Driven by Curiosity…

I have been watching this Ramadan series on TV it is called he Palestinian Relocation (Al-taghreebeh falastinieh). I started because I heard from three older people that they REFUSE to watch it! It is a very nice series that describes the good and the bad in the life of one family in some village in the Palestinian countryside. And through them it narrates the story of Palestine in the last 100 years. For my elderly friends,The palestine of my generation is not more than a nice dream. They tell me that the palestine in their hearts is the Palestine of 50 years ago that no longer exists.

My Grandma was telling me that back in 1948 on the day they were evacuated, she was making marmalade and left the pot boiling on the stove because they were going back in couple of hours. The marmalade goes on boiling till today. A neighbor of hers, and in the confusion of the situation has left one of her 7 kids sleeping there… the little boy goes on waiting in his little bed wondering when is mommy coming back. And then I understood why people like her refuse to watch this show. These same people refuse to go back if the door is opened because they are too frightened to see what happned to the palestine that lives in their hearts. Murred Barghouthi wrote a beautiful book about this very idea called I saw Ramallah

Obviously, this is absolutely nothing, compared to all the lost dreams, and crushed hopes and the misery you hear when you talk to a Palestinian family still waiting in some refugee camp.

One of the best books ever written about the Palestinian history is a book called the Iron Wall, ironically written by Avi Shlaim who happens to be an Israeli Jew. (I am not going to go trough the difference between Israeli, Zionist and Jew. For people like my Grandmother it is the same thing). Another good lawyer for our case would be Edward Said. Any of his books is great.

It saddens me that the situation changed from living in Palestine to Palestine living in us!

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It is Thursday afternoon; I started the count down to leave Jeddah back to Amman, at least for the Eid vacation.

Work has been great, I don’t get to see many people, well actually I don’t get to see anyone at least for the time being, but I am BUSY! We have been preparing for our next project, which will take me to France on the 18th of NOVEMBER..YUPPI YUPPI YEEEY! I am so excited about it. Shopping in France? Who can resist the temptation?

This trip will be a training seminar in preparation for the next project in Amman, which till now we don’t know if it will get approved or not, but we have our fingers crossed

I went yesterday to visit Sevgi and Fadi, there was Sami, Rula, Randa and Yasser (her husband) we ended up spending an evening of laughing! It started by defending the honor of Haifa wahbeh ( the guys actually believe she is CLASSY?! she is sexy, she is hot, but Haifa and classy just don’t fit in the same sentence!) the evening ended up by fighting over the last éclair! They got us éclairs. And since we all are fasting during the day and by the time we finish the Iftar, we have no place to breath, we don’t get to indulge in delicacies such as éclairs…especially if they are chocolate filled!

I went back to drawing this week; I am in the nude phase! I am very much into charcoal… I think bare bodies are much sexier when they are in black and white. I am finishing up my second magnum opus this week!( i am kidding!)

Ahh my mother has finally fullfilled her lifetime dream ( in Amman) to have parquet on the floor! I can't wait to go home! home sweet home. ( a thought just hit me, no matter where life takes me being with my parents at their house is being home)

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