Word from the North

So this is where the new borns are put in the hospital. Leslie is working to try and discourage this practice and instate the Skin-to-Skin method.

This is Leslie showing me the natural birth room of the hospital where she works.

So its been a long time since I have written and so much as happened. When I left you I was in the north of Israel roaming around the countryside during this absolutely gorgeous time of year. After leaving Leslie's kibbutz and the hospital setting of midwifery, I went even further up North to stay with Gomer whose village rests literally on the Lebanese border. In this rural area I was able to spend time with home birth midwives and visit agricultural socialistic style communities that lived in tents. Although the women planned to do as the expectant mother wished and deliver in their home, Gomer and Lei had to explain to her that lack of running water and electricity wasn't the most ideal situation for new born babies but she could give it a shot.

This is Gomer on the left who is backing up Lei in a small community in the north just east of Haifa.

I am not sure if you can see but there is tea in every picture. If I was to revise Greg Mortensen's book for here I would call it endless cups of tea.

From the north I went down to a conference in Jerusalem where COHI women were attending a seminar training on dealing with trauma. Luckily it was in English and I actually learned a lot and connected a lot of dots about what I thought I believed in. The training was based off of a book by guru Peter Levine called "Waking the Tiger: Healing the Trauma" and I think people could use this philosophy for dealing with the everyday situations that are more difficult to face .

This is Barbara looking over a past ultrasound from one of her patients

For this past week I have been back and forth between Jerusalem and Telaviv taking photos for the Vagina Monologues and staying in an amazing town called Ramla with an American born midwife, Ilana. It is the only place so far in Israel where coexistence occurs peacefully. It is probably one of the most culturally diverse places I have ever been and is not a stop on the tourist map of Israel. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Jews for Jesus, from America, Morocco, Peru, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Sudan. So many different styles of clothing and food and spices and I had an amazing cultural tour from someone who lived there. It is a very complex city and had a purposefully hidden under layer. Beneath all of the new style building and the mall/bus station are dilapidated stone buildings of the time of the Turks. Walking through the old alley ways you could feel the life that used to flow through it. It is a shame that the government didn't feel this was a part of history to preserve. So now it is covered with parking lots and garbage.

This is Ilana listening for the fetal heart beat.

Here Ilana is doing a blood test on the new born to test for potential disabilities.
This is one of the few jewish Orthodox communities I went to where I was given permission to take photos during the visit.

Ilana the midwife I have been staying with is one of the busiest home birth midwives in the country conducting 6-8 births a month. She sees a lot of Orthodox Jews and during this time I was able to visit a lot of Orthodox neighborhoods though I was not able to take that many photos of the pregnant women. I learned a lot about the Orthodox families and the Jewish religion in general. I have so much more to write but I need to catch up on some sleep. I went to a party in Ramalla last night and woke up at the crack of dawn to cross the border in time to grab my stuff and meet Barbara by 9. Enjoy the photos and I will write more soon.

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A Conflict Based on Fear

So I am here in the Hazorea Kibbutz in the north of Israel staying with Leslie. It has been pretty amazing and today I learned so much. I went with Hadar (another midwife from the kibbutz) to go to a Druze village not far from here to visit another midwife. Through the rolling hills and stands selling olive oil and up to a town where all of the woman roam the streets covered in white vails.

The Druze traditionally have many similar customs to the Arabs where woman must cover and are not allowed to drive and actually in the home (which had 7 different couches in the living room) conversations are kept separate. Ragda, the midwife I visited, said that they entertain guests practically every night and the smell of fresh baked bread, pastries, and sesame seed incrusted delicacies filled the house. So with a birth in a Druze family, the woman is not allowed to leave the house for 40 days (and it is looked upon as shameful if she does). Her bed is moved into the living room and the family comes from near and far to help by doing all of the cooking and cleaning for the new mother during these 40 days. All guests who come into the house are give a special tea made with over 20 spices and whole walnuts that is drunken with a spoon and served only during this time (and tastes absolutely amazing). Usually, guests leave gifts of money on the plate with the tea as they leave. Because of all of this support from the family it not only allows for a healthy beginning for the child but as you can imagine the rates of post pardom depression are incredibly low among the Druze. I think we have a lot to learn from this culture in terms of child care in terms of valuing this critical time with the baby.

This was a great day because the Jewish woman I lived with who worked with Ragda learned all of this for the first time too). As for the midwives, Druze women are not allowed to work with Druze men. So for Ragda she can work with both men and women in the hospital however if there is a male Druze doctor/nurse/ patient present she can not work with them.

It was an interesting day because I could see that despite so many cultural difference the Druze and the Jews get along so well. How could this be? In all of the interviews I have had, the woman tell me that the conflict if so deeply embedded because the Arab and Jewish cultures are so different and they could never see a middle ground. Today, however proved that a incorrect assumption. The Druze live in peace with the Jews: work together, play together, go to school together and most importantly see each other as good friends. But wait... the Druze live culturally similar to the Arabs so where is the difference. It turns out that the Druze traditionally are more dedicated to their nation than there roots. What does this mean? That Druze living in Israel (who volunteer for the armed forces) could be fighting against their brothers and sisters living in Lebanon or Syria or Egypt. What it comes down to is the education and how people are brought up and how people are educated about their friends and enemies. How can a Jewish midwife be best friends with a Druze midwife but afraid of an Arab midwife? Fear is from a misunderstanding and lack of education. This conflict is based not on cultural grounds but on fear which can be changed only with education and this is what Circle of Health International is seeking to do.

Bethlehem HaGalilit (Where Jesus was born?)

