I’m posting from an internet cafe in downtown Ramallah on the West Bank. Via a very slow dialup connection - so this is going to be a short post, though there’s lots to tell.
The place is an unadorned smoke filled room on the sixth floor of a high-rise. But, hell, we’re on the internet.
Sherry Alpern is with me. She says beautiful day today. Weather crisp and sunshiny. Met with an incredibly bright, committed, funny band of medical professionals (from the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Societies). They briefed us on the political situation and recent history and shared information about their programs, which covered children’s health, women’s heath, chronic disease and community health education.
For many of us in the health field, the work they do is familiar - but the conditions they do it in are unbelievable. For example, an ambulance ride from Qualqulia to the nearest hospital in Nablus used to be 20 minutes. Then they walled in Qualquilia totally - so an ambulance has to get through the gate - then through five checkpoints which can take hours. Now they’ve built the wall over the only road - and you can’t get to Nablus at all.
Tomorrow some of us will be at Medical facilities - Andrew, Alice, Ellen and Seema are going to a hospital in Hebron - Sherry and Bob will spend as much time as possible wih people involved in environmental work, especially water supply.
Our hosts are tremendously generous and have welcomed us as colleagues. Some are old friends from prior trips.
I’m sad to say, the general impression from the people we meet is that nothing has changed in the past three months in the West Bank. They like Abbas, but, as everyone says, “what can he do?” The checkpoints are still there, the settlements are growing by leaps and bounds, and everywhere you look are trenches, barbed wire and, of course, the wall.
Our hosts are in the forefront of the movement to build a civil society and they are hopeful, at least, about the prospect for internal change. They take great pride in the success of the recent elections - simply the fact that they were carried out fairly with high participation and give evidence of growing political discourse.
Elsa says hello to Shoshanna, and good luck on her paper. Sherry and Bob say to their friends and family - we are well, excitd to be here and feel we are among very good people.
0 Responses to “An Internet Cafe in Ramallah”