Wow, so since i was sitting in that shop in downtown Qalqilya, much has happened. I have learned a lot today. I walked around town with my friend who called himself Abu George and we met many of the local merchants. I got picked up later on by my host, who took me to his house for an outstanding dinner. It seems that most every Palestinian smokes, and many smoke several packs a day. I got offered maybe 4 or 5 cigarettes by friends downtown, and 2 cokes, the later of which i accepted. When I went back to the house i am at, we ate d'juj, or chicken, and ruz, or rice, along with ma, or water. Later, we went to the local pool. The owner was related to the family, so we got in for free. I went swimming and my friends made an error, they put my camera down on a table and the next thing we knew it was gone. I was a little sad, but I just played it cool and told them not to worry, and within 2 hours they had located the camera, but how i do not know. I know what it is like now to be the different guy in the pool. All the Palestinian guys (it was a male only pool) wanted to challenge me to splashing battles (i think that's what they wanted) or to have a swimming race. They thought it was funny that the extent of my arabic is assif, or sorry, marhaban, or hello, kuta, or cat. Try and make a conversation with that, it's tough. Anyway, they were nice and I got to make new friends, some a little odd though. A guy downtown told me that palestinians are always trying to get out because of the tough life, and the best thing to have more than gold is an American passport, because it guarantees freedom of movement. I have been drinking tons of cafe, or coffee, as black coffee is very popular here, and I have had lots of tea. They even have teen, or fig, trees exactly like the ones at home. They also have orange, and something called jauwaffa, which I still have not figured out if there is an english equivalent.
If you know of someone who has wanted to know what's going on with me in palestine, send them a link to my blog.
Until next post, i think i will first go get some sleep, it's 6 hours ahead of eastern time zone
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