Crossing the Border- Leaving Sudan is just the Beginning

After getting back from Jordan I jumped right in on the action again and then it is back to a bus to a bus to a bus to a bus for a few hours of shooting here and there. I have spent the better part of my time this past week taking photos in two different refugee camps. One in the South in Arad and one in the North in Caramel aka Haifa. There is just so much going on in this country. Although both of these camps have the same idea, they are very different.

So let me back up. As you all know, because it is a very prominent news topic, the Sudanese in Darfur have been and are currently facing a hellish time with the current war. People who can are fleeing the country anyway that they can. In Arad there are over 800 refugees living in in these temporary homes that the government set up. The government doesn't really know what to do with them...why...well because they are not Jewish so this is a difficult problem. They have to continually renew paper work to exist here and they are only allowed to work for 2 months at a time in specific hotels in the Dead Sea. What a contrast you just escaped war and now you are serving cocktails to stuffy Americans what a life. These people in the South are luckier because it is families living together meaning they all made it out together, however life here is only a little better. They are not allowed to work so they are starving. When I went with COHI to do pre and post natal exams I was horrified to find out that these people are not eating. One of the woman was complaining that her baby was small and when one of the midwives I was with, Hillary, asked what she was eating the woman had to think for a while....really nothing... they can't afford food let alone medication and they are living here in Israel.

Hiliary follwing up with a baby she helped birth last month

In the North the situation is very different and even more difficult to handle. The shelter in Haifa is a battered woman's shelter and started out as a clinic for local woman seeking refuge. Then one day in 2006 a border police contacted the shelter and were like... look we have this Sudanese woman and her daughter and if you don't take them we are sending them to prison. This was the first of the flood of immigrants that pour across the border into 2007.

Ok back up...Then you ask wait how did all of these people get to Israel. That's right they WALKED! Maybe one of the most difficult journeys you could ever imagine. After everything they experienced in the genocide of Sudan they cross the border into Egypt where.....they are shot at, imprisoned, beaten, abused, further raped and it is another run for their lives. So where do they run if they are lucky they run to the Israeli border. This border crossing is even more difficult. Let me quote this feature article from a Israeli paper called Haaretz "Last weekend Egyptian soldiers fatally shot a 7 year old girl and a man in his thirties, both of who were trying to cross into Israel. Since the start of the year 16 African refugees were killed trying to cross the border" (to read the rest of this article click here- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/997693.html). It is horrific.

Of the 15 women who currently live at the shelter, many of the woman are pregnant or have children (mostly the results of being raped). All of whom their husbands are either dead, missing, or in prison in Egypt. COHI was there to help provide health services for them- post natal and breastfeeding classes. Medicines are expensive and while it was really difficult to see these women suffer (most of whom wouldn't talk about their experience or were brought to tears recalling some of the events), I was happy to see that these woman had a place where they were finally treated as people and provided food and refuge while they waited to hear from their husbands. The clinic gets absolutely no funding from the government and is entirely run on donations. While this was a very intense and difficult experience it was heartening to see that someone is taking the steps to directly help these people. My only worry is that the shelter could handle 15 women what happens when it is 100? or 500? These people need help.

Traveling Alone as a Women in the Middle East

Riding in a cab from Amman to Petra

So as I thought about writing this I was awestruck in the culture shock between two worlds. Hours ago I was on the beach in the sleepy town of Aquaba, Jordan feeling uncomfortably under dressed in a long sleeve shirt and knee length skirt as most of the women on the beach were covered. After crossing the border into Eliat just a few miles away I felt awkwardly overdressed in techno music blaring, jam packed, Miami spring break-esk, beaches of Israel. It is difficult to believe that one border crossing can be so drastic and really gives a good context for the cultural differences between Israel and the lands they are enclosed by and why this conflict is absolutely crazy from a cultural perspective.

These are some young orthodox boys praying in the morning for the sun festival which occurs once every 28 years when the sun is in the same alignment that it was during creation.

So how did I get here? Last week I went to the north to Tsavt, a mountain town that houses the largest following of Kaballah (they actually rejected Madonna from buying a house in this community) to experience an Orthodox Seder....that's right Orthodox Seder. Like Shabbat rules, lots of hand washing and praying, 6 hours in length. We started the service at 8:30 at night (must be well after sundown) and at 1:30 I gave up and went to bed but the ceremony continued until 3 in the morning. I was feeling super sick at the time and was glad I could rest in such a peaceful place. It was a pretty intense experience for me and while I am glad I could get a glimpse of the Orthodox lifestyle I am glad I don't have to follow these rules in my everyday life. It made me think a lot about religion, what it is, and what it means if it is only something you visit from time to time and respect but don't strictly follow.

Then Mindy called saying that one of her women went into labor so I rushed over on the bus an hour away only to find that it was a false alarm and that her contractions which were at once every 4 minutes had completely dissipated (as I write this a week later she still has not given birth yet). Then being so close to the Northern border I changed my plans drastically. I was going to go to Egypt and sit on the beach for a few days but instead I hopped across the border to Jordan with my friend Isabel. As we are driving towards the border surrounded by lush green wheat fields and ponds I joked with Isabel "watch we are going to cross the border and be in a desert surrounded by camels". However this was not far from the truth. I wasn't sure if it was the result of ecology, economics, or policy (maybe water rights issues?) or all of the above, but we crossed the border into a vastly different countryside that was dry, poor, and yes lots of camels. Really it was shocking.

