Surprised

So this will be a meandering post. It will consist of a few stories, seemingly unrelated, but with skill and daring I will bring them all together in a climactic paragraph (or 10) that will shed light on this momentous, yet disappointing tale.

It all started on Sunday - our first day of school this week. I had a group of third year students walk into our office and announce that they were to do a school vision screening later that day.

If you will recall optometry in most parts of the world (I think everywhere but the US and Canada) is an undergraduate degree. Some countries offer a masters degree above the Bachelor but for the most part it is a B.Sc. This is the case here in Palestine. Our students go through a four year program. First year is mostly basic sciences and then optometry curriculum is added in a little bit at a time. So these third years are a little over a year away from graduating with a degree in optometry. After they graduate they are required to pass a licensing exam and then they can go out into the world and Optometrize to their hearts content.

We have a couple of girls who are called "Teaching Assistants". They were trained in Jordan (in what we think is a four year program but may have been a two year program). We were never really told what their roles in the school are. It appears to me that they fill the very necessary role of keeping chairs firmly planted to the ground. They do a good job of it. I have yet to see a chair float to the ceiling with them around. They do a good job of sitting in them. We have tried to make use of them. Asking them to come to our lectures and labs - to help - but also to hear the way we do things so if students have questions they can answer them from our perspective. They have come to a few lectures and labs but generally leave after a few minutes. I've heard through the grapevine that they disagree with how we are teaching things.

If you go on the An-Najah website you will see that this optometry program is designed to bring "advanced optometry" to the region. I'm not sure what "advanced optometry" is but I take it to read that the school hopes to introduce professionals who are trained to do more than simply refract (find eyeglass/contact lens prescriptions). In the literature on the schools website it specifically states that what is holding this development back is a lack of trained educators - i.e. those optometrist trained in Jordan are not qualified to teach the type of optometry that is being introduced to Palestine.

Last Wednesday in my Environmental Optometry class (basically a class about the visual system in work/school/recreation and how optometrists should be involved in ocular protection from work/sport injuries, electromagnetic radiation. Also includes driving/flying vision and vision screenings) I was talking about what a screening entails. We listed tests and talked about whether or not they were necessary for screenings. We talked about why to do screenings and where to do screenings. It was a good class but we didn't finish. We were too finish this Wednesday.

Throughout this semester I've come to the slow, yet startling realization, that I overestimated what my students know. I just learned that a series of tests I assumed (yes, I know assumed) they were taught were actually never taught and simply didn't have a place in the curriculum (not because they weren't important but due to oversight). These tests are known as Entrance Skills. (Visual Acuity - you know 20/20 stuff. Cover Test - to see if you have an eye turn (among other things). Pupil testing, Near Point of Convergence - to see how well you turn your eyes together and more). These are the most basic of optometric tests. We were taught them the first month of OD school.

It surprised me when on Sunday four students mentioned that they were going to a school to do a screening today. I mentioned to them that: i) They didn't know how to do most of the tests - we were going to learn them on Monday (today). ii) They didn't have any equipment (They said they would take the school equipment. I said "No, the second year class has lab today.") iii) They didn't have a professional to go with them iv) They didn't have a recording form and v) They didn't KNOW HOW TO DO THE TESTS.

They said; "No problem, we thought you could show us now and we'll get one of the teaching assistants to go with us."

Swell immediately jumped out of her chair and phoned our dean (she is not there on Sundays). The students at the same time realized the silliness of their plan and my lack of enthusiasm and postponed the screening by a week. The Dean didn't seem overly concerned but agreed that it would be best to postpone (although she was unaware of the whole plan).

Today, Monday, I taught the Entrance Skills/Vision Screening tests. I had one of the teaching assistants come to the class/lab to make sure she knew what to do when she was supervising the students. I had a set of notes and started on the first topic; case history. They were taught this a lot last year. They knew nothing. I spent 25 minutes on it when I had planned on 5. I had them conduct a case history on a partner. I looked at their recording. They didn't do a thing I told them to. They simply wrote down: "Blurry vision" when I specifically and multiple times told them whenever a patient tells you something you must ask further questions (I told them an acronym to remember 6 questions) they ignored me. They understand they simply ignore me. I then told them that they arranged this screening and needed to be ready for it. They said that they were working with children who couldn't answer the questions. I stood there in disbelief. They just don't get it. We're not solely working on one screening this is their future profession, in addition I am sure a child no matter how old can tell you if his/her vision is blurry in the distance or at near. I admit I yelled a little bit.

I continued on and covered 1/3 of what I wanted. In fact for part of the practicing I had them stand in two rows facing each other. Half of them were the patient the other half the optometrist. I told them exactly what to do at what time to do it. It was like teaching kindergarten kids. This is something that Swell was taught to do in 5 minutes when she was in undergrad so that she could help on a vision camp in Romania. It is not difficult. I'm not even asking them to understand why the results happen just how to do the test and record the results. I asked if they would be able to do this test on Sunday with a child who had never had the test done before. They said they only wanted to do Visual acuity at this screening. I said: "Why? The teacher could do that." It is not worth my time or theirs to have them go and do something so simple. There is no reward from a public health standpoint or from an educational standpoint. They see themselves as the refracting opticians that already exist here.

I broke for a 30 minute lunch. I told them I would start at 12:15 exactly. I began the lecture at 12:16 to 3 of 13 students. The others arrived 10 minutes later. I then told them that the diagram I drew on the board would be on the test. No one copied it down. (the three on time had already copied it down. The others....?)

The UNLICENSED teaching assitant of course left after 15 minutes of the first session and never returned. I have no idea if she knows what to do but the screening on Sunday will be a nightmare. Good thing I won't be there. I'll finish the other 2/3 of entrance skills tomorrow and Friday - further delyaing other classes. These students will not be ready to graduate next year. They will not. They don't listen and they don't care. It's disappointing. The second years - they are a different story.

See I think I tied it all together. If not. Boo hoo.

End of a long weekend

In order to break up the boredom of three days at home we went for a short walk today. Not too far from our home is a tiny store that sells essentials. We walked over there and bought some eggs to make brownies. It wasn't much of a walk - maybe 5 minutes - but it was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

It is still quite cold in our home although the weather is very pleasant outside. We have school tomorrow and about 8 weeks of classes left. We've been away from home for 11 weeks so this is about the half way point of our time away - reminder, after leaving Palestine we'll be in Romania for about 1 month. We're starting to miss the little things about being at home - restaurants, our little community, being able to go where we want when we want but we're really not missing work.

When we leave here at the end of May the faculty of optometry will again have one faculty member to teach all optometry related classes. An optometrist who graduated from Jordan is being sent somewhere in the UK (I don't remember where) to get a Master's degree. He will complete that degree at the end of next summer (i.e the end of summer 2008). He will then return to teach at An-Najah. We, as I've said before, hope to be able to spend two more semesters here to cover the transition.

We've had some questions about what the funds I'm trying to raise so I'll give some details on that now. We're not trying to raise funds from individuals. It would take far too many individuals to support us and it doesn't leave a lasting legacy at the school. Instead it was my bright idea to contact two Non-Governmental Organizations to ask them for money. The first has a fellowship program through which we hope to get at least two round trip flights to North America for each of us for the next year. We then hope for a second set of round trip flights for the following year so that we could come for a couple/three weeks to aid the new educator(s).

The second organization will be a harder sale. I'm basically asking them to hire both of us as full time staff. In my proposal it states that we would begin working for them in July but would remain in North America for July and August where we would be doing lecture/course/research preparation. We would then come back here for Sept. - December. We would go home for 4 or 5 weeks over Christmas and then come back for the spring semester next academic year. I think we would then go to Romania again and come back here for a couple of weeks in September of 2008 to help the new educator(s) before returning home to start our lives. I'm not really sure if the organizations will buy into this proposal but without additional funding we will go home and stay home. We'll see.

I really have nothing to say as we've just been sitting around working/wasting time. We heard a lot of gunshots yesterday but I think people were just firing into the air because of the holiday. Silly if you ask me.

Available

Hi all,
Swell really wanted me to inform all of you that she is available to receive calls. Although our headphone/microphone combination broke (mic doesn't work anymore) I was able to get her computer up and running on our home internet connection. She has a built in camera and microphone so contact away.

