A Party in the Old City
Wednesday was quite an eventful day! We started out the day at the refugee camp, of course. I was in “Sports” again because, by the time I got the sign-up sheet, it was the only activity left. We usually have three classes a day but I had to sit out the last class because the sun was just too much on my already-sunburnt arms, neck, and face. After the camp, we headed back to the palace for lunch and the nap again. I was exhausted! I slept for about an hour and a half and got up eager to begin the evenings activities.
We left the palace and headed down to the Old City of Nablus for a walking tour. The Old City is amazing! It’s like a maze with narrow tunnels and passageways. I took a ton of photos there… There were a ton of kids following us around all begging us to take their photo. On the tour, though, we passed by ruins of building that have been destroyed by the Israeli army. The army enters the Old City almost every night, ostensibly to look for some militant or terrorist. Since the Old City is such a maze and potentially filled with resistance, the Israelis have begun passing through the city by blowing holes in the walls of houses and going house-to-house that way. We talked to at least 3 or 4 people who had experience this themselves. It’s also not uncommon for the soldiers to grab a local Palestinian and use them as a human shield while going from house to house. The BBC actually showed some video of this happening to some children, which, of course, is a blatant violation of international law. I don’t have the link but I’m sure if you search YouTube you can find it.
After the tour, we went to Hammam al-Shefa, which is a Turkish bath in the Old City. This was incredible! We ended taking over the whole place for ourselves since there were so many of us. The girls went for their bath and massage first and the rest of us just sat around the main area, drinking tea, smoking arguila, and talking. Right before it was our turn to enter the bath, I heard some people begin singing Happy Birthday. I turned around and saw a huge pan of knafeh (a Nablus sweet dessert) with a candle in it. Apparently, one of the local volunteers that I knew in 2005, Yusra, called ‘Ala, the coordinator and reminded him that tomorrow was my birthday. What a great surprise! Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me in English, Arabic, Italian, and French. After the festivities, I grabbed a bite of knafeh and headed into the bath.
We all stripped down and put towels around ourselves, grabbed our loofah and soap and we entered a room with a very hot stone floor. I had a hard time walking on in barefoot but was shocked when they told us we had to lay down on it. After I finally managed to lay down, it was actually pretty relaxing! We stayed on the floor for about five minutes then entered a room where we rinsed off in a cold shower. Now, it was time for the sauna. Talk about hot! It was all I could do to stay in there for five minutes. I’ve never sweat so much in my life… But it was quite relaxing. After that we headed to different shower stalls where we had a chance to wash with cold water. It felt great! After the showers, a few guys opted for the massage. It actually looked pretty rough and thorough so I passed since I’m a bit sunburnt from the last three days.
I headed back out to the main area where we ate some pizza, danced and listened to Arabic music and talked for about another hour or so. At around 11pm, it was time to head back to the palace.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend here so we have free time for the next two days. A few people are heading to the Dead Sea but, since I’ve already been there, I am just hanging around Nablus. One of the local volunteers I met in 2005 is going to take a few of us around the city to see some sights and maybe do some shopping.
In the meantime, here are some photos from today:
