a day of excitement and emotion

Today was one of those days that was so rich with excitement, emotion, and self reflection that I don't even know where to begin. So I guess I should start with my morning. After staying up until 2:00 AM working on the planning methodology for my project here, I was deep into my first three hours of slumber when my cell phone rang at 4:30 AM. With great joy and excitement, I saw that the call was from my son Dillon - calling to wish me a happy Father's Day in the way only a sweet little boy could do. By the time I hung up the phone (arguably $100 worth of roaming charges poorer), my heart was racing with excitement and happiness that I hadn't felt since the last time we talked for so long. It was almost impossible to fall back asleep. I ended up spending the next hour in the dark trying to take out this damn nose ring before my early morning meetings with the UN. In the end it was a lost cause and I gave in to the thought that they would just have to accept me as I am. I guess I just hoped that my work would prove solid enough to make up for my strange appearance. Plus, once I gave up, I managed to get another 2 hours of sleep.

I woke at 7:30 AM to my cell phone cranking out Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'. For some reason it made me jump out of bed. I guess I was so amped about the day to come that my body was one step ahead of my brain. After a quick cold shower to counteract the morning Jerusalem heat, I thought I was ready to go. Then I realized that I hadn't even attempted to knot a tie in over a year. Damn I tie an ugly tie! Anyway, I managed to get out of my room and gobble a quick breakfast before my driver Mazen showed up to take me to the UNDP Offices in East Jerusalem. Mazen is an interesting cat... an East Jerusalem Palestinian who has spent his entire life subjected to the Israeli system of racial segregation. He is a man with no nation, a resident of Israel who is Palestinian but has neither the rights of an Israeli nor the nationality of a Palestinian in the Territories. He is also an old soul with a heart of gold and nerves of steel. I don't know if I have ever met such an admirable man.

Mazen, my driver, 'bodyguard', and confidant for the next three weeks, drives at the speed of sound - winding through traffic in his Land Cruiser like a bat out of hell. It was of little surprise that we made it through the morning traffic in only five minutes, arriving at the UNDP offices awake and rejuvenated with a slight rush of adrenaline courtesy of his Formula One driving skills. Upon arrival I was introduced to my main point of contact in Jerusalem, Fadi, a Jerusalem Palestinian educated in Cairo and Manchester, who also happens to have a US green card and family in Dayton, Ohio. He seems to be a good man, really even tempered and extremely open-minded considering his situation here. He could move to the West at anytime, but chooses to be here so he can devote his energy to helping his people create better livelihoods in the face of oppression. And since I just put that statement out there, let me be clear that there is undoubtedly... 100%... a horrible and oppressive regime here that is creating arguably the world's largest open air prison out of an entire nation. More on that later.

Fadi spent the better part of an hour introducing me to the entire UNDP office staff, most of whom are foreign-educated Palestinian Jerusalemites who have no other good work opportunities in their homeland than in the development sector. With all honesty, I got good vibes from every single person I met there. And it seems the feeling was largely reciprocated. Then I was introduced to Timothy, the head of security for the UNDP Programme of Assistance for the Palestinian People. As part of my contract, I am required to undergo regular security briefings, and Timothy is the man in charge. Upon stepping into his office, he asked everyone else to leave and proceeded to ask his first question, "What is your nationality?" When I told him I was a US citizen, he told me that I would be getting the 'special' American version of his spiel. He began by telling me that he was a security specialist for the Amsterdam Police Force for 20 years before deciding to pack up and head to more exciting pastures in the Middle East. I reckon it takes a special someone to make that move and undoubtedly Timothy is a special cat. Over the next hour, we looked at maps, discussed checkpoints and danger zones, talked about security ratings, and discussed my travel plans. I was assigned a radio, an emergency code, a flack jacket, helmet, and cell phone. I was briefed on emergency situations in such detail that I now even know that if I were to be raped or come in contact with tainted blood that I could get antiviral treatment in the office that would minimize the risk of HIV infection by an order of magnitude. Let's just hope that rape is something that I don't have to worry about it this context! After discussing my travels plans to Jenin, he then briefed me on the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who hold the area as a stronghold. He told me that they would not hesitate to kill an Israeli who came there and even though I live in Canada, they would strongly consider doing the same to an American as well. He also told me that if I were to go there, I would have to go unannounced to avoid any potential kidnapping situations. Not exactly a heartwarming conversation, but one well worth having. As soon as the conversation had ended, Fadi came in the door and took me to my vehicle for my first trip to Ramallah.