Other than that we're just doing some house work today so that we are free to work on school stuff the next couple of days.

Sweet, sweet, sweetness

My wonderful, beautiful, mouth-watering, life-changing, tear-inducing Jelly Tots arrived today. Oh, the wonder. Oh, joy. The sour jelly tots were awe inspiring.

We have a three day weekend this weekend. There is some type of religious feast on Saturday. We'll spend Saturday at home working and playing Yahtzee (which was also trapped in our luggage until today). We'll also spend time imagining what I would look like with a hair cut.

Swell is having no luck with classes. Her class was partly canceled today due to some event. The students were quite surprised when she told them they would make up that class after the event was over. She had to. They are behind.

Tomorrow she loses another class because our dean wants the students to attend an event for blind people. The university is adding blind services to their library - braille books, braille printers, etc. I think it's good that they go but I feel bad for poor lil' Swell. She's having a tough week. It's been cold and she hasn't been very happy. Poor ol' Swell. She'll get better but I think she's tired of being here. Only 9 more weeks to go and then she'll have a month with her family in Romania. That will be fun.

Tomorrow we also need to hit the grocery store to load up on food for this weekend.

Not much else going on here. You can start phoning us again because we got our head set back (although broken slightly) from our luggage.

Sorry for the lack of goodness in this update but we're really not doing much these days.

My Kingdom

My kingdom for Jelly Tots!

While Swell and I were in Durban we came across a store selling Jelly Tots. You crazy Americans might not know what Jelly Tots are. Let's just say they are a candy created by the holy hands of God himself.

I love me some Jelly Tots. I ate me a good amount of Jelly Tots while in Durban. Before leaving I bought me some more Jelly Tots. I bought me some.... (for those just tuning in I know that the use of the pronoun "me" is incorrect so keep yer' comments to yourselves)... anyway, I bought me some regular Jelly Tots and some Sour Jelly Tots. I've never had sour ones before.
At the hotel Swell transferred MY jelly tots from a carry on bag to our suitcase.

WE STILL DO NOT HAVE OUR LUGGAGE! I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY JELLY TOTS.

Curses on you Air France!

Our dean didn't bring our luggage out to Nablus today because it was too heavy for her to carry and her husband was otherwise occupied.

CURSES!

I WANT my jelly tots.

Most of you are probably thinking I've lost it. My brother, Jill, knows what I'm talking about. We love us some Jelly Tots. I haven't had Jelly Tots in years. Now that I've had them again I need them.

Give me my Jelly Tots!

That is all. Continue on with your lives now.

I did it...

So we decided to be good little workers this weekend and do as much as we could. I wrote up 15 pages of notes and made a 109 slide, slide show on the first 7 of those pages. That should easily get me through this week. I was also informed on Wednesday that I messed up in one of my classes - I didn't give a midterm. I thought that this class was simply the lab part of another class. I was told, however, that because it has a separate class number that it requires a midterm. I, therefore, made up a practical exam that will be conducted tomorrow. It is quite easy and I hope that the students do well.

I also finished working on my paper this weekend and decided "what-the-heck" and submitted it to a journal. It was probably a mistake as I only had Swell read it over. I think it is too long and will expect a complete rejection in 6 weeks. I'd be happy if they just sent it back requiring revisions but I'm not sure it's a topic that the journal I submitted to will be interested in (although they have a public health section). If they don't want it I'll send it to a couple of people to read over and then submit it elsewhere.

In response to some of the previous comments:

Jenn - we check your myspace, and your journal religiously. I see that we feel that you are more important, more worthy of our love, and a higher priority in our very busy lives than we are in yours. We are very disappointed in you!

MauiGirl - Our safari group consisted of 7 people including us, plus the driver. We went very quickly (40km/h) until the driver or one of the group members saw something at which point the driver stopped for as long as we wanted. He talked a little bit about the animals we were looking at while we took pictures. We, too, were surprised at how close the animal were. I had the wrong lens on my camera as I thought we were going to be taking distant photos. We were so close to some of them that I was unable to take pictures as they wouldn't fit into the frame. Some of the pictures are misleading though because I zoomed in from a great distance - the rhinos for example. It was a lot of fun. You should take an extended vacation somewhere after your next trip to Liberia (i.e. do a safari in Liberia or fly elsewhere).

Jill - Re: reading my slides. You get nothing. You tell me nothing I give you nothing. I will say, however, that when I took the pictures of the chips I was thinking of you and heard you in my head say "you can really taste the chutney". I will also say that you have no business looking at my rack... of ribs.

Ma - Re: my presentation. I did 17 slides in 10 minutes by talking far too fast and probably taking a bit longer than 10 minutes. Job offer was a joke. One of the presentations after my presentation happened to be the CEO/Founder of the International Center for Eyecare Education (ICEE) which was the group that held the conference. I was asked a question from someone in the audience (maybe 100 people??? more for the discussion that followed which brought up some later questions - What did you say to bring on that!?). The CEO dude decided it would be prudent at that point to say: "If I received your survey [which he has never seen] I would have said: 'Who is this wanker?' and thrown it away." This was in response to my acknowledgment that I had a terrible response rate. I said something in return at which point he said: "I agree with you [or something like that] why don't you come do research for us?" (He said some other stuff as well which led people to say that he slapped me around, that he was difficult, that I brought out a reaction in him, that he is an a-hole... I wasn't bothered by anything he said. Whatever) The next day I gave him a copy of my CV (although I said I wasn't really looking for a job. I figured it's a good way to have him remember me later). They are based in Australia and Durban. I could live in either of those places. Thailand - we met a couple of American ODs working in Thailand and thought it might be fun to visit them and look at their interesting work... then we looked at our bank account.

We heard lots of interesting stuff. lots of boring stuff. All in all a good time - maybe some people will recognize my name in the future. It was a good first exposure to a congress of this type.

I don't really want to sell our place until we move. Perhaps rent it out? I don't know what the university would offer. I think that two round trip tickets each year for both of us is out of the question but well within reach if we become Fellows of the World Council of Optometry. I will be hopeful and look for flights plus a stipend from WCO (they are giving money to a Fellow who is not developing optometry so I think we should be able to get some as well) plus continued pay and housing from the University. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Don't want to be normal especially if normal is working in an office 9 hours a day five days a week telling 40 year olds they need reading glasses only for them to shoot me death stares because they couldn't possibly be getting old(er). Don't want to be normal if that requires me to talk to 13 year old girls about colour contact lenses (I REALLY don't care if you pick hazel or honey). Don't want to be normal if I have to deal with contact lens wearers who don't understand responsibility. Don't want to be normal if it doesn't allow me to try to make a difference at a community level rather than an individual level.

JL - It is true. Your life sucks. Get a new one! Sorry about your house and car. Haven't listened to your student yet but will as it sounds neat. Good to hear from you. Didn't know you were still alive.


All - In case you didn't understand one of our previous posts, yes Air France lost our luggage on our way home. Actually, they didn't lose it as they were standing outside of our airplane door upon arrival in Tel Aviv with a sign saying our luggage didn't make the flight. In it were both of my dress pair of shoes - so I'm casual these days, and our mic for our computer as well as a lot of clothes and toiletries. They offered to reimburse us for some things so we bought new toiletries and will submit the receipt. Our luggage made it to Jerusalem on Thursday and we'll get it when we see our dean on Monday. Swell gets mad about it every two or three hours. I don't really care.

Tomorrow is another week. Yippee!

Back to the grind

So we were back at work today - molding young minds to better the visual health of the Palestinian people. It was a good day. A short day. I should start by wishing all the ladies out there a Happy Mother's Day. It is mother's day here today and just like An-Najah University I'll be all inclusive and wish all women a happy day - all women but Swell that is. The school had some sort of lunch for the women today and all were invited but Swell, instead we were sent home. Fine by us as we were quite tired and ready for a relaxing afternoon.

We had an interesting week away.

A long trip found us arriving in Durban with not much to do on a Tuesday afternoon. We hoped to change money but were promptly forbidden by the hotel staff from leaving the hotel on our own. It seems that the entire tourist industry discourages tourists from going out on their own - fearing theft and bodily harm (it is South Africa after all). The hotel folks changed money for us instead. We were given our hotel room early so we were happy to have showers and then caught a taxi to the congress center to pick up our registration packages.

