gaza reactions

I've spent the past few weeks telling anyone who will listen that I'm going to Gaza, and much of that time wishing that I had a documentary crew following me around to capture people's reactions, because they've been a hilarious reflection of both what people know about the region and what they know about me.

On one end of the spectrum are the "Isn't that dangerous?"/"Oh, God, please be careful"/vague frown of concern and puzzlement/request to wear body armor (I've had two) reactions, which tend to come from people who have either never been to the Middle East and/or have somewhat different political views on Palestine than I do. Among people who have traveled to/lived in that part of the world, or have worked in conflict zones, or have just traveled a lot internationally, the reaction has been markedly different, usually along the lines of excitement, warmth, joy and even a bit of envy--often complemented with a funny/ridiculous/moving tale from their own Middle East adventures--as if I'm being welcomed into a big family of internationals who secretly know how amazing this particular part of the world can be.

Here is a sampling of what have been my favorite reactions so far:

- My mom, a bit of a worrier as moms tend to be, was surprisingly zen about the whole thing. I suppose she's just gotten used to the fact that I'm going to do whatever I want anyway, but I must say that her reaction of "Well, Danger is your middle name, isn't it?" was admirably chill.

- "If more Americans visited the Middle East, they'd think, 'Why would you ever want to do anything bad to these people?'" (from a British-Irish classmate, who then told a story about how his Irish passport resulted in above-average harassment while traveling around Israel)

- "Ohh, you're not going to come back." (from another classmate who is more perceptive than most. Meant not in the sense of "omg, you're going to die!" but "you won't want to leave." I assured her that I would, in fact, come back--I do have to finish my degree :-))

I got another quotable nugget from a prof who is one of the more quotable people I've encountered at USC. I was talking about the phenomenon, oft mentioned by people who've actually been to Palestine, of how people can remain seemingly superhumanly generous and friendly under the most dire of circumstances. "When people live that close to death, you'll often find that their humanity isn't blunted, like you might think, but heightened." (pause) "If you're on the right side."

Which, of course, is exactly what I've been saying.