and the teachers start coming in from all directions

The teachers are pouring in from all directions….
It started two weeks ago, at first a trickle and now pouring in… By Sunday there will be 11 of us here for the summer. The three teachers that I worked with the past two months are going home in the next few days. And only Sean is coming back next year. It is strange and good to have new blood here. Strange that I am the holder of the knowledge when really I don’t know much of anything about life here.
Last week I moved with the new teachers into a new house on the same end of town as the school but in one of the richest neighborhoods. It is a nice apartment, three bedrooms and two baths. This place is totally modern, western and comfortable. The best part, is that it has it’s own large private garden/patio which is completely private. It is amazing to have outdoor time to relax and still be at home. Over all I feel like I have stepped up in the world.
The only thing is that it is really dusty from people not living here for a few years and there are strange things left around, like slippers, shoes and toothbrushes. It is all so half hazard… that it feels like the people who were here before us fled which makes sense since they left to years ago or so and that is when the Nablus civil war happened.
On Tuesday I gave the teachers two and a half days off to go to Jerusalem to do some sightseeing. It was a bit of a selfish request so that I could have a few days to myself to rest and recover from the school year before jumping into the summer session.
I got several frantic emails from the teachers yesterday telling me that while they were going over the checkpoint from Nablus the person (Palestinian) in front of them in line stabbed an Israeli soldier causing the whole checkpoint to close… and I am sure all kinds of military chaos. When they get back later today I am sure I find out more details but it sounds like they had to take a taxi or a shared mini van through the town to a few checkpoints to find one that was open and then drive all the way around the back roads to get to Ramallah to get to Jerusalem. Not only are they a bit scared about coming back through that checkpoint but naturally they are afraid to take the bus from Ramallah to Nablus (I am equally if not more freaked out about doing it myself with my photoed copied passport… another story)
This pass week there has been fighting between the Palestinian farmers and Israeli settlers right out side the Nablus city limits along the road to Ramallah. The settlers are attacking the busses that we take back and forth… to be honest I haven’t had internet access for about 10 days now, so I am not sure the exact details of what is going on. I need to really sit and read several newspapers on line from several sources and points of view to try and figure out what is going on. The past week the only English news channel we had was “Press TV”, an Iranian English News Channel which has been interesting but I am pretty sure a bit one sided. It makes Aljeezera seem overly pro-western.
A good source of news for what is going on here in English is: www.Maannews.net