An Ode to Omar, Palestine, Dahab, and kittens...

In no particular order -
This poem is for the Doorman (Bowwab in Arabic), Omar the great.

Omar oh Omar
the best Bowwab we'll ever know
you push the cars
you wash the windows
with your Bowwab power

You help everyone on Sharia Mohammad Mazhur
A Bowwab like no other
And although you think my name is Miriam
And Sharon's name is Habibti
We still Ahibbik you

Everytime we leave
You think we are going to Alexandria
On Thursday, you will realize
I will tell you, in broken Arabic, that I'm leaving forever
Parting is such sweet sorrow... but don't worry Omar,
we will meet again Inshallah

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In other news, we have been partaking in a lot of adventures,
From Taba to Eilat to Jerusalem to the West Bank...
back to Cairo, then to Dahab, and now we are back in Cairo.
I am off in a couple of days to go back to Washington DC
And I'm a little overwhelmed with how much is still left to do here,
so I'm just trying to get things done before its too late.
We have had such an insane couple of days that we are still trying to catch up
with sleep and haven't really had a chance to process what went down...

There aren't really enough words to describe how amazing the Palestine trip was,
We all learned so much in the couple of days - it started off at an incredibly low point
because - as everyone plus Israel knows - I was born in Saudi, and it says that on my
American Passport so I was holding up the rest of the group while I was interrogated
and probed by the Israeli police. That was an incredibly low point of my life, but I learned a lot
about the importance of patience. While we were getting our passports handed back to us after
seven and a half hours, a Palestinian family was waiting with us and they asked us to tell Bush what
happened, and they also said 'Now you know how we feel'. That was a really eye opening experience,
the start of an incredibly insane journey....
After that, it was a blur of spiritual highs, and I feel like it would do injustice to describe it in words...
It was amazing to see the three major faiths of the world coming together in a space of less than a mile.
The walls of the old city tell so many stories, and seeing the people of all different faiths living within them,
it was very powerful, I feel like I could have spent days and days wandering the inner walls... I definitely cannot
wait to go back and visit all of the friends we made...
As soon we got to Jerusalem, we had lunch at Pasha's with my friend Maher who works for UNRWA, who gave us
a crash course in the historical background of Palestine as well as a current update of the situation. He encouraged
us to go see it firsthand, and I'm so thankful that he did because seeing it is a whole another level to just hearing
about it. Even looking at pictures of the 'checkpoints' don't really speak enough words to explain what it feels like.
And the Palestinians go through it all the time... and according to a couple of other Palestinians we met,
it is just going to get worst before it gets better, because the israeli government is going to be introducing
Biometric cards to further handicap the ease of getting through the Israel/Palestine border... its mind blowing that
this is allowed to happen, especially in such a western and modern country...
Jerusalem and Palestine had spiritual beauty, and when we came back from Cairo we went to Dahab a day
later to experience natural beauty. It was amazing swimming/snorkeling in the Red Sea, its easy to see why
people from all over the world go there - it beauitifuuulll.
I'm going to spend hte next couple of days doing as much LE work as I can, and I have to wrap up my classes
and of course - pack!
HIBA