After a four week visit I left Gaza today. During my time there I got to visit with Dr Attalah many times. He operates on people all over the Gaza Strip and in return he often gets invited for meals all over the Gaza Strip as well. He often invites me along, it’s a good way to get to know all sorts of people.

One of the most joyous experiences for me this visit was finding out that Dr Attalah oversaw the operation of my friend Dr Ghazi, a professor at one of Gaza City’s universities. Dr Ghazi is going blind because of his diabetes. When I lived here I would often visit him and just listen to his many stories of the past. He is a bit of an atheist or agnostic and former Marxist, which makes for good conversation. The diabetes is also making it more and more difficult for Dr Ghazi to walk while he also goes for kidney dialysis three times a week.  Recently he had a foot injury that needed an operation. Upon arriving at the Shifa hospital in Gaza he remember me telling him to ask for Dr Attalah if he ever needed something during his hospital visits. He tells me Dr Attalah took amazing care of him and thus we both ended up getting invited to Ghazi’s for a delicious meal out in the lemon groves.

After lunch Dr Attalah checked on Ghazi’s foot. His medical gloves got turned inside out and were then turned into balloons for Rita and Ghazi Junior.

The land is going quite well. Although there have been renewed incursions in the area none have reached or destroyed Dr Attalah’s land. The farmer who has rented the land is just about to plant a new season of potatoes. The increased siege since June of 2007 has hit the farmers very hard though. No chemicals, no seeds and no fertilizer have been allowed into Gaza while nothing has been exported either. The only good outcome of this closure has been that the potatoes I had at Dr Attalah’s were some of the most tasty chemical- and fertilizer-free potatoes I have ever eaten.

A weed has started to grow on one part of the land. The usual way that most farmers deal with this is burning it out with a certain type of gas. Although this damages the soil some it is the best way they know to deal with the weed. Since the needed type of gas is scarce in Gaza due to the closure Dr Attalah cannot afford it. Instead, he wants to hire a few laborers to remove as many weeds as they can. This is no permanent solution, but will reduce the extent of the weed and provide a few jobs as well. Any farmers in RT have any good ideas? Sadly, I only know the Arabic term for the weed, Sereda.

The strawberry farmers were forced to sell their strawberries, intended for European markets, locally causing them to barely cover their costs. With the borders closed the quantity was too large for Gaza, where prices are much lower anyway, swamping the local market. World-class strawberries sold for dirt cheap this winter in Gaza.

Dr Attalah was so grateful about the Relational Tithe help he received. He has just a small part of his loans to pay back, which he told me he will soon be able to do as his oldest son is in his last semester of studies in Jordan.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Stories of Redistribution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response from your own site.