Headlines

I’ve been working my bum off out here on my OFDA proposal for the conflict affected populations in Nepal, so no new stories of fun mountain adventures, but here are some of the headlines of news reports from the past few days:

“Talkathon, high drama till wee hours”
Late hour talks between the top leaders of the Madhesi groups and the three largest parties of the Interim Government of Nepal.

“Eastern hilly districts running out of essentials”
There is a shortage of food products due to the continued strikes and blockades along the border with India.

“Poll: Women get a raw deal, numerically”
Very small proportion of women representation throughout the political parties.

“Load shedding adds to water woes of Latipur folk”
With the fuel crisis there in ongoing energy load shedding in the country which affects the water pumps and how much water gets to the communities.

"Stalemate, blame game continue”
Continued meetings between the Government of Nepal and the Madhesi groups going nowhere.

“240 women, 1,947 men vying for 240 assembly seats”
That’s 11% female people. The election for the new constituent Government is scheduled for April 10 (it’s already been cancelled and rescheduled three times).

“Capital’s rice stocks running low”
Doesn’t that just say it all? We’re running out of RICE here in Kathmandu!

Just a little insight into the happenings of Nepal!

The land of Buddha and the Yeti!

There is an ongoing strike in the Terai Region of Nepal, the lowlands along the border with India. The United Madhesi Democratic Front is behind the strikes and unrest. Their main issue is that they feel that the people of the southern plains (approximately one third of the Nepali population) have been exploited by the Government of Nepal for years.

As a result of their upheaval in the Terai, the supplies of food and fuel are unable to be transported from India to Nepal. The whole country has a fuel shortage and many cities and towns have been shut down with a day time curfew to keep rule of law. There are miles of lines of taxi’s and personal cars lined up outside closed fuel stations just waiting and hoping to get some rationed fuel.

Today’s paper though indicates some respite might be on the way. Forty-three tanker trucks managed to cross the border this weekend and should have arrived in Kathmandu today. Although todays paper also reports that Nepal’s interim Government, the Seven-Party Alliance, rejected the most recent Madhesi demands, so let’s wait and see what happens.

In other news, Pranchanda, the leader of Nepal’s former Maoist Rebel Group, has demanded the Nepalese presidency after the abolition of the Monarchy. He also stated that the Maoists might take up arms again if any section of society tried “to conspire against the peace process”. Violence in response to violence in the name of peace is always such a good idea.

Do you know that Buddha was born in Nepal? He was born in Lupini, near the border of India in 565BC. These are words from his last sermon before he died.

Words of Kindness

This is what should be done
Be the one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.

Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburned with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life,
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outward and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

Goodbye Jordan, Hello Nepal!

My visit here to the Middle East has come to an end. What a fascinating trip! Working with the team out here was such a treat. One of my favorite parts of my job is working with and getting to know our national country staff. My other favorite part is learning about the country I am in. I love to learn about new cultures, new people and new places! I definitely feel I get a lot more out of my work than I actually give. It’s very stimulating to be learning constantly about the world and about my place in it.

So now I am off to Nepal to help finalize a proposal for the reintegration and resettlement of the Internally Displaced Population (IDPs) that has been displaced due to the long lasting internal conflict within Nepal.

I’ve spent time in Nepal before and am thrilled to be going back. It is a magical place! I’ll keep you all posted on the adventures that lie ahead in Nepal.

West Bank, Palestine

What a fascinating and educational two days in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. I entered the West Bank via the East Jerusalem checkpoint. To do this I had to travel through the check point in the infamous Separation Wall. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security, while Palestinians call it a land grab.

Many Palestinians, including those that I work with, are restricted from traveling to Jerusalem, they need to have special permits. Actually they need to have special permits to travel most anywhere in the West Bank. My colleague has a permit that allows him to travel from Ramallah to Nablus, about 30 miles, but it is only good for 2 months from 5am to 7pm. His entire family lives in Nablus, his hometown, and he isn’t allowed to spend the night.

Each city in the West Bank has all entry and exit controlled through Israeli check points. These checkpoints are manned by Israeli military. Only special vehicles, with special permits, are allowed to pass through. The general population is let out on one side of the checkpoint and have to walk up to a quarter of a mile to the other side showing their ID and getting hassled by Israeli military along the way. It could take hours for a person to cross a checkpoint.

