February 2, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

Visited the Muslim side of town (no train tracks, but what seems to be a clear border nonetheless). Most of the Muslim families in Zababdeh seem to be descendants of refugees from 1948 Haifa who managed to scrape together enough to buy land. Our host works at the Latin School, and treated us to some homemade Arabic bread. The dough is cooked on heated stones (what's with stones in Palestine?) which gives it a unique shape.

*The computer center at the Zababdeh Benevolence Society.*

From there we visited the Zababdeh Computer Center, run by the Zababdeh Benevolence Society. Even though we have been in this small village for five months, until this week, we had no idea there was such a society. And apparently they have a library near our building, but again the way news travels baffles us. When we express suprise at such things, people say, "Oh, you didn't know???" The computers at the center are better than the ones in the school, and four days a week there are classes for youth in the village.

We then went home with the computer teacher (who also teaches computer at the school) for the Arab version of Backgammon (Marthame won the first game, when he didn't know what on earth he was doing). A full day of visits and Arabic practice. Good for the mind and spirit.