Day 3. Building at
last!
Hoorah, the first building day has finally arrived! We are
all very excited, I can’t wait to get going. It’s an early start with breakfast
at 7am which means we get up at 6.15. It is extremely windy outside and quite cold so I
decide to take plenty of layers and my pink mac. At the site it is blowing a
gale because it is on a hill, much worse than in Beit Sahour. We don our
various layers and are issued with building gloves. The concrete that was
poured into in the pillars has set and the planks used for the moulds have been
taken down. These need to be made ready for the roof, so some of us take out the
nails and stack the planks ready for the builders. I learn that there is a
knack to taking out the nails: if you use the hammer as a lever it is very
easy! While doing this I have this sense of complete happiness, it is totally
out of proportion to the task but very real. I suppose I have been waiting a
long time to get started, and now we are busy it just feels SO GOOD! I feel
like singing but stop myself just in time…..I don’t quite know what the village
would make of that! I think they are still a bit bemused by this large group of
strangers who have descended on them and want to work.
After
what seems like 10 minutes but is probably about an
hour, big pots arrive with tea and coffee. It’s very sugary, but very
welcome.
In the coming days they get the message that some of us prefer ‘no
sugar’ and
there is usually a pot of each. The coffee and tea breaks will become a
regular
thing over the next week with various family members or village
neighbours
bringing us the drinks. It is a great opportunity to chat with everyone,
including Wa’fat, her sister-in-law or others from the family or
village.
‘Chat’ in this case is a fluid word, it can mean anything from smiles
and
gestures to basic English or expert translation via Marwan. In the
meantime the
first stacks of bricks have arrived (these are big concrete breeze
blocks).
They need to be taken down from the level of the road to the house. This
is accomplished by forming a chain. I think we shift about 800 or 1000 bricks that day. We stop for lunch but it is
far too windy outside, so Wa’fat’s sister-in-law kindly receives 25 VERY DUSTY
labourers in her nice parlour in the house next door! Marwan’s wife has cooked
the lunch. It is delicious (chicken, rice and vegetables, this seems to be
standard fare but very welcome!). In the afternoon there are plenty of jokes
and songs. We go home about 4pm and are grey with dust which the wind has blown
into our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair……..but it was GREAT! The hot shower in
the hostel feels wonderful!
We enjoy sharing our experiences over the evening meal and
have a chance to talk further in the evening. Same again tomorrow!
Day 4. Horizontal
rain
Waking up we see rain splattering against the window and the
tree outside is swaying in the wind. We make sure we have rain proofs before
setting off for Battir. When we get there we have to brace ourselves against the
wind and it is freezing! But the builders are already busy so we get briefed on
the next task. Brian from our group acts as foreman, liaising with the
builder to find out what needs doing and where extra pairs of hands are useful.
This works remarkably well, and the builders are very good at letting us have a
go at things. They have been putting on
a ‘roof’ made from the planks we prepared yesterday, which will serve as the
mould for the concrete. Today we work in pairs to put in lots of struts to
support the weight of the roof, which will consist of breeze blocks, steel bars
and concrete. While we are busy, the weather gets worse and the clouds come
down on the hill. The valley has completely disappeared and we can only see as
far as the road, maybe 10-20 meters. It starts to rain again and the wind
drives the rain underneath the shelter of the wooden roof, I swear it is
horizontal. We are provided with some very welcome hot tea and coffee, but
after another half hour or so it is decided that it is not possible to achieve
anything further today. I am very disappointed and would have gone on
regardless of the cold and rain, but I can see it’s not wise to continue.
We return briefly to the HLT, which during the two
weeks becomes our ‘base camp’. Nive, our leader, is very good at changing plans
on the spot and the people from the HLT are great too, quickly helping to find
a coach and driver or a guide when we need one. After another tasty chicken and
rice lunch we set off with Marwan to see some demolished
houses and the impact of the separation wall on local communities. The position
of the wall in the village of Al Wallajah is truly heart breaking, with some
completely crazy situations where a Palestinian owner who has legal papers for
his land refuses to sell out, so the wall is built around property and an
underpass created just so Israeli settlers will never need to look at a
Palestinian. Each day we pass the big red signs that tell Israelis not to enter
Palestinian territory because they are in danger of their lives! These messages
continue to foster fear and mistrust.
Although seeing these difficult situations and hearing the
stories is hard, we also do some very positive things. We visit the previous
house re-built by Amos and the HLT in Al Wallajah. Ten people from our group
were part of that project and are of course particularly delighted to see the
owner and his family again. Although this house received a demolition order two
weeks after completion, it is still standing. The demolitions are fairly random
and it seems the authorities want to keep people in uncertainty and fear. Of the
seven homes re-built through the HLT, two have been demolished again. Afterwards we
go to the Cremisan monastery just down the road. The separation wall is planned
to cut their land in half. There is a legal case ongoing to challenge the
positioning of the wall, but as I write this I have heard this has been
rejected. The nuns and the school will be on the Palestinian side, the monks
have chosen to be on the Israeli side. Every week there is an outdoor ‘protest
mass’ against this situation taken by one of the monks, and attended by various
people from Bethlehem and the village. We all go and join in the mass, which is
a very moving and slightly surreal experience.
Today even more than the first day we have seen for
ourselves the injustice and daily reality of the occupation for Palestinian
people. It is good to have friends to
talk to over dinner and later at the pub down the road!
The weather forecast for tomorrow is hot and sunny….hooray!
Links that may
interest you after reading this:
Handing planks to the builders
Starting the roof
A well-deserved rest with Marwan and Diane
Creating a chain to pass the bricks
Our group at the home Amos built in 2011
A demilished home
A settler's road that completely cuts across Palestinian territory. On the left you can see the home of a Palestinian who refuses to sell his land because he has good wonership papers. In retalisation the authorities destroyed his garden and the children's playground he created
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