July 21, 2003 — Mudeif Productions

*Elizabeth and one of her former students in Zababdeh.*

Worn out from the weekend's frustrations, we caught the early morning taxi back to Qalandia. We arrived at Tayasir checkpoint around 7:00, surprised to find only a handful of cars waiting in front of us. Checked one by one, they were passed through, and it was our turn. A quick check and we were on our way. The path has improved drastically. However, it is once we arrive at Qalandia that our path takes on the air of true absurdity. Rather than passing through Ramallah and then onto Birzeit, the most logical path, we catch a shared taxi at Qalandia and double back over the route we've just come from Zababdeh, bypassing Ramallah and entering Birzeit near the village of Atara. Otherwise, we would need to walk through the Qalandia checkpoint into Ramallah then deal with the hot long Surda walk. Redundancy is preferable to that.

When we walked into our classroom building at Birzeit, we were met by one of Elizabeth's favorite students from the Latin School in Zababdeh. About to enter eighth grade, he is spending part of his summer away from his home in Jenin and visiting his brother, a student at Birzeit. We sat for a bit and chatted before class started. (Elizabeth wishes she could take credit for the kid's fantastic English, but it has more to do with a natural gift for language, and a passion for learning.) At any rate, it was super to see him and meet his brother.

Lunch at the university cafeteria (which is usually very good) was super today, with msakhan, a delicious traditional dish. In the evening, we went into Birzeit with a couple of our fellow language students to the "Mona Lisa" restaurant. While there, an American friend of ours came running in - she was studying Arabic with us two years ago in Birzeit. Her in-laws are from Birzeit, so she was back visiting them. Her ordeal at the bridge entering sounded pretty tedious. For three hours, she was grilled, and the authorities eventually produced faxed copies of her husband's ID pictures. She was then given a ten-day visa, rather than the automatic three-month tourist visa usually issued to Americans and other Western visitors. Recently, because of actions of international peace activists, the border security is much tougher, refusing entry or issuing extremely short visas to people they suspect of coming here to help Palestinians. This has not only been a challenge for those activist networks, but it has also put established NGOs in a bind, since much of their Palestinian staff may not be able to come to work through the closures, while international staff and volunteers may not be able to get into the country at all. For our friend, proof that she is married to a Palestinian is enough evidence that she is undesirable. She was glad to get in at all, but it'll cut very short her visit here.