Letter from Palestine, 3. Everyday life in Jerusalem.
17th September 2004
Dear friends!
I think I am good at caring about writing letters now, Friday again. It is almost like in primary school, with Friday letters every week. Some structure is needed when trying to make an everyday in a new place. That is also the subject of this letter, my new everyday in Jerusalem, with emphasize on my spare time. My working tasks have not been very many or hard yet, so it is more to write about my spare time.
Anyway, I can start to tell what the last week at the office has resulted in. In the beginning of the week I was challenged to translate the brochure for the olive tree campaign, which is a cooperation between YWCA and YMCA here, from English to German. That happens when you say you know German. I soon found out that I don’t come far without a dictionary, so then I had to find something from Internet. I was quite satisfied when I found some websites translating whole texts, so the work was easy. After reading through and correcting a few things, I sent it to a couple of German friends for check up. I just got the answer, and I understand that such Internet translations are not the best… There was a lot of red in my work, but now at last I have a good translation.
Then I will tell about my spare time. As I mentioned in my first letter, YWCA has a sports centre in the upper floor. It is called LilacY, is lilac and is “for me and for you” (that is the meaning of the Arabic expression “lilacy”), and it is only for girls. You often find me there. Every second day I go there after work and spend an hour on such machines which I believed was not for me. I have mostly done conditioning, but now I have also tried a little with the weights. I might come in better condition here than I have ever been. In the machine room you follow your own programme, while there is also another room where there are different common activities like aerobics and ballet. They will also start debke (Palestinian folk dance), so I hope to attend that after some time.
Some of the evenings when I have not been at LilacY, I have been to Evensong in St. George’s Cathedral, the Anglican Church which is the church closest to YWCA, about 10 minutes walk from here. The priests are very friendly. It is nice to be met by “Good to see you!” when I come to church! They are not afraid of being clear abut describing the situation they live in either. It was the day of the Holy Cross Tuesday, with Eucharist in stead of normal Evensong. The preacher gave a clear image of the fate of the Palestinians. “Palestine is crucified”. But as Christians we have a hope, Jesus was resurrected, and we wait for a resurrection for this oppressed people. I like liberation theology.
Yesterday I was quite cultural. It was the opening of a “Monodrama Festival” at the Palestinian National Theatre. It lasts about a week and has a monologue show every evening. I went with Vicky, volunteer from England who is here for two weeks. I have planned to see a monologue later, but I don’t know which is more interesting when I don’t understand Arabic. Yesterday the programme was music, enjoyable also without understanding the language. It was a group called Wallat entertaining. It was good to listen and fun to experience how they enjoyed the stage, and managed to keep the audience clapping and singing. If you want to know more about cultural events in the area, you might have a look at www.thisweekinpalestine.com
In the weekends I like to take a walk in the Old City. I start to know the streets now, but I am still happy to bring a map. I have been to some churches (The Holy Sepulchre, St Anne’s Church (where Virgin Mary was born), Church of the Flagellation and others), but there are still some left… I have talked with some shopkeepers, translated “sale” to Norwegian (they want it in many languages, and welcomes me in Norwegian when I tell where I come from). Saturday is the big shopping day with crowded streets. But there are not many tourists, and it is not difficult to see that I am a foreigner, so the salesmen know their victim when I pass. But they have not managed to sell much…
I have heard it is the real weather of autumn in Norway. I am certainly not allowed to say that I miss it. It is more comfortable here now than when I came, the temperature is not unbearable, and it is a bit cold when I only cover with a sheet at night. It is sun every day.
Have a nice weekend!
Everyday greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends!
I think I am good at caring about writing letters now, Friday again. It is almost like in primary school, with Friday letters every week. Some structure is needed when trying to make an everyday in a new place. That is also the subject of this letter, my new everyday in Jerusalem, with emphasize on my spare time. My working tasks have not been very many or hard yet, so it is more to write about my spare time.
Anyway, I can start to tell what the last week at the office has resulted in. In the beginning of the week I was challenged to translate the brochure for the olive tree campaign, which is a cooperation between YWCA and YMCA here, from English to German. That happens when you say you know German. I soon found out that I don’t come far without a dictionary, so then I had to find something from Internet. I was quite satisfied when I found some websites translating whole texts, so the work was easy. After reading through and correcting a few things, I sent it to a couple of German friends for check up. I just got the answer, and I understand that such Internet translations are not the best… There was a lot of red in my work, but now at last I have a good translation.
Then I will tell about my spare time. As I mentioned in my first letter, YWCA has a sports centre in the upper floor. It is called LilacY, is lilac and is “for me and for you” (that is the meaning of the Arabic expression “lilacy”), and it is only for girls. You often find me there. Every second day I go there after work and spend an hour on such machines which I believed was not for me. I have mostly done conditioning, but now I have also tried a little with the weights. I might come in better condition here than I have ever been. In the machine room you follow your own programme, while there is also another room where there are different common activities like aerobics and ballet. They will also start debke (Palestinian folk dance), so I hope to attend that after some time.
Some of the evenings when I have not been at LilacY, I have been to Evensong in St. George’s Cathedral, the Anglican Church which is the church closest to YWCA, about 10 minutes walk from here. The priests are very friendly. It is nice to be met by “Good to see you!” when I come to church! They are not afraid of being clear abut describing the situation they live in either. It was the day of the Holy Cross Tuesday, with Eucharist in stead of normal Evensong. The preacher gave a clear image of the fate of the Palestinians. “Palestine is crucified”. But as Christians we have a hope, Jesus was resurrected, and we wait for a resurrection for this oppressed people. I like liberation theology.
Yesterday I was quite cultural. It was the opening of a “Monodrama Festival” at the Palestinian National Theatre. It lasts about a week and has a monologue show every evening. I went with Vicky, volunteer from England who is here for two weeks. I have planned to see a monologue later, but I don’t know which is more interesting when I don’t understand Arabic. Yesterday the programme was music, enjoyable also without understanding the language. It was a group called Wallat entertaining. It was good to listen and fun to experience how they enjoyed the stage, and managed to keep the audience clapping and singing. If you want to know more about cultural events in the area, you might have a look at www.thisweekinpalestine.com
In the weekends I like to take a walk in the Old City. I start to know the streets now, but I am still happy to bring a map. I have been to some churches (The Holy Sepulchre, St Anne’s Church (where Virgin Mary was born), Church of the Flagellation and others), but there are still some left… I have talked with some shopkeepers, translated “sale” to Norwegian (they want it in many languages, and welcomes me in Norwegian when I tell where I come from). Saturday is the big shopping day with crowded streets. But there are not many tourists, and it is not difficult to see that I am a foreigner, so the salesmen know their victim when I pass. But they have not managed to sell much…
I have heard it is the real weather of autumn in Norway. I am certainly not allowed to say that I miss it. It is more comfortable here now than when I came, the temperature is not unbearable, and it is a bit cold when I only cover with a sheet at night. It is sun every day.
Have a nice weekend!
Everyday greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 6:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home