So yes this is the land of Jesus?....well this little village I am staying up in the rolling hills is also called Bethlehem and as the story goes an archaeologist did an excavation and found some evidence suggesting that Jesus was actually born here and not in the other Bethlehem Judea, however when he suggested this data he was promptly fired. It might complicate things you know?

Anyhow its absolutely beautiful here.....yes I walked through this a few hours ago....

Heck when I have my babies I am getting on a plane and flying to Mindy's house from wherever I am. Mindy the second midwife I am staying with started her own birth center here complete with a birthing room, whirlpool water bath, swinging hammock, and garden patio. Yes I wish everyone could deliver there baby in a heaven such a this. I went to my first birth of the trip today (though we missed it by about 30 minutes). I spend my mid-days following Mindy in her everyday life- so far counseling women, assisting in births, and visiting with women post-birth. In the mornings and evening I peruse the countryside while the light is good and when the light is not good?...upload pictures and sit on my but in a hammock eating amazing food and reading "the coming plague". I think I have a new found love for eggplant!

I am going to ad some photos though so you can get a sense of this place and hit the sack. Enjoy!

This is Rotem a trapeze artist who is afraid of heights. She has come to Mindy to seek some pre-natal counseling for the baby for which she wants Mindy to deliver at her home.














Maya is shown bellow 1 hour after delivering this baby via water birth.

From the Olive Groves of Ma' ale Avia

Today I write to you from the misty hills covered with rows upon rows of olive trees and wild flowers. I am staying with a family in Ma'ale Avia, a tiny village on a hill side with less than 100 familes that fuctions as a communial healing community. Irit the head of the household is a midwife of 5 years now after being a nurse most of her life. She has worked in the hospitals of the Galilee where she has expericed quite a mix of ethnic and religous cultures in the hospital. She said she has struggled with some anti semitism in the past but on the whole loves her job. I asked her about some of the challeges she has faced. She seemed a little timid to answer and said more to me off camera than she would on camera but I am learning alot.

A challenge she mentioned was that she felt like some of the women did not have enough control over their own birth. Sometimes an Arab woman would come in and the mother was there but you had to be wise to ask if it was her mother or the mother of her husband. Many times the pregnant woman did not want the husband's mother to be there and often you could see that they might not have gotten along but the woman is not alowed to tell the mother to leave unless they are out of the room.

I also talked to Irit a lot about her life and her feelings on the political situation. She does not have optimism for the future and that too much damage has already been done. She also thinks it is nieve to come in and try to have everyone try an live together. People have different needs and different styles of living their life and should not all be forced to live together. I think it was difficult to express her opinon from the translation but what I got from it was that she believed in celabrating the differences instead of forcing people to change.

Welcome to the Holy Land-Where is your gun?

Ah so I guess I am six days into my adventure here writing to you from the open deck of an apartment in Tel Aviv from a German computer (so if the y comes out like a z that is whz) sitting next to 3 German journalist I met yesterday who have offered me a couch for the night. We are all relaxing after the most amazing meal of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes and humus and couscous and Bulgarian cheese. Today was a good break from traveling. 

The past 6 days have been traveling traveling traveling.  Jet lag was no problem.  I had to get over the culture shock pretty quickly as I got off the airplane and sat in the train station surrounded by ak47s.  Welcome to a country in fear.  I hit the ground running, finished my first book (the lemon and the olive tree which i highly recommend) and I am halfway through the second, figured out the focus of my project, and said goodbye to Sera and her son as they headed off to the US. Then I took a MISP certification class at the Medical school in Beersheva and boarded the bus (standing room only) for Jerusalem and transfered and transfered and transfered winding through the ancient streets of the old city until I reached Isabel the godsent. So good to see her. Its been so long.  She has made a life for her self here 7 months ago when she came to do a birthright trip and never left. She now works for a political advocacy organization www.alternativenews.org.

 I went to the park in the center of the city today and played Frizbee with a bunch of young locals, my friend Isabel, and some american students from the university and now I am absolutely exhausted and it is hard to think.

It is very strange being here. I am having trouble putting it in words but my impression of Israel has changed dramatically in the past 6 days.  I feel as though I have been brain washed my whole life. What is happening here is very difficult and is horribly misrepresented in American newspapers at least. While I have not traveled yet to the West Bank I am understanding more about the occupation and what it means for these displaced people. The more I learn about the settlements and the consistent reduction of what is now considered Palestine the more I  I am fearing for seeing it with my own eyes. I guess there will be more on this to come once I can find a way to put it into words. For now I have many conversations with these journalist (one of whom was driving behind the car that crashed into the police car the other day that I am sure was on the news) and a long sleep to await me.

For Lack of Sleep and Happiness

I can't tell you with what excitement I write this right now. Wow I mean for the first time in my life things are working out my way and it is all so sudden and at the same time I am not really sure how to handle it. For the first time I know what I am going to be doing and it is all better then anything I could have ever imagined. Who would have thought that a girl who struggled with a learning disability and almost failed out of 4th grade would have all of her dreams come true at 23.

Its funny the world looks very different when your dreams come true. Its almost like being in love. I guess that is the only other time I have felt this. The road ahead will not be easy but all I can do is soak in the emotion I am feeling right now and know that I am exactly where I want to be at this place and time. I can't sleep but this time for happiness.

I am packing my bags for Israel and it is a bittersweet goodbye to this place. I have met the most wonderful people here during my two years living in Colorado. Some amazing friends, great job opportunities, the best housemates I could have asked for, and a beautiful mountain playground. In a few days I will wake up in the hot desert amidst a deeply embedded conflict that I have so much to learn from. A land with more history then people can speak of. A group of women with more heart then most people have ever experienced. This is what we have been working towards and it is happening. I board the plane tomorrow. Adventure awaits.