jerusalem

this has been a long day... after making several contacts in tel aviv about how to get cheap needles, i finally made it to a store where very nice people worked. the woman is an acupucture student here and the man was just great. both were sympathetic to my situation of having had my stuff stolen, and gave me a good price for new needles. not as many as before, but now i got some! the woman decided to come to jenin with me and harry next week, which is amazing because she has never been to the west bank before, and she is excited. and scared. but we are going with a small group so she is ok with that. and i had a great conversation with the man, he was actually hilarious. he said that i should take a 15inch needle and put it up the ass of the israeli security guards who took my needles. then he said he would give me a ride to the bus station, and we got in the car and he showed me across the street the ministry of defense and he said i should try to acupuncture the whole ministry. help them chill the fuck out, he said. he grew up on a kibbutz. really good guy. anyway, from there i went to the office of physicians for human rights, a very cool organization with lots of cool people there. and miri, the coordinator, got really pissed about the needles being stolen so she yelled at a lot of people and actually has hope of getting them back. i am not so sure, but either way she was really excited about the project and said that physicians for human rights would endorse the project, not give it financial backing, but be able to provide logistics and contacts. you know what that means? the ten day course must be created! things are in place no matter what now, with PHR backing. and i got a nice official letter to put in the faces of soldiers if they give me any shit from now on. so she put me in contact with a lot of doctors and small community clinics. she had great politics! it was so refreshing. and she encouraged me to go with certain people, ask certain questions, etc. anyway, it was a good day. then i got on a little minibus to jerusalem, and when igot here, i actually found my way without asking directions to the same hostel i was in last time. crazy. i got a telephone. dude's got a phone :). so you can call me if need be, remember i am 10 hours ahead west coast. 0526265308. i have no idea what you have to dial before that, maybe someone will know... tomorrow i head to bethlehem to aida refugee camp to meet with the al-rowwad cultural center, and with another doctor contact that miri gave me. after that i am off to ramallah. otherwise, i feel good. a little tired, walking everywhere, getting lost and making a whole lot of mstakes which makes things take longer. but it has been good. random thoughts: i saw a shirt that said
MONEY
OVER
BULLSHIT
weird. who would wear that? and a book in my friend's apartment was called "conquer english grammar". interesting. and the first page i opened it to said (fill in the blank) i was____ when a bomb blew up near my apartment. next line - i was _____ so i bought some figs. i saw a group of young israeli boys dancing around after a soccer game, i assume. its the same all over the world, i guess. ok, all for now. sending love.
mateo