Port in a Storm

On this day heavy waves are pounding the breakwater on the Gaza coast,

 . . .  and the roar of portable electrical generators fills the streets as an electricity and fuel crisis grips the City.

 The water and sewage systems are near disaster as diesel supplies dwindle and the local power plant operates for just a few hours a day. Emergency generators at sewage lift stations are worked 2 or 3 times longer than their designed service intervals. Even when the grid power is restored producing wells cannot send water to  homes because distribution pumps are in areas where the power remains off.

Despite the challenges facing the inhabitants of Gaza - all resources are used - special teams waiting in some backyard gardens stand ready to fill any egg or Shawarma shortages.

 

The harbour is a busy working place with dozens of boats piled with nets.

The fuel shortage has idled some boats but others have secured scarce supplies, and every day and night boats head to the sea in a constant stream.  

Some Gazans visit the harbour to practice  photography – involving tourists if possible – a photo subject more rare than a Tuna catch!

One can only wonder at the pedigree of a Gazan harbour cat . . . . whose ancestors may have walked here from Egypt thousands of years ago . Perhaps the spots on this cat hint at some possible link  . . .

 

. . . . to the Ancient Egyptian species:     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Mau

Walking in Ramallah

Some time travel is sudden and disorienting - in one place now,  in another  moment, later.  Years, decades, centuries can disappear in a moment squeezed into the boundary between cultures or friends.  Other times the days pass like the flickering frames of a silent movie.

In daily travels through Ramallah  - which translates as  “the Heights of God” – another movie flickers past my eyes .. . in scenes shot in the busy streets of the City on the Hill.

 

 Busy streets combine cars and pedestrians in a mixed stream.

 

A street vendor's coffee station is ready for service . . .

 

 As are pots of take-away flowers.

 A monument to Yasser Arafat continues toward completion in the square which bears his name.

   . . . and despite the "uncertainty" in the region . . . investment in real estate - such as this hotel and convention facility charges forward.

 

And a solitary street sweeper reminds us how care for the public domain remains a defining element of civilizations everywhere.

What was once mist over the Mediterranean is now condensing into a wall of cloud as it approaches the western slopes of the City.

 

As the cold mist and cutting wind arrives with darkness, the Ramalllah street vendors of hot kernel corn do a brisk business.