Bits and Pieces

A week ago I went to Bethlehem for the day, and I still have to post more about that trip, but I keep picking up little things here and there that I need to share. Random, unconnected stuff. So here some of it is, in no particular order:

• The billboard near me--the one with the USAID feel-good advertisements on each side--has changed. Both sides are advertisements for a furniture store. I won't post (or take) a picture of the new signs, but it's interesting that the USAID signs are gone.
• On a related note, I went to Birzeit University the other day, and on the drive (it's a good five miles one-way from the center of town) there and back, noticed that the European Union has a bunch of billboards advertising its humanitarian aid projects. They might need to take a lesson from the Americans, though: one EU sign shows a blond kid drinking from a water fountain, the other shows a guy with a big straw hat hoeing a field; both signs have--in English--short slogans about humanitarian aid. Earth to EU: who are you marketing your programs to?
• The other day when I was walking through the center of Ram'allah, I heard a very loud conversation being pumped out of speakers somewhere. Though it was in Arabic and they were talking very fast, it was some sort of radio show (like whatever "morning zoo" type radio programs you hear on American radio), and the host was talking to several different people. It got louder as I made my way around the al-Manara circle that marks the center of Ram'allah, and then suddenly I was in the middle of a crowd, and right next to me is a guy with a microphone, talking to a young woman--and her voice was the one I was hearing on the speakers. It's weird to be walking through the center of a town in a foreign country, and stumble into a remote broadcast for a radio station.
• The New York Times posted some photos taken near here on Friday. Go here and look at pictures #7 and #8. #7 is a brilliant photo, one that I wish I had taken; #8 isn't bad, but the caption is a bit wrong. Qalandia is nowhere near the Old City; yes, those are people waiting to get through the checkpoint to get to the Old City (and the Haram ash-Sharif), but it's a 10-15 minute bus ride from the checkpoint to the Old City.
• On another audio/visual note, I can take video with my Canon DSLR, but even after converting & shrinking the files, for some reason I'm unable to get the video to upload to YouTube. Solution: I e-mailed the file to Mary and let her post it. So if you want to see/hear video of the evening call to prayer in Ram'allah, click here (it's a ~4 MB file, so if you're on dial-up, be patient while it downloads). The coolest thing about posting the video to YouTube is that there are a whole bunch of other videos of Ram'allah, shot by other people, that are all linked to mine--so you can see a lot of Ram'allah with just a few clicks.
• Yesterday was another Strange Saturday at the guest house. I heard some loud music out in the hall, and I took a look to see who was playing their stereo/TV so loud. I saw 20+ Palestinian kids (mostly 10-14 years old, I'd guess--some of the girls were wearing headscarves, too) in the hallway, with violins, violas, cellos, etc., and a couple adults--one conducting, another playing an oud, doing some sort of concert or orchestra practice. There were a bunch of parents proudly looking on, applauding when the songs were over. It was good music, and interesting, but the crowd was blocking access to the kitchen, and I was hungry (it was also before sunset, and I didn't feel like walking all the way to one of the Christian restaurants), so I went to the Subermarket and got some stuff to snack on. When I left the building, I noticed all the cars parked in front of the guest house--many were very nice, and several had Israeli license plates. Pretty interesting that on a Saturday evening, Muslim and Christian kids from both sides of the Palestine/Israel border would converge upon a hallway at the Evangelical Technical and Vocational Training Center to play orchestra music.
• I mentioned Christian restaurants. You can't tell just by looking at them--I guess I could ask around. Though honestly, even many Muslim owned/operated restaurants wouldn't have any problems if an obvious foreigner/non-Muslim wanted to eat before sunset--but the one I've been to actually makes a decent pizza.
• My difficulties finding people/places continues: I went to Birzeit to talk to the former director of their Center for Development Studies, and it was a pretty frustrating experience. He told me his office was Room 110. Nope. Eventually, after not finding him anywhere on the first floor, or anywhere near the office of the department he teaches in (Economics), a woman--I think she was a maintenance-type person--helped me look. She asked me where I was from, and told me she had lived in Kansas City for a year and a half. We eventually found the right office: Room 208.

That's all for now. I had more little sniglets to post, but the rest are escaping my memory now. Tonight I'm going to walk to a hill south of the downtown area, where I've seen a lit-up ferris wheel at night. If I find it, I'm going to take some pictures.