February 2, 2002 — Mudeif Productions

At school assembly, Abuna Aktham extended a formal thank you to the Ministry of Education and the schools of the area for their help with our students' education during the recent closure of Jenin. Students were stranded in Qabatia, Jenin, Burqin, Rummanih, Kufr Dan, you name it. They were welcomed into these towns' schools as visiting students, then began their exams from Zababdeh by fax machine until the roads opened a bit. The same, we have heard, has been taking place all over the West Bank these days.

We paid some visits to friends in town, including some who have an incredible view looking over Zababdeh. It is refreshing from time to time to spend an evening making visits, but for the people who live here, this is what they do. Every night. Over and over again. A Palestinian critique of Western culture, and perhaps rightly so, is that it is anti-social, private, and alienating. We had to admit that in five years in Hyde Park-Chicago we failed to visit our first floor neighbors even once. There's got to be a middle ground...