A Letter to Saed

The two American vice presidential candidates just agreed they stand with Israel, and Palin almost made me throw up with "I'm so glad we both love Israel--what a wonderful thing to agree on!" I honestly want to be sick. I want to move to Cuba and teach literature classes at the University of Havana. Drop off the map. I am not so hopeful as you are, my friend.

Life here is the same as always. Too much correcting to do, too many times teaching the same thing every day, too much urgency to be somewhere else. A friend is dying of cancer in Cuba and I can't even send her money because the U.S. Treasury finally nailed me (only blood relations can send Cubans money). I miss Nablus. Maybe I just miss FEELING more all the time. Thinking more. I don't exactly live in a country known for deep thought anymore.

Fall is coming; the leaves are starting to turn, the days are shortening. Cold creeps in under the door. Sometimes I feel like I hear the call to prayer in the early evening, but it's just memories resonating through my head. I'm sure I'll be ok in the long run, but I too am in a crux moment. If it weren't for my nieces, I'd have hit the road a long time ago, and I am once again challenged to figure out how to keep living in this country, creating change from the inside without going insane at the idiocy of it all.