Horror in Gaza

This snippet from The Guardian brought me to tears...

Read the full article here

>>Israel's assault on Gaza has exacted the bloodiest toll of civilian lives yet, when the bombing of UN schools being used as refugee centres and of housing killed more than 50 people, including an entire family of seven young children.

The UN protested at a "complete absence of accountability" for the escalating number of civilian deaths in Gaza, saying "the rule of the gun" had taken over. Doctors in Gaza said more than 40 people died, including children, in what appears to be the biggest single loss of life of the campaign when Israeli bombs hit al-Fakhora school, in Jabaliya refugee camp, while it was packed with hundreds of people who had fled the fighting.

Most of those killed were in the school playground and in the street, and the dead and injured lay in pools of blood. Pictures on Palestinian TV showed walls heavily marked by shrapnel and bloodstains, and shoes and shredded clothes scattered on the ground. Windows were blown out.

Hours before, three young men who were cousins died when the Israelis bombed Asma elementary school in Gaza City. They were among 400 people who had sought shelter there after fleeing their homes in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

Abed Sultan, 20, a student, and his cousins, Rawhi and Hussein Sultan, labourers aged 22, died. Abed Sultan's father, Samir, said the bodies were so mangled that he could not tell his son from the cousins. "We came to the school when the Israelis warned us to leave," he said. "We hoped it would be safe. We were 20 in one room. We had no electricity, no blankets, no food.

"Suddenly we heard a bomb that shook the school. Windows smashed. Children started to scream. A relative came and told me one of my sons was killed. I found my son's body with his two cousins. They were cut into pieces by the shell."

The UN was particularly incensed over targeting of the schools, because Israeli forces knew they were packed with families as they had ordered them to get out of their homes with leaflet drops and loudspeakers. It said it had identified the schools as refugee centres to the Israeli military and provided GPS coordinates.
>>

The Charlottesville Peace and Justice is joining the nationwide call for an end to US funding of the Israeli attacks on Gaza this Saturday, January 10, 12pm at the Federal Courthouse.

triple balancing act

just over a year ago, i gave a presentation for the ending of adamah, a 3 month jewish farming program in connecticut. i told my fellow community members that i am a musician, a healer, and a community builder.

now i find myself balancing these three:

frantically learning new tunes for this saturday's gig with the accordian death squad, biking across town to band practice with my violin on my back. busking on the downtown mall.

studying to be a doula, scheduling massage practices with my massage therapist housemate. bartering massage for mending.

helping create community in this house and in charlottesville, networking, scheming, connecting. cooking dinner and apple crisp for my housemates. digging up the garden and somehow attracting a crowd of eager volunteers. creating a vision statement for a new community.

during the past 2.5 years of travel, tumult and transition, i've yearned continuously to settle down and put down roots. and now that i'm finally blessed with the opportunity to do just that, i can see so clearly that the depth and quality of my life right now is directly related to that extended period of exploration and experimentation.

random gut selection

today was a day when i often felt like crawling out of my skin and flogging myself. it started on a sour note and seems to be ending on one. hormonal swings make it tough to remember that everything is constantly changing, each moment a fresh opportunity.

alot of the shit i was spewing this morning landed on sky, still we dug up the garlic patch-to-be and got a stereo from a craigslist dude. driving around endless post-urban sprawl was my first descent into The Pit. my absolute least favorite activity, buying shit (groceries, speaker cable) and driving around endlessly. blueberry-banana-clementine-maple smoothie helped, and meditating and showering did wonders. the bike ride to brian and cassandra's was completely delightful, feeling strong and flying down hills.

the hormones will just flare and take over, dragging me along spitting fire. its a bit alarming and disturbing. picked a fight with alexis over nothing, and ended up upstairs in tears. i could rant but as sky said, why bother generating more negativity.

on a bright note, our meeting, the first face to face urban design council, was totally awe-inspiring and amazing. we have a totally rad group of people with the perfect skill set and energy to work. and a 5-3 F-M gender ration!

i have a feeling the next week or so is going to be a bumpy ride as my hormones drag me through the dirt. hopefully i can get a few seeds in the ground along the way...

landing is hard

ok, so now we're back. the community hopping is over, the gallivanting and jet setting and international networking on pause for now as i focus on landing, settling and nesting. ironically, i've been yearning for this moment since i began this 2.5 year journey. but arriving here at long last is...well, a bit scary and intimidating. suddenly i'm supposed to create a life: a real, long-lasting, rooted and meaningful one. eek! so much easier to suck the marrow out of a week's stay at fascinating community X.

the various dreams and goals that have been piling up over the past years are washing over me in a wave of overwhelm: music projects, learning to crochet, gardening and preserving food, doing massage, training to be a doula, building community, creating a family (?!!? this one has its own, special level of overwhelm), going raw, being vegan, raising chickens, learning to bead and sew, baking bread, creating community, creaing community, creating community.....aaggghhh!!!!!!!!

