Ramallah Wedding

I had no plans for Thursday, at all. I thought "I'll go home and write a blog entry, eat dinner, and get an early night." If there is one thing about my life, however, it's that there is rarely (well, never) a boring moment. I just had to rely on my philosophy of saying yes to the world, and tada! This story below unfolded.

Manar, a friend of mine at work, asked if I would like to come to a celebration of a community project that was done at the African Community Centre, an all-Arabic community centre that supports African immigrants to Jerusalem. I was nervous, because I do not know enough Arabic even to have a basic conversation yet, but I said yes. How could I have said anything else?

The event was amazing! All these youth in the centre took training courses and learned to play music, sing songs, write poetry, make documentary films, design local clothing. It was incredible! Granted, I couldn't understand a lot of the content, but with the help of Manar as a translator, and by just soaking up the energy of the place, I was overtaken by joy. It was the coolest event I've been to in Jerusalem.

On my way out of the event, I figured I would stop at my friend's market stall in the Old City. In Palestine, it seems to me there is no such thing as just dropping by for a few minutes, at least not for me. A few hours later I was in a car on my way to Ramallah for a pre-wedding party - a bachelor's party. The party was out of this world! There were fireworks and lights in the sky, a live band with a dance floor and professional lighting, a film crew documenting it all, men dressed in traditional robes with large golden instruments that served date juice going around and serving people, Kanafi (a local dessert), and hundreds of people.

Of course, Jack took me up to dance. It was so fun, we danced Dabkeh, the local Palestinian dance. It was honestly the most fun I've had in a while. Some other Palestinians came to dance with me, and some kids too. It felt like Ghana. I kept looking around for Leon, wondering where my dance brother was!

Afterward, we went to the same nargila (shisha) bar that Jack and Robert took me to last time we were in Ramallah, with Brigitte and Margaret. We met more of their friends, and had a great night talking, laughing, sharing nargila, and genuinely enjoying one another's company.

When we left, Jack told me it was one of the best nights of his life, which may have been a translation issue meaning a really, really great night. Either way, I agreed with him and am so grateful for the experience and the friendship these two guys have shared with me.

Again, I have a few pictures to show just how epic this party was. Let's say that it was even more lively and enjoyable than most large street concerts in Canada - and it was just one guys bachelor party!!!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Weighs In

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.610687

This is one of the more elegant and articulate articles that I have read about the Israeli Occupation, written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. The comparison between South African apartheid and Israeli apartheid is not perfect, but the tactic of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is definitely one I support and the simplest and most effective way that internationals can get involved in supporting Palestinians and opposing the Occupation. I'll write a blog post about it later when I have done a bit more research. But, in short, BDS has three parts:

1. Boycott: do not buy products that are made in Israel, or that are exported by Israel. Companies like Caterpillar, for example, provides the bulldozers to illegally demolish Palestinian homes, and even killed an international woman in Gaza who was standing in front of a house to be bulldozed. By refusing to purchase goods that support Israel, you are talking with your money, saying that you don't support the Occupation. This also includes cultural and academic boycotts.

2. Divestment: tries to lobby local organizations (governments, unions, businesses, banks, universities, etc.) to stop investing their money in Israeli banks, companies, stocks, etc. Money speaks, so a huge reduction in investment from abroad would make the Israeli government have to end its policies against Palestinians to regain international support and investment.

3. Sanctions: this comes in many forms, but is often state-to-state. I know the least about this one, so time to research!

Enjoy!

An Interesting Tour of Jerusalem

This is a charged entry, because it's talking about a charged interaction that I witnessed.

Faun (name changed again), one of my colleagues at Grassroots Jerusalem, took me and a few others from the office on a tour of Jerusalem. This tour was not the typical tour you would find elsewhere in the city, as it is one from the Palestinian perspective, highlighting what the communities used to look like in '47 (1948 was the year Israel was born, and resulted in a military confrontation that saw Israel significantly expand it's borders beyond what was determined by the UN, displacing millions of Palestinians who continue to be refugees all over the world) and even in '66 (1967 was another military confrontation where Israel occupied the remaining Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank. The second occupation in 1967 is still considered illegal under international law).

