Nablus: A New Dawn

What exactly does that mean anyway? A New Dawn, does the reason I have chosen it here as the moniker for my first blog entry not lie in the contrivance of some kind of departure from my previous one, and the oriental life that accompanied it? Well everything about it speaks of continuity so I must hereby debunk any such disassociation: A New Dawn, the naive hope then, of a lasting resolution to the predicament with which my new home is afflicted? At the time of writing the fragile peace talks which may lead to such conclusions are on the very edge of the abyss with the refusal of Israel to halt the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank, so no.... not that either. A New Dawn: the possibility that one may rise above the baseline of indolent apathy and into the realm of engagement through action in the area of perceived injustices against humanity? A self aggrandizing proclamation it is true, but an indulgence I will - for now - allow myself in the obvious absence of anything more fitting.

I have been a resident of Nablus for a little over 48 hours now and I do not claim - at this stage - to know it but the early signs are largely good. At every turn I have been offered the hospitality and kindness for which Muslims are famed (such has been the volume of offers to partake in the drinking of coffee, that I now take the unsolicited twitching of my caffeine embalmed limbs as a matter of normality), but to suggest that I have not already felt the undertones of hostility which come with the weight of heavy stares and distrustful intimation would be a mistruth, it is there and will inevitably show itself in greater form before too long. The key to enduring any such attention can come only with the breadth of understanding, which at present I possess, but not without the awareness that we are (most of us), raised in the cradle of narrow minded men, and under the trinkets of knowledge with which we are adorned, still crawl the folds of our ignorant skin.

A greater measure of my new reality will undoubtedly come this afternoon when I make my first journey out to teach, I - along with another Project Hope volunteer, will travel to a school across the city to give a two hour lesson there. More on this- perhaps - later.