Cold dark clouds rolled in over the soccer stadium in Al Khader. It was the first time since I have been here that I really wished for a jacket, summer must be ending. I was sitting, legs crossed, arm thrown over the seat next to me on the bench watching the Ibdaa youth soccer team bounce around the field on my first afternoon as the sports trainer on the field. I had two transliterated phrases scrwled on my left hand, "What hurts?" and "Show me". I only had one major injury during the 90 minutes but it required me to send one of the guys to the hospital.

Today I went and had lunch again with Munir's family. His mother and sister preparing a wonderful table of Maklooba, yogurt and vegetables. The main dish set out in front of us on a large plate, yellow rice mixing with browned cauliflower and baked chicken. At first look I thought that the dish had just been dumped out from the pan it was cooked in. I learned a few minutes later that maklooba literally means upside-down and yes, the dish was flipped onto the platter where it was served. As is always the case when I eat with any family, everyone continues to fill my plate with the words, "Qul, Qul (Eat, Eat)".

After lunch we retired to the sitting room right off the front door and talked about the poverty, the large plate of maklooba forgotten and the conversation turning to the hospitality in the country.

This weekend I finally got one of my projects here off the ground and the new website for the Ibdaa Cultural Center is up. Please go to www.ibdaa194.org to check it out but know that it is still being worked on.

I walked home tonight from Bethlehem along the busy main street. Under soft glows from the street lights, past storefronts with neon signs breaking the glow, over garbage stuck to the road...I have not felt that the streets are dangerous like I that I thought would when I arrived.

We watch Al Jazeera-English sometimes in the morning, the perspectives so different form the media I am accustomed to seeing.

Minutes fade into days, days into weeks...the time is flying by. I'm a little overwhelmed by it all...