We were at a pier, overlooking the whole city and talking about the history of the construction of the Separation Wall and the displacement/segregation of many communities when an Israeli man walked by and overheard our conversation. He stopped and engaged us in a conversation, challenging Faun on a few of her points. In particular, he walked by when Faun was talking about laws that discriminate against Palestinians. He asked her if she had a specific example of a law that did that. Faun had already listed several to the group, so she responded by citing the law that if a Jerusalemite Palestinian marries a Palestinian from the West Bank (on the other side of the wall), the Jerusalemite will lose their residency card for Jerusalem and will not be able to live, travel or be a citizen of Jersualem (including losing their health care - details here http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=505.)

They Israeli man responded by saying, "well, that's for security reasons." A vague and emotionally manipulative argument. Turns out that was his favourite argument. He denied any racist or discriminatory policies by the Israeli state, and when confronted with abundant examples - many from personal experiences in Faun's life - he continued to justify them on the basis of "security reasons." So, my conclusion from this man's position is that 1. All Palestinians are inherently a terrorist threat to the State of Israel, even the ones living in Jerusalem with "full" Israeli citizenship (which, to him is not a racist position), and therefore 2. Israel's violations of human rights against Palestinians are justified in the interests of "security." A well reasoned argument, in my opinion, as long as you accept all the myths about terrorist Palestinians and ignore all of the internal and international condemnation of Israeli policies. But that's easy to do.

My favourite part of our argument, though, was that he defended Israel's existence on the basis that Israel is the "only safe place for Jews to live in the world." I met some pretty safe and happy Jews in San Francisco when I was there, and have visited the Hasidic community in Montreal as well. I didn't hear from any of them that they felt unsafe because they were living outside of Israel. I by no means am arguing that there is no anti-Semtism in the world - there are certainly places in the world that it is unsafe to be Jewish - but to claim that Israel is the only safe place in the world for Jews to be is factually false. Also, Israel is not a perfectly safe-haven for all Jews, as an increasingly orthodox and conservative definition of what Judaism is inside Israel is making it unsafe for "leftist" Jews and homosexual Jews, to name just two targeted groups.

Back to the conversation. The Israeli man stated that Jerusalem is the homeland of the Jewish people, that it is their only homeland, and that they deserve a homeland. I'm not arguing that Jewish people do not deserve or merit a safe place to call home. Everyone on this earth deserves a safe and accepting place to live. What I see as problematic in his argument is directly related to the Occupation. I asked him, "Does a person who was born in Brooklyn, New York - whose family has been in Brooklyn since the 1700s - deserve to have land and rights in Jerusalem simply on the grounds that he is Jewish by religion, while Palestinians who have been living here for 1,500 years are denied those same privileges?" How can you believe so strongly in the Right of Return for Jewish people who may not even have family heritage tracing back to Jerusalem, and yet support of the denial of Palestinian Right of Return for refugees who were forced off of their traditional land only 50 years ago!? To me, it's maddeningly illogical. These arguments exist in a swamp of contradiction.

In the end, we decided to leave the argument, as it was clear that neither side was hearing the other. It showed me many things about the perspectives that are engaging in this debate about Israel/Palestine. I come back to Ido's well made point: true democracy and freedom in Israel can only exist if the Occupation is ended. Otherwise, it's really a sham built on inequality and racism.

In the end, the tour ended up being very interesting, as well as very sad. I'll upload some pictures as they can better describe the reality here than can words.

Ramallah

Last night I went to Ramallah with my friends Jack and Robert (I changed their names to protect their confidentiality), two friends that Brigitte, Margaret and I met when we were here in April. It was so good to see them again - they are truly good people. I can see it in their eyes. We always tell each other, you don't find good friends like this everyday. It's our way of appreciating each other.

Our conversations ranged from IS to Islam to DragonBall Z to Gaza. I learned many things about their beliefs that would have surprised me in April, but that I have learned are not uncommon views since re-arriving.

The first is that they feel the Palestinian Authority are traitors, mere puppets of the Israeli government. This view is more popularly held than I realized as I have heard nothing questioning the legitimacy or popular support of the PA in the media. The reasons that the PA are generally distrusted, if not disgusted, is that they frequently carry out arrests of Palestinian "resistance" fighters and either exact punishment on them for the Israelis, or deliver them to the Israeli government. Secondly, the peace process is now largely believed to be a hollow process, acting as a delay tactic while Israel continues to build settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. That the PA actively supports and participates in this process has tarnished their legitimacy with most Palestinian people I have met. On top of these, the PA government pays its employees strikingly larger incomes than the average Palestinian, and has many other examples of corruption against its own people.