As we drove from Ramallah to Nablus I got a very good view of the surrounding countryside and a very good understanding of the extent of the illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territory. Each settlement, outpost, or expansion area has its own wall built a good distance away from the settlement – usually the settlement is at the top of the hill and the wall is around the base of the hill. Then there are also the walls surrounding the main Palestinian localities that allow the Israelis to control the majority of the movement of the Palestinian population within the West Bank. Many of the main roads have also been blocked by walls and barriers to prevent travel on these roads for non Israelis.

During my time here I met with the Director of International Cooperation at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Directors of the Palestinian Medical Relief Services, and the Palestinian Foundation for Health and Social Development. One of the big problems that is encountered here in Palestine in regards to health is the access to health care being blocked due in large part to this restriction of travel by the Israeli Occupying Forces. Just 5 days ago a Palestinian woman died at a check point when the IOF prevented her ambulance from reaching the hospital on the other side of one of the walls. That full story can be found here.

More pictures of Ramallah, Nablus and the wall are posted on my photo site.

The Holy Land

Traveling from Amman to Jerusalem is only about 50 miles, but it can take all day. Luckily for me it only took a few hours. After I made it across the “bridge” from Jordan into the West Bank I headed up to passport patrol and saw a young 20 something Israeli military woman, I thought “Oh good! She’ll like me”. One and a half hours later I was still answering questions on what work I do around the world, why I have an Afghan visa in my passport, where I live, why I’m visiting Israel/Palestine, etc. etc. Finally I passed my security check and was released and headed to Jerusalem!

So for some of you that know me you know that I went to Catholic school for 10 years, although I’m not Catholic (that’s a whole other story!). Unfortunately for those 10 years I did not pay much attention in my religion classes (or history for that matter – particularly when it involved religious history) and I have been wandering around the Old City of Jerusalem for the past 2 days, wishing I had paid more attention!

Here is some basic information on the Old City’s most holy sites (from an online site):

“Jewish Pilgrims come from all over the world to visit the Western Wall of the great Jewish temples which was also the place where it is believed that Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac, but instead he spared his son's life and slaughtered a ram. The Western Wall is Judaism's holiest site.”

“Christian Pilgrims come from all over the world to carry a cross along the same path that Jesus carried the cross two thousand years ago. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built around what is believed to be the site of Christ's crucifixion, burial and resurrection.”

“Muslims make the pilgrimage from all over the world to Jerusalem to visit the Dome of the Rock which marks the spot where they believe that the prophet, Muhammad made an ascent to the heavens and saw God and then returned to Mecca the next morning.”

I’m not going to write any more about Jerusalem history or the sights, as I would just prove the point of how much I don’t know, but if you are interested in seeing pictures of my wanderings they are posted here.

Instead, here are a couple of my random observations:

A number of Israeli youth (non-military, or at least off duty military) choose to walk through the city nonchalantly carrying machine guns as an extra accessory to their Abercrombie hoodie and jeans.

I’ve been asked if I’m Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian. With my mouth closed I can pass for a number of cultures but as soon as I speak there is no question where I’m from – Canada.

Insha’Allah

Insha’Allah is an Arabic word meaning “God willing” and is used to express hope for a future event.

I heard that expression of hope in such passionate and despairing ways today. This morning I was invited to be a guest at a counseling session for a group of Iraqi women. The session was held in the home of one of the SHS programs active community leaders. Eight amazing women were there – the youngest was about 20 and the oldest 78 years old. These women are all from middle class Iraq, highly educated and were professionals back at home (there was an accountant, principle of a primary school, social worker for disabled children, pharmacist and teacher), one was even talking about looking at her home in Iraq on Google Earth!

They welcomed me warmly into their lives and shared their powerful and unimaginable stories.

