The other day, I was somewhat surprised by my students. I had asked them to write a journal entry about their favorite political leader. I was puzzled that about half of them chose Hassan Nasrallah, who is the leader of Hezbollah (an organization which generally represents Lebanese Shi’a, not Sunni Palestinians-or so I had assumed). The second choice was Yasser Arafat (which I had expected) and the remaining choices were Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Saad Hariri. No mention of any living Palestinian leaders, unsurprisingly.

The other night, Ethan and I watched Jenin, Jenin, a documentary film about the 2002 destruction of the West Bank camp by Israel. For me, it illustrated some differences between being occupied (Palestinians in the West Bank) and exiled (Palestinians here in Lebanon– or Jordan, Syria, and the rest of the world). This is something I also talked about with a fellow volunteer this summer, who had worked with refugees in the West Bank and also here- she claimed that in the West Bank there is much more focus on reclaiming their land- and it makes sense, because they can see what they are fighting for. When I ask my students where they would prefer to live, most of them don’t say Palestine. Most of them tell me a specific Western country (usually one where a family member of theirs has managed to move). At this point, many (most?) Palestinians don’t believe they are going “back”.

I have discovered one of the perks of having students who are taking a hairdressing course at the vocational center- free haircuts. I got a trim (from the instructor) and then the girls took turns blow-drying my hair. I am firmly resisting all attempts to put color in my hair (it would undoubtedly be bad blond highlights), though I did let 2 of them pluck my eyebrows.