"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

Figgy Figgy

I have never appreciated 'seasonal' fruit. Things seemed to be available year round growing up in Colombia. Or if they are seasonal, our messed up unsustainable planting systems are now making things available year round.

In Gaza I have truly started to appreciate seasonal fruits and vegetables. I miss them terribly while they're gone- such as avocado. There isn't an avocado in town, yet the veggie stores are booming with figs and mangoes right now. I've eaten more mango than I could ever imagine, and now I have a stock of figs in the fridge. The lemons are also disappearing-- and so are the sweet potatoes. WAAAAA!

My friend Inka was telling me the other day that she was trying to buy some figs with her colleagues. They insisted that she buy the ones with the broken skin, whilst Inka couldn't fathom buying those and preferred buying the ones that looked 'whole'. I guess the riper the sweeter, this one in my hand was just lovely.

DUST!

BE PREPARED!

And be forewarned! If you ever decide to move to the Middle East you will forever live in a filthy house and you will eternally combat dust which will coat your entire house on a daily basis.

Dust is an incredible phenomenon here in the Middle East. First- you have khamaseen or 'fifty days of wind'- which means some days will look entirely hazy and yellowish because there is so much dust in the air. Even when you don't have that miserable phenomenon, you will still have dust blowing into your house non-stop. Every counter top-table, decorative item, Kleenex box will eternally have a layer of dust on it.

You will clean it, and the next day it will be there again.

You will clean it again, and two hours later you'll notice that it is still dirty.

My new technique is baby wipes. I'm going through them like they're going out of style. This is the result after cleaning my bedside table:

And your windows will eternally be dusty, so if you would like to see the view outside your window, you have to open your widows and let more dust in. Otherwise you can look through the murky glass as you can see below:

As you can tell..I'm not a fan of the dust. Beside the fact that it makes me sneeze 258720958 times a day.

Passiflora Edulis

I grew up drinking "Jugo de Maracuya"-- Passion Fruit Juice. When I first came to Gaza I discovered that it grew here. Recently it seems to be back in season, and later I found out there are 2 seasons for passion fruit in this region. I have gone wild buying up the Passion Fruit while it lasts- since I have to say it is one of my favorite fruity delicacies- and at least it is a flavor from home.

In Arabic they call it "Flora"- but other than farmers, nobody seems to know what it is. I tell them it grows in Gaza, and people refuse to believe it. I brought some in to work to share and explained then people in Gaza seem to believe it has aphrodisiac effects. I told them, I'm not going to explain that word-- google it. So they did on handy dandy Google translate and the jaws that dropped were priceless.

Someone left a bag of mint and passion fruit on my desk this afternoon, not sure who it was, but it was certainly a special surprise.

Curiosity spurred, and wanted to look up passion fruit and see what the deal was behind the name.

Turns out the name "Passion Fruit" comes from a religious background that came from Catholic Missionaries who believe that parts of the fruit bore religious connections, it was a way of illustrating the Crucifixion:

• "The three stigmas were to reflect the three nails in Jesus's hands and feet.
• The threads of the passion flower were believed to be a symbol of the Crown of Thorns.
• The vine's tendrils were likened to the whips.
• The five anthers represented the five wounds.
• The ten petals and sepals regarded to resemble the Apostles (excluding Judas and Peter)."

Funny huh?

It was first documented in Peru in 1569 by a doctor named Monardes who took it back to be used for herbal tea.

An Easy Treat

Today we were chatting away about garlic and all the magical thing you can do with it. Here's an easy one, I have yet to try it, but it is on my to-do-list:

1. Fry cauliflower

2. Make the dipping sauce: Lots and lots of crushed garlic + lots of lemon juice+cumin (it is the exact recipe for cuban mojo, except for no olive oil, but then again you are eating it with deep-fried cauliflower.

Zeaki! Delish!