Laupäeval käisime Wadi Qeltis matkamas, mis asus natuke enne Jerichot - pigem palav piirkond. Wadi tähendab araabia keeles orgu. Selles konkreeteses orus oli Püha George klooster, kuhu naistel oli lubatud siseneda vaid seelikutes. Sobivat riietust kirjeldav silt oli muidugi täpselt kiriku ukse ees mäe tipus. Juhul kui sa ei ole sobivalt riides saad mõnuga pool tundi tagasi kõmbida. Klooster kloostriks, mina olin täiega vaimustuses värske veel allikatest, mis oru põhjas olid. Selle kuumuse juures on see nagu unistuste oaas, kuhu tapva päikse eest peituda. Vesi saab selles kontekstis täiesti uue tähenduse.

Pühapäeval-esmaspäeval õnnestus ära käia ka Haifas. See on üks neid kohti, mida kohalikud ise üheks ilusamaiks Palestiinas peavad. Ilus on see küll, aga kuna ma olin nii palju sellest kuulnud ootasin midagi enamat. Pluss kohalikele meeldib see tõenäoliselt ka seetõttu, et seal on päris suur araablaste linnaosa. Kui kõht hüüab falafeli järele, siis seda ka kuskilt leiab.

Eile käisin ka stand-up comedyt vaatamas. Naljamehed olid enamjaolt ameerika palestiinlased ning päris palju nalju võrdlesid palestiina ja ameerika traditsioone. Tehti ka päris häid okupatsiooniteemalisi nalju. Näiteks araablased on tuntud selle poolest, et külas käies ei lähe nad kunagi lihtsalt ära. Kõigepealt nad hakkavad lahkuma - see on protsess mis võib kuskil 45 minutit võtta. Palestiinlastega sama lugu, 70 aastat tagasi iisraellased andsid märku, et nad võiks ära minna ja nad endiselt hakkavad lahkuma. Nõukogude aja kohta on veidi toredam nalju teha, sest see on läbi.....

P.S. Koolitus läks hästi, võibolla teen mõne klassi veel.

I totally forgot to share my emotions - last week a friend tought me some dabka. Dabka is a traditional dance here. It is a bit more advanced than the estonian folclore dance, but they danced in weddings and also on the big stages. Most of the time you have to jump on right leg, so no wonder that a lot of the dabka dancers have their right knee f*cked. If anybody would want you could mix it house dance dough.

I went to relax at the tyrkish bath. How does that look like? Well, you hang out in the steam room for a while, jump into the cold pool, go back to the steam room, get a full body scrub, maybe even a massage, then you lay on the hot stones and the you repeat it all over again. Massage and the body scrub you get only once. You should just call there and warn the people that you are coming: 022428281 number for the tyrkish bath in Al-Bireh. I managed to relax there for 2 hours, some people stay there for the entire day.

On saturday we went to hike in Wadi Qelt, it is a little bit before Jericho - rather hot area. Wadi means a valley in arabic. In this specific valley there is a monastery of st. George. Women can only enter it with skirts. The sign describing the proper outfit is ofcourse on the top of the hill. So if you are not properly dressed you can enjoy the walk back down the hill. I enjoyed the most the fresh water springs on the bottom of the valley. In that heat it is like a dream come true, a perfect hide out for the evil sun. Water gets a new meaning in that context.

Sunday-monday I managed to go to Haifa. That is one of those places that people talk about a lot. It is beautiful, but since it was talken about so much, i expected something more. I think a lot of people recommended it because it has a big arab neighbourhood. When your tummy calls for a falafel, you will definetly find it there.

Yesterday i went to see a stand-up comedy. The performers were mainly american-palestinians so a lot of the jokes were comparing american and palestinian traditions. They also made some pretty good occupation-jokes. For example arabs are known for not leaving at once when they are visting you. First they would start leaving - a process that might take up to 45 minutes. Same story with the palestinians - israellis asked them to leave 70 years ago, and palestinians are still starting to leave. I must say it is a little bit more fun to joke about the soviet occupation because it is over......

P. S. The workshop went great yesterday. I might do another class on Monday, if enough people are intrested.