Hatha Mish Hashish!

Wow, I loved the comment thread on that last post, you all had amazing things to say. Now I just want to clarify, I am not saying that child cruelty or inhumane actions are solely part of Israel, of course, its part of humanity, it's everywhere and that is the sad truth. Human beings, mainly due to our "intelligence," skew logic and create reasons to use politics and religion against one another. When I spoke about the child prisoners, I did not mean to make it seem like I was excluding the use of children at times in terrorism by Palestinians, or the child sex slaves/pornography/drug runners, etc. by many other countries in this world, including the USA. I heard of a story where a suspected man in Gaza filled his house with children to ward off the Israeli soldiers, the soldiers removed every child from the house before firing a shot, 5 of them died and they caught the suspected terrorist. This treatment of not just children, but people, is everywhere. My experiences are in the West Bank however, honestly, Gaza and the West Bank are not the same place, not even close. From what I've seen, most violence or cruelty or inhumane actions done in Gaza are by the Palestinians - most violence or cruelty or inhumane actions in the West Bank are done by the Israeli government and military. In the end, both sides are guilty, not the people, but the governmental and organization leaders. Thank you everyone for saying what you had to say, just beautiful.

At the moment, I am in Jerusalem again with the Germans. We finished our 5-day cistern work and my body is just wrecked. The sun burn is dying down which is great but my hands are loaded with blisters and skin torn off by the rope, and my lower back has two massive knots in it. Don't you dare say anything like "why don't you wear work gloves or something?" I have work gloves but I had to cut the tips of the fingers off since every one had a hole in it, I actually prefer it now though, little more grip. Overall though, I feel great about the work done and Tylenol works like a charm. Last night (it was Shabat), one of the volunteers, Trin, and I, went into the Old City to the Western Wall where literally thousands of Jewish were praying, it was amazing, we stood there watching and debated religion because, if any of you know me well, you know I love debating religion and politics. Afterward, we got some food, some beer, and some shisha, good times.

This morning, I woke up after the Germans so they're at a zoo right now (I'm in an internet cafe in the Old City). I left, and went to a men-only cafe where everyone was drinking coffee and tea and playing cards. I asked to join some of the men and after learning how to play, I joined them. I rolled a cigarette (tried to roll a cigarette) and started smoking it, everyone there thought it was hashish. Some were offended and others wanted some, I said, half-laughing: ahsaf, lakin hatha mish hashish (I'm sorry, but this isn't marijuana) and I showed them the tobacco. Some were relieved, others disappointed. That's about it, now I'm just walking around the Old City again, maybe stop by a cafe or something, whatever. But later, I'm meeting up with the Germans again and doing whatever they want to do. All for now, again, thank you so much for commenting, that was phenomenal.