This place is amazing. It's a shoe shop. The shoes are made here in Palestine (in Betunia). If they don't have what you want, they'll make it for you. Women even go to the nearby factory and cut their own shapes and designs. The pair I had made for me (because I LOVE shoes) keep getting mistaken for Campers. But they are even better because they are made here!
These are water tanks. Every building has them. Our water is shut off except for 3 days a week for the summer months, but since we have 2 tanks we don't notice it unless we try to use the outside hose. Israel controls all sources of water, even the municipal sources. We cannot even build reservoirs to catch rainwater.
City scape
other direction, pic taken from a 3rd floor apartment.
inside the community center called the Sariya, a bit like a YMCA (but not the Ramallah YMCA which does exist), this is a door and window outside the bathrooms. On the table is a burner and coffee accoutrements. I like this pic because it captures the old tile floors, the old metal door, the old stones and the extremely different idea of what is appropriate in a public space.
Another evening view of our hills.
This brush was on fire as we drove past.
a closer look. there always seems to be a fire. We see them constantly across the wadi on the hillsides.
A strange area outside Ramallah:
this is a view of a total lack of municipal regulations for building. Look how close together these are. This situation exists in a very strange area of Ramallah that Israel considers to be a suburb of Israel but only allows Palestinians to live in, and so only Palestinians with a Jerusalem ID and yellow plated car can live in it. I cannot live there, for example, but neither could I if I was Israeli. However, the people there pay Israeli municipal taxes and receive NO municipal services. At the same time Israel doesn't allow Palestine to provide these services because technically it's a Jerusalem suburb. Catch 22. Result? Below. And trash trash trash galore. And bizarro driving conditions, and a lot of obvious suffering from poverty and neglect.
This is the same place, just a different angle on a building that is being built. I have a friend who lives here and she says there are no building codes so the buildings may collapse due to any of a number of oversights: wrong concrete, inadequate support, etc. But she has no choice but to live here due to her ID status with Israel. For all that, her place is really nice even though getting there is frightening.
this is actually a main thoroughfare. Can. You. Believe. It???
Traditional dress called a Toub. Hand embroidered. But this is not a relic! I see women wearing this kind of dress and even more elaborate ALL the time every day.
close up of the embroidery.
Argile. It is also everywhere which is unfortunate. And when we go out to eat it freaks me out to have my kids running around near them because they are topped with hot coals and there is always "Abu Ali" walking around with a hot tin of fresh coals for the smokers. People come to restaurants and shops to smoke these and are given a disposable plastic cover for the mouthpiece.
Laundry. We all dry our clothes in the sun here. Everywhere I look is laundry. And I have come to love the colors and shapes of it!
This is the same place, just a different angle on a building that is being built. I have a friend who lives here and she says there are no building codes so the buildings may collapse due to any of a number of oversights: wrong concrete, inadequate support, etc. But she has no choice but to live here due to her ID status with Israel. For all that, her place is really nice even though getting there is frightening.
this is actually a main thoroughfare. Can. You. Believe. It???
Traditional dress called a Toub. Hand embroidered. But this is not a relic! I see women wearing this kind of dress and even more elaborate ALL the time every day.
close up of the embroidery.
Argile. It is also everywhere which is unfortunate. And when we go out to eat it freaks me out to have my kids running around near them because they are topped with hot coals and there is always "Abu Ali" walking around with a hot tin of fresh coals for the smokers. People come to restaurants and shops to smoke these and are given a disposable plastic cover for the mouthpiece.
Laundry. We all dry our clothes in the sun here. Everywhere I look is laundry. And I have come to love the colors and shapes of it!
1 comments:
The colors in these photos definitely give a unique sense of place. The picture of the building with the missing bricks makes me so nervous! I love these glimpses of day to day life in Ramallah. It's really beautiful.
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