An early morning will have us off, hoping for smooth "sailing" on our path!

Tomorrow we head off so we can fly to Cairo for The Presbyterian Church's Middle East Mission Personnel Retreat in Alexandria.

Later the guitar came out and we sang songs over our coffee.

For three years the University has been trying to get work visas for its foreign faculty. No dice. So every three months (or less) they have to leave and come back in, hoping to get another three month tourist visa at the border. Once this was standard procedure for many organizations and NGOs. However, now, tourist visas are harder to get if you in any way resemble a peace activist (young, single, carrying a backpack).

We were very sad when the first email rolled in notifying us that Edward Said died. His death is an enormous loss to the Palestinian community and to the academic world.

We realized we need some great Orthodox hymns in the film. Several members of his church came early to afternoon prayers to sing Eastern hymns. Haunting and perfect.

After three days with Fr. Thomas, Marthame is exhausted. How he does it, at age 62, is beyond us.

This evening, we were invited to the engagement party of the daughter of dear friends.

Tubas is a church with great spirit - though few in numbers, they work hard and have accomplished much. It is always good to share in their fellowship.

We had enough steam left in us to go up to the University where some of the teachers had a get-together involving lots of guitars and beverages. A good (and late) night was had by all.

She spoke about her father, who recently passed away at 99 years of age. "He saw our land under the Ottomans, the British, the Jordanians, the Israelis, and finally the Palestinian Authority." It is amazing to think of how many regimes have come and gone here in such quick succession. No wonder people are yearning for self-rule.

"Wow, getting into into an-Najah is harder than entering Qalqilia!" Everyone laughed.

The army had been in a few days ago, and during the incursion shot a ninety year-old man in his sleep. His funeral was yesterday - his martyr poster is up today, its colors soon to fade into the dull blues of the others which surround it.

Going to School with Jane Doe.

We need to get some footage for our film - one of our subjects who now lives in Zababdeh grew up in Haifa, and fled her home in 1948. We'd hoped she could get permission to come with us, but was refused.

Last year, when the army entered Qalqilia one night, they fired off hundreds and hundreds of rounds to announce their arrival. When gunfire passed over the giraffe area, the male got stressed out and began to run around in circles. He eventually ran into the fence and fell down. If a giraffe stays on the ground for too long, it dies because the blood pressure necessary to get blood up its long neck will kill it if not fighting gravity.

After filming for a while, we attracted the attention of Wall Security, who eventually started to yell at us. While they couldn't exactly get past the barrier to come after us, they did have big guns, so we decided it was time to leave.

"I was astonished by how much anti-Jewish hatred I found in Germany - and among the younger generation too. Other Palestinians I knew there were also surprised that we found more of this prejudice in Germany than in Palestine.”

This morning we shared in worship with the Orthodox church, after which Marthame went with Fr. Thomas to visit one of Zababdeh's native sons who lives in Milwaukee.

At school today, Marthame took pictures of the new computer lab, a great new resource for the school.

A soldier who learned English from watching Monty Python; joking with one of the soldiers about his girlfriend; being scolded and threatened by another for talking to Palestinians who passed through the checkpoint; watching the sun go down and wishing each other "Shabbat Shalom"; two kind soldiers, two that cannot be described kindly. Surreal.

Our friends from Nablus, who are to stay with us tonight, had arrived. Often we enjoy the immense hospitality of Palestinian people (including these friendly folks), so it is nice to offer it to them.

A wanted AAUJ student was killed. He was the young man we wrote a story about a while back - it looks like he didn't turn himself in after all. The story circulating is that he was killed at a checkpoint - stories conflict as to whether he was carrying a weapon or not.

For the first time we availed ourselves of the horse carriages at Surda. Since the roadblocks returned last month (so much for the loudly proclaimed opening in July), the roadside fruit vendors have, too, along with the horse and donkey carriages.

We sat in the section set up traditionally with cushions on the floor and low tables. It was fun to be able to read the menus in Arabic - our summer classes showing their benefit.