They didn’t want to leave their homes but they were threatened, family members were kidnapped and killed, they lost everything they owned.
– the pharmacists office was near what became the Shia area of town, she was told to leave or die
– one woman’s husband, a geologist, had been working with the UN, his life and life of all his family was threatened
– one woman is a Sunni, her husband is a Shia they were not going to be allowed to live in the same area anymore
– as one family saved money they built their house, which was for their entire family – grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, children – the coalition forces bombed their neighborhood and nothing is left
– 20 boys from one woman’s community, including her family members, were rounded up and shot
– the 78 year old woman is all alone here, her 2 sons are in Australia, but she isn’t allowed a visa. Her words: “I don’t want to die here alone”.

This is just a portion of the stories that were shared. These stories weren’t shared just for me, these women needed to be heard. These stories weren’t shared easily, and they weren’t easy to hear. Everyone in that room was in tears, including me. I sat there listening to these horrible stories of fear, death, despair and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it is like.

Here I am, with my higher education, my well paying job, my little house in the burbs, and suddenly my family and I are no longer safe in our own community, not even in our own country. I must leave everything immediately and head to a new country where I am not legal, can not get a job, can not use any of my skills I worked so hard to build. I can’t take care of my family because I can’t make any money, and my family is no longer complete as some have been killed, some have been kidnapped, and others are spread all over the middle east or the world and I am not allowed to travel to them.

What are my options? I’m at a loss. When these women start talking about options, they speak of hope. Hope that Iraq gets better soon so they can go home and rebuild their lives. Hope that their families can live as good a life as possible while they are here in Jordan. Hope that they can learn something here to better themselves for when they return to Iraq. And their hopes always end with “Insha’Allah”.

For over 3 hours these women sat, drank tea, shared their stories, hopes, and fears. They laughed, they cried, I laughed, I cried. I felt despair for these women, but also profound respect and amazement at their strength.

At the end of the session, they all came to me and thanked me for being there. What have I done for them to be thankful for? One woman actually came to me and said it was an honor for her that I was at the session. That blew me away. Here I am, an American, a representative of the country that in reality has destroyed her life, and she is honored to meet me? I felt so small at that moment. It is by far an honor for me to have met these amazing women, an honor that they have welcomed me so warmly into their lives, an honor that they see me as someone who wants to help try to fix the wrongs that my country has inflicted on them. I only hope that I can share their stories and their forgiveness and acceptance and move you to be touched by their strength as I am. Insha’allah.

Down time

"Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration" - Kahlil Gibran

I like this quote so I thought I would share. It feels like a very appropriate quote to reflect on while I am here!

The Dead Sea and The River Jordan

My stories are a day behind…yesterday was another great day of site seeing! My colleague Muna and her husband took me down into the Jordan Valley to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea (the lowest spot on earth – about 1200 feet below sea level). What an amazing place! In only 40 miles we descend from Amman (about 3000 feet above sea level) into the Jordan Valley which is part of the Great Rift Valley that goes all the way to East Africa! I’ve now been in the Great Rift Valley on 2 continents!

During that drive down we were stopped by 3 military check points, interestingly coming back into Amman from the Valley, there were no check points! It seems that it’s very important to check the people leaving Amman heading towards Israel and the Occupied Territories of Palestine, but not very important to check who is coming back to Amman! One check point gave us a very hard time because the vehicle didn’t have a fire extinguisher inside.

We first went somewhere where I never thought I’d be, nor did I think I had the interest to be, but it turns out it’s quite an amazing place… Bethany Beyond the Jordan, or Al-Maghatas, translated from Arabic as ‘Baptism Site’. This UNESCO World Heritage site, along the River Jordan, has been identified by archaeologists as the places where John the Baptist preached, where Jesus was baptized by John, and where the first 5 apostles met.

For a place of such religious and historical importance, it’s amazingly simple. Actually the Jordanian military uses much of the surrounding land as a training facility. Personal cars are not allowed in the site. We hopped on the tour bus which took us to a drop off near the river. From there we walked through the thickets towards the river. I was definitely expecting a wild and raging river and instead got a very calm, trickling little stream! Much of the River Jordan is being diverted to provide water to Jordan and Israel. The actual “proposed” site of baptism is mostly dried up now, but there are still preserved remains of the original mosaics and stones that were once the churches that marked the site. I am not a religious person, but the historical significance of this site is pretty powerful.

