Day 12: Airstrikes in Gaza
The Circus has a rare day off. It's quite incredible really, to be able to come to a country with an act like this who have nothing booked - but then with the help of contacts such as Susana and putting the word around to as many people as possible, to pretty much fill in a diary so that there's a show or two every single day. I guess it helps that what they do here is pretty novel and they offer their services for free. It's a liberating experience not knowing what's going to happen from one day to the next but still being an intense journey. It's been a real rollercoaster ride but I'm feeling an onset of melancholia as my time here will shortly becoming to an end. On the plus side, I'm pretty happy today as it looks like Subsource are set to play Glade this year.
I spend the day wandering through the Old City, looking at trinkets that I'm not really interested in. I express an extremely vague interest to a gangly guy who's selling musical instruments. They all look nice but they sound pretty shit. Tourist fodder. He tries the hard sell. "You first customer of the day so you get good price." Word-for-word, the Lonely Planet guide said that's what they'd say. Then, "Me like China very much, you not from USA so give you good price". Within about 3 footsteps he's gone from 1000 shekels (£125) down to 50 shekels (£6.25), but an Early Learning Centre toy still makes a better sound than that piece of crap.
Unknowingly, I stumble across a doorway to the Muslim's holiest place here - the Dome of the Rock. The giant gold turnip roof is mindblowing and as I approach the gateway, I fully expect the overly-serious, frowning, lumbering guy to tell me that non-Muslims can't come in. He does this, but not before a grin breaks across his face and he's half-hopping, half-dancing and singing, "Jackie Chan! Jackie Chan!", whilst pointing one finger in the air in a side-to-side motion. His machine gun flails around wildly in the other hand.
I venture into the main, modern city of West (Israeli) Jerusalem. It's your typical Westernised city. They are lacking in hair products for men. They do have the complete range of L'Oreal products at the Superdrug-equivalent but then it's just industrial-sized tubs of fluorescent coloured hair gel.
In the evening, there is news that in response to Hamas Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns, there have been Israeli airstrikes onto Gaza, in which at least 12 have died, including four children. Gaza is many miles from where we are in the West Bank - we're not worried about our own safety, but there is concern for the general situation. Sending in jets like this and accepting this many civilian casualties sounds like a pretty damn heavy-handed method. This isn't a tactic of a government taking out some rebel militants, but a tactic to cause intimidation of a populace.
Tomorrow, we will be heading to Bi'lin village for a show and then head on to the protest which happens each Friday. Internet research shows to expect tear gas and rubber bullets. The veteran protesters amongst the clowns recommend sniffing an onion to combat the effects of tear gas. And just hope you don't take a rubber bullet in the eye or that's it. Cunningly, I've got some swimming goggles to prevent chemicals from getting into my contact lenses and to fend off rubber bullets but Ruth astutely points out that a bullet would probably go straight through flimsy plastic.
There is one non-Circus guy in the hostel room who is driving everyone absolutely insane with his continuous heavy snoring and lack of sleep is definitely having a negative mental effect on everyone. Earplugs may feel weird to sleep with at first but I rank them as the most important item I've brought with me.
I spend the day wandering through the Old City, looking at trinkets that I'm not really interested in. I express an extremely vague interest to a gangly guy who's selling musical instruments. They all look nice but they sound pretty shit. Tourist fodder. He tries the hard sell. "You first customer of the day so you get good price." Word-for-word, the Lonely Planet guide said that's what they'd say. Then, "Me like China very much, you not from USA so give you good price". Within about 3 footsteps he's gone from 1000 shekels (£125) down to 50 shekels (£6.25), but an Early Learning Centre toy still makes a better sound than that piece of crap.
Unknowingly, I stumble across a doorway to the Muslim's holiest place here - the Dome of the Rock. The giant gold turnip roof is mindblowing and as I approach the gateway, I fully expect the overly-serious, frowning, lumbering guy to tell me that non-Muslims can't come in. He does this, but not before a grin breaks across his face and he's half-hopping, half-dancing and singing, "Jackie Chan! Jackie Chan!", whilst pointing one finger in the air in a side-to-side motion. His machine gun flails around wildly in the other hand.
I venture into the main, modern city of West (Israeli) Jerusalem. It's your typical Westernised city. They are lacking in hair products for men. They do have the complete range of L'Oreal products at the Superdrug-equivalent but then it's just industrial-sized tubs of fluorescent coloured hair gel.
In the evening, there is news that in response to Hamas Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns, there have been Israeli airstrikes onto Gaza, in which at least 12 have died, including four children. Gaza is many miles from where we are in the West Bank - we're not worried about our own safety, but there is concern for the general situation. Sending in jets like this and accepting this many civilian casualties sounds like a pretty damn heavy-handed method. This isn't a tactic of a government taking out some rebel militants, but a tactic to cause intimidation of a populace.
Tomorrow, we will be heading to Bi'lin village for a show and then head on to the protest which happens each Friday. Internet research shows to expect tear gas and rubber bullets. The veteran protesters amongst the clowns recommend sniffing an onion to combat the effects of tear gas. And just hope you don't take a rubber bullet in the eye or that's it. Cunningly, I've got some swimming goggles to prevent chemicals from getting into my contact lenses and to fend off rubber bullets but Ruth astutely points out that a bullet would probably go straight through flimsy plastic.
There is one non-Circus guy in the hostel room who is driving everyone absolutely insane with his continuous heavy snoring and lack of sleep is definitely having a negative mental effect on everyone. Earplugs may feel weird to sleep with at first but I rank them as the most important item I've brought with me.
1 Comments:
Yay for Glade! Boo for airstrikes :(
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