17 September

Saturday 17 September
We wandered today, first to ACOR where we did email. Then, to Darat al-Funun, an exquisite museum. It is actually a cluster of old buildings with gardens and terraces joining them. It houses artists’ studios (we saw several working), galleries for showing contemporary art--a fascinating show of architectural plans and models all white in a black space,  compelling political pieces against the Israeli occupation. The gardens were beautiful with ripe pomegranates and limes and red berries hanging from trees, big clumps of plumbago and jasmine, arbors of pink and white bougainvilla with petals floating in the breeze, geraniums, petunias, roses, impatiens, vinca. There were sculptures of rock and canvas set in garden crevices as well as the ruins of an old Byzantine church. T.E. Lawrence supposedly wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in one of the rooms, maybe in the library now full of art books. This museum evoked all the aura, exoticism, and biblical stories associated with the middle east. We lingered for a long time.

We met some fellows from ACOR, both Americans. There is a camaraderie among not only fellow Americans but also among temporary (or long-term) ex-pats who speak the same language when living and working in a foreign country. You meet them and immediately become fast friends; whereas, if you had passed them on the street back home, you would never say more than hello.
We left the museum and took a long walk, up and down hills, around winding streets in neighborhoods and commercial areas slowly finding our way back to the area called Shmeisani and where Howard Johnsons is. We were hungry and had supper in the disco club set down in a cave-like area, very exotic and like being in a bedouin tent. We had fatoush, grilled haulomi cheese, and chicken—quite delicious.

We continued on to the apartment of three of our Fulbright friends who were having a party in their new flat. It was fun being with everyone.
Sunday, September 18, 2005

None of us are very busy yet. We are all gearing up for our various jobs. So today, the first day of the week, we have all been busy. We walked over to the University. Becky met the Head of the English department who gave her coffee but no useful information. He was apparently very busy and couldn’t tell me anything about my schedule. He said to come back tomorrow at noon for a faculty meeting.
Many people we meet ask about Katrina. Our landlord was concerned with 11 things that he had read that had not been done by government to prevent the damage done by Katrina. He compared the things that were not done to prevent Katrina to a dismissal of the poor. He has a handicapped son and he says he has had to do more to take care of that son. He believes governments need to do more to protect their fragile and poor communities. He (Issa) and his wife, Samia, are Orthodox Christians and good people.

One taxi driver immediately spoke about his sadness over the suffering of the people who were hurt by Katrina. We are always thinking about Helen, Paul, and Poppy, glad they are safe but sad they have lost so much.

After a long day of hiking around doing errands, Kevin and I sat on our landlord’s front steps and watched a big orange moon slowly rise over the heavily populated ridge spreading opposite us to the east —it was magical.