back in ramallah

thursday was a really good day. early in the morning i went to the TRC and helped 'supervise' with the other trainers a couple of 5np sessions with clients. it was really incredible. there were two groups, one for men, one for women. everyone was nervous, the trainees were excited, and they did a wonderful job. after the needles went in and they sat for half an hour, there was nice discussion afterwards. the men said that they all had come in feeling very agitated, and even angry, many of them had had to deal with severe harrassment from soldiers even that morning on their way to the treatment center. compounded trauma. men sat around the room with scars on their gentle faces. they talked about politics for a while when they had needles in, but one of the trainees asked them to listen to the quiet music and think about beautiful things. after the session was over the men agreed that they really liked it and it was a good suggestion to listen to themselves on the inside. the best part, perhaps, was the confidence that the trainees got, because they saw finally the effect on their clients, and they were very, very excited, and proud of themselves. they are very much looking forward to continuing the work, and they had tons of questions afterwards.

it was a sad goodbye from the center, over the past few weeks i have come to know all the workers there, and we are quite affectionate of one another. one man offered me a job next year in a holistic care center for children, i have a job offering at the TRC, and one woman wants me to come back to ramallah to open just an acupuncture clinic. so the possibilities are so numerous i dont really know where to begin. i have really enjoyed working with all these folks, i am sure the relationships wont end today.

at night i went out to have coffee with some of the workers and their friends, and it was really nice. their friends there were happy to meet me because they had heard so much exciting stuff from the trainees, and had been test subjects as well. i sat most of the night with a really nice guy who reminded me of my friend muhammad in tulkarem from 2003. ahmad is 25 and he works for a computer company, but his true love is sports, both soccer and basketball. he says that he hopes that things dont get worse (he means israeli military presence) because he actually wants to have a full season this year. in all the years that he has played basketball, he has never been able to play all the games because of closures or checkpoints or whatever. they train very hard, he says, two days on, one day off.. always though there are problems with actually being able to meet the other team to play. its very sad he says, and it wears on him. i am telling this story because of all the things that we take for granted in the US. people cant even do the most enjoyable things in their lives without being stifled by the occupation.

today i spent the whole day with abed in his village, it was amazing. i will write more later, but i have to run. tomorrow inshallah i will be in ni'lin with physicians for human rights for the protest against the wall. please look into this issue, there is a good link on the right of the blog to get history. its pretty terrible. thats all for now.