In the afternoon, I visited the Al Harrah Theater in Beit Jala. This is a famous theater here and I was fortunate enough to watch a rehearsal of a movement piece which will be performing in Liverpool next week. The piece is an abstract psycho-history of the Palestinian struggle and it definitely engaged me. Afterwards, I struck up immediate conversations with the actors and director, and laughed with them, and exchanged numbers. The artistic director and Said, one of the actors, helped me find my way back to Beit Sahour. It may be a cliché but I feel like I’ve known them all for years. I used to think that I was just awkward when it came to meeting people, but I guess people were just awkward when it came to meeting me. Here, I am on a below-the-belt joking level with people I have just known for a day or two. I am going back to Al-Harrah next week.

Also, it has been great to have a fellow participant with me at Siraj, Lila, who is Palestinian-American and speaks fluent English. We talk for hours and share experiences, debate politics as though we are going to resolve the Palestine problem tomorrow along with all of the world’s injustices in one fell swoop, and just laugh about very surface-things too. She is wonderful.