My week

Had a strange and busy week.

I dunno if I have mentioned this but I've been playing football on Monday and Wednesday nights for over a month now. It's been a really sweet way to break down the language barrier and really get to know people.
Anyway this week I played football as normal on Monday night.
There was this guy called Tamer playing, he is one of those annoying centre midfield players who never loses the ball. You know one of those small guys you try and kick but they're too fast!

Some of you might have read that on Tuesday morning two Palestinian police officers were killed when a shell exploded in a police station. The story goes that an unexploded shell was taken to the station to be diffused. Tamer was one of the guys who died. He was 27. He wasn't diffusing the shell or anything, he had just gone inside to get a glass of water when it went off.

I went to his funeral with the rest of the guys from football,
it was an odd experience.
People weren't as devastated as I thought they'd be,
I heard someone said that this was becoming normal.
Someone said they envied him,
another told me Tamer had the two most beautiful boys in all of Gaza.

W.B.Yeats called post-1916 rebellion Ireland a "terrible beauty".
If ever that were true for another place, it is true for Gaza.


In other less important news my English classes are finished.
Had a mini-party in the last class, got a bunch of presents off the students, was real nice.
I am in Jerusalem now, heading to Egypt and Jordan in the next couple of days to renew my visa.
I'll teach one more English class in Gaza before heading to Bethlehem for July and August to teach English and learn Arabic.