Ramallah thoughts

Ramallah is a city of about 25,000 people, the acting capital of Palestine and the location of headquarters for every major international organization operating in the West Bank and Gaza. Swirling around in this relatively small city is a fascinating mix of highly educated and mobile Palestinians, young Western backpackers, staff from the United Nations and every other major international NGO, average Palestinian shopkeepers and university students, and a city center that reminds me of the chaos of some neighborhoods in Cairo. I've seen Mercedes, Volvo, BMW and Lexus cars rolling through the streets, as well as broken-down cars from the 1980s parked in vacant lots. There are falafel shops and expensive boutiques, lush tree-lined streets and dry olive groves on nearby hills. Particularly after my short few days spent here, it is impossible yet to understand the mix of things that make up Ramallah.r But it is certainly different from any other place that I've stayed in the Middle East.

Every night since I've arrived I have gone out in the evenings with Darin. Darin is the Alumni Coordinator at PEFE, but she does basically everything from program management to event organizing from what I can tell. I am also staying with her and her family right now, during the process of finding a place to live. Darin is exceptionally generous, and I think this week she has been trying to introduce me to everyone she knows in Ramallah (slightly overwhelming but they're all very nice people.) :) We have been going out in the evenings, sitting in cafe's with the young Ramallah crowd, smoking nargila (hooka, water pipe) flavored with watermelon and mint (so good!) and enjoying casual conversation. Just as in the U.S., conversations are about work and family prevail, though stories of frustrations with the political situation tend to pepper the conversations here.

Many of Darin's friends work with international organizations, some with USAID, some with construction companies or NGOs that contract from USAID or the UN. Others work in the private sector here in Palestine for banks, real estate companies or business. They have impressive resumes, perhaps with degrees from U.S. Universities or from Birzeit (the leading university in Palestine). I feel a bit out of place in their company, mostly because of their fluency in the issues happening here. I'm learning a lot just from listening to them and becoming more familiar with all the developments, investments, projects and funding coming through Palestine these days. As I listen, I've been having a feeling of being lost, and still not knowing where us foreigners should really fit into the picture of 'development' in a place like the West Bank. What Palestine needs more than a proliferation of NGOs is a resolution to the political situation with Israel, open borders, and open trade with the rest of the world. It's difficult to measure the real impact of NGO programs here when they have become an industry that employees thousands and are now simply part of the economy; are these NGOs a drain on talent to the private sector and national development, or a positive force in promoting growth and development in themselves? I expect to hear many more conversations about this subject in Ramallah, a city where the mix of foreign influence and Palestinian interests is so poignant.