International Relations - Germany and USA

Today was kind of a strange day but was a great day for figuring some important things out. Work was normal, we dug some more of the cistern, worked on building a wall, and planted a small field of grapes which look great. At lunch, the Germans and I got in a little fight, they were very angry at me which I later found out was because of the work I've been doing or sometimes, the lack-there-of. Now, I was a little confused at this at first, they both yelled/insulted and it got a little out of hand. I just kind of sat there and took it for a little while until things calmed down, then decided we needed to talk. I spoke to each of them for ten minutes about how I felt and they explained what they were thinking. I explained how when I first got here, and a little bit now, I feel like their little American slave, the way they order me around, etc. Daher doesn't treat the volunteers very well, usually orders us around and rarely says please or thank you and this frustrates the Germans, I explained to them how this is exactly what they did with me, they projected what Daher was doing to us straight to me so I was getting it from multiple sides. The told me how they get frustrated when I don't do things like water the horses, bring the digging tool to Daher's house, etc. (I've done this many times, but they usually ask me to, the don't want to have to ask, understandable) when I know how to do it. At first, I thought the farm worked as a divided system, each person has jobs to do and they do them. What I found out today is that it's more of a hybrid system, we all have our own jobs but when it comes to certain things, it's anyone's game. I apologized and explained that I never meant to insult, offend them, or piss them off and that now that we've talked, I promise to work at this. I also asked them to treat me as an equal, I am in the same boat as they are, just for less time. They agreed and the anger died down.

I thought this whole thing was great. I learned a lot about both of them as well. Thomas is unbelievably passionate, when he got angry and while we talked, he was almost tearing up, it taught me a lot about him which I never noticed before since he seems so chill most of the time. Willy was strong about it and we had more of a debate but both conversations went smoothly. Thomas thanked me after work today and said they were both surprised at not only the fact that I spoke to them, but how I did it. I'm very glad we've improved not only our social relationship, but our occupational relationship as well. I feel like I really needed this to happen as well, not just toe figure everything out, but so I could actually talk to people, solve a problem, etc.

Thomas and Willy headed out tonight to the Golen Heights, I wish I was going with them but I'm going to have to be the only worker here tomorrow so that'll be interesting but should go well (Kristian stopped by for a couple days but he's leaving tomorrow morning for Egypt). Then I'll head to Jerusalem for my weekend relaxation after a 6-day week. Next week is Thomas's last week so after our conversation, I have a feeling we'll grow a lot closer and get a lot more work done which makes me very glad and kind of excited to get started after my weekend.

I'm glad they listened and I'm even happier they spoke to me, this is what International Relations needs to be about, communication. This is a perfect example of what could be solved if people just talked through their issues instead of yelling and ignoring each other. This may be a little extreme of a metaphor but look at this situation and you can compare it to Israel and Palestine. Communication, that's what's needed. Communication is the only way to achieve understanding, understanding leads to the absence of hatred, and hopefully, the absence of hatred can lead to peace.