Olive Branches
Nov. 3rd, 2007 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaI'm not sure how to go about writing about the olive picking today.
I wanted to write something with meaning and stuff like that, but thinking about it, just writing about it most likely meaningful enough.
I didn't know anyone, but everyone was very nice and told me where to go and what to do. It was very sad, the olive grove is cut off from the villages beyond the Wall and only the land owners have permits to move into and onto the land with a donkey and a old tractor, so we were something like 30 Israelis and 6-10 Arabs.
There isn't any "modern" or "efficient" way to pick olives, you pick up a big stick and beat the tree branches until the olives fall down. Problem, the branches are so thick because no one can prune them... you need special permit to prune the trees.
So we hand picked almost all of the olives in the three groves we visited today.
The tarp we used was holey and so many olives fell through onto the ground, eventually we just used our sandwich bags to collect them and someone was smart and brought shopping bags with which we used as well.
The first grove we were in was just adjacent to the Wall and right next to a check-point, there wasn't anybody there except the soldiers on guard duty who pretty much ignored us, but border patrol came to see us in the late morning, they glared a little but gave no problem what so ever, so there were no clashes with authority thankfully.
Some of the trees were so full of fruit, but there was no way to shake them loose other than to climb up and put them in our bags, so up the trees I climbed like a monkey - I don't climb trees, I never liked to and I was never good at it, but these olive trees really liked me, I even sat on the canopy and accidentally hit the people below me as I dropped the fruit onto the tarp they used to collect the olives.
During our break, when I bumped my head on a low branch and fell on my ass (which was funny I'll admit, though a bit humiliating) the Arab man in charge of us, Osama, made us coffee, oh my GD it was so good and I was so caffeinated and energized after I was running around and climbing up trees like a crazy person!
I'm not sure how much we actually helped them, more than they would have gotten otherwise, but there were so few people and so many trees, I just feel horrible for the situation that Wall puts them through.
I came home dusty, dirty, brambled and feeling really, really good.
And tired.
I wanted to write something with meaning and stuff like that, but thinking about it, just writing about it most likely meaningful enough.
I didn't know anyone, but everyone was very nice and told me where to go and what to do. It was very sad, the olive grove is cut off from the villages beyond the Wall and only the land owners have permits to move into and onto the land with a donkey and a old tractor, so we were something like 30 Israelis and 6-10 Arabs.
There isn't any "modern" or "efficient" way to pick olives, you pick up a big stick and beat the tree branches until the olives fall down. Problem, the branches are so thick because no one can prune them... you need special permit to prune the trees.
So we hand picked almost all of the olives in the three groves we visited today.
The tarp we used was holey and so many olives fell through onto the ground, eventually we just used our sandwich bags to collect them and someone was smart and brought shopping bags with which we used as well.
The first grove we were in was just adjacent to the Wall and right next to a check-point, there wasn't anybody there except the soldiers on guard duty who pretty much ignored us, but border patrol came to see us in the late morning, they glared a little but gave no problem what so ever, so there were no clashes with authority thankfully.
Some of the trees were so full of fruit, but there was no way to shake them loose other than to climb up and put them in our bags, so up the trees I climbed like a monkey - I don't climb trees, I never liked to and I was never good at it, but these olive trees really liked me, I even sat on the canopy and accidentally hit the people below me as I dropped the fruit onto the tarp they used to collect the olives.
During our break, when I bumped my head on a low branch and fell on my ass (which was funny I'll admit, though a bit humiliating) the Arab man in charge of us, Osama, made us coffee, oh my GD it was so good and I was so caffeinated and energized after I was running around and climbing up trees like a crazy person!
I'm not sure how much we actually helped them, more than they would have gotten otherwise, but there were so few people and so many trees, I just feel horrible for the situation that Wall puts them through.
I came home dusty, dirty, brambled and feeling really, really good.
And tired.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 10:05 pm (UTC)If you ever go again, or hear about people who are organizing it, I'd love it if you let me know. (And I'm not that lazy - I'll look it up for myself too, but still.)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 12:35 pm (UTC)thank you for sharing