The next hour was arguably one of the most awe inspiring I can recall, so full of emotion and introspection that I almost came to tears. As we approached the first checkpoint into the West Bank, the military was closing the gate, a 30-foot high steel door that indeed looks like the one in Jurassic Park. Once we saw that happening we went to plan B, another checkpoint road a few blocks away. But when we got there, the checkpoint was gone. All that remained were a bunch of construction workers extending the wall through a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem. It was amazing to see. People who had been neighbors for ages were now being divided by this massive concrete barrier. And according to Fadi and Mazen, this section must have been built in the past two weeks as they had used that access point earlier in the month. So finally we arrived at an open checkpoint, and after minimal hassle (thanks to our UN vehicle and ID cards) we entered into Ramallah.

The Palestinian side of the wall is a far cry from the Israeli side. The quality of the roads, homes, waste removal, and livelihoods is far different from those on the Jerusalem side. For those of you that have crossed from the US into Mexico, you have likely had a taste of this experience... moving from wealth to poverty in a matter of meters. But here it is more dichotomous than you can imagine, as just across the wall stands the first Palestinian refugee camp, established in the late 1940s and still active today. Unbelievable! How is it that we see news everyday of terrorists, suicide bombers, and extremists from the Arab world yet are spared the images of refugee camps that have housed families for half of a century? It boggles my mind that we can be so one-sided with our information.

It is important to note that not all of Ramallah is in this state. I was surprised to see some beautiful apartment buildings, a fair share of new BMWs and Mercedes, and plenty of well-dressed, sharp looking, and 'westernized' Palestinian people. According to my colleagues, the singing of the Oslo Accord in the late 1990s brought a time of economic growth to Palestine. But those days are now gone and the country is back into a recession with wealth depleting at an alarming rate.

Ramallah is actually a picturesque city, spread across a landscape of dry rolling hills, deep desert ravines, and spectacular limestone rock formations that remind me very much of Utah and southern Colorado. As many of you know, this type of terrain has a strong place in my heart so I spent much of the drive awe-inspired by the natural beauty of my surroundings. Arriving at the UNDP Office in Ramallah was no exception. It stood atop a hillside with a magnificent view of the city below. The office is small but it is relatively new and immaculately maintained. The people I met there, the colleagues and teammates I will be working with for the next three weeks, were wonderful. Each of them are highly educated Palestinians, most of whom studied abroad and hold master's and PhDs from schools across Europe and North America. However, due to their birthright, they are unable to enter Israel, cannot move about their own country freely, and have to apply months in advance just to take a holiday overseas. Often they are rejected in their applications to travel because of their work in supporting Palestinian development and governance reforms. One woman, who spoke English like an American, told me she had lived in Illinois for 20 years before moving back to Ramallah to work for UNDP. Although she has a US Green Card, she recently spent four months applying for a permit to travel to Turkey for a family holiday with her husband (a US national) and kids.

Anyway, the people I am working with are wonderful and we hit it off from the minute I arrived. I was given a nice office with a view of the city, served delicious Arab coffee at my desk without request, and provided with absolutely everything I need to make this project a successful one. Now all I need to do is fulfill my end of the bargain... to train 25 Palestinian officials, academics, NGOs, and politicians on strategic planning for local development. I will be working with representatives from the National Ministries of Planning and Local Government as well as a number from Jenin District. As Jenin is the pilot city, I will undoubtedly be making some unannounced trips there in the near future. And without a doubt, I will have the unwavering support and enthusiasm of a tremendous group of people that will be working by my side.

All in all it was an amazing day, one that has restored my faith in my ability to do this work, yet one that has led me to question my belief that our world is really evolving into a more humanist society. There are so many lessons to be learned here. While across the globe we are beginning to tear down walls, from Berlin to the former Soviet Republics to South Africa, there still remains a place where Apartheid is as strong as ever. And although I am sympathetic to the historical plight of the Jewish people over the past two millenniums, and appreciate the need for a place for Jewish people to call home, I have surely come to the conclusion that this is not the way to go about it. The oppression here weighs on even visitors in the heaviest of ways. I can only imagine how it feels to be an average Palestinian here, with almost no hope of upward mobility or improved livelihoods for their children.

As I was driving home through the the special checkpoint for international organizations, I too thought of my son and his hope for the future. And all I could think about was this. If the world continues to turn a blind eye to what is happening in places like Palestine or Sudan or Tibet or other places in the world where people live under these oppressive regimes, can even our children in our nations where opportunities abound expect to live safely and happily knowing that their brethren across the ocean are facing these hardships every day? One thing for sure, I intend to teach my son how lucky he is... and how important it is to never forget that life is more than toys and cars and homes and vacations at the beach. It is about being a citizen of the world - one who takes stewardship not only of its landscapes and resources but also of its inhabitants... no matter how different, how perceived, or how physically removed they are from our comfortable realities.

With that off my chest... at 1:00 AM... I can now rest up for another day.

With love,
Gerrit