My New Home

Welcome to Nablus. First day here...most terrifying day of my life (no, not because there were terrorists running around with bombs). I had to meet dozens of people in the program and got assigned a teaching schedule to start two days from then and I was tired and hungry and didn't know where or how to get food and people kept talking to me. But now I've been here for a whole week and I know where to get the best falafel and I know (kind of) how to teach a class.

My second day here we biked to a nearby olive grove to help the farmers (or "peasants" as everyone here calls them) pick their olive trees. Note how hilly the pictures of Nablus are and you'll get an idea of how easy the bike ride was. I could barely push that bike up the hill.

Dirty, half-constructed building where we stopped to eat our hummus and bread breakfast.

Local and international volunteers.

Peasant and son.

A donkey. I wish I had a picture of the people riding them up those streets. It's like right out of a movie.

The last couple pictures are from my mountain walk to a park with my local volunteer teaching assistant. There I received my first (and last?) kiss from a Palestinian. Don't worry, it was only on my head.