"my class depends on the lunar calendar"

I was cracking last night when I was talking to my colleague J, who is from the deep South (USA). In a southern drawl she says "Can you please explain to me how my Arabic class on Wednesday depends on the Lunar calendar?"

Ah yes, we are about to launch ourselves into the long, hot, and hungry month of Ramadan. If we see the moon tonight, Ramadan will begin, if not-- Ramadan will begin tomorrow.

Here is where it gets particularly tricky.

If we see the moon tonight, the Palestinian Authority says that we have to turn back the clocks 1 hour. So tomorrow could offer 2 options:

1. A normal day, 7:30-4pm working hours
2. A day where the clock turns back, Gazans start work at 8am, and end at 2pm and struggle through the first day of fasting.

Fasting is particularly hard the first few days. I would be rather grumpy if that was me.

The fasting will follow with feasting every single day. Only hope I get my hands on a tasty homemade meal!

Morning Surroundings

I'm sitting here in the baking heat. Actually I just checked the weather and today it'll be a high of 34 degrees Celsius and 74% humidity levels. Not as bad as the 38 degrees yesterday.

Nevertheless, my coffee addiction is making me drink a hot coffee right now. The sound coming from the window is a massive buzz due to the hundreds of generators that are on right now because Gaza only has 3 hours of electricity per day. The other sound is the sound of construction next door because I guess the owner of the building managed to get enough construction materials from the tunnels from Egypt to make a few repairs. Oh now pleasant it would be to hear birds, or even be able to hear the waves of the sea that are 20 meters away from my building

Seems like there are lots of people out on the beach today.

Ramadan is supposed to start on August 10 or 11. I have to say, this has got to be one of the toughest times. In this type of heat, being unable to drink water, and having to fast. Yikes. I'm a little nervous because if that were me I would be in a ferocious mood. I have a feeling a lot of people will be. I will continue my regular eating and thirst quenching habits.

Beating the heat has been tough- so I'm consistently making Ice- 20 cubes at a time. When you do exercise, you feel like you've done so much exercise (you're thinking, sweet- I'm so in shape), when actually the dripping sweat has come from doing 10 lunges and withstanding the heat. Maybe I should just take up hot (Bikram) yoga.

I'm also laying low-- and returned back to gaza fully equipped with Monopoly, Scrabble and Catch Phrase (never fails).

And the West Bank Crumbles

I was about to go and read in this deadly heat, but couldn't help myself from sharing this sad email that just popped up in my inbox. It is from the United Nations Displacement Working Group-- a group that follows, tracks, and studies the patterns of displacement in Palestine.

*Note: IDF- Israeli Defense Forces

Today's update:

• "In Al Farisiye, in the northern West Bank, the IDF this morning demolished at least 32 Palestinian structures belonging to 114 people, including 55 children. This is the second demolition suffered by the community in the span of a few weeks, but on 19 July almost the entire community was demolished (79 structures in total). This morning the IDF demolished 27 emergency tents that were provided by the ICRC and the PA in response to the previous demolitions, as well as 10 new structures, including 3 residential tents that had previously been left standing. The demolitions have forcibly displaced 22 Palestinians, including 11 children, and otherwise affected 92 children, all of which were displaced on 19 July.
• Yesterday, in 'Azzun Atma in Qualqylia Governorate the IDF demolished 2 Palestinian structures, both of which were used for livelihood-related purposes. The demolition affects the livelihood of a family of 3 people.
• Yesterday, in Hebron Governorate, the IDF demolished several water-related structures, including a water cistern. "

If you're curious about displacement...here's a good link