The busy center of Amman

Jordan is a very interesting and often skipped place in the middle east. In 67' when the Palestinians "fled" everyone remembers that no one would take the refugees. Well 65% of Jordan's population is actually Palestinian the rest are Bedouins, and Jordanians that all come together in a balancing act of cultures. The country looks large on the map but is mostly made of desert so most of the people live along the eastern coast. Together, Isabel and I traveled to the capital of Amman where we had an amazing meal of foual in a bustling little tavern with live sitar music and men and women of all ages smoking however you want to call it gila, shisha or at home we call it hooka. The next day Isabel left to go back home and I headed down for Petra.

Petra
Petra was a most difficult place to travel as a woman. I was consistently hustled. I couldn't take more then 3 steps outside of my door without someone approaching me asking me if I needed help. The questions were as follows:
1: Where are you from?
2: Are you married?
3: Where are you going? I will take you
4: Come have a drink with me?
Petra
On a good day its not an issue. I can fend them off or I just stick with the first person who comes up to me in a given time and they fend off the rest. It becomes laughable at a certain point. The positive side is that they refuse to take any money from me so I ended up getting all of my meals, groceries, and one hotel completely paid for because they refuse to accept my money. Petra

The downside is nothing is for nothing and it freaked me out that they wouldn't accept my money and I wasn't about to give them anything else. So Petra was a bad day. The site its self was truly remarkable. Really its like going to remote parts of the canyon lands in Utah and then BAM! multiple tthousands year old structures in your face. I woke up at 6 in the morning and got there before the crowds so I got some good photos without the anthill of people that followed later in the afternoon. I spent 8 hours walking up canyons and monuments all the while being hastled by people. At this point I was hot, tired, dehydrated, and was slightly freaking out about the hotel manager who was busy transferring my things to a private room just for me. When a tour guide who was leading a group of 50 older folks left his group to tail me for 45 minutes to escort me I pretty mush lost it, ran back up to my hotel, chugged 3 liters of water, packed up my things, and when the manager left for a few minutes to get something I ran out of the place to the bus station. It was hilarious, I was so disengaged that I get to the bus station and the people were like "where are you going" and I was like "I don't know I have no idea I haven't really thought about it yet." This is one of the men who showed me around Aqaba

At this point I really just wanted to talk to a woman. I swear ever since I left Isabel I hadn't even seen a woman. The cabs, the buses, the streets were filled completely with men. Finally I negotiated with a cab to take me to Aquaba along the coast. There I treated myself to a Turkish bath (also run completely by men) where I sat in a steam room and refreshed myself and finally had a chance to relax. I walked around the town, and made friends with a man who was selling spices and had like 15 cups of tea and Turkish coffee and he set me up with his friend who took me in his glass bottom boat and I got to go snorkeling all the next day for free.

finally relaxing on the Red Sea

As I am sitting here in the bus headed back to Jerusalem among a crowd of Young partiers I can only look back and think about these past few days as a pretty big accomplishment for me. While it was difficult to travel alone and constantly be questioned, it was all for the most part out of curiosity, kindness, and concern. All of this disappeared as I crossed the border. I got stuck in the back of the bus and a 15 year old boy has fallen asleep on my lap while his friend behind me refuses to take his feet from my face, and his other friend in front trying to wake up the boy on my lap is bombarding me with pillows and condom balloons while all 9 of them blast different music from the cell phones. All I can do is laugh.

Bonus Shot: This is Mustafa, Aisha's son who I think is quite possibly the most adorable child in the world

The West Bank: Not What You Need to Know - What You Should Know

I arrived in the West Bank the other day. What I am about to write is not meant to be political. I am merely writing what I observed for my friends at home who are dying to know. I want people to know why this project is so immensely difficult to accomplish.The Palestinian side of this conflict is grossly under reported in the US and this will be very difficult for me to describe because you really have to be here and walk the land and feel the dirt and see the pain for it to bring you to tears. I am writing to you from Aisha's house. She is the coordinator for COHI on the Palestinian side and so desperately want to see this coexistance project work.

This is Aisha asisting with a birth at the clinic we visited up in the north. I love this shot becuase it looks like the baby is glowing. You work with the light you have...this happened to be perfect!

This is one of the four midwifes who works a 16 hour shift at the only birth center in all of the west bank. They see about 40 women a month and are severly underpaid. I got to see two women in labor while vising for less than 3 hours.

Where do I start, this war has such a history. Maybe I will start with misconceptions. It has been wonderful staying here in East Jerusalem. Everywhere I go around Israel and I told people I was going to the West Bank they said "but why it is so dangerous?". I will be staying in East Jerusalem... what?!?!!? I will be going to a Party in Ramalla...what?!?!? I will be traveling to Jenin...what?!!?! I am going to Bethlehem for the day...What?!?!? I will be going to Hebron....what?!?!?! Well this is my challenge: Why are these places so dangerous? Have you been there? Has something happened to you while you were there?

