My mom, and some others, have asked for a little info on my living conditions in Beit Sahour. I am living with the Rishmawi family (well, a small portion of the Rishmawi family, apparently, there are a TON of Rishmawis in the Beit Sahour area). It is a 3-level style, with the parents (who I live with) on the bottom and their two sons both having homes above the 1st level.
They have another son who lives downstairs with us, Hassan, who is pictured on the right. Hassan has Down Syndrome and is probably the happiest young man I’ve ever met. He’s a real joy to have around and it’s great to see how much his parents love him and have committed to him. We eat breakfast every morning, which consists of pita-bread and a ton of different things to dip it into and eat with it (see pictures here in my new Random photo album), including my two favorites, the apricot jam which is amazing and the hummus (which I now LOVE!).
This picture on the left is of our living room. My roommate Andy and I have the room above and a bathroom to ourselves. It’s good to be living with a family, to get to experience what Palestinian family culture is like (people yell A LOT; they generally are not mad, but that’s just the way communication occurs, a lot of yelling). I think that this culture is not necessarily suited for introverts, so trying to find some time to have my own space and time to relax is a bit difficult, but hopefully I’ll figure out more how to do that during my time here.
My daily schedule as of right now is something like this:
7.30: Wake up
8.00: Breakfast
8.30-12.30pm: Volunteer at Summer Day Camp
1-3.00: Nap, Lunch, Chill time
3-5.00pm: Arabic class (or until 4pm if I decide to jet early)
Some evenings we have group gatherings at local restaurants, lectures, films and other time with our host family. I’m generally in bed by 12 or 1am, and the day starts over.
Saturdays are trips (this Saturday we travel to Jericho and the Dead Sea) and Sundays are free days. The days are packed and they tend to fly by pretty quick.
I hope that helps give you a bit of an idea of my daily life here in Bethlehem for the next 7.5 weeks.
