I remembered where the falafel stand is just a few blocks away and the man was there, so I bought a sandwich and brought it back to the house. Those falafel sandwiches are delicious. That man is going to get to know me coming there all the time.
Today is International Women's Day. It's a public holiday, so we have no classes. And since our weekend is Thursday - Friday, it's a three-day weekend. The others who live in my house have all gone away for the weekend. Some went to Bethlehem and two went to Ramallah. I wanted to stay home and spend the time learning my way around. So, I had a lazy start to my day. (It's always hard to get up out of the nice warm bed.) I washed my hair. I have been eating cereal with milk for breakfast each morning, but for some reason, it makes me feel nauseous, so I didn't eat breakfast and thought I would go out and get something to eat. I ended up not leaving the house till 2:00. As I was walking down the street, I ran into Ahmed. He was on his way to our house to look at our toilet, which was clogged. When we got back to the house, he opened the floor drain and we could see there was toilet paper in it. Someone must have forgotten and put TP in the toilet. It's really hard to remember every time. Ahmed called a plumber. He will come tomorrow or Saturday. I showed Ahmed that our stove doesn't work and the power cord for the washer can't reach an outlet if the washer is connected to the sink. He said he had an extension cord at the office and he would give us the stove from the office. Then, he suggested calling Nick (another volunteer) and asking him to meet us at the office for tea. So, we went back there. Ahmed and I sat on the balcony while we were waiting for Nick. There were great views of Nablus.
You could see lemons growing on the trees from the balcony and I guess that gave Ahmed the idea to pick them and make lemonade. The three of us went down into the yard and Ahmed climbed over the gate because he didn't have the key. That gate looked awful (pointy things on top) and Nick and I tried to persuade him not to go. He picked a lot of lemons! Then we went inside to make lemonade. It turned out there wasn't a pitcher to make it in. Nick had to go back to his house to get a water bottle. (We had to pour the water out!) But the lemonade was delicious. Then we had a cup of tea. By this time, it was 4:00. I still hadn't eaten anything all day. Nick said he had just eaten before he came to the office.
Then we took a taxi back to my house (because the stove and gas container were too heavy to carry). The gas man came and hooked up a gas tank and took away the old one. Ahmed, Nick and I continued sitting at our place. We had a great conversation about Palestinian thinking versus Western thinking. They stayed till 6:30 PM. I still hadn't eaten anything all day! And it was dark out. I don't really have food in the house because the stove wasn't working. I went out and, fortunately, I remembered where the falafel stand is just a few blocks away and the man was there, so I bought a sandwich and brought it back to the house. Those falafel sandwiches are delicious. That man is going to get to know me coming there all the time.
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