At a separate point on the river, only about 200m away, is a brand new Greek Orthodox Church sitting on one of the only remaining non-militarized areas left of the River Jordan. Here you can actually touch the water. Literally 10 feet across the calm, little river (which is the countries border) is Palestine with a rival Israeli baptism complex. Other than military, there were no people over there.

Our tour group was a very interesting mix of a non-religious American (me!), two non-religious Muslims (my friends), a group of young Jordanians (religious affiliation unknown), and a group of Spanish “Pilgrims”. The pilgrims by far were the most interesting to observe, for them this was a very meaningful experience culminating in their being able to put their feet in the River and collect the “holy” water. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they were all very animated and excited to be there. It was quite fun to see!

From here we traveled the 15km to the Dead Sea. The day was very hazy so I wasn’t able to see the mountains of Israel on the other side, but I hear they are a sight to behold. The sea itself is quite blue and since it is about 10 times more salty than the oceans, nothing lives in it or near it. It is a stark contrast of bright blue water with brown desert mud and salt formations.

Here in the Jordan Valley I also saw my first Bedouin families - with camels even! Very exciting! More pictures posted here!

Exploring Amman and Jerash

Yesterday I got the chance to explore some of the fascinating sights in and around Amman. Mustafa, one of the IRD drivers, took myself and Leonard (a finance officer from one of our Iraq programs) to the Citadel, Roman Theater and Jerash.

The Citadel ruins sit on the highest hill of Amman (Jabal al-Qala'a) at about 850m above sea level. The Roman leaders picked a great spot to build; the view of Amman sprawled out on the surrounding hills is quite impressive. Square buildings, mostly white limestone, go on and on for as far as I could see!

Artifacts found at the Citadel have been dated to the Bronze Age (BC 2000). The citadel ruins are quite impressive. There is an old temple, the Temple of Hercules, which back in its day had a great view of the Roman Theater down below! All that remains now are some stones which give an idea of the floor plan and big Corinthian columns.
The Citadel’s most impressive building is the Islamic Umayyad Palace, built in the 8th century. The palace was an extensive complex of royal and residential buildings but it wasn’t home to the Royals for long (only about 30 years) when it was destroyed by an earthquake and never fully rebuilt. There was lots of ruins here to explore and try to imagine the layout and what it was like back then!

The National Archeological Museum, also on the Citadel grounds, is a very unassuming little building but it has a remarkable wealth of artifacts including 6000 year old skulls from Jericho, pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and some of the world’s earliest sculptures dating back to BC6500.

After visiting these sites in Amman, we traveled about 45 miles North to the city of Jerash. The countryside north of Amman gets a little bit more temperate and allows for some farming, mostly of olives. Within the modern city of Jerash lies the ruins of the large ancient Roman City known as Gerasa. This city is considered the most well preserved of all ancient Roman ruins in the Middle East. Artifacts found within the city grounds date back over 6500 years! I’ve been to Rome and seen the ruins there, but I can’t recall any that were as grand as these (except maybe the coliseum).
I spent a good 3 hours wandering among the ruins. Outside of the city walls was the Hippodrome, which was the old sports field for chariot races. As I entered the city through the South Gate I stepped into a huge oval plaza, or forum, that was quite well preserved. From here I got an initial grasp of just how big this old city really is! To the north is a large colonnaded street that stretches for almost 1km to the North Gate. On either side of the street are the ruins of many, many buildings that used to be churches, markets, residences, palaces, fountains, temples, etc.

Wandering through these ancient ruins, imagining the history, it’s amazing to look out to the opposite hill and see the modern city of Jerash with its many Arab style residences piled right next to each other on the side of a hill. It’s a definite picture of contrasts!

It was so great to be able to see these sites. Photos don’t do justice, you have to see these places to even come close to understanding the size, grandeur and history…regardless, many pictures are posted on my photo site!

Institute of Family Health

Today I visited the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation’s Institute of Family Health (NHF/IFH). It’s a great clinic providing comprehensive services (physical, mental, and social) for women and children. These services range from pre- and post-natal care for pregnant mothers to physiotherapy for disabled children to dental services to counseling covering many different types of psychological needs.

