Going home again

Dinner, at 'home'.

When we crossed back into Jordan today, after swollowing paying a combined 70 sheckels for a cab to cross the bridge and 322 sheckels for the Israeli "exit fee" (a little over $100), we felt a sense of freedom that came from realizing, by contrast, how closed, difficult and heavy it was, even as we were enjoying life, in the West Bank.

We are now sitting in a hotel room, in the same hotel from which we started this journey. It feels like years ago we were here, in different places in our lives.

Last night we drank "Turkish" coffee and talked politics in a Beit Sahour, Palestine living room.

This afternoon, I've checked my work email, started to think about my todo list for the weekend, and responded to emails for meetings in the coming week.

There is more to say. More, about the wall, water, evictions, graffiti, martyrs, checkpoints, oppression, restrictions, boycotts, resistance, "normalization", endurance, patience, humanity, and yes, olives. But it will have to be in retrospect. (At least for me...Denise continues on.)

I wanted to see things first-hand, and I did. In future posts, conversations, interactions, if my positions seem harsh, it is because reality is harsh. In some ways, worse than I thought.

Palestine seemed so far away before we embarked on this trip, physically and politically. Now it feels close and like a family I can not deny.

As Ayman played Cat Stevens over dinner, I started to recall lyrics that my dad had sung to us growing up. Here in this living room, in Palestine, a place I had never been before, I was at home.

Mr. Stevens captures my state of being, "there is so much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out". The end of this trip feels like a beginning of a new chapter. It has opened, changed and grown me.

My promise to all of our friends, old and new, in Palestine, is to speak truthfully and unedited about what we have seen, and until we meet again, do what I can States-side.

Palestine, and all people struggling for peace, justice and dignity, je t'aime.