What this does, in effect, is forces Palestinians like Jack and Robert who want to end the occupation to support the only group that is actively resisting it - Hamas. In different circumstances, I do not believe that Jack or Robert would support violence of any kind, yet the only act of resistance that they can see and cling to is Hamas shooting rockets at Israel. They are patriotic about Hamas' armed resistance against Israel and told me many "victory" stories of moments when the resistance fighters killed Israeli soldiers or successfully intimidated Israeli forces. They knew all about the history of the armed resistance in Gaza, including the chronological development of increasingly sophisticated rockets and their firing power/distance.

This perspective was articulated most clearly when Jack said, as an explanation of why he supports the resistance, "I'll be living this life of a prisoner whether there is a resistance or not." It is, I believe, a perspective driven by desperation. The occupation effects every aspect of a Palestinian's life. Palestinians are proud. Living idly day-to-day under a humiliating occupation, while a government they do not see as legitimate participates in decade-old peace negotiations that are also seen as illegitimate, cannot retain their dignity. I learned that support of Hamas is seen, in Jack and Robert's eyes, as taking an active stance against the occupation, defending Palestinian human rights and their right to self-determination.

I'm not supportive of Hamas' approach, as I believe in non-violent approaches to social change, but Jack and Robert's perspective did help me understand what drives support for Hamas. People need to have something the believe in. For a Palestinian in occupied territories, where else can they look to for hope?

INGO Workers

I think for the first few weeks I am here, this blog may turn into a series of vignettes of different people I meet. It's actually a nice way to write for me, and a style that is true to how I experience life - through the stories of the people I meet. Here is a small addition that I think is important to add to the mix of perspectives that exist here.

I had a short conversation I had with an international woman at a bar on Thursday night (the weekends here are Friday and Saturday, so I wasn't bar hopping on a week night). Her name was Katarina, she was from Germany, she was an international studies student at her university, and she was in Jerusalem volunteering for two different organizations in order to gain experience for her studies. She had the most cynical view of international volunteers. She repeatedly mentioned how self-critical she was for being in Palestine to "witness the conflict" and that no matter how long she was here "living with the locals" she would never truly know what it was like to be Palestinian. She understood the exploitative aspects of international NGO workers taking jobs that could be for locals, driving up local prices, and doing work that meets international funders' requirements more than the actual needs of the people.

Not surprisingly, I actually agree with all of those things and also see the contradictions and hypocrisy in the work we are doing. But it was the way in which she talked about them that bothered me. It seemed to me that she was seeking some kind of sympathy, was asking to be pitied for her sad state as a hypocritical INGO worker. I strongly believe it is important to have a well-informed, critical perspective based on self-reflection and study when doing this work. And I also believe that it will never be free of contradiction and exploitation, nor will any work for that matter.  But in my eyes, you can either choose to do something constructive about it or you can leave the field. Possessing a critical perspective should increase not your level of self-loathing, but your level of creativity and desire to alter the way in which we operate as international workers.

My friend Maria, who I was at the bar with, said something things that I really appreciated for adding significantly to the conversation. She said, if you are going to do this work in an ethical way, you need to have an exit plan. Come knowing that you have a skill set that is needed, perform the tasks/job that will add value to the community (as defined by the community) with that skill set, build local capacity in that skill shortage, and leave with the community fully prepared to take over those jobs in a sustainable way.

Katarina was questioning whether there was any role or purpose for someone like her coming to Palestine to work. Was she just taking space away from locals who are also equipped for the jobs? I think, unfortunately, in many cases the answer to that question is yes. In many other cases, international workers are needed and provide value to the communities they are in. A good heart and desire to help are not enough to qualify someone to be needed in a community. There is a place for international support, and I'm trying to understand what that is in the context of Israel/Palestine.

I will keep writing about my ideas for international support of this occupation. Would love any feedback from my wise community of friends and family.

Another Side of the Story

Just had a much needed conversation to help me restore balance to my understanding of the situation here. I finally met my flat mate Bar and her boyfriend Ido, both Israelis. Over breakfast we had a fascinating conversation about Israel.

Amit, Bar, Ido and many of their friends did not do their time in the IDF. I learned that there is a growing movement of people who do not join the army, but that political reasons are often not the reason. There are many excuses to avoid it, and many Israeli NGOs that can help you navigate that course. One of the reasons, Ido informed me, is that Israelis don't want to be starting their undergrads at 22, when Europeans and North Americans are starting their Master degrees. Either way, this was a nice counterpoint to my belief that all Israelis did IDF service.

Ido also talked about zionism. He self-identifies as zionist, but defined it as "believing that the State of Israeli should exist and that is should be democratic." This was an important distinction, and a wonderful nuance I had yet to hear. He said he is zionist because he is patriotic, but that being patriotic to him means being abel to criticize his government - a basic democratic freedom and a measure of the health of a democracy. He argued that ending the occupation was being patriotic because it is a necessary precursor to a democratic state, and so, in an about way, ending the occupation is necessarily in the best interests of the State of Israel, and all Israelis.

Ido is an upper-middle class Israeli - something he claims is rare. His mom (who is dating a Palestinian) is the Cultural Advisor for the President of Israel, and his dad was an journalist of foreign affairs. The family is secular. All this to say that his perspective may be a minority one, a perspective facilitated by and maybe even restricted to, his economic context. Either way, I am happy to have met people that balance out the image of Israelis. There is so much black and white rhetoric, that I was finding it challenging to retain a sense of the nuances of both groups of people.

We talked also about the different Jewish cultural and religious groups, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi and the history of these groups. One interesting thing I learned was about Jewish identity building in Europe in the 19th century, creating the Hebrew Jew. This was closely related to the Zionist movement, and led to an interesting cultural growth and evolution in then Ottoman Palestine and among Jews all over the world. The succeeding waves of immigration (after WWII, Arab Jew immigrations, from Russia after the collapse of the USSR) led to different groups of Jews discriminating against each other for being more or less authentically Hebrew, the original settlers in Palestine being racist towards new immigrants who could not speak Hebrew and had not been there as long. I need to learn more about this, as it adds fascinating complexity to an already complex area.

Finally, I listened as Bar and Ido argued about whether Jewish was a culture, a religion, a nationality, or all of the above. I think its fascinating the way the three all converge when talking about Israel. Its a messy thing, though, to have the three mixed like that. Ido made the interesting point though, that if it were not a Jewish nation, it wouldn't have any right to exist at all, and so the three are almost necessarily intertwined. This, too, I will need to think and learn more about.

It all provided a fascinating glimpse into yet another part of this world. It's been only five days here and my mind is spinning, my curiosity whet. I can't wait to continue digging deeper, exploring the people and the place. It all helps me understand Canada in a deeper and broader way, seeing the struggles we have as a nation reflected - though unique - in the complexities and nuances of this place. That's the magic of travelling. Ido even said, though he didn't site a source, that its psychologically proven that when people live abroad, it strengthens their identity as a person from their original country. Even though this sounds counter-intuitive, I think he may be right.

Day of Extremes

Okay, yet another quintessential Josh story.

I got off work today with no other plan than to go to King George st. (one of the few streets I actually know) and participate in the Pride parade. I was quite excited about it actually.

On the way, I decided to take a Ron-Regnier shortcut, and found myself lost in the middle of one of the hyper-Orthodox, Hasidic Jewish neighbourhoods. Luckily enough for me, I got my SIM card for my iPhone earlier that morning, and so I was able to use my 3G to find my way to my destination. As I set upon my newly found path, a man called to me. He was a Hasidic Jew – hat, suit, curls, beard and all. He asked if I knew where I was going. I told him yes, more or less. He said he was going to same direction, and could I help him carry his grocery bags?

Sure, why not?

We talked as much as we could on the walk. He is a teacher at a Jewish school, from Jerusalem. He told me he was 93 years old (but he meant 39). When we arrived at his neighbourhood, his son was there to meet him. He asked if I had other plans, and would I like a cup of coffee? 

Sure, why not?

This is the point in the story where it becomes a Josh story. I could just hear Leon and Brigitte’s voices in my head. “I’m not surprised at all,” they would say. “Of course he said yes, he’s Josh.” And, you know, they’d be right. I knew I would miss the Pride parade if I went, and yet I had to see where this adventure would take me. I’d never been inside the house of a Hasidic Jew.

