water

(May 2008)
It doesn't rain here all summer long. We probably won't have any significant rain again until late October, or even November. In the spring we have a lush growth of wild flowers as most wild plants rush to finish their growing season before the heat of summer and lack of water kills them off. By now, the beginning of July, the fields are brown and dry.

(May 2008)

Water is naturally a scarce resource here. It is one of the issues of contention between the Israelis and Palestinians. I was pleased to see that the BBC's website had an article about Israeli Human rights group B'Tselem's latest report about the water shortage in the West Bank. The report says that the already unfair distribution of water between Palestinians and Israelis will be further aggravated by this year's drought. Here are the figures from the report:

According to the World Health Organization, the per capita minimal amount of water needed for household and urban needs is one hundred liters a day. Due to the chronic water shortage, water consumption in the northern West Bank has dropped to one-third this amount. In Tubas, per capita consumption is 30 liters; in Jenin, it is 38 liters. In Nablus and the Southern Hebron Hills, the figure is slightly higher than fifty liters a day.

Average per capita consumption throughout the West Bank is 66 liters, two-thirds of the minimal amount needed according to the WHO. These figures include water for livestock, meaning that the water consumed for personal use is even less.

In comparison, average daily water consumption in Israeli cities is 235 liters, and 214 liters in local councils, 3.5 times higher than Palestinian consumption in the West Bank.

Every year we have water shortages in the summer, but this year seems worse than usual. Do you see the black barrels on the roof in the background of this picture?

All the houses here have those barrels to store water. They are supposed to ensure that if the water from the main line runs out, there is still water for the house. They are placed on the highest part of the roof to increase the water pressure into the house. Lately the water has stayed off so long we end up with no running water. Yesterday when I woke up, there was just enough water left to flush the toilet once. It was off all day yesterday. We have a cistern under the house that collects the rainwater that falls on the roof each winter, to use as a backup, alhamdulillah, but it isn't clean enough to drink. There is a pump to get the water out, but it quit working last year. My husband and the landlord don't seem to be able to agree whose job it is to get it fixed. So it still doesn't work. I can still siphon water out, but it is slow, and I have to carry it in buckets. Just carrying enough water to flush the toilets for a family of seven is a pain. I also drag my dishes outside to wash them when the water is off.

When the boys were in school, I ended up washing their uniforms out there too. (The cat fell in to the wet laundry the second after I snapped that picture.)I have dozens of bottles stored in the kitchen and bathrooms for days like this, for washing and drinking. But last night the water only came on very weakly, and didn't have enough pressure to get up to the roof to fill our barrels. So, no water again today. At 7AM I filled a couple bottles at the main line, but the water was murky and yellow. By 9 AM I was pleased to find that while the pressure was still weak, the water looked clear enough to drink. I had hoped it was going to come on stronger, but by noon there was no water again. So now it is time to drag my dinner dishes outside in the late afternoon sun to wash them again. And then if I have the energy I will bring in enough water to at least wash my hair.

I used to tell my kids when we were growing up that we have just enough water to make our lives reasonably comfortable, but not so much that we forget to be grateful for it.

Alhamdulillah.

June blooms

My garden isn't as nice as it has been in previous years. It got too hot this spring, and water has been a problem. And to tell you the truth, I have been neglecting it on purpose for the last year and a half or so because we were talking about moving. When the wall went up and they made a checkpoint on the only way out of our little area, my husband started talking about moving. My kids all thought it was a great idea, especially the older ones, so they wouldn't have to cross the checkpoint every day to go to school. My first reaction was to panic. I didn't want to leave my garden! I mourned my garden as if I had already lost it, planned which plants I would dig up and take with me if our new place had a yard, and which ones I could grow in pots if it didn't. I got used to the idea, I got comfortable with it, and then my husband decided we would stay. He decided we should stay right when I decided I wanted to go. My life feels very confined these days. I hate that checkpoint, I hate that wall. I only leave our little enclave once or twice a month. Anyway, I didn't plant any annuals this year, but there are still some perennials hanging on. There are hollyhocks all over. They are hard to get rid of actually. They self-seed themselves, and they have a foot long taproot that is hard to pull up. They are beautiful, but I wish they would stop growing in weird places like in the crack between my front steps and the sidewalk. I love how the light makes the petals glow.The oleander bushes bloom prolificly. The flowers are large and showy.Even the mess they make on the sidewalk is kind of pretty.
We have several varieties of geraniums.
If (or rather when) they don't get enough water they lose their bottom leaves, but if I cut them back they grow right back.
I love this purple one. We add a leaf from it to freshly made lemonade. It gives it a wonderful taste.
These pretty bells are blooming now too, although this picture is from a couple years back. I have no idea what they are called, but the plant is a succulent and tolerates a dry soil.
I have exactly one carnation blooming now. They are not at all happy to tolerate the lack of water this year. That's an old picture again.
The only wild flowers that bloom at this time are thorny and dangerous looking.That one is pretty weird, isn't it?How did he get in here? This cat follows me all over the yard while I am taking pictures. But he is hard to get a clear picture of, since he is always moving.

10 things I hope for meme

Princess Najeeba tagged me for 2 memes, the six word memoir which I have already done, and the "10 things I hope for" meme. I will do the second one, but I am not going to tag anyone, since a lot of the blogs I read have already done them.

The Rules
1. On your blog, post the Rules & Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post
4. Post 10 things you have HOPE for in your life.
5. Tag six more blogs with links
6. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to tag others!

I stuck to personal stuff for my 10 hopes. I wouldn't have thought that I was a very hopeful person at this point in my life, but once I started writing these, I thought of a million.

• I hope for Allah's mercy, and to enter Jennah and avoid hell fire and the punishment of the grave. I don't deserve any of that, but I try to never lose hope.
• I hope my children will be good Muslims.
• I hope everyone I have hurt in any way will forgive me.
• I hope I will see my mother again. I miss her so badly it hurts.
• I hope my family will come to understand Islam, and embrace it. There is nothing more important, more real, in my life than my faith, but I have done a lousy job of conveying that message to my family. May Allah forgive me and bless them.
• I hope my younger daughter will get a good result for her tawjihi exams. (Those are the exams that students here take at the end of high school. It will determine what college she can go to and what majors she will be able to apply for.) She took the last test this morning.
• I hope that I will one day have an easier, closer relationship with that daughter. I love her as much as my other children, but we have that whole teenage attitude thing going on. Her attitude drives me nuts some times, and I say waspish, unhelpful things that hurt her feelings. It is a vicious cycle I hope we can break soon.
• I hope I can get through my older daughter's upcoming wedding without hurting her feelings or making a fool of my self. I wept uncontrollably through most of her engagement party, and still feel humiliated by the memory.
• I hope I will be a good mother-in-law.
• I hope each of my children will find good wives and husbands who will make them happy and help them be good Muslims. (NO HURRY, THOUGH!)
  

Any body else want to do this meme? If so, you're tagged!

ongoing ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem

Please read the story of Mona, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, who recently lost her residency permit to live in the city she and her ancestors were born in.

June trees and vines

Our house is surrounded by fruit and olive trees and grape vines. I mark the seasons by when they bloom and produce fruit. The askadinia of May are finished now.
At the beginning of June the plums began to ripen.Remember the blossoms in March?Now all the plums are ripe and almost gone. They are delicious.
The pomegranates are getting fat, but it will be a while before they are ripe.
These figs were small at the beginning of the month. I need to walk down to the tree to see how they are now.But what we have the most of is grape vines. (Those are olive trees in the back ground.)Lots of grapes.Lots and lots of grapes!They aren't ripe yet, but soon. My daughter likes to pick them like this and eat them with salt. Some people pickle them.I am still picking loads of leaves for stuffing.
I get tired of making stuffed grape leaves, because my hands are too slow, but I don't get tired of looking at the leaves and the way the light reflects and filters through them.And it is nice to be under the leaves because the sun is too hot lately.My daughter took this last picture a couple years ago.

West Bank poverty makes boys work

I saw this article from the Philadelphia Enquirer posted on Annie's Letters.

West Bank poverty makes boys work

By Muhammed Muheisen

Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Deep in the mechanic's pit, 12-year-old Jihad Robin found refuge, secretly smoking cigarettes on a break from his job in a car-repair shop.

He left school at age 9 when teachers told him that because he couldn't read, he would have to fall back two grades. His parents, unable to make ends meet, forced him to go to work.

The West Bank has high unemployment, with the Palestinian economy still struggling from fighting with Israel and restrictions on travel because of security checkpoints that Israel says are needed to stop suicide bombers.

So stories like Jihad's are common. Palestinian government regulations set the minimum working age at 15, but the law is not enforced. The most recent available figures show that about 35,000 children ages 15 or younger worked full time in 2006, up from 18,000 in 2004, said Mamoun Eid, an official in the Palestinian Labor Ministry.

Still, West Bankers say the problem is less acute than in some poor countries, because Palestinian parents put a high premium on keeping their children in school.

Jihad works nine hours a day, six days a week at the garage outside the city of Ramallah. He lifts batteries and heavy parts, and sometimes fixes electrical systems.

"I prefer the younger ones," said the boss, who would give his name only as Abu Nidal in case the publicity provoked a crackdown on hiring minors. "They are smarter, and they learn most quickly. And they cost less." Jihad's daily wage of $9 is a third of what his adult coworkers make.

In a nearby workshop, blacksmith Tayseer Qayem employs 15-year-old Mansour Farhat, who left school in third grade. Qayem, 29, said that he opposed child labor in principle and that he hired Mansour to keep him off the streets and out of trouble.

Like many of the children who work in the garages, Jihad hopes one day to own his own.

That's what his employer did, starting work at age 10 and working his way up.

Jihad's bigger dream is to become a pilot and "fly to New York," he says. "Sometimes I get so tired - it's so hot and the stuff I carry is so heavy."

He steals or mooches cigarettes for his breaks, trying not to be seen. "If they catch me, they will take me to my father who will beat me for smoking," he said. After work, he goes home to play hide-and-seek with neighborhood friends.

Other children in the Ramallah area work collecting scrap metal, scavenging through garbage, delivering groceries to homes, and peddling gum, tissues and pens to motorists at intersections.

In another Ramallah auto shop, 16-year-old Awwad Awwad fixed the wheels of an orange Daewoo. He has had the job for two years. His face smeared with grease, he says the job exhausts him, but adds proudly: "I feel like a man, not like a child."

more about the destruction of Beit Hanina's olive groves

This is the only other mention I found online of the destruction yesterday in Beit Hanina. I wish there were more pictures, but the article says that the Israelis have declared it a closed military zone to keep people out.

IOA bulldozes thousands of dunums of Palestinian lands

[ 23/06/2008 - 05:04 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authority's bulldozers on Monday morning started destroying thousands of dunums of Palestinian lands in Beit Hanina village in occupied Jerusalem. Saleh Da'ajna, head of the village's municipal council, said that the IOA bulldozers were paving the lands for construction of the separation wall. He pointed out in a statement to the PIC reporter that the destruction was going on in the southern area of the village. Da'ajna said that the Israeli occupation forces were blocking village inhabitants from approaching their lands in the area after it was declared a closed military zone. The municipal council announced that the separation wall seized 2,000 dunums of village lands in the first phase and the new construction would confiscate 5,500 dunums more.