M&M, my charge for these few weeks, has mastered the amputee thing quite well. He needs to get a good burst of momentum at the start of a movement in order to keep himself going without the help of a fourth leg. So you open a door, and this fur bomb comes shooting towards you. The marble floors plus his fur makes it difficult for him to stop, though, so he just crashes into door jambs or his water bowl or my legs. He’s also a biter and a scratcher. In short, the sympathy wears off quickly, especially when you’re mopping up his food and water that he’s sent flying for the third time in a day. He gets lots of points for coping skills, but not many for likeability.
M&M in repose.
M&M in action. (Notice the stump.)
This past weekend was the Taybeh Octoberfest Beer Festival, something you don’t pass up on if you’re in the area. “It’s a fun thing to do,” said my boss a few weeks ago. “And fun things don’t happen much over here.” Yes, it’s not common to find a Palestinian village where everyone is happy and most are slightly drunk, but once a year Taybeh, the only 100% Christian village in the West Bank, steps up to the task.
On Saturday we packed a car full of people (with room for the many cases of Taybeh that we brought home) and drove into the beautiful West Bank countryside and the intense late-summer heat to a town known for its Christians and its beer. The community center was swarming with most every international in the Jerusalem area, along with tapped kegs of Taybeh and various Palestinian vendors from area, selling Palestinian needlepoint, peace dove oil lamps and home-grown honey. (You can’t actually eat the comb, I learned…) A few school groups of debka dancers performed on the outside stage, preceded by a less-choreographed performance by one of the drunker locals grooving to the Arabic pop karaoke taking place next to one of the beer stands.
Shake what your momma gave you.
Taybeh Beer Factory
“Load ‘er up!”
There was a recent picnic for the hospital staff. They’re serious about meat-eating here.