It was upon our arrival at the congress center and that we got the first inkling that this might be a big deal. All along the streets leading up to the center were light posts with signs advertising the World Congress on Refractive Error and Service Development. The congress center was large and nice and we had very little trouble getting our packages and heading back to the hotel.

We are not big meat eaters but when one is trapped away from normal restaurants and grocery stores one tends to desire things that would not normally be eaten. Our dinner for the first day were really tasty ribs from the hotel restaurant. So good that we actually had them on another day. It was a nice treat - albeit a messy one.

I won't go much into the details of the congress but suffice it to say that it was designed to share epidemiology and success/failures of refractive error care and the distribution of affordable and sustainable spectacles.

Many organizations were represented including Helen Keller International, Christian Blind Mission, Sight Savers International. It was not a conference for the types of organizations that conduct rapid vision camps distributing recycled spectacles and not worrying about long term care, although some were there - and their methods were questioned.

The congress was made up of many 10-15 minute presentations followed by discussion time. At the end the organizers presented the Durban Decleration (www.icee.org) which will become a reference document for refractive care in developing countries.

It was an experience to say the least. It was quite fun and educational. It led Swell and I to think a lot about what we're doing here. I believe that we are doing good but what happens when we leave? They are still without educators. Where will the students work? Will they have equipment, money, opportunity to open practices? A lot of questions that are, hopefully, being considered by someone, somewhere. We were also encouraged by some folks to do some research while we're here. We really don't have a lot of time remaining so we'll see if we can put something together.

One thing I am going to work on is raising funds for someone(s) to remain here until they graduate the first class of students. From that class I would hope the school could find and hire a couple of kids to become instructors. From our time here and the time someone is here next year there will be large amounts of notes and teaching materials created. All the new educators would need to do is review and understand it more. The negative is that these educators will have little to no patient experience. I would hope that we could raise enough money to allow someone with patient experience to come once or twice a semester to add that experience to the education.

If the money is raised who will come? We were told by numerous people in Durban that they were amazed that the dean of the optometry school here in Nablus was able to find people to come and lend a hand. Will they be able to find someone else? Do we want them to find someone else? What is another two semesters for us? Going home and working like dogs in commercial optometry for 2 months this summer and then having our flights/living expenses/and pay covered for a semester and then going home for Christmas/conferences only to return for 3 and a half more months. Sounds good to me but finances really stand in the way. We'll see. But we're looking forward to the next 10 weeks and then our time in Romania.

Check out pictures of our trip here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/xmattodx/

Home

Well we made it home.
Not going to say much now as it was a miserable 24 hours.
We had a lot of fun on our last few days in Durban.
Had fun on the safari. Had fun eating out. Had fun looking at souvenirs.
Upon departure the no-fun started.
Overly hot planes.
Overly stinky fellow passengers.
Overly disgusting food.
Overly cramped seating.
Overly missing luggage.
Surprisingly the only good thing about the trip home was the ease through which we passed through passport control here in Israel.
Now we're sitting at home in misery because of the overly cold home we live in.
Sorry for all the complaining. Hopefully we'll have something more fun to say tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a single picture of our safari. We have many more but I thought my Ma might like to see this one:

Well that's over

So as all y'all know my little talk is now over. Ten minutes is not really enough time to say anything but I tore through my little talk (probably speaking far too fast and making very little sense). I was the first to speak in the group so a couple of hours later we had a panel "discussion". I received a couple of questions which were not terribly difficult nor surprising. Following the discussion I received a number of comments from others attending.

I heard things about my anatomy. (Good things? - Think about it.)
I heard a lot of people who agreed with what I had to say.
I heard that a lot of people felt that the director of the organization that is putting the conference on slapped me around a little bit. (I didn't think he did - but I'm not easily intimidated nor do I much care what people think about me. If he did slap me around a little bit it was in the desire to be politcally correct).
I was offered a job?

Anyway what could create such a stir? Apparently me. If you care this is what caused the stir:


"It is interesting that despite decades of encouragement from the WHO and various optometric professionals for Voluntter based vision NGOs (VBVNGOs) to change their priorities [See (20-23)], their strategies have remained virtually unchanged for blindness and low vision treatment and prevention.

With the adoption of VISION 2020 as the guiding document for blindness prevention now is the time for a dramatic shift in the work of VBVNGOs. If the strategies outlined in VISION 2020 are considered the gold standard strategies in the prevention and treatment of low vision and blindness it becomes apparent from the survey that VBVNGOs in their current form are not acceptable as they are unaware of the initiative and use strategies contrary to VISION 2020.
The following recommendations will allow VBVNGOs to add greater value to the global visual impairment prevention community.

Discontinue VBVNGOs in their current form
The work that current VBVNGOs do is not in line with VISION 2020 priorities and does not treat ocular disease in a sustainable manner. It is, therefore, imperative that these VBVNGOs discontinue their work until they have been integrated into the broader blindness prevention community and meet the minimum indicators discussed previously

Determine Burden of Visual Impairment
It is important that epidemiological data are collected prior to the implementation of projects and programs. If this has not been completed by the national VISION 2020 program it must be conducted by the VBVNGO prior to the coordinated implementation of projects and programs.

Train Mid-Level Eye Health Care Practitioners
It is apparent from the surveys that human resource development occurs sporadically but is not a priority for most of the VBVNGOs. They work alongside local practitioners at times - when they are able and it is convenient - but they do not make the training or the creation of a cadre of local eye health care workers an objective.

Education
Members of the VBVNGOs are encouraged to band together to form a cadre of educators and to provide resources for the creation of education facilities. This is an entirely different strategy for these organizations and requires them to accept a new responsibility.


Formation of Partnerships
Volunteer based NGOs are encouraged to make contact with the national VISION 2020 program in the countries they work in, as well as making contact with the organizations that are part of the IAPB active in the countries of interest. With these partnerships a coordinated effort can take place, thereby putting both financial and human resources to best use.

Use of Recycled Spectacles and Expired Medications
All organizations working in the prevention of visual impairment are encouraged to immediately discontinue the use of recycled spectacles and expired medications. It is important to simultaneously develop a local, cost effective, and sustainable ophthalmic laboratory, spectacle and ocular medication distribution network and a cadre of mid-level practitioners [See (8, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23, 24, 26-32). In addition, VBVNGOs are encouraged to understand and follow the WHO guidelines on the use of donated pharmaceuticals [See (33)].

Evaluation of Outcomes
Most VBVNGOs currently judge their success with a subjective analysis. If the majority of the recipients of their care smile, or if the team is invited back for a future visit the vision camp is deemed successful (34-36). No objective evaluation is conducted. For a VBVNGO to consider itself part of the solution to global visual impairment it must continually seek to improve the work that it does. Improvement can only come from monitoring and evaluating the work being conducted.

Focus on Public Health
These organizations should focus on public health rather than their own professional development or personal fulfillment. While there is nothing wrong with gaining a sense of fulfillment from working in a developing country, when vision camps are advertised as a means to develop professional skills and see a developing country, motives for involvement can hinder the development of a local eye health care system. The reason to become involved in blindness and low vision prevention is not to develop one’s professional skills or to see poverty rather it is to help people obtain their right to the highest attainable standard of health.

If you read all of that congratulations. You just read what they all heard from 2 of my 17 slides. It was fun. I'm sure I'll get a few more people talking to me tomorrow. One more day for the conference and then we're off to safari.

Very brief update

Here.
Safe.
Having fun.
Learning a lot.
Being jealous of some US Optometrists who have been successful in the leap from an OD degree to being in the public health world full time.
Speak tomorrow.
Might be more than 3 people in the room as there are 600 people here. (But will be divided amongst 3 sessions).
Scheduled to speak just prior to VOSH which is the main group I put down in my paper (but won't do so by name tomorrow).
Looking forward to it.
Anyone know anything about Thailand. (What could that mean?)

Later

I'm Excited!

I'm excited we had zero problems so far! AND we're sitting next to a McDonalds that has a McCafe where I can get a cappucciono! I made Sheepie go get me a cheeseburger Happy Meal for now. It's gonna be a good Monday after all...

swell

Edit by Sheepie,

No happy meals. No cheese. She has to suffer with a hamburger and a regular size meal (and no toy). I, in turn, have to suffer with the wrong meal. I don't feel like going back to explain how it is wrong as their English was as good as my Hebrew.

On our way

So we're sitting in Ben Guiron International Airport in Tel Aviv on our way to Durban (via Paris). Our flight is delayed by about 15 or 20 minutes. We're very, very early. Swell was very nervours because she thought that we left school too late but we ended up getting to the airport and through all three security checks with no problems. (We're looking at you G. and laughing. You must have done/said something wrong.) We didn't even have to have our luggage checked beyond the x-ray machine. Very exciting.

We'll be in Durban at about 1pm tomorrow and then the conference starts the next day. Looking forward to it.

Its the WEEKEND!!

Tomorrow is the start of our one day weekend. You might ask yourself; "Self, didn't they have Thursdays and Fridays off for the weekend?"

You can answer to self that yes in fact we normally do have Thursdays and Fridays off for the weekend. Today, however, we were required to come in as they held classes today. So today, Thursay, which is normally our Saturday, was used as a replica Sunday. Confused? Well I'll clear it up. The first day of our non-natural Snow Days was a Sunday. We had class that Saturday and then Sunday and Monday were curfew days. We had class on the Tuesday and then had the curfew re-imposed on Wednesday. So today was the make-up day for the Sunday. All teachers and students were required to be here. Support staff still had the day off. Sundays are easy for us - one non-credit lab to teach - so that meant that today, Thursday, was also easy. So easy in fact that Swell left me by myself.

As I write this she is off somewhere in Nablus getting her hair done. So much for my never letting her out of my sight. She is with the secretary of the optometry program so she will be fine. She may get hepatitis but she'll be fine. (I say she may get hepatitis because an un-named coworker of Swell's mum warned us against getting haircuts while in Egypt because we would end up with hepatitis if we did. Our thoughts were "1. Why would we get our hair cut in Egypt? 2. That would have to be a pretty close cut to infect was with Hepatitis and 3. Why would we get our hair cut during our 10 days in Egypt?")

I held the lab, I kept it short because it is a no-credit lab and the students wanted to study for their exams. Short but informative if I do say so myself.

So we got paid today so I can tell the story of what happened while G was here. As you may recall a few weeks ago we were informed by the vice-president of the University that our salary would be $X. We were shocked as it was substantially less than what we were told it would be before we came. While we thought we got that all straightened out but when G. was here we were called to the old campus to meet with the University accountant.

Upon arrival he basically said: "How little will you work for?"

I was dumbfounded and taken aback. I thought we had this all taken care of. I was speechless. Swell immediately went on the offensive and yelled and screamed that we would work for what we were promised.

The accountant: "You know that we are in a very bad situation. We have not been receiving money from the government because they have no money. We have 16,000 students who don't make much money to pay for their education so we extend them loans. These are bad loans."

Basically he was saying that because of the international siege (which had not changed from the time we were offered what we were offered) that they couldn't pay us what they promised. On top of that he was a master of guilt. Saying that the University has to front loans to the students of which many will never be repaid - mostly because the opportunity for economic advancement is very limited even for educated students.

He proceeded to outline that we would need to consider that our wage was not just money. We also received housing and transportation.

When I indicated that we were very grateful for all of these things but they were already promised on top of the money we were promised he didn't care. He said that we would sit in his office until we reached a compromise. He turned to our dean to try to get her to help him convince us of the University's need to pay us less to avoid bankruptcy. She would have no part in it. Eventually he let us go promising to speak to the president and then let us know. He was very unhappy that we wouldn't compromise. He made it a point to indicate that we were used to a lavish lifestyle and that that lifestyle wasn't something they were willing to pay us for.

It was funny. I have no bad feelings toward him. He is just doing his job. Little does he realize that we took a monster pay cut to come here. If we were to be paid this wage for an entire year combined we would make about half of what Swell was paid by herself last year. I'll admit that we do have a lavish lifestyle. We drive a used car that was a gift and has over 100,000 miles on it (we love the car by the way), we have a lot of bills - what with having to pay our student loans and all - our most extravagant purchase of our lives was our condo. We were paying a small fortune in rent and could buy a place for just a bit more. Seemed wise to me. Anyway, he obviously has no idea who we are.

We were paid the right amount today. We'll be mailing the cheques to our bank next week. He did indicate that we owe the school 500 sheckels though. Apparently they paid the driver who takes us to Israel too much and we owe him for some of the legs.

G. we're looking in your direction. They say that we owe him for the trip to and from the airport. You'll be getting a bill! (j/k)

On another note. I found a proposer for my fellowship (thanks anyway CWH). It is the chief of VT at Pacific. I was his student and then worked under him when I was a VT attending after graduation. Really nice guy. So I'm filling out the paper work and then will have 3 years to collect 50 points. I should get some points for my Master's degree and hopefully will get this paper published which will give me some more. If I had done a residency I'd be done now(it is amazing to me that people can be fellows 1 year after graduation. They do it so quickly by getting points for doing a residency. Part of the residency requirement is to do a poster presentation or publication so just by finishing a residency you are over half way there. Seems odd to me. It seems like something you should have to work a bit harder for.) Hopefully I'll have all my points in time for the 2008 exam. 2007 is too soon as all materials have to be in by June.

Well that's enough rambling. Our students are sufficiently worried about next weeks exams that they should be studying all day today and tomorrow and then on Saturday we'll see.

Later,

Two down

Before I talk about the two exams that we've given out already I thought I'd take a moment to ask all of the lovely students to stop walking by my office door. I know that our floor is relatively quiet as the faculty of optometry is small but that doesn't give you the freedom to "date" in front of our door.

I realize that you're not really supposed to date. I realize that it is a big deal to walk back and forth down our hall with your girl or boy (or who you hope/wish will/could be your girl or boy). After I see you for the fifth time it kind of gets old. I could keep time with your passing. Every 23 seconds there you go again. You see it wasn't so bad when it was just a few of you sporadically but some others have seen what you do and apparently thought that our floor was magical. You see now that it is exam time I not only have to put up with you and your keep-at-least-50-cm-between-us-at-all-times-romantic-walk-down-the-hall but now I have to put up with students pacing in the hall muttering to themselves.

You hopeful couples I could deal with to some extent but the single students walking up and down reading their notes aloud. That's too much. I'm going to snap. I don't know who told you that our floor was the floor to date or study on but its not. Please stop. I beg of you.

As those of you who have been following along at home know I gave my first exam to the students on Monday. They did fine. I purposefully kept it short to make sure they would be able to understand the questions and finish on time. They had 45 minutes to do it. After 10 minutes the first student handed their exam in after 20 minutes they were all done. I made it too short and too easy (Mean 94.23% Median 100% Max 100% Min 83.33%)

Swell on the other hand, brutalized them with her contact lens exam. The 45 minute exam took 90 minutes and she still had to tell some of them that they needed to stop. With my VERY generous grading the average was somewhere around 80% with some pretty low scores. I did some analysis of her questions and on one question only 2 people got it right. Normally one would throw that question out as there must have been something wrong with it. Not Swell she's keeping it in (in fairness it was well written the students just forgot a step so most of them got it wrong. We know that they were taught the step because they had to make use of it in other questions where everyone got it right.)

So now hopefully they like me better. I have two more tests for this group of students. These tests are longer, and harder. The first exam was for a useless 1 credit class so I didn't care much that it was an easy exam.

The students are bright just on the lazy side. They are young. We need to motivate them to practice more of the skills we're teaching them. They have limited equipment so it is difficult to find the time to allow all of them to practice. For the week we're gone the only thing I'm asking for them to do is a series of practice eye exams. Hopefully Swell's exam also motivated them that they need to put in a little more study time as well. We'll see how the next two go.

Oh. Not only did Swell hurt her students today with the exam she tore my paper apart and made me cry. She's really quite mean these days.

