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.