The streets of Bethlahem in the morning before all of the shops are open

The countryside of the West Bank on the road to Jenin

Dance party in Ramalla

Answers: No. Israeli's are not legally allowed to be in the West Bank. The reality is that I feel safer in the West Bank than I do in Israel. I feel totally comfortable walking around at night by myself in East Jerusalem. I had the most fun in my life dancing at a house party in Ramalla last weekend. There are so many amazing historical sites in Bethlehem it would be a shame to come here and miss this city. The only time I felt in danger was at the check points. The 18-20 year old Israeli soldiers boasting semi automatics and giving me a hard time about my passport. This is the only time I felt scared. People know here that I am Jewish and I have been welcomed by the people with open arms and endless cups of Turkish coffee. The dangerous part for Israelis?: The check points. If you come to the West Bank the only danger you have is getting arrested by the soldiers at the check points. My passport wasn't good enough. They needed to see my entrance visa (which they had a hard time reading through the glass walls).

Ok this is a place in Hebron no one on either side is happy about. This is the only place where a settlement is literally built on top of a Palistinian town. Bellow are the arabs and above are the Israelis. This is the town where they most conflict occurs. As you can see a fense had to be built above the arab village becuase the Isreali children throw rocks and trash down on the arabs as they walk through the streets.

This fear is based on the fact that people have not had the ability to come to this beautiful amazing part of the country to see, feel, and taste the culture. I know everyone feels like they have a right to this land but I feel like what is currently happening is modern day colonialism. I mean if the British didn't kill most of the Native Americans we would be in the same predicament today. I know the Palestinians have resorted to violence and have been bombing and shooting and this is what we hear about in the news and I agree it is wrong. However, in America this is the only thing we hear about in the news but you have to ask yourself why? Why would an otherwise absolutely peaceful culture resort to violence?

Crowded winding streets of the UN refugee camp

The refugee camp was full of children like this playing and running around the streets darting in and out of cars

Ok some history from this side of things. In 1948 when a flood of people started coming into this country they had to go somewhere. Hordes of Palestinians were removed, kick off, or had to flee there land but where did they go? I saw the refugee camps that were "temporarily" set up in 1948 in Beit Jala to house all of these people. Today what I saw wanted to make me cry. 60 years later and these neighborhoods are still completely funded by the UN, completely overrun, dirty, over crowded, and ridden with poverty. It is like this because all of these people are waiting to go back. For 60 years. They want to go back to there old homes. However, with the restrictions they have they are not allowed to leave the West Bank so I am not sure if they will have the opportunity to go to their old homes and villages. If they did they would find that there old homes no longer exist. I am fortunate being an American or a foreigner because I have more mobility than anyone who lives in these two countries and I have the ability to be open minded and educate myself on the situation. I really feel like if Israelis could come here and see this with there own "open" eyes this conflict would be different. These people are suffering so much. But this is not possible. In 2003 a giant wall was built to completely enclose Palestine. To the Israelis this greatly increased security. There have been zero suicide bombings since the wall has been built so this is a testament that the wall is working. But at what expense?

What was once the city center of Hebron now a deserted zone of conflict in the West Bank
This is a Palistinian boy looking into the gate of a street that is illigaly closed to him in Hebron. On the otherside (what you can't see in this picuture) are armed vehicles and soliders

Let me give you a feel for what the wall is doing for my life as a foreigner traveling here and then times it by 10 for these people living here. Aisha, the woman I am staying with has a house in Ramalla. Before the wall was built it took exactly 4 minutes to drive to her house from here where I am currently staying. So yesterday without any lines or stopping our vehicle it took us exactly 45 minutes to get there. The other day we went to Jenin to visit a birth center which is about an hour and a half....if it was a straight shot...but it took us 3 hours and we could not drive there with Aisha's car because it had an Israeli licence plate so we had to take a car, to a bus, to a taxi stop half way get off at a check point, walk across (which means going through metal detectors and showing our ID, get in another taxi and repeat to go home again. It was absolutely exhausting and expensive. And we were super lucky because we weren't going through rush hour so the lines were short. So people wait in lines at the check points for up to 4 hours. Holy crap! This may be a burden when you are trying to get to work on time....but if there is an emergency, if you are rushing to the hospital to have C-section because you have an at risk pregnancy this is downright dangerous and deadly. People have died at the wall waiting. None of these deaths are reported in the American news papers.

If you are interested in learning more about how the wall affects the Palestinian communities visit this site: http://stopthewall.org/FAQs/33.shtml. In 2007, 5 women gave birth at check points because the soldiers would not let them pass. If you want more information about this visit this site: http://www.btselem.org/english/Medical_Treatment/Index.asp.

There is so much to say but this is just a taste. Again, I want to reiterate this is not written to favor any sides. I am simply telling the story of what I have observed in being here for a few days and relaying my shock of what has been hidden from me in the American mainstream media. More to come soon.