Road to Jerusalem

Tomorrow I take the long, familiar bus ride through the Sinai desert, up through the Negev, past the Dead Sea and on to the green hills of Jerusalem. I've taken this trip many times on my way to visit my aunt Audrey and her family. I've now started to make my own relationships and roots in Israel/Palestine, and wonder where it will take me.

Though this road seems familiar to me now, when I stop and think I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to experience this part of the world to the point of familiarity. It's complexity takes years to understand, and I have a lot more to learn. Yet I revel in the endless learning that it brings, and the ever-changing political and social contexts that make it the most fascinating place I've ever known.

This summer, I am living in the West Bank for the first time. After spending time last year with Arabs inside Israel, it will be a different side of the story to get to know Palestinians in Ramallah. My internship is with the Palestinian Education for Employment Foundation, which is an organization that offers trainings, mini-MBA programs and English lessons for university graduates and places them in employment throughout the Arab region. My job at PEFE for the summer will primarily be to help in setting up systems for them to evaluate their programs for effectiveness and plan for their future development.

Sometimes people comment to me that I always seem to choose 'hard' things to do. But that's not how I see it. I love what I do and I love being in this region. Though I'm always nervous go back, I'm also know I must learn more because there is still so much that I don't understand. And what makes me most want to come back are the friendships that I have with people here in Egypt, Israel and Palestine, who give me hope that people are good inside. I have to hold on to that, no matter how depressing the political situation can get, and no matter how hard I have to fight to be accepted by people here.

So my road back to Jerusalem doesn't seem so hard to me, it seems like where I belong. And I feel lucky to continue the journey.

Cairo memories

Hello again. After long months of not posting on this blog, I'm back! I spent this year at NYU, studying public administration and international development for my Master's. I've just moved back to the Middle East for the summer. I am currently passing through Cairo, Egypt, where I am visiting friends and recuperating from travel. In a couple of days I will be taking the bus up to Israel/Palestine. For the remainder of the summer I will be living and working in Ramallah – the acting capital city of the West Bank. More on that to come. :)

Being in Cairo feels so familiar. I wish I could love this city more. When I visit friends and return to some of my old city haunts :), I know why I always miss Cairo a little bit when I'm away. Some of my friends here are the best that I have, and both they and I know who I am here. What I've done, who I know, the values that I held. The balancing act that each foreigner here plays between being yourself and respecting the culture. The gradual loss of idealism that happens for many people here.

There are also the more tangible realities of being in Cairo that never change. I've been getting the familiar dull headaches each night that I remember so well – the result of inhaling toxic fumes all day from the traffic. I've already run out of foods that I care to eat here. Fuul and falafel are only exciting for about a day. :) Traffic is getting worse by the year. The call to prayer sounds loudly across the city, and I still get to wake up to the sounds of the vegetable street vendors selling their goods.

It's a city of many memories for me. Recent memories, and some that seem to be from another lifetime. After struggling through a very hard year in New York, coming back is a good reminder of the longer trajectory of my life. But having said that, I also have finally disconnected from Cairo. Having spent almost a full year away this time (the longest I've been away from Egypt since 2006!), and more importantly, having made the decision to move to Israel/Palestine last year – I think I've actually disengaged from Cairo as a place. It is no longer my home base, or my emotional connecting point to the Middle East.

I suppose in some ways, Cairo feels like the place where I grew up. :) The place where I spent the 'childhood of the rest of my life.' The place of my first friendships, the beginning of my career, my understanding of Arab culture, my start with Arabic language, and the place where I started to figure out my place in it all. I don't think Cairo will be the place I live, or invest my life in. But I will always love Cairo and my friends here, and be thankful for all the life lessons that they taught me.