It quickly became quite uncomfortable. He was insistent that I continue to help carry the groceries, even though his son kept offering to carry them. Twice the son took them from my hands, only to have him put them back in mine. When we arrived at his house, his son left and it was just him and I. He mixed me some Nestle Vanilla Cappucino instant coffee (this would never suffice with a Palestinian) and asked me to sit down.

I’m not sure if it was the bookshelf of religious books, the multiple pictures of Rabbis on the walls, or the slightly crazy googley-eyes through which he looked at me (Veronica, think mom when she’s laying down the law), but then it began. The same as it had many other times with Mormon missionaries, fanatic Muslim friends, and Catholic zealots – the conversion pitch. But this one had a twist (a twist beyond the language barrier). Ahron (that’s his name) was simultaneously trying to convert me and sell me the book that he believed would facilitate the converting!  And it was NIS 100 at that!

Anyway, after listening to him for way longer than I should have or needed to, I told him thanks and that I had to go. He was persistent. I needed this book, he said. It had changed peoples lives from all over the world, Jew and Gentile. It had even been read by Obama.

Again I insisted I needed to leave, that I was already late for my next appointment. At this point, he tapped me on my crotch and asked if I had been circumcised – my first time being asked that by a Hasidic Jew! Yes, I said, many children in Canada are. He seemed shocked, and asked if I would show him to prove it. I politely declined, and then B-lined it for the door. He followed me out, told me some other things that I was no longer listening to, and then I left.

Whew!

I walked away quite quickly, hoping I might still catch some of the Pride parade. I didn’t, unfortunately, and it was at that moment I realized I was very hungry. I walked up a couple of streets to somewhere I had never been before and found a restaurant. I ordered a pasta meal for NIS 42, more than I would normally spend on a meal. I just wanted to relax.

While I was ordering my food, there was a slightly obnoxious woman in front of me who was also alone and speaking English with the waiter. I had a feeling she would try and talk with me at some point, so I sat as far away as I could in the restaurant. Sure enough, though, once there was no one in between us, she started a conversation.

I gave in at that point, feeling much better after the food anyway. She was talking to me about being a composer and having songs just come out from inside of her. After a few minutes she said, I just know that God put me on this earth to compose songs through me.

Here we go again.

She asked me what I was doing here, and I explained I was working for a Palestinian organization. She started talking about my internship as if I am a saint, and thank God there is someone out there “truly helping the people.” I tried to explain that the organization I was working for is truly amazing, but that I am not the generator of the good things they do, but she kept interrupting me to tell me how I need to be safe. Hamas have evil, dark spirits in their souls, she said. They sell and kill their own children, you know. She had read an article about it before she came to Jerusalem.

I tried repeatedly to engage her in an actual conversation, but she kept either warning me about the evil Arabs, or praising me for helping the poor helpless ones. Her most useful advice was that when I am forced to be in the presence of “the enemy” (she was referring to Hamas, to which I made the argument that the IDF are seen as the enemy to some people, a point she seemed not to understand or register) I just need to “plead the blood of Jesus.” I thought she said “bleed the blood of Jesus,” so I was very confused. She clarified that if I cover all my sins in Jesus’ blood, that I will be safe from my enemies, because they will feel that there is a supernatural energy about me and leave me alone.

As I was leaving the conversation, she told me she would pray for me, and that she was so grateful for the amazing work I was doing. She gave me a verse from Genesis that I should read, so I can receive the gift of Abraham’s covenant and be made safe and powerful. It was Genesis 22:17 to be exact.

I left with an exasperated smile on my face. I just couldn’t believe how my night had turned out. I was done talking about religion, done talking to extreme people, and well, just done.

I walked home in a bit of a daze, occasionally smiling and laughing to myself. At some point I realized I hadn’t paid for my meal! I was so anxious to leave that conversation that I done just that, without paying. Recognizing I had literally dined and dashed to get out of a conversation with a religious fanatic, I said out loud “Jerusalem is full of insane people!” I continued walking down the street, alone and laughing out loud, fully aware of the irony of that statement.

First Day

I had a very typical "Josh" style first day. I got up at 5:30 this morning (due to my jet-lag - this is not typical for a Josh day) and left the house very early. I took my sweet time getting to my workplace, stopping for breakfast, buying water, detouring to some parks.

When I did make it to Grassroots, I was over an hour early. On that very corner was an old man named Nasser, who waived me over. We sat together on that bench for over an hour, talking about Jerusalem, Palestinians, Canada, and other musings of his. He told me that he was a very famous man in Jerusalem. He was born here and has traveled the world, but decided there is no better place to be than this holy city. His intuition was very acute, and he anticipated what I was about to say several times. I none of these occasions, he asked "Ask me anything you want about Jerusalem." As I opened my mouth to ask him what it was like to live as a Palestinian under Israeli occupation, he cut me off, saying "Don't ask me about politics. Politics are under my shoe." And he gestured to the bottom of his shoe, as if the very topic disgusted him. After that, however, he mentioned several negative things about the occupation, the Israeli police presence, and the dramatic change the city has endured since his birth in 1949.

One of the things I liked most about Nasser was that whenever he didn't like something or someone, he would say "I piss on them." He told me that falafel was 20 shekels normally, but that for him it was only 5. I asked if that was because they knew him. He said, "No, it's because I piss on them!" The Israeli police were also victims of his distaste in this way.

We agreed to meet tomorrow morning as well. I found out from the people in Grassroots that he comes for a shower every morning, and then gets drunk on the very bench we had sat on. It dawned on me in that moment that he was drinking from a water bottle in a black plastic bag the whole time I was out there. I am happy to say I will see a lot more of Nasser throughout my time.

My first day on the job really excited me. I'm surrounded by incredibly passionate, knowledgeable, powerful people. I have so much to learn and I am in the precise location to learn it. Falouz, one of my colleagues, said "You should do more listening than talking." I couldn't agree more, and I plan to.

Summary of My Life Pre-Israel/Palestine

It's been a wonderfully full, vibrant, adventurous, challenging, and relaxing few months since I left the College.

In July and August I biked from Victoria, BC to San Francisco (or Frisco as James calls it), roughly 1200 miles with James McNish and Graham Anderson. We have so many stories to tell - some dangerous, some funny, many with generous and kind locals that we met along the way. I would need a whole separate blog to share all of them. I already miss my two brothers, and miss the lifestyle of cycle-touring. I don't miss the insatiable appetite or the sore quads though! 

We concluded our adventure together by attending the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. I can't imagine a more epic way to conclude an adventure of this magnitude. Burning Man was the most overstimulting, inspiring, uninhibited and creative environment I've ever experienced, and it taught me a lot about our regular society simply by demonstrating a radical alternative. I intend to carry some of the inspired creativity and zest for expression into my daily life beyond the festival (and maybe go back next year for a reminder).

I then came home to Dawson Creek for 9 days to spend some much needed time with my family. On my way home, I had a layover in Vancouver. That was basically a perfect day - I woke up with James and Graham in San Fran and said goodbye to them; arrived in Vancouver to spend the day with Leon and his new love and be inspired by their connection; see my platonic soul mate Tanyss; visit my sister from a different mister Gigi; and then finish the day in the arms of my family in Dawson Creek. I can't imagine a better day than that.

Dawson Creek was wonderful this time around. I saw everyone I wanted to see and had good, meaningful, quality time with them. I felt relaxed and grateful for my time there. My dad and I didn't fight once! We even worked on mom's deck in the back together in peace. That means a lot to me. Veronica and I spent some good sister time together too, finding some nice common ground on a bunch of important issues like her relationship, my trip to Israel/Palestine and some tentative plans to travel together soon. 

Last but certainly not least, I spent a day in Calgary with my family there. Seeing my two little cousins Abi and Lily reminded me how much I need to value my safety and well-being. I need to be here for my family. I can't imagine not being a part of their lives. We love each other so much. I also got to catch up and have some important and much need one-on-one time with my cousin Michael, as well as sit and listen to my Grandpa tell crazy stories from his past. Him and I have a lot in common in the way we adventure. 

The last interesting moment before getting on the final plane was in JFK. I was heading toward my boarding gate which was at the end of the terminal. On the left was my plane boarding to Tel-Aviv, and on the right was a plane boarding to Accra. I thought that was particularly serendipitous. Aside from feeling older and more certain of myself, I felt that that moment could have been the exact moment two years ago - that I could have turned left or right and both would have been real moments from my life. It gave me a sense of calm - I'v been here before, and I will be just fine. 

It's now 6am, and I'm in Jerusalem. Time to get out of bed and throw myself into this new world.