It pays

So it pays to write a thesis on a topic that no one finds interesting. It seems like one of the reasons my abstract was accepted for the World Congress on Refractive Error is because they are seriously lacking in the area that my paper is on (Role of NGDOS and professional bodies). I speak for 10 whole minutes on March 15 starting at 16:10. Directly before me is someone speaking on "Strategies supported by SightSavers in India" (Good thing I don't have anything bad to say about SightSavers). Right after me is "The Role of the Private Sector in Nigeria". My competition (someone speaking at the same time as me) is "Factors Influencing Spectacle Wear in Indian Children." I suspect that there will be 4 people in the room when I give my talk. Me, Swell, the guy before me and the guy who goes after me. It at least gives me the chance to write one more small thing on my CV.

Tomorrow is the first exam for our students. We'll see how that goes. 9 multiple choice questions and one short answer question. I went low on the number of questions because I'm not sure how fast they can read. If they finish in 10 minutes the next test will be longer. I'm really hoping it is a very short test. If they take the whole time I don't know what I'll do.

A week from tomorrow we leave for Durban via Johannesburg via Paris. It takes us about 24 hours to get to Durban at which point we will register for the conference and hopefully meet up with people we know. The conference will run from March 14-16 and we go on a Safari on March 17. The 18th we'll find something to do and then we leave on the 19th. A quick trip but we're looking forward to it.

I've condensed my thesis to a submittable length. I'm thinking of trying an American Optometric Journal first and see what they have to say. If they like it (after I work on it for the next few days) it should be published within the year. (It takes like 4 months for the peer review and then they try their hardest to publish it within six months from final acceptance). If they outright reject me due to the topic I have some other places I can send it to. We'll see. I just need to get Swell to read it over and make sure it makes sense and maybe one or two other people. I should have done this months ago but I'm lazy.

My next professional goal is to get what's called a Fellowship. It's basically just a way to show that you've continued your studies. You collect points by submitting case reports to the oversight body, or by publishing things, or by getting another degree, etc. Once you collect a certain number of points you have an oral exam and then if you pass you are a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. It doesn't mean much outside of academic circles. You don't get to charge more for your exams, patients have no idea what it is but its something to do. (It's either that or law school)The only problem - you need a current fellow to be your "proposer" (whatever that is). The problem is that I don't know any fellows. I wrote and asked one of my old profs but he isn't a fellow. He gave me the names of some others so I need to write them and ask if they'll "propose" me (sorry Swell).

We've also written an organization called the World Congress of Optometry to see if what we are doing here will qualify us for a Fellow of the World Congress of Optometry. I wrote them a fair number of weeks ago but they're ignoring me. I guess it's time to write again.

Well that was boring. No gunshots or mayhem to tell you about. That is basically our lives here though. A lot of boredom interrupted by short periods of fear.

An ending note though I can't believe they killed Mrs. Laningham at the end of the second season of the West Wing! Yes, we're watching the entire West Wing series to combat boredom. I never got into it when it was on TV even though when I did watch I really liked it. We're through season 2 and will start the third season soon. We've already polished off Freaks and Geeks and the first two seasons of Veronica Mars since we've left Atlanta. That's a lot of TV!

This sign just struck me as funny. Apparently they are expecting that aliens are going to want to know where the bathroom is in Jaffa.

The coming week

Much to our surprise "Operation Hot Winter" is not over. In fact just today 40 plus Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered Nablus. They didn't impose a curfew, however, so school occurred as regularly scheduled.

Our students are starting to get concerned about the coming week. A look at our schedule will indicate why they are concerned.

On Monday the third years have the first of four exams in the classes we teach. Monday first thing is the first midterm for a class called Environmental optometry. The next day they have their first contact lens midterm and then on Saturday they have their ocular disease midterm and then on Monday the 12th they have their clinical exam.

We keep trying to reassure them that the exams won't be overly difficult but they are concerned none-the-less. My philosophy when it comes to exams is that they should be a learning experience, that is, they should allow you to leave the exam knowing more than when you went into the exam. If the exam does nothing but leave you stumped or feeling like the examiner tricked you that is a problem.

So my exams are basic concepts and reminders of what I mentioned was important from a clinical stand point. I won't test on the minutiae as that doesn't benefit patients. What is important is what the students will use when they graduate. The rest is just to make you sound smart when you're interacting with other optometrists.

This weekend I worked on my curriculum vitae so I would have something available on the off chance that there is someone to give it to when we're in Durban next week. (We leave in the evening on the 12th). While updating my CV I was struck by how poor it is. It's poor in a couple of ways.

From a public health standpoint I really don't have much going for me. A few short-term things, my degree, and my thesis. That's about it. Hard to get a public health job that will pay the bills with a CV so short on experience. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do a practicum while in public health school so I'm missing that experience as well as experience a lot of my colleagues gained while in undergrad. I was too busy in the department of science to gain experience in the realm of social issues, and volunteering or going on a long term peace corps type thing.

The second way my CV is poor is that in the four and a half years since I graduated OD school I have held way too many jobs. It is crazy how many places I've worked. It was beneficial in that I gained a lot of different experiences but it doesn't show much dedication to specific practices. For the first two years I was out of OD school I worked a lot of part-time jobs. Two days a week one place, one day another, two days at a third. It was difficult and not a fun way to be an optometrist. That's the price you pay living in a city that has an OD school.

Swell is pretty much ready to settle down and start becoming a full-time fixture in a community. She wants to purchase or start a practice. I hope to stop practicing optometry all together. Not because it's a bad profession or because I don't like it. I just have other interests now. I dislike the optometry I've been exposed to over the past four years ($29 eye exams and seeing 25 patients in a day - I think my record was 30 in a day plus checks and follow-ups) but I think there is a better optometry out there. Hopefully I'll be able to put my MPH to use in an organization that has at least some interest in vision services in developing countries. That is my hope but as I tell most people - I'll probably be doing optometry until I die. I'll have to find a different way to use my MPH if that's the case.

Anyway I don't know what the point of the preceding was. I do know that swell wanted me to tell all y'all that she has posted a bunch of pictures. She didn't take the time to label them specifically but they are divided into folders based on the location they were taken.

You can see them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/xmattodx

My Turn

I haven't posted in a LONG time. It really hasn't been too boring though. I've actually enjoyed the days off this week as it allowed us to catch up on work (G was here last week so we didn't do much). And it allowed me to cook, talk Sheepie into playing games with me (I beat him badly at Canasta, but he beat me at Yahtzee). We finished Veronica Mars Season 1 AND Season 2 now! We're watching a couple of movies on TV right now, but I must get to work soon... Work meaning laundry, little bit of cleaning, and hopefully baking cookies. I have most of the ingredients, but couldn't find chocolate chips; I bought a chocolate bar and will make sheepie try to get it into chips. I also don't have any brown sugar. And I found baking powder, not baking soda. Oh yeah, and I'm not sure if I bought butter or margarine (can't understand the package). But it'll be fun to try and it will be nice to have cookies if they actually turn out. I made up my exams for my two classes, but I'll have to look them over again to make sure they are not too hard. Multiple choice mainly, just a couple of short answer. It's also been pretty cold again... hard to get motivation to do anything but sit here and watch movies next to the heater when it's cold.

Last week when G was here we (G and I) decided to go for a short walk to take some pic's from around our place. We ended up meeting lots of kids (G even played soccer with them) and it was fun cuz the kids kept following us around. We were all just staring at the big dog (Max) and then the owner came out and asked us if we want to go on a walk with her and Max. We were both thrilled and I ran back into the house to tell Sheepie we're going on a walk with our neighbor and her dog. So we started off, but about 5 kids ended up coming with us. She said she could never get them to come walk with her, but since we were there they really wanted to come. Apparently everybody knows about us and where we live and the little kids tell their parents, "Oh, I saw Swell and Sheepie come home today!" It was fun to interact with them and they were excited to show us around the hills where they live. We got some amazing views and kinda lost track of time. We decided to watch the sunset before heading back and the kids picked red poppy flowers for us. It was so much fun, probably the best time I've had since we've come here. Unfortunately, we were gone for way too long and sheepie was getting worried (he didn't come cuz he was actually doing school work). Some other kids ran to us and told us he was outside looking for us. We went home and boy, was Sheepie mad at us. He didn't think we'd be gone for so long and he was worried (just the day before the 3 Americans were kidnapped). I felt very safe on our walk, it was mostly just through the hills (with olive trees) and next to some houses that were still in construction. So next time Sheepie just better come with us cuz the next sunny day we get, I wanna go back! Here's some pic's form our walk:











Our home

The end?

So is this the end or is it just the beginning?

It was a miserable weak to say the least. We struggled with being trapped in our home, struggled with writing our first exams for our students knowing that even the simplest questions may be too difficult, we struggled with being lonely. We survived to learn today that the Israelis departed and claimed that "Operation Warm Winter" was completed.

Six hours later I read:

"Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Thursday ordered a full closure to be imposed on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Thursday night until Monday at midnight.

Army Radio reported that the decision was made due to the large amount of terror attack warnings received annually during the Purim holiday, which commences on Saturday night." Source

We don't really know what this means but it could mean that our students - who probably went home for the weekend won't be able to make it back until Tuesday. I guess we'll find out over the next two days.

Happy Friday to all y'all.

Oh well.

Snow day number 3.

They are back. School is canceled. We'll see for how long.

And just like that...

...back to normal.

We're getting ready to go to school where we'll see how many students stuck around.

The Israeli's withdrew last night and life will continue.

More later.

Edited at 10:25 am local time

So we're at school working away when we are told that we should go shopping today to stock up. The rumour floating around is that:
1) The Israeli's are not done with whatever it was that they were doing
2) They will return
3) They will stay in place for a longer period of time (we've heard 10 days)

This is all rumour but people seem mildly concerned.

The incursions usually (always?) occur at night. So in the morning we'll see what's what and who's who. We may have a very long vacation coming up. I hope not.

Wanna see a picture?



Yes they are eating cotton candy. Where did it come from? Well the cotton candy man of course. A couple of times swell and I heard some strange ice cream man music coming from outside. We were confused. Well this day G. was present and heard it as well. We weren't crazy there was music - she heard it to. It turns out that it wasn't an ice cream man, rather it was a man driving around in a wee little car with a cotton candy machine in the back. Swell and G. forced me to go outside and buy some cotton candy. I hate cotton candy. He had a bunch of sticks in his car and he had the machine and for 1 shekel (25 cents) I bought them the cotton candy. If you saw where it came from you wouldn't eat it.




This is us in front of our house. The bottom balcony is ours.

Here's the deal

I'm sitting here in our flat by myself. Swell is at a get together for the women who live in our complex. She was invited after we had lunch at the University Vice-President's house. I guess it's a we-have-nothing-else-to-do-so-let's-get-together kind of thing.

The folks here are hoping that the siege will end tomorrow. They have no reason to believe it will other than hope.

Our situation is as it stand now is as follows:

1) We were not evacuated because this came as a shock to every one. The Israelis are claiming this siege is to arrest 7 wanted men. A city is being held hostage so that 7 men can be found and arrested. The conspiracy theorists believe that this is simply a large scale training exercise for the Israeli military.
2) We are actually not under curfew. We live outside of the curfew zone. Only the old city is under curfew. We have seen nothing. We have heard nothing.
3) So far this siege has left one man dead and an apartment burned.
4) The checkpoints are open. This means we can leave if we feel we need to. So far we don't see or feel that need.
5) An international volunteer was taken to the checkpoint yesterday. She has since left the area for Jerusalem.
6) We have food and water.
7) We have electricity.
8) Our neighbours are very concerned for us and have all offered anything we could need.
9) We have been phoned by 3 different people to ensure we have food and water.
10) We doubt we will teach for the rest of the week as it is believed that students are leaving the city for their villages. This siege is, therefore, costing students the opportunity to learn. They will lose at least a week of their education.

All in all don't listen or read the news as it pertains to Nablus. That is not our situation - but listen and read the news as it pertains to Nablus because this is creating great difficulties for a lot of people. There are stories of the Israeli military using human shields which was declared illegal by the Israeli supreme court. There are stories of 20 plus people being put in a single room in a home and not allowed out of the room at anytime - as the military is using the home as a base of operation. We're getting the full experience during our short time here.

Hope everyone is well.

Snow Day 2

So we're still at home. We haven't left the house since we came home from school on Saturday afternoon.

We're really not sure what is going on other than that we have been put under curfew for at least a few days.

Here's hoping it doesn't turn out like last time. In 2002 Nablus was under curfew for 100 days. People were allowed to leave their homes for 4 hours one day per week to buy food.

There was no food available because supplies were not allowed into Nablus.

Water was turned off for a few weeks.

We have food to last over a week and we've filled up empty water bottles just in case. If this seems like its going to be long term we'll just up and leave and go to Jerusalem until it blows over. We actually haven't heard any gunshots or anything. It seems relatively calm.

Because we have no stories I'll just put up some more pictures.

Two more views of Nablus taken from a speeding van. The first, we believe, was bombed at some point by Israel.





Young man at Wailing Wall. Before they would go up to the wall they would get into groups, surround a Torah(?) dance, chant, and pray. This is them in the praying phase.



A man and woman on a Jerusalem street.



A woman and her son on a Jerusalem street.

Snow Day(s?)

So we woke up this morning got dressed and were ready to leave when we received the phone call. We were told that for the second time in our month or so here that classes were canceled. We have been invaded.

We had no idea. All the action is happening in the old city which is quite a distance from us. A curfew has been imposed by an outside government and classes have been canceled indefinitely. Not good for us as we try to teach as much as we possibly can in a relatively short time frame. We were told by our hosts not to leave the house (but we've heard kids playing in our parking lot all day - our homes are very sheltered in this area) today. We have enough water and food to last a few days but because G was here we didn't do our normal weekly shopping so I might be on a diet in the next two or three days.

Hopefully classes will be held tomorrow but we're not entirely sure. We'll find out later today.

It seems that G. got out just in time.

That said since our pictures were so well received here are four more:

Swell at her desk in our office





Swell on a camel




Two guys at the Wailing wall




Moses finally reaching the promised land (at the Mediterranean)

Fun Day but Swell is Crying

So today was a nice day. We left early in the morning to drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. We arrived at the hotel that G was to stay at with her tour group. We were too early for her to check in so she dropped her luggage in the hold room and we went out walking. We walked along the Mediterranean and we walked and walked. We were blessed to see many a man in a speedo. Swell and G were quite excited as they laughed and turned their heads from the obese men wearing very little spandex.

We walked all the way from the hotel to Jaffa where we ran into G's tour group quite on accident. The majority of them arrived in Israel this morning and they immediately went to Jaffa. We didn't hang out with them because there isn't much to see in Jaffa and they were just going for lunch. We went for lunch on our own and then for ice cream. Quite a treat - but extremely expenisve. What it costs for Hummus here we can buy a whole meal for three in Nablus and still get change back.

With our hotel costs and our driver cost we're going to be in the poor house after this weekend. Its not a big deal because we won't leave Nablus again until its time to go to South Africa.

So we had lunch and then started our long walk home (probably about 5 km each way). We stopped at the beach, we cried over our sore legs but all in all it was a good time. G and Swell had a good cry when it was time to say goodbye. Seeing someone from home (even though they haven't seen each other in a year and a half - it's a long way from Maui to Atlanta) made Swell very homesick. She'll get over it but it was a difficult goodbye for them. Now G. gets to listen to an expert in all things Israel and bible for the next 10 days while we get to go back to work and hope that the weather begins to turn warmer.

I'll leave you with some pictures from yesterday and a question. First the question (I know the preceding sentence would indicate that the pictures would come first but I've made an executive decision and the question will come first - deal with it).

Question: "Was it in bad taste that the three of us sat in the lobby of a hotel in the heart of Tel Aviv - the biggest city in Israel - with Jewish people all around us and played pass the pig?"

Pictures:

Some of Nablus as seen through a speeding van





Old guy celebrating a Bar Mitzvah (the presumably American kids from yesterday - I think this guy was hired to lead the whole thing)





The three of us in front of Damascus gate at Old Jerusalem

Me

So today was the day to once again escape Nablus and head to Israel. This time we were to spend the day in Old Jerusalem.

I’ve been to Jerusalem before – 1999 with a group of Amigos (a student led eye care group based at Pacific University College of Optometry) and it doesn’t bring back great memories.

The first time I was in Jerusalem it was my first time out of North America and I was with a rather large group. We visited Jerusalem toward the end of our trip. The beginning of our trip was spent in a town near Bethlehem as well as the Gaza Strip doing “eye care”. (I put eye care in quotes because as I look back we weren’t really caring for the people or their eyes. Rather we were hindering the development of local, sustainable systems of eye health care all the while providing shoddy, unjust care.) Upon our arrival to Jerusalem (in 1999) one of the doctors who was on the trip with us took off on his own to see the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) while I was forced to hang out with the large group. Our day was spent shopping - an activity that drives me crazy. I hate shopping with all of my heart. I feel guilty spending money – I’d rather use it for something else – and I have no use for cheap, gaudy souvenirs that just create clutter. I was able to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where Jesus was crucified and buried – I had no idea the tomb was 20 feet from Golgotha) as well as the Via Dolorosa (the path which Jesus walked while carrying the cross). Neither impressed me that much so many years ago but I was willing to give it another shot.

So we left Nablus and went to the “easier” check stop which is on top of the mountain where the Samaritans live. We arrived at the check stop and changed cars – from the school van to our regular Israel driver – the same dude who took us to the airport last week. (He happens to speak Romanian so it’s a lot of fun. It’s as if I’m in Romania - the driver speaking Romanian, Swell and G. speaking Romanian back to him all while listening to Romanian music. I’m left sitting contemplating jumping out of the speeding car as I have no clue what is going on, just like in Romania.) We stop at the check stop where the Army dudes once again ask us many questions – this is the first time this has happened. Usually we’re just waved through. I think; “Great here we go again.” It turns out, however, that they are searching every car that leaves Nablus today. I’m not sure why they are searching all the cars but at least the Army dudes were apologetic.

During their questioning they ask G. what she was doing in Nablus. She replies: “Visiting.”. They ask: “Visiting who?” She mistakenly replies: “Them” as she nods at Swell and I.

Immediately the Army Dude asks me if we live in Nablus. I’m forced to explain that we’re just visiting the university. He forgets that G. told him she was visiting us while in Nablus and beings to lecture me on the dangers of living in Nablus pointing out that just yesterday 3 American women were kidnapped while in Nablus. He continues to explain that there is a lot of gun fire in Nablus (we haven’t heard much lately) and that the Israeli army if often entering Nablus. I know I’m not the smartest person in the world but I figure that if the Israeli army would stop entering Nablus some of the other problems might decrease if not stop but I don’t mention my logic to him. I just say we never left the University while in Nablus and that we felt very safe.

He lets us on our way and we drive to the hotel in Jerusalem.

We picked a hotel that was close to the old city so our driver drops us off and we get our room and put our stuff in it and walk over to the old city.

We enter Herod’s gate and find ourselves in the hustle and bustle of the old city of Jerusalem.

I’ll admit hear that I was raised in a very Christian family. We are far from perfect but as I grew up church played an integral part in my life. We were every Sunday we’re going to church people. We were on Christmas Eve we’ll have a cake that says “Happy Birthday Jesus” people. The whole family was active in many aspects of church life. I was at church camp every summer and Sunday school every week.

Growing up in the Church Israel was always talked about as a kind of mystic place that if you were lucky enough to visit you would feel the presence of God as you walked in the same land that Jesus walked. You would feel moved at following the Via Dolorosa because those were the same steps that Jesus took. Just stepping foot in Israel was promised to be a life changing experience.

While my faith differs drastically from the faith of the stereotypical evangelical western Christian I still feel like I should be feeling those things. I should be moved by being in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jesus. I haven’t been to church in over a year – I don’t like church. We found one in Decatur that we kind of liked but got lazy and stopped going.

Is that why yet again I feel nothing in Jerusalem? I don’t think so. Jerusalem is like a giant shopping mall. When you enter the old city there are shops on either side. In the midst of these shops are some “holy” sights. My main goal this year was to see the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. Neither sight is a Christian sight but I wanted to see them, to experience them.

We wandered around and eventually came to the entrance to the Western Wall. We stopped for an early lunch and then entered through the security. Yet again, a sight in Israel that was disappointing. It was a lot smaller than I imagined. There were barriers blocking the view of the wall. I could have gone all the way up to the wall but I didn’t feel right doing it. I find it obnoxious when tourists enter areas that are important to some and do so with very little reverence or respect. I could see over the barrier and I could see the wall. I didn’t need to touch it. I didn’t need to hear the prayers. I didn’t need to experience it in that way. I’m not Jewish – that wall has no significance to me. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the Orthodox Jews do their thing and experience it through them. I took pictures but felt guilty doing it. Is it an invasion of privacy to have to pray while hundreds of tourists gawk?

The Israelis are excavating right near the wall. Digging for something – who knows what so there is a tent covering some of the land. A very ugly wooden gang plank leads from the area in front of the wall to the area behind the wall – the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque. The gang plank is separated from the area near the wall by an ugly chain link fence. Not an impressive or awe inspiring sight.

It was still neat, however, to see some people at the wall – praying. Even neater was seeing a procession of Jews singing, and dancing as they led a young boy – soon to be man into the area for his Bar Mitzvah. He was obviously not Israeli having come from some other place – I guess the US because of his backwards baseball cap. Their was an Orthodox Jew blowing a horn while two young men played some type of drum and led the family in song and dance. The part that struck me the most was the emotion on the (I’m assuming) father’s face. Here he was in Israel with his son who was becoming a man singing in Hebrew in front of the Western Wall. He sang with tears. I watched with tears.

Even as one watches such a thing or one watches those at the wall one is unable to contemplate, to reflect too much due to the hordes of people, the cameras and the noise. It becomes something to look at. Something to check off of the list of things you’ve seen. It is hard for it to be an experience. It’s hard for it to be life changing. It just is. Most of Israel is like this. You just see. If you begin to reflect on something your reflection is soon interrupted by the call of a vendor or a large tour group muscling by you or stopping in front of you.

The Christian sights are by far the worse. They are simply hideous. The amount of gold and jewels is atrocious. This is where something of Christian importance is supposed to have happened and in true form we tarnish it with gaudy things. It loses its importance when one is distracted by the wealth that covers the sight. That gold, those jewels could have done so much in the world but instead it tarnishes what should be a place of piety, of the celebration of a humble man who forsook riches for the life of a minister. It mocks early Christianity and the call for the sharing of wealth. It disappoints as one reads about the internal fighting between the six denominations that take up the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. How much does this remind me of modern church? A lot is an understatement.

We continue to build multi-million dollar buildings complete with fountains and the finest audio-visual equipment. We do this to attract those around us. “We need to put on a show to put butts in the pews!” is the rallying cry. While we build these things, while we spend money on heating and cooling these monstrous buildings Africa dies. While we host event after event, while the barista makes the cappuccino in the church coffee shop our President fights a war in the name of God. While the pastor preaches about obtaining wealth, while the social secretary describes next months potluck real issues are ignored – poverty, injustice, hate crimes, inequity in health care, inequity in access to clean water sources. We give to our missionaries is the response. We’ve been giving to missionaries for hundreds of years – where are the results? We’re converting people! But you’re leaving them to die.

As we wandered around Jerusalem I thought back to my first visit. It was that visit – that trip in whole – that helped lead me to where I am today. I thought I was going to provide people with glasses. To be the great white saviour. They have no glasses, I’ve got a big box of recycled glasses, how could this go wrong? It went wrong when we were told that we weren’t wanted. It went wrong when the people complained that the glasses were ugly. It went wrong when I had to pull out a pair of glasses that were not correct and say this is the best we can do. Take it or leave it. It went wrong when the team questioned why people wouldn’t weep with joy when this type of care is offered.

During that trip I reflected on James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (NASB)

This is the Christianity that rings true to me. To look after the orphans and widows (aids orphans, the poor, the disenfranchised, those suffering from injustice, etc.) instead of building buildings and yelling about homosexuality and bad movies we need to change government policies to reflect Christian values – these are not the values currently expressed in the church. Keeping oneself unstained by the church is impossible and is where the concept of grace comes in.

