Alive in Lakiya... Full of Bread and Tea

So it's been a few days. Here's an update on what has happened since I left DC:
I traveled for over 24 hours. I had 3 flights with a total of 22 hours to Tel Aviv. And probably slept about 3 hours in total. High points:

• watching the adjustment bureau totally enthralled, and then having 10 reasons why it was utterly ridiculous
  
• Breakfast and coffee in Heathrow, and the caffeine/fatigue high that followed.
• sleeping like a hobo in the Brussels airport (on a bench draped over my stuff)
  
• arriving in Tel Aviv to find that one of the side pockets of my suitcase had broken. on the bright side, i only lost a tube of sun block. on the dark side, i lost a tube of sunblock in a country where it is super expensive
• sleeping 12 hours after arriving 

Also: Bedouin hospitality is amazing. We had this amazing huge lunch the day after I arrived. I'm staying with one of the heads of the organization, Khadra and her family. She has a husband and 4 kids. The eldest, Rina, is 16 and speaks amazing English and I really enjoy chatting with her. Unfortunately, I stink with names and can't remember all of them. She has two boys, and another girl named Rghana (i think/its hard to translate to English). Rghana is hilarious, a real monkey. She's constantly making up songs, dancing, or doing cartwheels.


For a Bedouin family, this is small. Khadra has 9 sisters and most of them have had at least 5 kids. it's similar with Khadra's husband (i swear I'm going to learn every one's names...eventually). They also all generally live near each other. Next door is Khadra's in-laws , and her whole area of Lakiya is filled with just her husband's family. Most people I've met who are Bedouin are somehow related to Khadra or her family. Lakiya, a town of 10,000 is only made up of about 3 families. pretty crazy.



Other than meeting people I have:

• visited Sidreh, met my actual boss, Nicole, and given a brief overview of the weaving center
• had a meeting in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Lets just say I understood 33% of the meeting
• Went to Tel Aviv (or Tel Abib in Arabic) for a informational meeting on grants from MEPI which is associated with the Embassy in giving NGOs small grants. I even met one of the foreign service people at the Israeli embassy and got her card.  (yeaaah networking)
• drank Arabic coffee, tea, ate falafel and shwarma (vegetarian among Bedouins... not really something to make a fuss about)
• watched the sunrise over Lakiya.
• been eaten alive by mosquitoes (and they are fierce, it actually hurt the first night here)

 Sorry for the rambling. There's just so much going on here. I'll try and write again soon (now that I figured out the internet here it will happen more often)


also, let me know if you want to skype. Right now it looks like I can only do it in the evenings after 8-9 pm here which means it would have to happen at around 1-2 pm Eastern Standard Time (for those in other places, you will have to do your own math).


anyways much love and will write soon,
KAS