"i would work 48 hours each day" (part 1)

this morning my day started off nice. i went to a restaurant to wait for abed, in the shop i ate a falafel and had a water, and then out of the blue the owner came over and gave me a little cup of arabic coffee. a very sweet gesture. after a few minutes i got in a minivan off to the village arora to meet with the village council about their clinic. we left ramallah and passed birzeit university, a beautiful campus. after crossing a checkpoint we travelled another half an hour. across field of olive trees and figs, dusty and grey-green and rocky, hills and blue sky. the driver talked to me about his family in chicago, how he cant leave, but wished he could. when i arrived to arora village was met by the president and entire village council, as well as a few doctors. i felt good because i brought them fruit! i am glad i remembered, they were touched. in fact, they went in a circle and explained to me how grateful they were to have me there, even before they really knew what i was there for. i shortly explained that i came to learn about the health situation in the area and that i had heard of their new clinic and wanted to see it, and perhaps offer help for the future. they were excited and wanted to give me a tour of the new facility. i explained that i am a student of chinese medicine but can offer in the future my personal services, and hopefully i can recruit people from my country to return before i can to also participate in their clinic in some way. they replied that i am welcome, and that they were thankful that we are "paving the road" for future exchange. they were interested in bringing revolving volunteers to their clinic who can offer various alternative services - natural medicine, herbs, acupuncture, homeopathy. they said that in the villages in palestine everyone knows about these medicinces and are open and excited to try them. i suggested that we could perhaps offer basic trainings to their staff or community members in the tools that the various visitors would bring with them, and they all were happy about that. they profusely thanked me for coming and were looking forward to future relationships. later in conversations i came to learn that any visitor who is a friend of mine (wink, wink) is welcome! that is wonderful. we can stay in their houses or in an apartment and come to do trainings and work in their clinic. a bit about the clinic - it is state of the art, donated from jordan, and will offer pediatric, gynecological, general health, emergency, pharmacy, and x-ray services, and they hope in the future to be able to add a birthing center. one thing that makes this particular clinic so important is that it will provide for 45-60,000 people in the surrounding 9-16 villages. these are people who would have no other option in the case of an emergency but to go all the way to ramallah.this means passing through check points. this clinic would be able to offer service without the danger of the checkpoints. in the clinic the civil engineer, ibrahim, designing the place and overseeing the construction spoke to me alone about his life and motivations for this work. he started by telling me that he hopes that there will be a birthing center in the future because six years ago his wife was pregnant. he explained that for nine months he pampered her, asking "do you need this, can i get you that, are you feeling ok?" and thrilled to be a father. when ibrahim's wife was in labor they had to get her in an ambulance and take her to ramallah. she was pregnant with twins. on the way to the hospital she started bleeding heavily. the soldiers at the checkpoint before ramallah held her for six hours before finally letting her through. when she got to the hospital she gve birth to the twins, but they both dies within one hour. he told me then that of course this story is not unique. he called in the other men to the room and told them that he had just shared the story with me, and each of them, one by one, shared their own personal stories of horrors at checkpoints. ibrahim says that he will never stop, he will do anything to get this clinic opened so he can help his people. he told me that as a civil engineer he has had offers to work in germany, the US, kuwait, and italy. but he said he would be like a fish out of water. he would die without his land, and he would never leave. he told me that he would sell his blood, work 48 hours in a day if he could to help his people. a man with the possibility of leaving, and he decides that he will stay and fight to help his people here.

i took pictures of the clinic, hopefully they will show up. the village committee has asked me to help them in any way possible, and i told them that i would do all that i can. i will return home and see if liscenced acupuncturists, naturopaths, etc would like to be a part of the project. this is exciting for me, because i feel like now this can mve forward without me there. they have invited us to their houses to stay, to share our knowledge, and work with them. it could be for one month or 6 months. today i fantasized about attending birzeit university and learning arabic while working in their clinic once i graduate. i like this dream

then i went to two people's houses... gotta eat, so i will finish this later.