This long rambling post comes down to this – I dislike Jerusalem, I dislike the church, I want to make a difference in the world. Not necessarily a difference via religion but a difference in people’s lives. This is why we’re here. This is why we put up with the cold and the inconvenience. This is why we will go to South Africa and hope and pray that I can find a job. This is me.

Gone

We'll be gone - by choice - for the next two days. We're headed into Jerusalem to look around at the old city and then off to drop G off at her tour group. We wanted to come back late Friday but the checkpoint will be closed so we have to try to come on Saturday morning - we'll see how that goes.

I'm not sure if we'll have internet access at the hotel. If we do you'll hear from us. If we don't you'll hear from us on Saturday.

3 kidnapped Americans released in West Bank

It is very funny that the day that all of our parents phoned/emailed/sent carrier pigeons to check on us was the day that 3 Americans were kidnapped here in Nablus.

I reassured all of you parents that nothing will happen here. And I still say NOTHING WILL HAPPEN HERE to us.

These were three women (not us - hardy har har. I'm not a woman remember) who were somewhere they probably shouldn't have been and were taken. Once taken they were probably given tea or coffee (and yummy pastries) while they had a chat with their kidnappers. The kidnappers told them how hard the Palestinian life is and could they please take a pay-cut so that the An-Najah National University wouldn't go bankrupt (wait... that last part was us.).

All jokes aside the women are safe (at least we think they are. Swell is sure that they were just tossed out of a car somewhere in the West Bank because the news reports indicate that they were "released in the West Bank". She is imagining them wandering around somewhere in the West Bank unsure of where they are or how to get home. Poor women.) They are safe, we are safe. In fact today we went to school and came home. Tommorrow we'll go to school and come home. The next day HOLIDAY - we'll just stay home... no... we get to go out again but then next week we'll just stay home because we are forbidden from going anywhere. We were told that they would arrange a tour of the old city of Nablus. We were excited. Then they said "but you can't get out of the car." That is still exciting because quite frankly driving in the cars here is 100 times better than a Disney World ride. You get the same whiplash and the acceleration/deceleration that you would there. The better part is that in the cars here you also get to run over things. Cats, people, anything that gets in the way. (We actually haven't run over any living things yet but the driver did accelerate, on purpose, in the general direction of a cat. Swell cried out. I cheered. I HATE CATS!)

Don't worry. We're not worried especially for the cats.

Sorry

So I'm sorry for the previous blog's title. I thought it was "punny". Apparently all y'all thought it was in poor taste.

So after our Dead Sea/Jericho/Masada trip we went back to the hotel and had dinner (which is when we heard the happy birthday song and heard the folks talking about Winnipeg). After dinner we went back to our room and tried our hardest not too sleep.

Nicole's good friend was coming from Maui to visit us for a week. After she visits us for this week she will go on a tour of Israel with a group of Americans. Anyway her flight was supposed to land at 2:30 am. We were checking the flight information on line all night and the flight was on time.

Our driver came at about 2:00am to drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to pick up G. We got to the airport right around 2:30 am. It was perfect timing. We had enough time to park the car and get to the airport as G went through passport control, customs and picked up her luggage.

Unfortunately we ended up being late and G had to sit waiting for us.

Upon arrival at the airport in Tel Aviv one has to pass through security while still in the car.

Basically some young kid looks at you and decides whether or not you're a threat to the security of the airport. Apparently Swell and I look like trouble.

Every car before us and after us passed through this security checkpoint with no trouble. We, on the other hand, were asked a bunch of questions and then told to pull over to the side of the road. Once at the side of the road we were asked the same questions:

"Why are you coming to the airport?"
"Why are you in Israel?"
"How do you know the driver?"
"How do you know each other?"
"When did you arrive in Israel?"
"What have you done while in Israel?"

Our driver, an Arab Israeli, was livid. He drives for a living. In fact he owns the company and employs many drivers who drive tourists as well as international press around. He takes great pride in being able to get into any part of Israel or Palestine there is. He takes pride in having connections within the Israeli military. He takes pride in not being stopped at checkpoints very often or for very long.

This was a personal insult to him. On top of it the young security guy spoke to him in a very demeaning and impersonal fashion. This made him even angrier. He asked to speak to the supervisor. The supervisor, apparently, treated him very well and he was somewhat calmed down. The young guy asked us all for any cell phones we might be carrying. He searched under the car's hood. He took Swell and I, one at a time, into a back room where we were made to walk through a metal detector - which I set off four or five times. I had to take my shoes off, my belt, my watch and finally was able to pass through without setting it off.

Swell made it through without any problem (the funny thing was she was wearing the same jeans she wore when she flew back from Egypt. That time she was forced to take her pants off because her buttons were setting off the metal detector.)

After a half hour delay we were finally permitted to pass through to pick up our friend.

Reading this you're probably all thinking: "A little inconvenience for the protection of a nation is not a big deal."

It's not the whole being searched thing that bothers me. It was the attitude and the disgust that was shown to us and especially our driver that got to me. He basically was treated, as he said, like an animal by the young guy. The supervisor was, as our driver said, a very nice and noble man because he treated him like a peer, like a human being.

It was funny that we were the only ones stopped. A Canadian, an American and a Arab Israeli. Not the faces of terrorism but our driver was dark enough to warrant an invasion of our privacy while tens of other cars were able to pass by with nothing but a glance from the security.

My inconvenience is nothing compared to the harsh treatment Palestinians face when they wish to cross a checkpoint. It takes some of our students 3 hours to travel home on the weekend. Without a checkpoint it would take 10 minutes. They are searched, delayed, called names, harassed all in the name of Israeli "safety". They live under the threat of arrest or retaliation if a family member is politically active or if they come across the wrong Israeli army dude at the wrong time.

They are denied health care because they are no longer able to reach the hospital in Jerusalem. They are denied the right to economic productivity and are forced to live in poverty and shame. Depression is rampant, yet these are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They are proud to be Palestinian even though the world tells them they are not Palestinian. The world tells them that their Nationality is made up. That in the late 1940s when Israel was re-founded nobody lived on this land. Their grandfathers would be surprised to know that they were nobodies.

Do I have a solution to their problems? No. The only thing I can do is experience some of their experiences and feel a small amount of their pain.

Our students laughed with great joyous laughter when I showed up late to class on Saturday.

My excuse: "I was stuck at the checkpoint."

Finally someone from elsewhere could see what it was like. To feel a small amount of the inconvenience, to feel the worry of being late despite leaving on time. To wonder if they will get through to their destination today.

The checkpoint that made me late to class on Saturday is a large checkpoint just before Nablus. Our driver is not allowed into Nablus without special permission on Fridays and Saturdays. What would an Israeli want to do in the occupied territories on the Sabbath is the thought. The answer for me - perhaps show some love and compassion? My thought is not the thought of the Israelis so our driver could bring us to the edge of the checkpoint but no further. While waiting for someone from the other side to experience the humiliation of a checkpoint to come and get us and bring us through to our next driver the army dudes took great interest in us.

We were asked:
"What could you possibly want to do in Nablus today?"

My answer - "None of your business." but in actuality I just stared at him. He eventually relented and let us pass through - not by car but on foot. We had the absolute privilege (and I truly mean this) of walking (in my mind in solidarity) with the Palestinians across an Israeli checkpoint.

The only difference is we didn't have to lug our bags with ourselves. We had some guy with a cart take them through the checkpoint and load them into our next van.

It was an amazing weekend that was thoroughly enjoyable. Difficult but enjoyable.

If you read this and it angers you to no end because I'm a Palestinian sympathizer state your case. I can only write what I see, how I feel and what I experience.

This is my second time here and both times I've been around Palestinians who have been treated harshly and unfairly - for the safety of Israel. My thoughts are my thoughts - they are what I experience tainted by my philosophical views. I am open to change but my life experience seems to ingrain my philosophies deeper rather than change them.

Now we're back at school. Teaching, living, laughing and to some degree crying. In a few weeks we go to the other land of Apartheid - South Africa and we'll see what that country, that conference, has to offer and how it will change our lives.

In the pursuit of peace, love, and justice.