Entries this day: Checkpoint_your_head Walking_around_Old_City zzz_AJAX

Checkpoint your head

7:38am IST Monday 17 October 2005

I have just left Nablus through the Owhara checkpoint, sharing a taxi with Masada, my Nablus body guard, to the checkpoint.

I was amazed to hear my name called, turned around to find the Swedish Mafia unshaven: Gabriel (who said three settlers (Israelis) had been killed last night), Ulf, Johan plus Carola in the parking lot just ahead!

They had been living in Balata, the refugee camp I visited briefly with Masada, and I got the intense feeling that they (the Swedish Mafia) were doing more good than I. I've just been walking around Nablus looking for a bank and wondering if I would survive without eating until breakfast at 5pm.

How are these guys doing it?

Well, no mystery: they just jumped into ISM and have been on the front lines in Bil'in, and living in the cramped chaos of Balata.

Am I doing as much good by posting my pictures, videos, stories on my website?

By practicing awareness of my Buddha nature? By chewing my food thoroughly and wishing breakfast didn't mean everyone would light up their cigrettes? I like Ramadan during the day; the air is fresh.

We went through a flying checkpoint *just* after we went through the Ohwara checkpint, and now (about 3 miles later) we are stuck behind a line of traffic so long I can't even see what is the holdup.

7:52am

The taxi driver got out to investigate.

7:55am

We are turning around. This occupation is fucked up. No wonder there are actions against the Israelis here. I'd be fuckiing pissed if I was supposed to be somehwere but turned around due to a godamn arbitrarily placed checkpoint..

The fucked up thing even worse is we are just going to go around the checkpoint, winding through a narrow village with tons of speedbumps. So it cannot be argued that the Israelis are making themseles safer; if we had a bomb, and can just go around the checkpoint, wouldn't we do so?

8:10

And by "go around" the checkpoint, I mean drive all the way up the face of this rather large hill, twisting through the labyrinth of streets, back down the oher side, and we aren't even back on the main highway yet. Of course this means countless hours / fuel wasted if we count all the people who are adversely affected by the checkpoint. Isn't that worth getting pissed about?

8:19

Nowm we are bck on the highway. I see some dark smoke from a very concentrated point on the mountain; like a fire 10 feet across. Or less. But enough black smoke to choke a chain smoker.

8:35am

Holy fuck. Now we are backing away from another checkpoint, but this one had no line of traffic. I wonder if for some reason me or my fellow passengers are disalloowed to be checked.

That seems strange, because we were checked at the first checkpoint without a problem,but have avoided the second and third checkpoints./p>

8:42

Going through another small town now. Narrow bumpy streets not even counting the speed bumps.

8:51

Through another villge, more steep twistycurves and another village an now more steep twist curves and a village visible on top of this hill.

9:00

Our taxi driver just talked with the driver of an oncoming taxi.

9:02

Our taxi driver is now borrowing a phone from a passenger and looking up phone numbers on list..

while driving.

List has been passed back to passengers. Phone dialed, given to taxi driver.

9:04

Phone call failed; try again.

Passengers are beginning to talk about the situation; For a while I was shocked by their silence, which indicated to me this was situation: normal. Really it's situation: fuckedup, but has become normalized in Palestinian lives.

Now they apparently think it's fucked up, too.

9:06

On a highway again. We scoot down hills at 120 kph usually and once I saw 141 kph.

9:09

Just saw a sign saying Jerusalem was 25 (km?) away. We are going to Qalandia, but they are maybe 10 km apart.

9:17am

Another flying checkpoint, right on the highwy. Our driver is talking to soldiers now. Three soldiers with weapons.

One soldier has my passport and didn't just give it a glance over; they are taking it somewhere and now we are apparently going to be checked more thoroughly.

9:20

Nope; we weren't checked more thoroughly; we all got our passports back and now we are turning around again. because of me??

9:27

I called Rami. He said it is not because of me, but there is a "closure". I don't know if/when/where I will be able to get through to Jerusalem.

9:37

Woah; I have been here before. This is the checkpoint that forces the road to extend up the hill to meet it, closing off with a yellow frame barrier the shortcut road.

We just rolled through it and strangely saw several taxis trying to get to the side of the checkpoint we had just been on. Shoulda gotten a picture of them.

I think we are sorta kinda close to being back to Qalandia..

9:51

Aha!! I recognize we are in Ramallah.

Very close indeed to Qalandia.

I'm seeing soldiers on the streets - more than normal.

4 walking and 1 by Yassir Arafat's compound slash tomb.

9:59

We have just arrived Qalandia. I was going to give the guy 20 NIS cause it took so long; I thought I'd be nice. But he wanted 25 NIS. I'm not sure where in Qalandia we are.

10:04am

oh. I see. We are in Ramallah. I still have to take a taxi to Qalandia.

10:15am

In a service taxi from Ramallah to Qalandia now.

I've sent 20 NIS up to the driver, but haven't recieved change yet.

The guy beside me made the apparently universal closed fingers gesture for money, but I don't know what he meant.

My sense is he meant "I know your money hasn't arrived yet."

10:19

It just came back: 17 NIS.

10:23

I showed my money buddy my Japanese coins and 千円 note. He examined them all carefully and gave me a thumbs up. Then he seemed to describe the 1000 yen note as "sharraf."

10:37 IST Monday 17 October 2005

I walked through the checkpoint at Qalandia without going through the metal detector *and* without them looking at my passport. I had it out so they coould have seen its nattionality, but that hasn't stopped them from checking it before. Save the first time, but not the 2nd and 3rd time. So, in short,

They have not checked my passport 50% of the times I've been through Qalandia checkpoint (2 of 4 times).

I'm on the #78 shuttle now: 4.20 NIS to a lot walking distance from Faisal hostel (Damascus Gate)

We just need to go through this one checkpoint. I'm in the back corner of the bus, apparently focused on this entry.

10:44

I showed my passport when the dude motioned toward me, but one old cat did not show his. He is just going through his prayer beads..... We went through without him being checked.

What kind of lockdown is this???

11:00

Back at damascus parking area. I'm going to PalVision now to help Rami.

Walking around Old City

10:00pm IST Monday 17 October 2005

Just got back after walking around the old city with Dave, Serena, and Rochelle.

We are all Americans, but the cool open-minded kind, and had a great time. Just walked slowly through the slowly quieting streets, occassionally offset with the loud rumble of tractors pulling trash collection carts and a guy standing on the trash as other guys threw it up there. I thought of some lyrics for a new song called "funky cold Serena," based on Tone Loc's original, but I didn't get much past the first verse, being vexed looking for a word that rhymed with "Jerusalem" and meant "candy" (not gum, candy).

We tried to find the Wailing Wall (led by me since I've been there before), but the gate Sarah and I had previously used was locked.

Tried to find an alternate route and a guy showed us a way and asked us for change in exchange, which we refused; I might have given him some had he actually led us to the gate, but. (*)

(*) I think this is the second or third or tenth time I've used this grammar I learned in Australia when I went to see Bryn during me-an-Wende's trip to let her attend Irene and Nick's wedding.

The next guy somehow immediately mentioned Texas and "Don't Mess With Texas," which was a bit surprising..

We arrived in a part of the city I had never seen, but my sense was we were behind the wall. We followed Dave's stomach after that and ended up at a nice little restaurant where the girls shared pomegranate juice, and Dave and I each got some on their assurance of its deliciality, plus a meal each.

Shared stories and laughs equally around the table as Serena added fork stabmark designs to her already stabbed placemat, I carefully studied Dave's face because I recognized I had been focusing on the girls (Serena's blue eyes and Rochelle's height, 182cm), and Rochelle and Serena both told us stories about Rachel Corrie, who they knew well when she died.

Dinner finished, paid (more expensive than I expected, though I did get to take some home), and we headed out. We turned right and I thought we went way way down and into new territory, but then turned left a short ways and then suddenly we were at the very gates of the Wailing Wall that I thought had been closed before!

I was surprised, but we rocked in there through the laughable security. I could have had a gun in my pants; he didn't check between my legs (crotch or otherwise), although maybe I'm wrong about this... the alarm thing didn't beep as I went through but she stopped me and said it was my belt. I guess a small bit of metal didn't set off circus whistles, but a large chunk of gun would have. But, I could have had a glock in my pants.

Instead of having guns, we walked quietly appreciative of the area's religious significance. I told them the left side was for men and the right for women. Something really interesting about that: the dirty line where people have been touching the wall is just a bit shorter on the women's side. Just a bit. I'll may try to get a photo of it; the effect slash implication is interesting.

Basically headed out of the city past that and Dave headed back to the hostel while I walked with the girls on a beer run (ice cream for me). I was sortof in my own world of music, making up new lyrics to various songs ("oh what a wonderful world" and something else) and occassionally commenting on something they said.

Saw some inline skaters and I expressed my interest in skating; I wonder if I can rent some around here.

Arrived back at the hostel and was pleasantly surprised in a bad way by the girls: "we were harassed a lot less having you with us."

"Wow. I'm glad, and it's my pleasure not to harass you."

zzz AJAX

9:54am IST Tuesday 18 October 2005

Got my picture thing fixed last night.

It looks a little something like this: