Refugees and a morning hike

Is there a better way to start the day than sitting by the taboun
watching Najiha form the dough into elastic pancakes, moving them
deftly from hand to hand and placing them onto the smouldering coals?
How she manages not to burn her hands is a miracle. She offers me one
fresh, hot and delicious piece of the bread to take home and share
with my colleagues for breakfast with sheep’s cheese and apricot jam.
Next door there are three old ladies – I say old, at least two of them
are probably younger than me. But they remind of the witches from the
Scottish play, and quite often one of them will approach wielding a
small bottle of roasted almonds. This morning I relent and buy one. 20
sheqels, about twice the price I would ever pay in England. These
ladies do not know about the market economy, supply and demand.
I visit Najiha again for an Arabic lesson. I probably learn some
Arabic, but mostly I get to know Najiha, who I like more and more. She
is such a strong and bright woman, a force of nature.
Rafik and I are due in Nablus today to teach an English class. Our
first stop is in Askar Camp, a refugee camp set up after 1948. We have
a meeting at the Women’s School Society. Apparently, the man I met on a bus last week from Askar lives only two streets away and the women very kindly give him a call for me. He comes straight round, and gives us a tour around the camp. Buildings are so close together in some places that open windows touch each other across the street. Children follow us in droves shouting “Wayne Rooney”, “What is your name” and sometimes slightly ruder things which I am sure they don’t know the meaning of. There are over-crowded schools for the thousands of children who live here. Our guide Tayseer was born in the camp 45 years ago and has never left. Public workers are on strike at the moment, so rubbish is piling up in the streets, schools closed, health at risk. Tayseer is most concerned.

At his house, where about 40 members of his family live on three
floors, his brother also joins us. He lived in Australia for 20 years
and has an Australian wife Gillian, who also joins us. They came to
live here 22 years ago, when they had 4 children in tow and another on the way. She speaks fluent Arabic and works for UNWRA in charge of clinics throughout the north of the West Bank. There is a good article about her on Palestine Monitor if you want to look her up on line.
Look at eye witness section – an article called From Sydney to Askar Camp.

We felt so privileged to meet them and share something of their story,
and with regret we had to leave for our appointment with the students.
At the university we met a young Palestinian woman studying
architecture in Paris and doing a research project on the impact of
internationals at the university in Nablus. She interviews us.
Today has been a day of chance piled upon chance. Flexibility
definitely pays here. If you try to stick to the knitting you get
meagre returns.

Yesterday I could not have had a more contrasting experience, joining
a group called Shat-Ha for a delightful very rearly morning hike north of Ramallah. After three hours of hiking we stopped for a wonderful breakfast under pine trees on a hill opposite an Israeli settlement.
Someone made a fire and boiled water for tea. The company was funny and interesting, mainly teachers from Bir Zeit Univeristy. They were fascinated that we came from Yanoun and plan to visit us and the people there soon. I felt sad that I could hike there but not around Yanoun, which is, if anything, even more beautiful.