Entries this day: Today

Today

6:49pm JST Tuesday 06 September 2005

Hey Eilat!

I told Niveen that I would come to Jerusalem to work for an NGO after
P.B. ended.  I have emailed her, but haven't heard anything
back, so I'm looking into other options.

I found ISM hosts an olive harvest every year, so I have nearly booked
flights to go do that.
(http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/oh2005 )

Reading the ISM website, it looks like I will be more likely to get
into the country if I am going to see an Israeli friend instead of a
Palestinian friend.  Will you be my friend?  ;-)
( http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/oh2005/travel/)

Can you give me your contact details so, if necessary, I can tell them
I'm coming to see you?

Thanks!

I hope everything is going well.

  peace
  - Rob

Gotten pretty great progress done today on my progression to Palestine. I emailed Eilat to see if I can cite her as my reason for going (in case the security guys ask) and she wrote back:

Hi Rob,

Of course you can use me as your Israeli friend. I think it's really
great you are planning to come. ISM are doing important work, but I
have to say that some people who volunteered with them felt like some
things are not going the proper way. Both in political terms and both
in the way they train and treat their volunteers. However, I think
most people would say that the ISM is a good way to start volunteering
in Palestine. It's a way to get an introduction to the situation. If
you were a woman I would have recommended you to join IWPS
(international women peace something...) but unfortunatly you're not :)

As for my contact details:
Eilat
street / city / etc
phone 1 / phone 2

They might ask you where we've met or something of that kind and I
guess saying the PB would be the wrong answer so make up something
else like we met during I was in NY visiting a friend or in an
environmental conference somewhere.

Never mind what you decide just let me know, so if they call me I will
know what story to keep to.

When are you planning to come? will you need anything like a place to
stay or anything? Let me know if there's something I can do to help.

Hope to see you soon,
Eilat.

Awesome! I have flight information confirmed, and just need to pay them by the 20th of September. I am thankful that I've got the money in my account, still saved from before P.B.. I won't have much money past that, but it's all good.

05 OCT 2005  Uzubekistan Airways

Air ticket(NRT/TAS/TLV 6 months FIX OPEN)	118,000   
Facilities fee for NRT APT	 		  2,040   
Israel departure's fee	                          1,500   
Air security	                                    800   
Fuel surcharge	                                  5,000   

TOTAL		  	                        127,340

Also been working on writing journal entries from the PB trip. I'm on Tape 5, in the middle of the day we were in Sri Lanka. Haven't uploaded them to my site yet, and haven't made any more pictures available. The internet connection at Kellie's is great for email, but a bit slow for images.

Going to Satoko's tonight to chow dinner and show her pics from P.B..

10:16pm JST Tuesday 06 September 2005

Fun times here at ÃÒ»Ò's house. I showed her several of the photos from P.B. (made it through about 400) before I fell asleep on her couch while she scanned through the rest (5600). That was after a bit of curry rice she made. Delicious.

I copied to her computer the photos she liked best and then we looked through some of the .avi movies I took while onboard. Mostly just silliness in the pools on top deck.

11:41pm JST Tuesday 06 September 2005

On the way home now.