NHF/IFH is one of our local partners. They have provided all of the trainings (basic health provision, PTSD assessment and counseling) to our team of 120 health outreach volunteers and provide a “home base” for half of them (the other half report to the Jordanian Red Crescent). During the home visits, the volunteers do a thorough assessment of the health and mental wellbeing of the family members. If anyone in the family needs additional care they are referred to the IFH and informed that the services provided: general primary health care, specialized care, as well psychosocial care are free. These services are subsidized by IRD’s SHS program.

I was able to meet with the Director of IFH, and a number of doctors. A few of the specialty doctors are Iraqi refugees themselves. They were highly trained medical specialists in Iraq and are now providing their services for free at the clinic.

I've posted additional photos on my photo site....but big note on the photos: I’m very sad to say I don’t have my camera here with me. My Canon was in the shop getting its own health care services when I left so I had to borrow my communication departments Nikon. I’m not a fan of this camera and I will probably complain about it a lot in the near future. I miss my Canon!!!

Finally, Movement!

After 3 days trapped in the Fabulous Four Seasons (which gets less fabulous as the trapped days go on…), I escaped on Saturday and managed to have a nice long afternoon and evening with one of my colleagues here in Amman. Muna Hamzeh is one of the Program Managers of the SHS Program. She is a lovely, highly experienced, Jordanian medical doctor, who had worked with the Jordanian Ministry of Health for over 20 years before coming to IRD. She took me to a Persian restaurant for lunch with her husband and two sons, Said and Faris (sp?). It was a great lunch with a lot of really good food and conversation.

After lunch they were kind enough to take me to their home for some Turkish coffee, which is quite strong! At the house I was surprised to meet Blitz, their very well fed, Dalmatian/pointer mix. She was a really cute and friendly dog. Muna and I spent the next few hours talking about the current situation with the Iraqi refugees, her past experiences with the Ministry, and I felt comfortable enough to ask about some of their lifestyles (having a dog, not wearing a hijab/veil) that don’t necessarily match up with the standard Islamic lifestyle that is expressed to us at home via the media. Muna explained that in the way her family reads and interprets the Koran it never dictates that Muslim women should wear a hijab, but that they may wear it if they wish to cover themselves from men. Same as for dogs, as Muna’s family interprets the Koran, it never states that dogs are dirty or bad for men. It was very interesting to speak to her about her beliefs and the different interpretations of the Koran.

Yesterday was my first working day in the office (my whole first week was disrupted by the snow storm!). The office is an interesting place to say the least…It’s a little bit of a disaster, the Amman office acts as the storage area and pass through office for the staff in Iraq so there are files, files, and boxes of files stacked everywhere. There is an IRD finance team in Amman right now as well for an internal audit so they are all spread out with the millions of files taking up even more space. Luckily, the staff will be moving to a new office within the next month with more space and hopefully more order!

We are currently in negotiations with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to start an additional program providing increased health services to Iraqi Refugees, and advanced psychosocial services for children, with a particular focus on disabled children. We (Nick, the Country Director, Nedjma, our consultant, Hadeel, our finance officer, and myself) visited with UNHCR yesterday to discuss the programmatic activities and budget. It was an interesting meeting with lots of debate, resulting in more cutbacks for our budget and the necessity for us to all sit and think of innovative and cheaper ways to get our activities done. Which is what we have done today!

So we have a budget, with complementary activities, that over the past month has been cut from $4 million to $1.7 million. With these budgetary cuts we have had to cut programmatic activities such as Women and Youth Livelihood Building and Community Driven Day Care. As the year goes on, and UNHCR receives more funding from its donors, they will be able to reevaluate our activities and hopefully fund more of the needed interventions. So now we are waiting for HQ approval of the new revised budget, and then we go back to UNHCR and hope they don’t make more cuts!

New update: I just got off the phone with my Director at HQ and I may have a change of travel plans. It sounds like I might stay in Jordan for an extra week (during which I hope to get to Palestine to meet with donors), and then instead of traveling to Afghanistan, I may go to Pakistan…Mom, don’t have a heart attack! I’ll keep you updated!

Here are some pictures from driving through Amman: