Words at the EEC

  I started working at the Environmental Education Center on Tuesday. It was wonderful having a chance to meet more people in Beit Jala and to start finding a sense of peace in something that resembles a schedule. The EEC is located on the Talitha Kumi campus which is at the top of a hill overlooking the city of Beit Jala, the settlement Gilo and some of the natural landscape of Palestine. So far I have been doing a lot of reading to catch up with the environmental issues of the area and to get to know more about the EEC. I have truly loved the endless cups of Arabic coffee and tea. On Thursday, mint tea made just the way I like it materialized next to my elbow as I typed, compliments of my coworker Ahmed. I was touched that he remembered after one day, particularly since his wife had just had a baby and sleeping through the night is no longer part of his daily routine. We like to joke about the fact that he has very little English, and I have very little Arabic, so by the end of the year, we should be able to actually talk to each other. I have a feeling that I am going to miss our high-fives at the end of the year.

  I work with a fairly diverse group at the EEC. Mariana is a recent college graduate and only woman in the office. She is so excited to work with another woman so that we can help regulate the temperature in the office-it gets fairly chilly with the breeze. We like to swap stories about our scientific adventures and the experiments we conducted in college. I think we may try to run some sort of experiment later in the year when the office gets a little less busy, but only time will tell.

  We also have two older men who run the bird ringing station at the EEC. Each work two days a week, starting at five in the morning. By the time I arrive at 8:30, they have already caught, ringed, measured and released dozens of birds, but are always excited to show me what they have left to do. There are so many beautiful birds in the area and right now is the fall migration, so we have a large influx of migratory birds headed from Europe to Africa. Some are bright yellow, others are more subtle shades of grey and tan and yellow; some are dainty, smaller than a sparrow while others are quite large; some fidget and are obnoxiously loud while others rest quietly in the hands of the experienced birders until they are released. I am very excited for the day I get to start learning from and working with these men on this project. The birding project was started in 2000 and they have already ringed and recorded 4000 birds. One was even found in Poland a month after it had been ringed at the EEC. One of the most important aspects of this project is the fact that it is the first of its kind in Palestine. This year, a team of Palestinians, joined by a Polish team and other international volunteers, is setting up a temporary ringing station in Jericho that will be active for 45 days. That region is very important to the bird populations of region and will hopefully allow for the capture and study of some of the larger birds such as raptors. Simon, the director of the EEC is very excited about this project since he has been, as he says, obsessed with that area for 13 years for its environmental contributions and habitats. Perhaps I can make a journey up there soon to see the station in action. 

  One fairly large project I finished this week was the translation of an article from Arabic into English. Seeing as I read zero Arabic, I will wholeheartedly admit that I was more than a bit nervous about this assignment. Good thing Google Translate exists. But a word by word translation only goes so far. Half of the time, the translated sentences made no sense, which meant I had to figure out what meaning the string of words held as a whole. But then I was faced with the problem of what these words were trying to say. There are so many nuances in words and language that need to be taken into account in order to form a faithful translation. My experiences in the US dealing with environmental issues is much different than that of the author of the article. My understanding of his words were at times, I am sure, much different than his understanding. Words have power and switching languages changes that power. I am grateful for the fact that the author works at the EEC and he is currently reading my translation to let me know how I did before publishing the English version. But the whole project kept me thinking about a poem I read while researching a Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. I am curious to hear your thoughts on the meaning of the poem:

Those who pass between fleeting words

O those who pass between fleeting words
carry your names, and be gone
Rid our time of you hours, and be gone
Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea
And the sand of memory
take what pictures you will, so that you understand
That which you never will:
How a stone from our lands builds the ceiling of our sky.

From you steel and fire, from us our flesh
From you yet another tank, from us stones
From you teargas, from us rain...

It is time for you to be gone
Live wherever you like, but do not live among us
Its is time for you to be gone
Die wherever you like, but do not die among us
For we have work to do in our land.

O those who pass between fleeting words

It is time for you to be gone

Live wherever you like, but do not live among us

It is time for you to be gone

Die wherever you like, but do not dies among us

For we have work to do in our land

So leave your country
Our land, our sea
Our wheat, our sale, our wounds
Everything, and leave
The memories of memory
those who pass between fleeting words!

  The controversy around this poem is that many Israelis feel Darwish is writing about the ejection of Israel and its people from the area while Darwish says it is about the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. It is just another example of the power of words and the stories you bring to the reading of them.

  I hope to post photos from the EEC soon, but first I have to take my camera! I am enjoying the cool breezes that wander into the office amid sweltering days and glad to be surrounded by my fellow J/WB YAGMs this weekend as we close our orientation at Tantur and are commissioned by Bishop Munib Younan on Sunday for our time here in the Holy Land. After a slightly overwhelming week of new experiences for the major introvert in me, this weekend is peaceful and rejuvenating as I prepare for next week at work and life in Beit Jala.