and then there's the nitty gritty of a semi-mainstream life to deal with: going to the dentist, getting health care, switching bank accounts to the less evil one, inputting numbers into the new cell phone...

on this grey and lonely christmas eve, i just want to bury my head in my greg palast book and hide.

a week at can mas deu

i continue to be very impressed with can masdeu's awesome radical and collective culture. here's the normal flow of their week, the requirements for each community member:

Sunday: Big day for the social center. 100-400 people show up each week. they serve up a delicious mid-day meal (usually 4 euros), host several workshops each week, give a big tour of the place, sell beer/wine/cake/empanadas, and provide a comfy hang out space into the evening. Usually about 1/4th of the people that show up are new to can masdeu, the rest of regulars or infrequent visitors.

this past sunday, 3 person polish circus showed up (and performed) and a gypsy-swing guitar player set the mood in the main room. lunch included polenta, artichoke, salad, and pumpkin soup. people hung out in groups inside and out, attended workshops, checked out the propaganda, library, free store, t-shirts and buttons, drank beer and ate cake until about 10pm. the money from this weekly event goes to support the house. each person is responsible for running 2 of these sundays/year.

Monday: chill day

Tuesday: work day in the house. tasks were collated on a sheet posted prominently during the week, and the day is organized by one member. community members are supposed to be were around to participate in this big fixer upper day, and the majority were. lots of stuff got cleaned, fixed, and rearranged. in the evening, everyone gathers for a movie or other communal activity (this week, a slide-show presentation about Twin Oaks!)

Wednesday: Bread day. 2 members run the brick wood-fired oven, and lots of other folks pop in to help out and hang out. they make bread for the house, as well as for other communities and CSAs in town. this system is called "auto-renta", in which community members run small businesses out of the building. they contribute some to the community and keep the rest.

Thursday: Garden day! all members are supposed to participate and most do. its also open to the public, and many friends and satellites of the community come by to work.

Friday: Bread day 2: officially open to other folks as a "workshop" day.

Saturday: chill day

The community´s labor system is called "minimums," a total of about 20 hours per week. the minimum that each member must do is: 2.5 cooking shifts/month (2 solo and one shared, or some such combo), one house-cleaning task/montrh, attend the community meeting every other week, the tuesday work day, thursday gardening day, and take one one large or 2 small areas of responsibility. they pay 25 euros/month towards food.

they own a collective car and of course, the rent is free. unfortunately, they are CLOSED to new members for the forseeable future....

my favorite uncle

me and my persian/parisian uncle saed! i love the look of supressed mirth that we share.

prague-paris-barcelona

i guess we've been moving to fast to find time for blogging...we just descended into a solid week of tourism! its exhausting to be a tourist!

after a delightful time at k77 in berlin, we moved south to prague. in 2 words: freezing and beautiful. we were staying with paxus' wife out-law on the total siberian end of town, a long and bumpy tram ride to the edge of nowhere...it certainly never got higher then 32 degrees the whole time we were there. we did lots of walking around, saw beautiful palaces and cathedrals, ducked into cozy restaurants and cafes, and tried to stomach chzek food (still more potatoes and cheese). prague is hopelessly touristy, even in the bitter cold of late november. its also unbelievably beautiful. we took a day trek out to kutna hora, a small village an hour south that is also cute and beautiful, and features a giant cathedral and a church that is decorated with human bones from their cemetary!




we rode the night train (with sleeper beds! and unfortunately, no heat!) to paris. it was our cheapest option for getting to the other side of europe, and a good opportunity to visit my (favorite) uncle, saied. he's the youngest of my dad's brothers, and i hadn't seen him and his family for 15 years. he's a total sweetie, laid back, good-natured, and generally fun to be around. his 3 daughters were around some, too, and my aunt cooked us lots of yummy persian food. 3 more days of tourism, wandering around the louvre, monmart, more cafes (unavoidable in paris), and the eiffel tour by night. the subway was totally overrun by buskers, but i tried anyway and did alright, in the station and on the train itself (always a bit nervewracking...). i tried again on top of monmart, in front of the cathedral overlooking the city, and became a photo-op for many passing tourists. some even posed with me!

and now, we're at our final stop, Can Masdeu. Its a formerly squatted community on the edge of barcelona. they squatted it 7 years ago in a dramatic action in which they hung chairs, tables, and bathtubs out the windows with ropes, and then "hung" themselves there for 3 days (sitting in the chairs, bathtub, etc.). after 3 days with no food, water, or proper clothes, and massive protests and support in barcelona, the judge ruled that the right to life was more important than the right to property! they're still a bit nervous about being evicted, but in the meantime have created a beautiful and bustling community of 28 folks, lots of gardens, communal meals, regular community work days in the garden and in their bakery, and weekly sunday open-houses with workshops, food, and a bar.